Acute interstitial nephritis due to Leptospira grippotyphosa in the absence of Weil's disease.

Anicteric leptospirosis is a self-limited flu-like disease, whereas the icteric form is a severe illness characterized by multiple organ involvement or even failure. A case involving a patient with rapidly progressing renal insufficiency requiring intermittent renal replacement therapy due to Leptospira grippotyphosa in the absence of a Weil's disease is reported.

[When genetics matters: an unusual case of left-sided hemiparesis].

We report the case of a 35-year-old woman who has been admitted to our emergency room because of the sudden onset of a left-sided hemiparesis. The physical examination showed disseminated teleangiectases on the upper and lower lip, on the mucosal surface of the tongue and on the skin. The cerebral CT scan presented a right-sided fronto-parietal lesion, more likely an abscess, confirmed on surgical removal.

The Neurospora crassa gene responsible for the cut and ovc phenotypes encodes a protein of the haloacid dehalogenase family.

Light stimulation of carotenogenesis in Neurospora crassa, mediated by the White Collar proteins, is enhanced in some regulatory mutants, such as vivid and ovc. The gene responsible for the vivid mutation has been identified, but not the one responsible for the ovc phenotype. The ovc mutant is sensitive to high osmotic conditions and allelic with another mutant, cut, also osmosensitive but not affected in carotenogenesis.

Mutants of the carotene cyclase domain of al-2 from Neurospora crassa.

Phytoene synthase and carotene cyclase, two key enzymes in carotenoid biosynthesis, are encoded by two separate genes in bacteria and plants, but by a single bifunctional gene in fungi. The cyclase function has been demonstrated for the products of the genes crtYB from the basidiomycete Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous, and for carRA and carRP from the zygomycetes Phycomyces blakesleeanus and Mucor circinelloides, respectively. These three genes are highly similar to al-2 from Neurospora crassa.