Still a geneticist's nightmare

Oenococcus oeni: Queen of the cellar, nightmare of geneticists.

Oenococcus oeni is a wine-associated lactic acid bacterium (LAB) responsible mostly for wine malolactic fermentation (MLF). This fastidious bacterium (auxotrophic for many amino acids and slow growing) possesses remarkable adaptability to harsh physicochemical conditions and can reprogramme its metabolic pathways to enhance its survival in wine. Thus, O. oeni is an instructive bacterial model f...

Quarreling geneticists and a diplomat.

I N the 1950s the hydrogen bomb was new; it was also fearsome. Some of the test explosions produced debris that was dispersed by high-altitude winds, dropping radioactive fallout over an entire hemisphere. Some geneticists feared that mutations induced by the radiation would constitute a significant genetic hazard to future generations. Other people argued that the tests were a necessary part o...

A surgeon's nightmare: Complications.

OBJECTIVE Our study aimed to determine the physically and psychologically most difficult complication resulting in chronic discomfort and occurring sensationally in the postoperative period of operations performed frequently in the daily surgical routine. MATERIAL AND METHODS We performed a survey among surgeons who participated in the 19(th) National Surgery Congress. The questions were rela...

L1-associated diseases: clinical geneticists divide, molecular geneticists unite.

The neuronal cell adhesion molecule L1 (L1CAM) is a transmembrane glycoprotein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily and is essential in the development of the nervous system. It is mainly expressed on neurons and Schwann cells, and plays a key role in axon outgrowth and pathfinding through interactions with various extracellular ligands and intracellular second messenger systems. Mutatio...

A father's worst nightmare.