Clinical outcomes of lung transplant recipients with pre-transplant Mycobacterium avium complex infection.

Background: Lung transplant recipients (LTRs) are at risk for Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infections, in part due to the presence of structural lung disease pre-transplant and relatively higher levels of immunosuppression post-transplant. There is a lack of data regarding outcomes of LTR with MAC infections pre-transplant.

Methods: This is a single-center retrospective analysis of patients who received lung transplants (LTs) from 2013 to 2020 with 1) evidence of MAC on culture or polymerase chain reaction before or at the time of transplant or 2) granulomas on explant pathology and positive acid-fast bacillus stains with no other mycobacteria identified.

Impact of Mandatory Infectious Disease Specialist Approval on Hospital-Onset Clostridioides difficile Infection Rates and Testing Appropriateness.

Background: Inappropriate Clostridioides difficile testing is common in the hospital setting, leading to potential overdiagnosis of infection when single-step nucleic acid amplification testing is used. The potential role of infectious diseases (ID) specialists in enforcing appropriate C. difficile testing is unclear.

Photoactivated phytochromes interact with HEMERA and promote its accumulation to establish photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis.

Plant development is profoundly regulated by ambient light cues through the red/far-red photoreceptors, the phytochromes. Early phytochrome signaling events include the translocation of phytochromes from the cytoplasm to subnuclear domains called photobodies and the degradation of antagonistically acting phytochrome-interacting factors (PIFs). We recently identified a key phytochrome signaling component, HEMERA (HMR), that is essential for both phytochrome B (phyB) localization to photobodies and PIF degradation.