Unearthing the secrets of Australia's most enigmatic and cryptic mammal, the marsupial mole.

The marsupial moles are arguably Australia's most enigmatic marsupials. Almost indistinguishable from placental (eutherian) moles, they provide a striking example of convergent evolution. Exploring the genome of the southern marsupial mole, we provide insights into its unusual biology.

Evaluating the delivery of care by telemedicine for incarcerated people living with HIV: a cohort study.

Background: The use of telemedicine has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic and has the potential to improve access to specialized care for otherwise underserved populations. Incarcerated people living with HIV (PLWH) could potentially benefit from expanded access to HIV care through telemedicine.

Methods: All PLWH who were incarcerated within the Tennessee Department of Corrections and received care through the HIV telemedicine clinic at Regional One Hospital between 5/1/2019 through 2/28/2022 were identified from the electronic health records (EHR).

Neurocognitive outcomes of children with sleep disordered breathing: A systematic review with meta-analysis.

Children with sleep disordered breathing (SDB) are at an increased risk of neurocognitive impairments. This systematic review with meta-analysis aims to 1) establish whether SDB differentially impacts various neurocognitive domains (intelligence, attention/executive functions, memory, visual spatial skills, and language) and 2) examine the effects of several moderating factors. Database searches, conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines, identified 77 studies that met pre-determined criteria, 63 of which were included in the meta-analysis.

Unique reproductive strategy in the swamp wallaby.

Reproduction in mammals requires distinct cycles of ovulation, fertilization, pregnancy, and lactation often interspersed with periods of anoestrus when breeding does not occur. Macropodids, the largest extant species of marsupials, the kangaroos and wallabies, have a very different reproductive strategy to most eutherian mammals whereby young are born at a highly altricial stage of development with the majority of development occurring over a lengthy lactation period. Furthermore, the timings of ovulation and birth in some species occurs within a very short interval of each other (sometimes hours).

The tammar wallaby: a non-traditional animal model to study growth axis maturation.

Maturation of the growth hormone (GH)/insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) axis is a critical developmental event that becomes functional over the peripartum period in precocial eutherian mammals such as sheep. In mice and marsupials that give birth to altricial young, the GH/IGF1 axis matures well after birth, suggesting that functional maturation is associated with developmental stage, not parturition. Recent foster-forward studies in one marsupial, the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii), have corroborated this hypothesis.

The Basal Radial Glia Occurs in Marsupials and Underlies the Evolution of an Expanded Neocortex in Therian Mammals.

A hallmark of mammalian brain evolution is the emergence of the neocortex, which has expanded in all mammalian infraclasses (Eutheria, Marsupialia, Monotremata). In eutherians, neocortical neurons derive from distinct neural stem and progenitor cells (NPCs). However, precise data on the presence and abundance of the NPCs, especially of basal radial glia (bRG), in the neocortex of marsupials are lacking.

Genome of the Tasmanian tiger provides insights into the evolution and demography of an extinct marsupial carnivore.

The Tasmanian tiger or thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was the largest carnivorous Australian marsupial to survive into the modern era. Despite last sharing a common ancestor with the eutherian canids ~160 million years ago, their phenotypic resemblance is considered the most striking example of convergent evolution in mammals. The last known thylacine died in captivity in 1936 and many aspects of the evolutionary history of this unique marsupial apex predator remain unknown.

Effects of nutritional manipulation on body composition in the developing marsupial, Macropus eugenii.

When 60-day-old tammar wallaby pouch young (Macropus eugenii) are fostered to mothers at 120 days of lactation, their growth, developmental rate and maturation of their GH/IGF axes are markedly accelerated. To determine the effect of fostering on energy intake, body composition and fat accretion, we first measured total body fat and lean mass in these young. Next, we mimicked the triglyceride oleic and palmitic acid composition of 120-day milk by supplementing 60 day young with these fatty acids and comparing their growth with that of growth accelerated young.

Characterisation of major histocompatibility complex class I genes at the fetal-maternal interface of marsupials.

Major histocompatibility complex class I molecules (MHC-I) are expressed at the cell surface and are responsible for the presentation of self and non-self antigen repertoires to the immune system. Eutherian mammals express both classical and non-classical MHC-I molecules in the placenta, the latter of which are thought to modulate the maternal immune response during pregnancy. Marsupials last shared a common ancestor with eutherian mammals such as humans and mice over 160 million years ago.

Growth axis maturation is linked to nutrition, growth and developmental rate.

Maturation of the mammalian growth axis is thought to be linked to the transition from fetal to post-natal life at birth. However, in an altricial marsupial, the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii), this process occurs many months after birth but at a time when the young is at a similar developmental stage to that of neonatal eutherian mammals. Here we manipulate growth rates and demonstrate in slow, normal and fast growing tammar young that nutrition and growth rate affect the time of maturation of the growth axis.

Retroviral envelope gene captures and syncytin exaptation for placentation in marsupials.

Syncytins are genes of retroviral origin captured by eutherian mammals, with a role in placentation. Here we show that some marsupials-which are the closest living relatives to eutherian mammals, although they diverged from the latter ∼190 Mya-also possess a syncytin gene. The gene identified in the South American marsupial opossum and dubbed syncytin-Opo1 has all of the characteristic features of a bona fide syncytin gene: It is fusogenic in an ex vivo cell-cell fusion assay; it is specifically expressed in the short-lived placenta at the level of the syncytial feto-maternal interface; and it is conserved in a functional state in a series of Monodelphis species.

