Quantification of Macrophages and in Bovine Intestinal Tissue During Different Stages of Johne's Disease.

Johne's disease is an enteric disease caused by the intracellular pathogen (MAP). Upon ingestion of MAP, it is translocated across the intestinal epithelium and may be killed by intestinal macrophages, or depending on the bacterial burden and immunological status of the animal, MAP may thwart innate defense mechanisms and persist within the macrophage. This study aimed to determine the numbers of macrophages and MAP present in bovine midileal tissue during different stages of infection.

Arboviral diseases and malaria in Australia, 2014–15: Annual report of the National Arbovirus and Malaria Advisory Committee.

This report describes the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases of public health importance in Australia during the 2014–15 season (1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015) and includes data from human notifications, sentinel chicken, vector and virus surveillance programs. The National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System received notifications for 12,849 cases of disease transmitted by mosquitoes during the 2014–15 season. The Australasian alphaviruses Barmah Forest virus and Ross River virus accounted for 83% (n=10,723) of notifications.

Durum wheat genome highlights past domestication signatures and future improvement targets.

The domestication of wild emmer wheat led to the selection of modern durum wheat, grown mainly for pasta production. We describe the 10.45 gigabase (Gb) assembly of the genome of durum wheat cultivar Svevo.

Metagenomic arbovirus detection using MinION nanopore sequencing.

With its small size and low cost, the hand-held MinION sequencer is a powerful tool for in-field surveillance. Using a metagenomic approach, it allows non-targeted detection of viruses in a sample within a few hours. This study aimed to determine the ability of the MinION to metagenomically detect and characterise a virus from an infected mosquito.

Comparative analysis of the predicted secretomes of Rosaceae scab pathogens Venturia inaequalis and V. pirina reveals expanded effector families and putative determinants of host range.

Background: Fungal plant pathogens belonging to the genus Venturia cause damaging scab diseases of members of the Rosaceae. In terms of economic impact, the most important of these are V. inaequalis, which infects apple, and V.

Detection and validation of genomic regions associated with resistance to rust diseases in a worldwide hexaploid wheat landrace collection using BayesR and mixed linear model approaches.

BayesR and MLM association mapping approaches in common wheat landraces were used to identify genomic regions conferring resistance to Yr, Lr, and Sr diseases. Deployment of rust resistant cultivars is the most economically effective and environmentally friendly strategy to control rust diseases in wheat. However, the highly evolving nature of wheat rust pathogens demands continued identification, characterization, and transfer of new resistance alleles into new varieties to achieve durable rust control.

Regulation of gene expression by manipulating transcriptional repressor activity using a novel CoSRI technology.

Targeted gene manipulation is a central strategy for studying gene function and identifying related biological processes. However, a methodology for manipulating the regulatory motifs of transcription factors is lacking as these factors commonly possess multiple motifs (e.g.

Using Next-Generation Sequencing for DNA Barcoding: Capturing Allelic Variation in ITS2.

Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 (ITS2) is a popular DNA barcoding marker; however, in some animal species it is hypervariable and therefore difficult to sequence with traditional methods. With next-generation sequencing (NGS) it is possible to sequence all gene variants despite the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), insertions/deletions (indels), homopolymeric regions, and microsatellites. Our aim was to compare the performance of Sanger sequencing and NGS amplicon sequencing in characterizing ITS2 in 26 mosquito species represented by 88 samples.

The Endoplasmic Reticulum-Mitochondrion Tether ERMES Orchestrates Fungal Immune Evasion, Illuminating Inflammasome Responses to Hyphal Signals.

The pathogenic yeast Candida albicans escapes macrophages by triggering NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent host cell death (pyroptosis). Pyroptosis is inflammatory and must be tightly regulated by host and microbe, but the mechanism is incompletely defined. We characterized the C.

Molecular identification of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in southeastern Australia.

DNA barcoding is a modern species identification technique that can be used to distinguish morphologically similar species, and is particularly useful when using small amounts of starting material from partial specimens or from immature stages. In order to use DNA barcoding in a surveillance program, a database containing mosquito barcode sequences is required. This study obtained Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) sequences for 113 morphologically identified specimens, representing 29 species, six tribes and 12 genera; 17 of these species have not been previously barcoded.

Reduced lignin content and altered lignin composition in the warm season forage grass Paspalum dilatatum by down-regulation of a Cinnamoyl CoA reductase gene.

C4 grasses are favoured as forage crops in warm, humid climates. The use of C4 grasses in pastures is expected to increase because the tropical belt is widening due to global climate change. While the forage quality of Paspalum dilatatum (dallisgrass) is higher than that of other C4 forage grass species, digestibility of warm-season grasses is, in general, poor compared with most temperate grasses.