The Paleozoic Dniepr-Donets Basin in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia forms a major hydrocarbon province. Although well- and seismic data have established a 20 km thick stratigraphy, field-studies of its ...sediments are scarce. The inverted Donbas segment (Ukraine) exposes the middle Carboniferous part of the basin's stratigraphy. Here, we provide detailed sedimentological data from 13 sections that cover 1.5 of the total of 5 km of the Bashkirian and Moscovian stages and assess the paleoenvironment and paleo-current directions. Middle Carboniferous deposition occurred in a shelf environment, with coal deposition, subordinate fluvial facies, and abundant lower and middle shoreface facies, comprising an intercalated package of potential source and reservoir rocks. Sedimentary facies indicate a paleodepth range from below storm wave base to near-coastal swamp environments. Sedimentation and subsidence were hence in pace, with subtle facies changes likely representing relative sea-level changes. Paleocurrent directions are remarkably consistently southeastward in time and space in the different sedimentary facies across the Donbas Fold Belt, illustrating a dominant sedimentary infill along the basin axis, with little basin margin influence. This suggests that the middle Carboniferous stratigraphy of the Dniepr-Donets basin to the northwest probably contains significant amounts of fluvial sandstones, important for assessing hydrocarbon reservoir potential.
. Lagrou K, Van Eldere J, Keuleers S, Hagen F, Merckx R, Verhaegen J, Peetermans WE, Boekhout T (University Hospital Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; and Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, CT Utrecht, ...the Netherlands) Zoonotic transmission of Cryptococcus neoformans from a magpie to an immunocompetent patient (Case report). J Intern Med 2005; 257: 385–388.
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We report a case of cryptococcal meningitis in an immunocompetent female patient with exposure to a pet magpie (Pica pica). Genetically indistinguishable isolates were cultured from the cerebrospinal fluid of the patient and excreta of the bird. Our data strongly suggest zoonotic transmission of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii from a magpie to this patient.
Among ballistoconidium-forming yeast strains isolated from various plant leaves collected from subtropical forests in eastern and central China, four strains forming cream to yellowish coloured ...colonies were revealed to represent three novel Derxomyces species by conventional and molecular characterization. Phylogenetic analysis based on combined sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and 26S rRNA gene D1/D2 domain showed that strains GT-753 and ZJJ-890T were conspecific and closely related to Derxomyces boninensis, Derxomyces mrakii and Derxomyces qinlingensis. Strain ZJJ-394T was basal to the branch formed by Derxomyces komagatae, Derxomyces pseudoschimicola and Derxomyces schimicola with strong bootstrap support. Strain GT-475T was closely related to Derxomyces linzhiensis. The strains differed significantly from their close relatives in D1/D2 and ITS sequences and in physiological criteria. Three novel species are proposed: Derxomyces amylogenes sp. nov. (type strain ZJJ-890T = CGMCC 2.4407T = CBS 12233T), Derxomyces bambusicola sp. nov. (type strain GT-475T = CGMCC 2.4411T = CBS 12234T) and Derxomyces corylopsis sp. nov. (type strain ZJJ-394T = CGMCC 2.4409T = CBS 12259T).
Sister chromatid separation creates a sudden loss of tension on kinetochores, which could, in principle, re-activate the spindle checkpoint in anaphase. This so-called “anaphase problem” is probably ...avoided by timely inactivation of cyclin B1-Cdk1, which may prevent the spindle tension sensing Aurora B kinase from destabilizing kinetochore–microtubule interactions as they lose tension in anaphase. However, exactly how spindle checkpoint re-activation is prevented remains unclear.
Here, we investigated how different degrees of cyclin B1 stabilization affected the spindle checkpoint in metaphase and anaphase. Cells expressing a strongly stabilized (R42A) mutant of cyclin B1 degraded APC/C
Cdc20
substrates normally, showing that checkpoint release was not inhibited by high cyclin B1-Cdk1 activity. However, after this initial wave of APC/C
Cdc20
activity, the spindle checkpoint returned in cells with uncohesed sister chromatids. Expression of a lysine mutant of cyclin B1 that is degraded only slightly inefficiently allowed a normal metaphase-to-anaphase transition. Strikingly, however, the spindle checkpoint returned in cells that had not degraded the cyclin B1 mutant 10–15 min after anaphase onset. When cyclin B1 remained in late anaphase, cytokinesis stalled, and translocation of INCENP from separated sister chromatids to the spindle midzone was blocked. This late anaphase arrest required the activity of Aurora B and Mps1. In conclusion, our results reveal that complete removal of cyclin B1 is essential to prevent the return of the spindle checkpoint following sister chromatid disjunction. Speculatively, increasing activity of APC/C
Cdc20
in late anaphase helps to keep cyclin B1 levels low.
Abstract
Our understanding of the tree of life (TOL) is still fragmentary. Until recently, molecular phylogeneticists have built trees based on ribosomal RNA sequences and selected protein sequences, ...which, however, usually suffered from lack of support for the deeper branches and inconsistencies probably due to limited subsampling of the entire genome. Now, phylogenetic hypotheses can be based on the analysis of full genomes. We used available complete genome data as well as the eukaryote orthologous group (KOG) proteins to reconstruct with confidence basal branches of the fungal TOL. Phylogenetic analysis of a core of 531 KOGs shared among 21 fungal genomes, three animal genomes and one plant genome showed a single tree with high support resulting from four different methods of phylogenetic reconstruction. The single tree that we inferred from our dataset showed excellent nodal support for each branch, suggesting that it reflects the true phylogenetic relationships of the species involved.
F. Y. Bai, J. H. Zhao, M. Takashima, J. H. Jia, T. Boekhout and T. Nakase
Systematic Mycology and Lichenology Laboratory, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China
...More than 50 ballistoconidium-forming yeast strains, isolated from plant
leaves collected in Yunnan, China, were identified as Sporobolomyces roseus
Kluyver & van Niel by conventional methods. However, comparison of the
internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and 26S rDNA D1/D2 domain
sequences indicated that these strains represented more than one species.
Type or authentic strains of the synonyms of Sporobolomyces roseus and the
closely related species Sporidiobolus pararoseus Fell & Tallman were
employed in the rDNA sequence comparison. Sporobolomyces boleticola
Ramirez, Sporobolomyces pollaccii Verona & Ciferri, Sporobolomyces
roseus var. madurae Janke and Torulopsis somala Verona were confirmed to be
conspecific with Sporobolomyces roseus. Another synonym of this species,
Sporobolomyces salmoneus Derx, was located together with Sporobolomyces
marcillae Santa Maria in a separate clade. Two synonyms of Sporidiobolus
pararoseus, Sporobolomyces carnicolor Yamasaki & Fujii (nom. inval.)
and Sporobolomyces japonicus Iizuka & Goto, were revealed to represent
two distinct species. The name Sporobolomyces carnicolor is validated, with
strain CBS 4215(T) as the type strain. A novel species represented by five
of the selected Yunnan strains was confirmed, for which the name
Sporobolomyces phaffii sp. nov. is proposed (type strain CH 2.052(T)=AS
2.2137(T)=JCM 11491(T)=CBS 9129(T)). This study also indicates that yeast
species with similar ITS sequences may have quite different D1/D2
sequences.
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