Brucellosis remains a worldwide zoonotic disease with a serious impact on public health and livestock productivity. Controlling brucellosis in livestock is crucial for limiting human infections in ...the absence of effective human vaccines. Brucellosis control measures are majorly dependent on rigorous monitoring of disease outbreaks and mass vaccination of livestock. Live attenuated vaccines are available for livestock vaccination that play a vital role in brucellosis control programs in many countries. Even though the existing animal vaccines confer protection against brucellosis, they carry some drawbacks, including their infectivity to humans and interference with sero-monitoring. The available serodiagnostic assays for brucellosis depend on detecting anti-LPS antibodies in the serum. Since diagnosis plays a vital role in controlling brucellosis, developing improved serodiagnostic assays with enhanced specificity, sensitivity and DIVA capability is required. Therefore, it is essential to identify novel antigens for developing improved vaccines and serodiagnostic assays for brucellosis. In the present study, we performed a high throughput immunoprofiling of
protein microarray using brucellosis-positive human and animal serum samples. The screening identified several serodominant proteins of
that exhibited common or differential reactivity with sera from animals and humans. Subsequently, we cloned, expressed, and purified ten serodominant proteins, followed by analyzing their potential to develop next-generation vaccines and improved serodiagnostic assays for brucellosis. Further, we demonstrated the protective efficacy of one of the serodominant proteins against the
challenge in mice. We found that the seroreactive protein, Dps (BMEI1980), strongly reacted with brucellosis-positive serum samples, but it did not react with sera from
S19-vaccinated cattle, indicating DIVA capability. A prototype lateral flow assay and indirect ELISA based on Dps protein exhibited high sensitivity, specificity, and DIVA capability. Thus, the present study identified promising candidates for developing improved vaccines and affordable, DIVA-capable serodiagnostic assays for animal and human brucellosis.
The extant kempynines, a strict “southern group,” are confined to South America and Australia, while their most fossil relatives are abundantly recorded in the Northern Hemisphere. This pattern of ...the biogeographic distribution implies the complicated evolutionary scenario of Kempyninae. Herein, a new northern species
Arbusella platyptera
Ma
et
Wang, sp. nov. is described from the Jiulongshan Formation in Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China. Additionally, a key to the extinct species and extant genera of Kempyninae is provided. Integrating all extant and most fossil genera of Kempyninae, we conducted phylogenetic analyses to explore the inner relationships of Kempyninae for the first time. The results corroborate the monophyly of Kempyninae and retrieve three clades within the subfamily, namely, two northern fossil genera (†
Arbusellla
+ †
Jurakempynus
), constituting the basalmost clade and three other northern fossil genera (†
Sauktangida
+ †
Mirokempynus
+ †
Ponomarenkius
), forming a monophylic clade, which is sister to the third clade that includes all extant southern genera and the southern fossil genus of †
Euporismites
. Also, the extant kempynines were hypothesized to evolve independently from their northern Mesozoic relatives. The Dispersal-vicariance (DIVA) analysis revealed a northern and prepangean origin of Kempyninae, and the northern ancestral kempynines first colonized the Southern Hemisphere before the split of Pangea. Our results expose a more complicated evolutionary scenario of the insects with a long evolutionary history and provide new insights into the formation of distribution patterns in current relictual insects.
Recent Advances in Vaccine Technologies Francis, Michael James
The Veterinary clinics of North America. Small animal practice,
03/2018, Volume:
48, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This brief review discusses some recent advances in vaccine technologies with particular reference to their application within veterinary medicine. It highlights some of the key inactivated/killed ...approaches to vaccination, including natural split-product and subunit vaccines, recombinant subunit and protein vaccines, and peptide vaccines. It also covers live/attenuated vaccine strategies, including modified live marker/differentiating infected from vaccinated animals vaccines, live vector vaccines, and nucleic acid vaccines.
• Premise of the study: Tribe Cardueae (thistles) forms one of the largest tribes in the family Compositae (2400 species), with representatives in almost every continent. The greatest species ...richness of Cardueae occurs in the Mediterranean region where it forms an important element of its flora. New fossil evidence and a nearly resolved phylogeny of Cardueae are used here to reconstruct the spatiotemporal evolution of this group.• Methods: We performed maximum parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic inference based on nuclear ribosomal DNA and chloroplast DNA markers. Divergence times and ancestral area reconstructions for main lineages were estimated using penalized likelihood and dispersal–vicariance analyses, respectively, and integrated over the posterior distribution of the phylogeny from the Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis to accommodate uncertainty in phylogenetic relationships.• Key results: The phylogeny shows that subtribe Cardopatiinae is sister to the remaining subtribes, and subtribes Carlininae and Echinopsinae appear as consecutive sister-clades to the Carduinae/Centaureinae. Tribe Cardueae is inferred to have originated around the Mid Eocene in West Asia, which is also the ancestral area of most subtribes within Cardueae. Diversification within each subtribe began during the Oligocene-Miocene period.• Conclusions: Most diversification events within Cardueae are related to the continuous cycles of area connection and division between the Anatolian microplate and the western Mediterranean Basin during the Oligocene-Miocene and with the uplift of the Himalayan range from the Miocene onward. From these two regions, thistles dispersed and colonized the rest of the continents (e.g., the New World, Africa, and Australia), most likely during the colder Pliocene-Pleistocene period.
Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) should be highly prioritized, monitored, and conserved as they have an immense effect on sustainability and livelihood. In this study we aim to survey and map cereal and ...legume wild relatives of Fabaceae and Poaceae families. Mount Hermon, Bekaa side, Lebanon. A set of 46 CWR species were targeted based on desk selection analysis and prioritization by the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas genebank for their potential importance in breeding programs. A botanical survey of 17 sites of the various habitats of Mount Hermon was performed during April–June 2021 using a systematic transect/quadrate sampling method. Recorded genera and species were accurately georeferenced and then mapped with the DIVA‐GIS program. In total, 854 occurrences were observed belonging to 34 species of Fabaceae and 12 species of Poaceae. High H′ Shannon diversity values were recorded in three sites (Al Fakiaa, Sham El Hafour and Ain Ata‐ al Berke) of the Mount with values ranking between 2.45 and 2.83. This was confirmed by the richness distribution maps of genera and species. Richness distribution maps provide relevant clues on candidate sites for high concentrations of each of the species under study. At least the three sites, hosting 87% of the surveyed CWR's species, can be considered for further in situ conservation actions.
In this study we aim to survey and map the distribution, diversity, and richness of targeted cereal and legume wild relatives of Fabaceae and Poaceae families in Mt. Hermon of Lebanon, Bekaa side. Richness distribution and predictive maps provide relevant clues on candidate sites for conservation planning.
•Zingiber species distribution and richness were studied based on accession records.•Key bioclimatic determinants of Zingiber species distribution were identified.•Present and future potential ...distribution of Zingiber species were examined.•Some species may will be considerably reduced, necessitating conservation efforts.
Climate change has a crucial impact on plant resources distribution, especially on agricultural crops. Species belonging to genus Zingiber are important crop resources in China, and their rhizomes are widely used in medicine and food. In this study, the ecological distribution and richness of the genus Zingiber were analyzed using a DIVA-GIS analysis of 967 georeferenced herbarium records to produce present and future distribution simulations using the MaxEnt model. The results showed that the genus Zingiber is widely distributed in 28 provinces in China, with the greatest richness in Guangxi, Guangdong, and Yunnan. Based on our model, precipitation of the driest month, precipitation of the warmest quarter, and the minimum temperature of the coldest month were the most significant bioclimatic variables controlling the distribution of five selected Zingiber species. Future climate change will likely result in the increase of suitable habitat area for Zingiber officinale by 2.85%, but dramatically decrease that for Zingiber striolatum by 18.04%, Zingiber zerumbet by 17.87%, Zingiber corallinum by 12.40%, and Zingiber mioga by 9.46%. Thus, conservation measures should be taken to preserve these valuable resources.
Canine leptospirosis represents a diagnostic challenge to veterinarians, due to the variability in presenting clinical signs and interpretation of serology test results in dogs that have been ...vaccinated previously. None of the commercially available serological assays, including the microscopic agglutination test (MAT), have been verified to be capable of differentiating infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA). Recent work identified that half of primary practice attending dogs were up to date with their leptospirosis vaccination and would be expected to have circulating anti-leptospira antibodies (Taylor et al., 2022), indicating that this is a relevant issue for suspected leptospirosis cases in dogs in the UK. This study aimed to explore the utility of three leptospiral outer membrane proteins (OMPs: LipL32, LipL21 and LipL41) as potential DIVA targets in the luciferase immunoprecipitation system (LIPS) assay. N and C terminal nanoluciferase tagged recombinant proteins were generated for each OMP. Differences in reactivity between serum samples from MAT positive dogs (n = 29) and paired samples (n = 6 dogs) taken pre and 21 days post leptospirosis vaccination were assessed against these six constructs. Reactivity was greater towards the N terminal than the C terminal recombinant proteins for all three OMPs. None of the constructs appeared to demonstrate DIVA capability, although two (pNLF1-N-FLAG/LipL32 and pNLF1-N-FLAG/LipL21) were able to detect vaccine seroconversion. The findings of this work suggest that these particular OMP targets do not offer DIVA ability, however LipL32 and LipL21 may be suitable for use in immunoassays for vaccine trials or for detection of infections in humans, where there is no requirement for DIVA capability.
