Discharge of ballast residual sediments during de-ballasting procedures: A more realistic estimate of propagule pressure.

Ship ballast residual sediments are an important vector of introduction for non-indigenous species. We evaluated the proportion of residual sediments and associated organisms released during de-ballasting operations of a commercial bulk carrier and estimated a total residual sediment accumulation of ∼13 t, with accumulations of up to 20 cm in some tank areas that had accumulated over 11 years. We observed interior hull-fouling (anemones, hydrozoans, and bryozoans) and high abundances of viable invertebrate resting stages and dinoflagellate cysts in sediments.

A global-scale screening of non-native aquatic organisms to identify potentially invasive species under current and future climate conditions.

The threat posed by invasive non-native species worldwide requires a global approach to identify which introduced species are likely to pose an elevated risk of impact to native species and ecosystems. To inform policy, stakeholders and management decisions on global threats to aquatic ecosystems, 195 assessors representing 120 risk assessment areas across all six inhabited continents screened 819 non-native species from 15 groups of aquatic organisms (freshwater, brackish, marine plants and animals) using the Aquatic Species Invasiveness Screening Kit. This multi-lingual decision-support tool for the risk screening of aquatic organisms provides assessors with risk scores for a species under current and future climate change conditions that, following a statistically based calibration, permits the accurate classification of species into high-, medium- and low-risk categories under current and predicted climate conditions.

Assessing introduction risk using species' rank-abundance distributions.

Mixed-species assemblages are often unintentionally introduced into new ecosystems. Analysing how assemblage structure varies during transport may provide insights into how introduction risk changes before propagules are released. Characterization of introduction risk is typically based on assessments of colonization pressure (CP, the number of species transported) and total propagule pressure (total PP, the total abundance of propagules released) associated with an invasion vector.

Relationship between propagule pressure and colonization pressure in invasion ecology: a test with ships' ballast.

Increasing empirical evidence indicates the number of released individuals (i.e. propagule pressure) and number of released species (i.

Acquisition of a multifunctional IgA+ plasma cell phenotype in the gut.

The largest mucosal surface in the body is in the gastrointestinal tract, a location that is heavily colonized by microbes that are normally harmless. A key mechanism required for maintaining a homeostatic balance between this microbial burden and the lymphocytes that densely populate the gastrointestinal tract is the production and transepithelial transport of poly-reactive IgA (ref. 1).

Analysis of the role of IL-21 in development of murine B cell progenitors in the bone marrow.

IL-21 plays a key role in the late stage of B cell development, where it has been shown to induce growth and differentiation of mature B cells into Ig-secreting plasma cells. Because IL-21R has also been reported on bone marrow (BM) B cell progenitors, we investigated whether IL-21R influenced earlier stages of B cell development. IL-21R is functional as early as the pro-B cell stage, and the strength of receptor-mediated signaling increases as cells mature.

Identification of the 3' and 5' terminal sequences of the 8 rna genome segments of European and North American genotypes of infectious salmon anemia virus (an orthomyxovirus) and evidence for quasispecies based on the non-coding sequences of transcripts.

Background: Infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus (ISAV) is a pathogen of marine-farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar); a disease first diagnosed in Norway in 1984. This virus, which was first characterized following its isolation in cell culture in 1995, belongs to the family Orthomyxoviridae, genus, Isavirus. The Isavirus genome consists of eight single-stranded RNA segments of negative sense, each with one to three open reading frames flanked by 3' and 5' non-coding regions (NCRs).

IL-21: an executor of B cell fate.

IL-21 is a type I cytokine that shares the common receptor gamma-chain with IL-2, IL-4, IL-7, IL-9, and IL-15. B cells are one of the lymphoid cell types whose development and function are regulated by IL-21. Depending on the interplay with costimulatory signals and on the developmental stage of a B cell, IL-21 can induce proliferation, differentiation into Ig-producing plasma cells, or apoptosis in both mice and humans.

Relative expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9 in synovial fluid from healthy calves and calves with experimentally induced septic arthritis.

Objective: To identify changes over time in relative expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and -9 (MMP-9) in synovial fluid from healthy calves and calves with experimentally induced septic arthritis.

Animals: 12 Holstein calves.

Procedures: In 7 calves, Escherichia coli was injected in the right tarsal joint on day 1.

Interleukin-21 regulates expression of key Epstein-Barr virus oncoproteins, EBNA2 and LMP1, in infected human B cells.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) persists for the life of the host by accessing the long-lived memory B cell pool. It has been proposed that EBV uses different combinations of viral proteins, known as latency types, to drive infected B cells to make the transition from resting B cells to memory cells. This process is normally antigen-driven.

The road to licensure of a DNA vaccine.

The licensure of three DNA vaccines for animal health applications has provided renewed interest in the broader potential of this technology. At the very least, this will spur efforts to understand the reasons behind these successes and whether this information can be used to enable DNA vaccines for humans. This review maps the pathway to the licensure of the DNA vaccine against infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus in fish, and discusses the implications of this on the development of human DNA vaccines.

A novel approach to measure the contribution of matrix metalloproteinase in the overall net proteolytic activity present in synovial fluids of patients with arthritis.

Despite decades of research, only a very limited number of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitors have been successful in clinical trials of arthritis. One of the central problems associated with this failure may be our inability to monitor the local activity of proteases in the joints since the integrity of the extracellular matrix results from an equilibrium between noncovalent, 1:1 stoichiometric binding of protease inhibitors to the catalytic site of the activated forms of the enzymes. In the present work, we have measured by flow cytometry the net proteolytic activity in synovial fluids (SF) collected from 95 patients with osteoarthritis and various forms of inflammatory arthritis, including rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthropathies, and chronic juvenile arthritis.