Forage kochia (Kochia prostrata ssp. virescens 'Immigrant' is native to the arid and semiarid regions of central Eurasia. It was introduced into the United States in 1966 as PI 314929 and released as a perennial forage shrub in 1984. Kochia americana is a perennial native to the United States, whereas Kochia scorparia is an introduced annual species that became a weed. To assess both the breedi...

BACKGROUND The pathogenesis of Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia, has been primarily characterized in mice. However, the high degree of sensitivity of mice to bacterial challenge, especially with the human virulent strains of F. tularensis, limits this animal model for screening of defined attenuated vaccine candidates for protection studies. METHODS AND FINDINGS We ana...

We analyzed the multilocus short sequence repeats (SSRs) of 211 and 56 isolates of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis and M. avium subsp. avium, respectively. The M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis isolates could be differentiated into 61 genotypes. The M. avium subsp. avium isolates showed limited diversity. These SSRs are stable and suitable for studying the molecular epidemiology of M...

The synonymous substitution rate varies widely among species, but it is generally quite stable within a genome due to the absence of strong selective pressures. In plants, plastid genes tend to evolve faster than mitochondrial genes, rate variation among species generally correlates between the mitochondrial and plastid genomes, and few examples of intragenomic rate heterogeneity exist. To stud...

Investigation and documentation of the status of medicinal plants and associated knowledge was conducted in village Dawarian, Neelum valley AJ&K. A total of 59 plant species were used for furteen (14) different categories of diseases. The medicinal plants were economically used in treating a certain ailments, such as skin diseases (10spp., 14.49%) followed by headache & fever, cough & flu (8spp...

PURPOSE Streptococcus oralis and Streptococcus mitis belong to the Mitis group, which are mostly commensals in the human oral cavity. Even though S. oralis and S. mitis are oral commensals, they can be opportunistic pathogens causing infective endocarditis. A recent taxonomic re-evaluation of the Mitis group has embedded the species Streptococcus tigurinus and Streptococcus dentisani into the s...

BACKGROUND The majority of the Ethiopian population is at risk of malaria largely caused by Plasmodium falciparum. The resistance of the parasite to existing drugs is the main challenge in the control of the disease and thus new therapeutic drugs are required. In Ethiopia, people use different plant species to treat malaria. However, very few of them have so far been evaluated for their safety ...

Influence of different light regimes (plants grown in shade and in the sun) on respiration, activity of alternative respiratory pathway and carbohydrates content in mature leaves of Ajuga reptans L. was investigated. All experiments were carried out under natural conditions. Sun plants had higher respiration, activity of the alternative pathway and carbohydrates content compared to the shade pl...

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis is the cause of Johne's disease in cattle and other ruminants. M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis infection of the bovine host is not well understood; however, it is assumed that crossing the bovine intestinal mucosa is important in order for M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis to establish infection. To examine the ability of M. avium subsp. paratuberculo...