The interannual variability and the mechanisms controlling the dissolved oxygen concentration in the Mediterranean Sea were investigated through generating gridded fields of dissolved oxygen, ...salinity and potential temperature. The Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis (DIVA) software was used to produce a gridded dataset for the time period 1960–2011. High oxygen concentrations for the upper and bottom layers, separated by an oxygen minimum zone at intermediate layers, are a typical structure of the dissolved oxygen in the Eastern and the Western Mediterranean sub-basins. Although an oxygen minimum zone is observed in both sub-basins, its vertical positions are different; in the Eastern Mediterranean at between 600 and 1200 m depth and in the Western Mediterranean at between 400 and 600 m. The vertical distribution of dissolved oxygen shows significant differences between the two sub-basins and their temporal evolution reveals large interannual to decadal variability. A negative correlation was observed between dissolved oxygen and surface potential temperature due to solubility changes over the whole period. However, the positive correlation between the dissolved oxygen and potential temperature in the Eastern Mediterranean deep layers is an indication that the dynamical processes are dominant and are involved in the dissolved oxygen interannual variability. The dissolved oxygen variability presents shifts with a multi-decadal signal, rather than trends as observed in the global ocean, associated with mixing processes and decadal oscillations that influence the dense water formation or biological activity.
•A new gridded dataset for dissolved oxygen was produced by DIVA tool.•No trends are observed in the interannual variability of the dissolved oxygen.•The surface layer dissolved oxygen is negatively correlated with the temperature.•The interannual variability in deeper layers is more related to dynamical processes.•Shifts with a decadal signal
Classical swine fever (CSF), caused by CSF virus (CSFV), is one of the most devastating viral epizootic diseases of swine in many countries. To control the disease, highly efficacious and safe live ...attenuated vaccines have been used for decades. However, the main drawback of these conventional vaccines is the lack of differentiability of infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA concept). Advances in biotechnology and our detailed knowledge of multiple basic science disciplines have facilitated the development of effective and safer DIVA vaccines to control CSF. To date, two types of DIVA vaccines have been developed commercially, including the subunit vaccines based on CSFV envelope glycoprotein E2 and chimeric pestivirus vaccines based on infectious cDNA clones of CSFV or bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV). Although inoculation of these vaccines successfully induces solid immunity against CSFV, none of them could ideally meet all demands regarding to safety, efficacy, DIVA potential, and marketability. Due to the limitations of the available choices, researchers are still striving towards the development of more advanced DIVA vaccines against CSF. This review summarizes the present status of candidate CSFV vaccines that have been developed. The strategies and approaches revealed here may also be helpful for the development of new-generation vaccines against other diseases.
Brucellosis serodiagnosis is still a challenge and vaccination is the main measure used to control bovine brucellosis, being S19 and RB51 the most currently used vaccines. So, in order to contribute ...to brucellosis control, a bidimensional (2D) immunoblot-based approach was used to find immunogenic proteins to be used in serodiagnosis, particularly with ability to be employed in DIVA (Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals) strategy. Immunoproteomic profile of Brucella abortus 2308 was analyzed in 2D western blotting using pooled sera from S19 vaccinated animals, RB51 vaccinated animals, B. abortus naturally infected animals and non-vaccinated seronegative animals. Evaluation of the antigens differentially immunoreactive against the groups of sera showed three proteins of particular importance: MDH (malate dehydrogenase) immunoreactive for S19-vaccinated animals, SOD (superoxide dismutase) reactive for infected animals and ABC transporter (multispecies sugar ABC transporter) reactive against sera from vaccinated animals (S19 and RB51). These three proteins were produced in E. coli and tested in an indirect ELISA (I-ELISA). For MDH, comparison between the vaccinated animals (independent of the vaccine used) and the seropositive and seronegative animals in I-ELISA showed significant differences. Data on the I-ELISA using SOD showed that sera from non-vaccinated naturally infected animals exhibited significant difference in comparison with all other groups. Otherwise, sera from vaccinated animals (S19 and RB51) and from non-vaccinated naturally infected animals did not show significant difference in OD values, but they were all significant different from non-vaccinated seronegative animals using ABC transporter as antigen in I-ELISA. In conclusion, together the 2D western blot analysis and the preliminary I-ELISA results suggest that the combined use of MDH and SOD could be successful employed in a LPS-free protein based serodiagnosis approach to detect bovine brucellosis and to discriminate vaccinated from naturally infected animals, in early post-vaccination stages.
•MDH, SOD and ABC transport showed different reactive against sera from infected and vaccinated cattle.•LPS-free protein-based serodiagnosis discriminate vaccination from natural infection in bovine brucellosis.•MDH has a great potential for the diagnosis of animals vaccinated against brucellosis.•MDH and SOD could contribute greatly to increase the accuracy of the diagnosis of bovine brucellosis.
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