Ciliated protozoa have two kinds of nuclei: Macronuclei (MAC) and Micronuclei (MIC). In some ciliate classes, such as spirotrichs, most genes undergo several layers of DNA rearrangement during macronuclear development. Because of such processes, these organisms provide ideal systems for studying mechanisms of recombination and gene rearrangement. Here, we describe a database that contains all s...

Amikacin is a major drug used for the treatment of Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) disease, but standard laboratory guidelines for susceptibility testing are not available. This study presents in vitro amikacin MICs for 462 consecutive clinical isolates of the MAC using a broth microdilution assay. Approximately 50% of isolates had amikacin MICs of 8 μg/ml, and 86% had MICs of ≤16 μg/ml. Of t...

Branchburg, NJ・, USA), the sputum was positive f♭r 〟. avium. It was, however, negative for M. tuberculosis and M. intracellulare. The bronchial asplrateS Were AFBand M. avium complex (MAC) culture positive. Four drug chemotherapy consistlng Of clarithromycln, rifampln, Streptomycin, and ethambutol was started immediately. The MAC isolate was resistant torifampin (MIC: >50 LLg/ml), streptomycin ...

Like all ciliates, Paramecium tetraurelia is a unicellular eukaryote that harbors two kinds of nuclei within its cytoplasm. At each sexual cycle, a new somatic macronucleus (MAC) develops from the germ line micronucleus (MIC) through a sequence of complex events, which includes meiosis, karyogamy, and assembly of the MAC genome from MIC sequences. The latter process involves developmentally pro...

We propose construction of a BAC library for the germline micronuclear genome (MIC) of the ciliate protist Oxytricha trifallax (recently renamed Sterkiella histriomuscorum; alveolate; class Spirotrichia). This library will primarily be used as a tool to characterize the structure and function of the ciliate micronucleus and its relationship to that of the somatic macronucleus, rather than for c...

ACTH-dependent hypercortisolism caused by a pituitary adenoma [Cushing's disease (CD)] is the most common cause of endogenous Cushing's syndrome. CD is often associated with several morbidities, including hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis/bone fractures, secondary infections, and increased cardiovascular mortality. While the majority (≈80%) of the corticotrophinomas visible on pituitary magn...

Ciliates have two functionally distinct nuclei, a somatic macronucleus (MAC) and a germline micronucleus (MIC) that develop from daughter nuclei of the last postzygotic division (PZD) during the sexual process of conjugation. Understanding this nuclear dimorphism is a central issue in ciliate biology. We show, by live-cell imaging of Tetrahymena, that biased assembly of the nuclear pore complex...

BACKGROUND Patients with clinical infections caused by the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) are treated for at least 1 year following sputum conversion with a regimen that suffers from a suboptimal cure rate. The correlation between clinical outcome and drug susceptibility testing breakpoints other than for the macrolides is regarded to be poor. A systematic evaluation of clinical breakpoints ...