Isolation and molecular identification of nematode surface mutants with resistance to bacterial pathogens.

Numerous mutants of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans with surface abnormalities have been isolated by utilizing their resistance to a variety of bacterial pathogens (Microbacterium nematophilum, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, and 2 Leucobacter strains), all of which are able to cause disease or death when worms are grown on bacterial lawns containing these pathogens. Previous work led to the identification of 9 srf or bus genes; here, we report molecular identification and characterization of a further 10 surface-affecting genes. Three of these were found to encode factors implicated in glycosylation (srf-2, bus-5, and bus-22), like several of those previously reported; srf-2 belongs to the GT92 family of putative galactosyltransferases, and bus-5 is homologous to human dTDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase, which is implicated in Catel-Manzke syndrome.

Rectifying nematode names.

Over the past 50 years, the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans has become established as one of the most powerful and widely used model organisms. This article explores the origins and subsequent history of a generally accepted system for gene naming and genetic nomenclature in C. elegans.

Insulin for Hospitalized Patients With Well-Controlled Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Quality Improvement Initiative.

Inpatient management of diabetes mellitus (DM) often involves substituting oral medications with insulin which can result in unnecessary insulin use. Attempting to address unnecessary insulin use, a quality improvement initiative implemented a newly developed evidence-based care pathway for inpatient diabetes management focused on patients with recent hemoglobin A1c values < 8% and no prescription of outpatient insulin. This retrospective observational preintervention and postintervention and interrupted time series analysis evaluates this intervention.