Presence of Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CSP) was detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a sample of Anopheles gambiae s.s., A. melas and A. pharoensis collected in Guinea-Bissau during October and November 2009. The percentage of P. falciparum infected samples (10.2% overall; confidence interval (CI): 7.45-13.6%) was comparable to earlier studies from other...

Onset of MELAS due to the m.3243ANG mutation is early if the large phenotypic variability is considered ☆ , ☆☆ Keywords: mtDNA m.3243ANG MELAS Gene Mitochondrial disorder Stroke-like episode Letter to the Editor With interest we read the article by Sunde et al. about a female with MELAS syndrome with onset at age 49 years and four stroke-like episodes (SLEs) during the first 2 years who was fol...

The North American catfish, the black bullhead Ameiurus melas, is recorded for the first time in Poland. The origin of these fish is not clear, but their presence may be associated with unregulated introductions by anglers.

Stomach contents from 59 marine mammals, 28 Delphinus delphis, 14 Tursiops truncatus, three Grampus griseus, four Stenella coeruleoalba, three Globicephala melas, one Ziphius cavirostris, four Phocoena phocoena, one Physeter macrocephalus and one Balaenoptera acutorostrata stranded on the northwestern Spanish Atlantic coast from December 1990 to March 1993 were examined. A total of 9076 fish ot...

Mitochondria possess their own DNA and transcription and translation machinery for the synthesis of 13 protein subunits for the oxidative phosphorylation system, two rRNAs and 22 tRNAs. In 1988 the first human neurodegenerative diseases associated with mutations in the mitochondrial genome were described. The most recent biochemical and genetic research suggests that mitochondrial disorders are...

BACKGROUND Most pathogenic human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations are heteroplasmic (i.e., mutant and wild-type mtDNA coexist in the same individual) and are difficult to detect when their concentration is a small proportion of that of wild-type mtDNA molecules. We describe a simple methodology to detect low proportions of the single base pair heteroplasmic mutation, A3243G, that has been as...

AIM We report molecular imaging combined with gene diagnosis in a family with 7 members who carried an A3243G mutation in mitochondrial tRNA and p.Thr 137 Met in cationic trypsinogen (PRSS1) gene presented with mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS), diabetes, and recurrent pancreatitis. MATERIAL AND METHODS DNA sequencing was used to detect and val...

Visual species identification of cetacean strandings is difficult, especially when dead specimens are degraded and/or species are morphologically similar. The two recognised pilot whale species (Globicephala melas and Globicephala macrorhynchus) are sympatric in the North Atlantic Ocean. These species are very similar in external appearance and their morphometric characteristics partially overl...