Viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) replicate rapidly and with high transcription error rates, which may facilitate their escape from immune detection through the encoding of mutations at key positions within human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-specific peptides, thus impeding T-cell recognition. Large-scale population-based host-viral association studies are conducted as hypothesis-generating ...

background: previous studies imply that il-1 and il-8 gene variations may play a crucial role in the genetic predisposition to different gastric disorders upon h. pylori infection. objective: the aim of this study was to determine the potential association between the prevalence of certain polymorphic sites and the risk of gastric disorders in iranian population. methods: one hundred and forty ...

this guide to the identification of iranian freshwater snails has been prepared with aim of helping individuals involved in field work, but who have had no specialized training in taxonomy to differentiate snail specimens which they collect to certain groups by means of simple identification key. the guide pays special attention to the principal snail groups which transmit human schistosomiasis...

piezodorus guildinii (hemiptera: pentatomidae) is an important soybean pest, and one of its main natural enemies is telenomus podisi (hymenoptera: platygastridae). rearing of the parasitoid is constrained by the hosts' egg quality, which deteriorates after few generations in laboratory, therefore, cold-stored host eggs utilization could be a useful tool for augmentative biological control. thus...

Host recognition is crucial during the phoretic stage of nematodes because it facilitates their association with hosts. However, limited information is available on the direct cues used for host recognition and host specificity in nematodes. Caenorhabditis japonica forms an intimate association with the burrower bug Parastrachia japonensis. Caenorhabditis japonica dauer larvae (DL), the phoreti...

Knockdown of host genes using high-throughput genome-wide RNA interference screens has identified numerous host factors that affect viral infections, which would be helpful in understanding host-virus interactions. We have developed a vhfRNAi web resource based on genome-wide RNAi experiments for viruses. It contains experimental details of 12 249 entries (host factors + restriction factors) fo...

Coral-associated fauna contributes greatly to coral reef biodiversity. Many species are obligately associated with their hosts on which they depend for food and/or refuge from predators. Their close relationship makes them vulnerable mortality. Here I report a coral-dwelling gall crab (Cryptochiridae) inhabiting partially dead Echinopora Lamarck, 1816 coral, at Magoodhoo Island, Faafu Atoll, Ma...