Epidemiology of childhood tuberculosis after ceasing universal Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination.

Universal Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination is recommended in countries with high tuberculosis (TB) burden. Nevertheless, several countries have ceased universal BCG vaccination over the past 40 years, with scarce comparative epidemiological analyses regarding childhood TB after the policy change. We analysed data on childhood TB in countries that ceased universal BCG vaccination.

Estimating the annual risk of tuberculosis infection in Japan from interferon-gamma release assay data.

To assess tuberculosis transmission frequency at a population level, the age-dependent Mantoux test has been used widely to estimate the annual risk of infection (ARI) with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, the widespread Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) immunization program implemented in Japan in the 20th century has made natural infections with M. tuberculosis difficult to distinguish from immune responses against this vaccine.

Unusual and typical features of a novel restorer-of-fertility gene of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.).

Male gametogenesis in plants can be impaired by an incompatibility between nuclear and mitochondrial genomes, termed cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS). A sterilizing factor resides in mitochondria, whereas a nuclear factor, Restorer-of-fertility (Rf), restores male fertility. Although a majority of plant Rf genes are thought to encode a family of RNA-binding proteins called pentatrico-peptide repeat (PPR) proteins, we isolated a novel type of Rf from sugar beet.