Initial deployment of the cardiogenic gene regulatory network in the basal chordate, Ciona intestinalis.

The complex, partially redundant gene regulatory architecture underlying vertebrate heart formation has been difficult to characterize. Here, we dissect the primary cardiac gene regulatory network in the invertebrate chordate, Ciona intestinalis. The Ciona heart progenitor lineage is first specified by Fibroblast Growth Factor/Map Kinase (FGF/MapK) activation of the transcription factor Ets1/2 (Ets).

Psittacosis in general practice: implications for control.

In one general practice over a six-week period three patients with atypical pneumonia were shown serologically to have psittacosis. All three patients had been exposed to the same flock of ducks but veterinary investigation three months after the first case had been reported did not show the ducks to be infected. However, in a retrospective review of laboratory-diagnosed psittacosis, a likely source of infection was found in 11 out of 24 cases and in most of these full medicoveterinary investigation would have been warranted.