51 research outputs found
Viruses and antiviral responses of an invasive fruit pest, Drosophila suzukii
No full textDrosophila suzukii (Matsamura) is an invasive dipteran pest of soft fruit crops. Native
to Japan and SE Asia it was first detected in the Mediterranean growing regions of
Europe and the western states of the USA in 2008. Since then it has been expanding
its range across both continents causing huge economic damage to the horticultural
industries there. Current control measures are heavily dependent on broad spectrum
insecticides and labour intensive cultural control. Therefore, there is a large incentive
to investigate alternative, more environmentally benign, control methods such as
biological control or biopesticides.
The viruses of D. suzukii offer a potential source of pathogens suitable for the
development of such a biopesticide. Chapter 2 explores the diversity of viruses found
naturally associating with D. suzukii in both its native and naturalised ranges. In it, I
describe 18 new RNA viruses belonging to a variety of virus clades. Although none of
these viruses belong to those clades traditionally used as biological control agents,
we suggest further work for the development of a viral control agent based on our
data.
Not only are the viruses of D. suzukii of direct applied interest to the horticultural
industry, they also offer a powerful model system for the study of virus host dynamics
in the wild. The ecosystems recently invaded by this pest contain many other species
of Drosophila which harbour their own raft of viral pathogens. In chapter 3 I explore
the extent to which these viruses are shared between species and how virus
prevalence changes over time. Understanding the patterns of virus ‘host-shifts’ after
host range change could help us better predict the success of particular biological
invasion events and further informs our understanding of emerging viral diseases in
both humans and livestock.
The ability of a virus to shift host ultimately comes down to its ability to overcome its
host’s immune system. In chapter 4 I investigate the comparative genome-wide
transcriptomal immune responses of D. suzukii and its congener D. melanogaster
after treatment with two highly divergent viruses. The relative responses of these
flies was shown to be highly dissimilar as was the response of males and females of
the same species. Few model species allow comparative expression studies of this
depth granting us unprecedented insights into the evolution of insect innate immune
systems
Shift or stick? Untangling the signatures of biased host switching, and host-parasite co-speciation
No full textInternational audienceA recommendation – based on reviews by Damien de Vienne and Nathan Medd – of:Engelstädter J and Fortuna NZ. 2018. The dynamics of preferential host switching: host phylogeny as a key predictor of parasite prevalence and distribution. bioRxiv 209254, ver. 5 peer-reviewed by Peer Community In Evolutionary Biology doi: 10.1101/20925
ERP023609 RNA-seq of immune response in Drosophila Study: PRJEB21366
No full textStudy - ENA project accession ERP023609We find that Kallithea virus infection is costly for adult flies, reaching high titres in both sexes and disproportionately reducing survival in males, and movement and late fecundity in females. Using the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel, we quantify host genetic variance for virus-induced mortality and viral titre and identify candidate host genes that may underlie this variation, including Cdc42-interacting protein 4. Using full transcriptome sequencing of infected males and females, we examine the transcriptional response of flies to Kallithea virus infection and describe differential regulation of virus-responsive genes. This work establishes Kallithea virus as a new tractable model to study the natural interaction between D. melanogaster and DNA viruses, and we hope it will serve as a basis for future studies of immune responses to DNA viruses in insects.Palmer W, Medd N, 2018, ERP023609 RNA-seq of immune response in Drosophila Study: PRJEB21366, European Nucleotide Archive, https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/data/view/PRJEB2136
From classrooms to Centres: Mary and David Medd's contribution to postwar school design in Britain
No full textThe innovative school design strategies of Mary and David Medd, broke away from the idea of classrooms and incorporated the concept of Centres in architectural discourse.Space & Typ
Implementation and Evaluation of Whole Health Opioid Safety Shared Medical Appointments in a Veteran Population: A Quality Improvement Study
No full textProblem: The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2018b) suggest that 130 Americans die from an opioid overdose each day, thus creating an unprecedented number of opioid-related deaths in the United States to date.
Context: Of particular interest to the author and this DNP project is that Veterans are twice as likely to die from an opioid overdose, compared to the average American, making this epidemic a priority for Veterans Health Administration (Wilkie, 2018).
Interventions: The author developed a 9-session Opioid Safety Shared Medical Appointment (SMA) program to reduce opioid reliance in Veterans using an 8-member interdisciplinary team. Comparisons were made of 90 participants who received training via Cohort I, comprised of 30 participants led by a patient-aligned care team (PACT) that met monthly over 9 months and included health coaching, to Cohort II, comprised of 30 participants led by a PACT team that met weekly over 9 weeks and excluded health coaching, to Cohort III (control), comprised of 30 participants who received training via routine, status quo, in-office education. The curriculum was based on a whole health model and introduced self-care modalities and opioid safety education. A comprehensive whole health toolkit was developed containing resource materials and educational handouts for Veterans to use throughout the course of the opioid SMA.
Outcome Measures: Outcome measures for evaluation of this evidence-based project include morphine equivalent daily dose (MEDD), pain scores, and use of complementary alternative modalities (CAMs).
Results: Data analysis revealed the only cohort with a statistically significant reduction in MEDD was Cohort I with health coaching (p \u3c 0.0064). Cohort II (without health coaching) did not have a significant reduction in MEDD (p \u3c 0.64) but did have a significant reduction in pain scores (p \u3c 0.02) and a significant increase of CAMs (p \u3e.01). Cohort III (control group in-office education) did not have a significant reduction in MEDD (p \u3c 0.88) or pain scores (p \u3c 0.26) and had no significant increase in the use of CAMs (p \u3c 0.33). However, findings of this work across all three cohorts included clinically significant improvements in MEDD, pain scores, and use of CAMs.
