Isolation and characterization of a nodavirus associated with mass mortality in Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer) from the west coast of India.

A fish nodavirus was detected in the juveniles of Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer) during a massive outbreak in the seabass cage culture farm located in the south west coast of India. The clinical signs of the disease included anorexia, inflated abdomen, exophthalmia, darkening of the whole body, erratic swimming and cork-screw type movement followed by death. The dead and the moribund fish were analyzed for nodavirus by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using specific primers targeting the T4 region of RNA2 coat protein gene.

Iron shortage and bile salts play a major role in the expression of ompK gene in Vibrio anguillarum.

The outer membrane protein K, OmpK first identified in Vibrio parahaemolyticus has been shown to be a receptor for a broad host range vibriophage KVP40 infecting members of the Vibrionaceae. In the study, the effect of culture conditions on the expression of ompK in V. anguillarum was studied using real-time PCR.

In search of the genetic footprints of Sumerians: a survey of Y-chromosome and mtDNA variation in the Marsh Arabs of Iraq.

Background: For millennia, the southern part of the Mesopotamia has been a wetland region generated by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers before flowing into the Gulf. This area has been occupied by human communities since ancient times and the present-day inhabitants, the Marsh Arabs, are considered the population with the strongest link to ancient Sumerians. Popular tradition, however, considers the Marsh Arabs as a foreign group, of unknown origin, which arrived in the marshlands when the rearing of water buffalo was introduced to the region.