Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3) infects koi and common carp and causes widespread mortalities. While the virus is a significant concern for aquaculture operations in many countries, in Australia the virus may be a useful biocontrol agent for pest carp. However, carp immune responses to CyHV-3, and the molecular mechanisms underpinning resistance, are not well understood. Here we used RNA-Seq on...

BACKGROUND During the inflammatory process, chemokine CXCL8 plays a pivotal role in recruitment of human neutrophilic granulocytes. A diversity of sequences similar to CXCL8 was reported in fish, but their evolutionary relationships and functional homology with their human homolog remain unclear. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We screened fish genomes to seek for sequences related to CXCL8. A first linea...

Goussia carpelli causes enteritic coccidiosis in juvenile carp. In nature it affects carp fry (1 to 2 mo old) and fish (3 to 4 mo old) which are subjected to environmental stress. Carp treated with corticosteroids or subjected to temperature stress in the laboratory produced higher numbers of oocysts during the primary infection. Resistance to reinfection via the fecal contamination route, howe...

A widespread grass carp hemorrhagic disease (GCHD) caused by grass carp reovirus (GCRV) has been known in China since 1983. A virulent reovirus strain, HZ08, was isolated from diseased grass carp in Zhejiang Province, China. We sequenced and analyzed the complete genome of strain HZ08 and compared it with published GCRV genome sequences, contributing to the evidence of several genotypes of GCRV...

BACKGROUND Rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) and anti-carbamylated protein (anti-CarP) antibodies are rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-associated autoantibodies. Besides their presence in human serum, anti-CarP antibodies have also been described in rodent models of arthritis, while ACPA are not consistently detectable. Data on these RA-associated autoantibodies in p...

OBJECTIVE The immune response to post-translationally modified antigens is a key characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis. Carbamylation is such a posttranslational modification. Recently, we demonstrated that autoantibodies recognizing carbamylated proteins are present in sera of rheumatoid arthritis. The molecular mechanisms underlying the break of tolerance and hence the induction of anti-CarP...

Objectives Anti-carbamylated protein (anti-CarP) antibodies are detected in RA patients. Fetal calf serum is used as an antigen source in anti-CarP ELISA, and the precise target antigens have not been found. We aimed to identify the target antigens of anti-CarP antibodies. Methods Western blotting of anti-CarP antibodies was conducted. Anti-carbamylated human albumin (CarALB) antibody was det...

The common carp is a candidate model system for immunology research. Using next-generation sequencing technology, we have generated a huge amount of sequence reads from the carp genome and transcriptome. Currently, our aim is to identify carp genes involved in the development of the innate immune response, particularly TIR domain-containing genes, from a preliminary genome assembly. To achieve ...

The Capacitated Arc Routing Problem with Refill Points (CARP-RP) is a new variant of the Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (CARP). In a CARP situation, the vehicle servicing arcs has a finite capacity, and hence has to return to the depot or a secondary station to be refilled (or emptied). In contrast, in the CARP-RP, the vehicle servicing arcs must be refilled on the spot by using a second vehic...

To identify the molecular pathways that guide cardiac ventricular chamber specification, maturation and morphogenesis, we have sought to characterize factors that regulate the expression of the ventricular myosin light chain-2 gene, one of the earliest markers of ventricular regionalization during mammalian cardiogenesis. Previously, our laboratory identified a 28 bp HF-la/MEF-2 element in the ...