241 research outputs found
Update on COVID-19 vaccines and news on face masks: Vish Nene and Dieter Schillinger
No full textVish Nene, co-leader of the ILRI Animal and Human Health Program, and Dieter Schillinger, ILRI deputy director general of research and development–Biosciences, give updates on vaccines for COVID-19 and the use of face masks. This film was recorded on 29 January 2021. Find ILRI expertise and resources on zoonoses: ilri.org/zoonose
Battling an African cattle killer: Second-generation vaccine against East Coast fever
No full textIn this film, Vish Nene director of the Vaccines Biosciences program at ILRI, talks about new research that is seeking to create a second-generation vaccine against East Coast fever
11 June 2021: Update on COVID-19 vaccines, vaccine supply, vaccine performance and in-house tests
No full textVish Nene, co-leader of the Animal and Human Health Program at ILRI, gave an update on COVID-19 vaccines, vaccine supply, vaccine performance and in-house tests on 11 June 2021. Find ILRI expertise and resources on zoonoses: ilri.org/zoonose
8 May 2020 - The race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine
No full textVish Nene, co-leader of the Animal and Human Health Program at ILRI, gives an update on vaccines and treatment options under development for COVID-19. This film was recorded on 8 May 2020. Read more: https://www.ilri.org/news/good-and-no... Find ILRI expertise and resources on zoonoses: ilri.org/zoonose
Reassociation kinetics-based approach for partial genome sequencing of the cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus
No full textBackground: The size and repetitive nature of the Rhipicephalus microplus genome makes obtaining a full genome sequence fiscally and technically problematic. To selectively obtain gene-enriched regions of this tick's genome, Cot filtration was performed, and Cot-filtered DNA was sequenced via 454 FLX pyrosequencing.Results: The sequenced Cot-filtered genomic DNA was assembled with an EST-based gene index of 14,586 unique entries where each EST served as a potential "seed" for scaffold formation. The new sequence assembly extended the lengths of 3,913 of the 14,586 gene index entries. Over half of the extensions corresponded to extensions of over 30 amino acids. To survey the repetitive elements in the tick genome, the complete sequences of five BAC clones were determined. Both Class I and II transposable elements were found. Comparison of the BAC and Cot filtration data indicates that Cot filtration was highly successful in filtering repetitive DNA out of the genomic DNA used in 454 sequencing.Conclusion: Cot filtration is a very useful strategy to incorporate into genome sequencing projects on organisms with large genome sizes and which contain high percentages of repetitive, difficult to assemble, genomic DNA. Combining the Cot selection approach with 454 sequencing and assembly with a pre-existing EST database as seeds resulted in extensions of 27% of the members of the EST database
International team with Virginia Tech participation maps genome of dengue and yellow fever mosquito
No full textDeveloping new strategies to prevent and control yellow fever and dengue fever has become more possible with the completion of the first draft of the genome sequence of Aedes aegypti mosquito by scientists led by Vishvanath Nene at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and David Severson at the University of Notre Dame. The genome is the complete set of genetic material including genes and other segments of DNA in an organism
Genome sequence of Aedes aegypti, a major arbovirus vector
No full textWe present a draft sequence of the genome of Aedes aegypti, the primary vector for yellow fever and dengue fever, which at approximately 1376 million base pairs is about 5 times the size of the genome of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. Nearly 50% of the Ae. aegypti genome consists of transposable elements. These contribute to a factor of approximately 4 to 6 increase in average gene length and in sizes of intergenic regions relative to An. gambiae and Drosophila melanogaster. Nonetheless, chromosomal synteny is generally maintained among all three insects, although conservation of orthologous gene order is higher (by a factor of approximately 2) between the mosquito species than between either of them and the fruit fly. An increase in genes encoding odorant binding, cytochrome P450, and cuticle domains relative to An. gambiae suggests that members of these protein families underpin some of the biological differences between the two mosquito species
East Coast fever mRNA vaccines – sweetening the promise
No full textThe mRNA vaccine platform should help research on East Coast fever subunit vaccines, but it remains unexplored. A theoretical strength of this platform, namely its capacity to prime cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses, is appealing as these, rather than antibodies, are the major mediators of immunity induced by a live parasite-based vaccine. Here, I highlight knowledge on functionally relevant bovine adaptive cellular and antibody immune responses to Theileria parva and antigens targeted by them that could help to assess this vaccine platform, and in the design of a broad-spectrum subunit vaccine. The view that N-glycosylated parasite antigens may exist is unlikely as the pathogen does not encode genomic capacity to catalyze this post-translational modification
Relaxed mutants of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase
No full textAbstractUnusual guanosine nucleotides synthesised during amino acid or energy source starvation are thought to be the effectors of the stringent response. In vitro experiments suggest that the magic spot compounds alter transcription specificity of RNA polymerase by binding to the enzyme. However, there is no good in vivo evidence for such an interaction. We define sites on the β-subunit of RNA polymerase which, when altered, yield E. coli mutants apparently insensitive to the presence of ppGpp
- …