Conclusions: Using whole health SMAs may provide an effective, evidenced-based, cost-effective approach to managing chronic pain, decreasing MEDD and pain scores, and increasing CAM use among Veterans. While results support the clinical significance of this model, findings warrant additional investigation.
Key words: opioids, Veteran, Veterans Administration, reliance, whole health, shared medical appointment
The genome sequence of the Hawthorn Fruit Fly, Anomoia purmunda (Harris, 1780) [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]
No full textWe present a genome assembly from a female Hawthorn Fruit Fly, Anomoia purmunda (Arthropoda; Insecta; Diptera; Tephritidae). The genome sequence has a length of 798.30 megabases. Most of the assembly is scaffolded into 6 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the X sex chromosome. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 16.48 kilobases in length
S1_figure
No full textS1_figure. Coverage depth of each nucleotide in newly described virus genomes. Raw 150nt forward reads from pools where reference virus was most common are mapped to putative virus genomes using Bowtie2 (2.3.0)
ERR2011767 Illumina HiSeq 2500 paired end sequencing; 10873OD0066L01
No full textShort read data - ENA project accession ERP023609 Run (70 results)Drosophila melanogaster has played a key role in our understanding of invertebrate immunity. However, both functional and evolutionary studies of host-virus interaction in Drosophila have been limited by a dearth of native virus isolates. In particular, despite a long history of virus research, DNA viruses of D. melanogaster have only recently been described, and none have been available for experimental study. Here we report the isolation and comprehensive characterisation of Kallithea virus, a large double-stranded DNA virus, and the first DNA virus to have been reported from wild populations of D. melanogaster. We find that Kallithea virus infection is costly for adult flies, reaching high titres in both sexes and disproportionately reducing survival in males, and movement and late fecundity in females. Using the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel, we quantify host genetic variance for virus-induced mortality and viral titre and identify candidate host genes that may underlie this variation, including Cdc42-interacting protein 4. Using full transcriptome sequencing of infected males and females, we examine the transcriptional response of flies to Kallithea virus infection and describe differential regulation of virus-responsive genes. This work establishes Kallithea virus as a new tractable model to study the natural interaction between D. melanogaster and DNA viruses, and we hope it will serve as a basis for future studies of immune responses to DNA viruses in insects.Palmer W, Medd N, 2018, ERR2011767 Illumina HiSeq 2500 paired end sequencing; 10873OD0066L01, European Nucleotide Archive, https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/data/view/ERR201176
A game about safety culture: creating awareness among healthcare professionals about culture and behaviour regarding patient safety through serious gaming
No full textThe start of this project is a first version of a serious game that was designed by the company MEDD. This is an independent design and consultancy agency for healthcare. They designed this game as part of their ‘Met Elkaar Durven Doen’ toolbox, which they use in trainings and workshops. The Haga Hospital is the co-design partner of the game, and during the week of patient safety, a first version of this prototype was played by healthcare professionals of the Haga Hospital. The main aspect of the game are the question cards. These cards are divided into three themes: Patient Experience, Risk Management, and Culture and Behaviour. Within these themes, the players get knowledge based questions, questions to discuss, or small assignments. In a questionnaire done by MEDD in the Haga Hospital and through the reactions of the healthcare professionals that played the game, can be concluded that these three themes are themes that healthcare professionals would like to learn more about. The assignment within this project is to further develop the existing design and make it applicable to other hospitals and healthcare organisations. The Safety Game is meant to create awareness and a deeper knowledge an understanding of safety and quality within hospitals. To provide background to why this is necessary, a literature review and field research are done. From this research can be concluded that an open culture is important to manage risks in the hospital. Unfortunately, most hospitals have a blame culture, where healthcare professionals don’t correct each other or speak up in fear of the consequences. To change this blame culture into an open culture, the behaviour of the healthcare professionals needs to change. To make healthcare professionals aware of their type of culture and how to change this, a serious persuasive game can be used. To design this serious persuasive game, the Persuasive Game Design model is used. The research provided the insights to fill in the Real World Experience and the Gamification Design. From the research the goal was defined: Designing a meaningful, serious, persuasive game for healthcare professionals to gain lasting awareness on their behaviour regarding safety and how they influence their own safety and that of others. In the ideation phase, three concepts were developed. From these three, a concept was chosen that is based on the idea of an escape room idea. The final design consists of a small house that represents the hospital, a patient card, question cards in the earlier mentioned themes, a padlock to lock the hospital, three puzzles in the same themes as the question cards, and puzzle pieces. This design is tested in the Haga Hospital with healthcare professionals. The final design, the game ‘Cultuur rondom Veiligheid’, is proven to create awareness regarding culture and behaviour, and how this influences (patient) safety, thus reaching the design goal. The base of the final design can be used to be adjusted to fit other healthcare organisations or keep the game up to date by MEDD
The virome of <i>Drosophila suzukii</i>, an invasive pest of soft fruit
No full textDrosophila suzukii (Matsumura) is one of the most damaging and costly pests to invade temperate horticultural regions in recent history. Conventional control of this pest is challenging, and an environmentally benign microbial biopesticide is highly desirable. A thorough exploration of the pathogens infecting this pest is not only the first step on the road to the development of an effective biopesticide, but also provides a valuable comparative dataset for the study of viruses in the model family Drosophilidae. Here we use a metatransciptomic approach to identify viruses infecting this fly in both its native (Japanese) and invasive (British and French) ranges. We describe eighteen new RNA viruses, including members of the Picornavirales, Mononegavirales, Bunyavirales, Chuviruses, Nodaviridae, Tombusviridae, Reoviridae, and Nidovirales, and discuss their phylogenetic relationships with previously known viruses. We also detect 18 previously described viruses of other Drosophila species that appear to be associated with D. suzukii in the wild.</p
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