Long-term persistence of zoster vaccine efficacy.

Background: The Shingles Prevention Study (SPS) demonstrated zoster vaccine efficacy through 4 years postvaccination. A Short-Term Persistence Substudy (STPS) demonstrated persistence of vaccine efficacy for at least 5 years. A Long-Term Persistence Substudy (LTPS) was undertaken to further assess vaccine efficacy in SPS vaccine recipients followed for up to 11 years postvaccination.

Safety of zoster vaccine in elderly adults following documented herpes zoster.

Background: After completion of the Shingles Prevention Study (SPS; Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program Number 403), SPS participants who had initially received placebo were offered investigational zoster vaccine without charge. This provided an opportunity to determine the relative safety of zoster vaccine in older adults following documented herpes zoster (HZ).

Methods: A total of 13 681 SPS placebo recipients who elected to receive zoster vaccine were followed for serious adverse events (SAE) for 28 days after vaccination.

Ultrasonography of wallaby prenatal development shows that the climb to the pouch begins in utero.

Marsupials have a functional placenta for a shorter period of time compared to that of eutherian species, and their altricial young reach the teats without any help from the mother. We have monitored the short intrauterine development of one marsupial, the tammar wallaby, with high-resolution ultrasound from reactivation of the 100-cell diapausing blastocyst to birth. The expanding blastocyst could be visualized when it had reached a diameter of 1.

Persistence of the efficacy of zoster vaccine in the shingles prevention study and the short-term persistence substudy.

Background: The Shingles Prevention Study (SPS; Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study 403) demonstrated that zoster vaccine was efficacious through 4 years after vaccination. The Short-Term Persistence Substudy (STPS) was initiated after the SPS to further assess the persistence of vaccine efficacy.

Methods: The STPS re-enrolled 7320 vaccine and 6950 placebo recipients from the 38 546-subject SPS population.

Limited genetic diversity preceded extinction of the Tasmanian tiger.

The Tasmanian tiger or thylacine was the largest carnivorous marsupial when Europeans first reached Australia. Sadly, the last known thylacine died in captivity in 1936. A recent analysis of the genome of the closely related and extant Tasmanian devil demonstrated limited genetic diversity between individuals.

Maturation of the growth axis in marsupials occurs gradually during post-natal life and over an equivalent developmental stage relative to eutherian species.

The separation of a nutrition-responsive insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system and a growth hormone (GH) responsive IGF system to control pre- and post-natal growth of developing mammals may originate from the constraints imposed by intra-uterine development. In eutherian species that deliver relatively precocial young, maturation of the GH regulatory system is coincident with the time of birth. We measured the hepatic expression of the four key growth axis genes GH-receptor, IGF-1 and -2, and IGFBBP-3, and plasma protein concentrations of IGF-1 from late fetal life through to adult stages of a marsupial, the tammar wallaby.

Placental expression of pituitary hormones is an ancestral feature of therian mammals.

Background: The placenta is essential for supplying nutrients and gases to the developing mammalian young before birth. While all mammals have a functional placenta, only in therian mammals (marsupials and eutherians) does the placenta closely appose or invade the uterine endometrium. The eutherian placenta secretes hormones that are structurally and functionally similar to pituitary growth hormone (GH), prolactin (PRL) and luteinizing hormone (LH).

Genome sequence of an Australian kangaroo, Macropus eugenii, provides insight into the evolution of mammalian reproduction and development.

Background: We present the genome sequence of the tammar wallaby, Macropus eugenii, which is a member of the kangaroo family and the first representative of the iconic hopping mammals that symbolize Australia to be sequenced. The tammar has many unusual biological characteristics, including the longest period of embryonic diapause of any mammal, extremely synchronized seasonal breeding and prolonged and sophisticated lactation within a well-defined pouch. Like other marsupials, it gives birth to highly altricial young, and has a small number of very large chromosomes, making it a valuable model for genomics, reproduction and development.

In vivo tissue sampling of embryonic resorption sites using ultrasound guided biopsy.

In the polytocous European brown hare (Lepus europaeus) more than 23% of all successful implantations undergo embryonic resorption. The objective of the study was to establish a minimally invasive ultrasound guided biopsy technique to collect embryonic resorption tissue in vivo. The sampled material was genetically analysed to determine paternity and the sex of the embryo.

Axillary abscess due to Yersinia enterocolitica.

Yersinia enterocolitica rarely causes extraintestinal disease. A 54-year-old construction worker with chronic hepatitis C developed an axillary abscess following an injury to his finger. An aspirate from the axillary mass grew Y.

The concept of superfetation: a critical review on a 'myth' in mammalian reproduction.

Superfetation is understood as another conception during an already ongoing pregnancy. This implies the existence of young of different developmental stages within the female reproductive tract during certain periods of pregnancy. Nevertheless, a clear definition of the term as well as distinct criteria to identify the occurrence of superfetation in a species is missing.

Early onset of ghrelin production in a marsupial.

Ghrelin regulates appetite in mammals and can stimulate growth hormone (GH) release from the pituitary. In rats and humans, ghrelin cells appear in the stomach during late fetal life. Nevertheless, the role of ghrelin in early mammalian development is not well understood.