Blastomyces dermatitidis in a Renal Transplant Recipient: A Case Report.

Fungal infections have an important role in organ transplant recipients, and in some cases can be lethal. Blastomycosis is rare in kidney transplantation. We present a case of cutaneous blastomycosis in a kidney transplant recipient in Tunisia, a country outside the known endemic countries. This case, with the very uncommon and unexpected diagnosis of blastomycosis, demonstrates the diversity of infections in transplant recipients and reflects the importance of histologic and serologic tests in the immunocompromised patient.

Electrical conduction through nerve and DNA.

The aim of the present study was to analyse electric resistivity at different ambient temperatures between 300 to 20K in the frog sciatic nerve and salmon sperm DNA. When the electrical contacts were leaned just into the sciatic nerve, an increase of the sciatic nerve resistivity was observed for 240 K < T < 300 K and a rise of electrical conductivity was apparent below 240 K. This dependence is generally associated with a semiconductor behaviour. Once the sciatic nerve temperature was driven below 250K, the resistivity abruptly decreased and then at temperatures lower than 234 K, it remained constant and close to one tenth of its ambient temperature value. By contrast, when the electrical contacts were leaned into Salmon sperm DNA, the resistivity remained constant between 300K to 20K, showing a high electrical stability at low temperature. Thus, we report the existence of a new form of electric conductivity in the sciatic nerve at low ambient temperature, which in turn has many electric similarities with inorganic or organic superconductors, whereas temperature failed to alter DNA electrical properties until 20K.

QTL for relative water content in field-grown barley and their stability across Mediterranean environments.

A quantitative genetics approach was developed to identify the genomic regions that control relative water content (RWC) in field-grown barley. The trait was previously demonstrated to be a relevant screening tool of drought-tolerance in cereals, as well as a good indicator of plant water-status. The trait was measured at the heading stage on flag leaves recorded from 167 recombinant inbred lines grown in several Mediterranean sites (Montpellier, France; Meknès, Morocco; Le Kef, Tunisia). The results obtained confirmed that several genomic regions are implicated in the total phenotypic variation of RWC. A total of nine chromosomal regions were identified. One region situated on the long arm of chromosome 6H contains the most-consistent QTL obtained in the present study. This region was previously identified as controlling RWC, as well as leaf osmotic potential under water stress and osmotic adjustment, from an experiment conducted in growth-chamber conditions with the same genetic background. The confirmation of the role of this region in the genetic control of water and turgor status underlined its interest for breeding purposes in the Mediterranean area. In addition, the presence of several dehydrin loci in the same chromosomal area reinforce its interest for genomics analyses to confirm, or not to confirm, the implication of these genes in the variation of RWC.

[Polyarthritic manifestations revealing Stickler syndrome]. / Manifestations poly-articulaires révélatrices d'un syndrome de Stickler.

Stickler syndrome, also called hereditary arthro-ophthalmopathy is a dominant disorder, with poly-epiphyseal dysplasia resulting in early osteoarthritis. It usually includes bilateral myopia, that changes little during the follow up period, but can lead to retinal detachment. Children with Stickler syndrome can show facial dysmorphism that may improve with age, but severe anomalies may exist such as Pierre Robin sequence. Our case, a woman, 20-year-old, presents chronic polyarthritis which is an unusual feature of this disease. The diagnosis of Stickler's syndrome is based on polyepiphyseal dysplasia in skeletal radiography and bilateral myopia. Otherwise, this patient has no facial dysmorphism.

The development and application of molecular markers for abiotic stress tolerance in barley.

This article represents some current thinking and objectives in the use of molecular markers to abiotic stress tolerance. Barley has been chosen for study as it is an important crop species, as well as a model for genetic and physiological studies. It is an important crop and, because of its well-studied genetics and physiology, is an excellent candidate in which to devise more efficient breeding methods. Abiotic stress work on cultivated gene pools of small grain cereals frequently shows that adaptive and developmental genes are strongly associated with responses. Developmental genes have strong pleiotropic effects on a number of performance traits, not just abiotic stresses. One concern is that much of the genetic variation for improving abiotic stress tolerance has been lost during domestication, selection and modern breeding, leaving pleiotropic effects of the selected genes for development and adaptation. Such genes are critical in matching cultivars to their target agronomic environment, and since there is little leverage in changing these, other sources of variation may be required. In barley, and many other crops, greater variation to abiotic stresses exists in primitive landraces and related wild species gene pools. Wild barley, Hordeum spontaneum C. Koch is the progenitor of cultivated barley, Hordeum vulgare L. and is easily hybridized to H. vulgare. Genetic fingerprinting of H. spontaneum has revealed genetic marker associations with site-of-origin ecogeographic factors and also experimentally imposed stresses. Genotypes and collection sites have been identified which show the desired variation for particular stresses. Doubled haploid and other segregating populations, including landrace derivatives have been used to map genetically the loci involved. These data can be used in molecular breeding approaches to improve the drought tolerance of barley. One strategy involves screening for genetic markers and physiological traits for drought tolerance, and the associated problem of drought relief-induced mildew susceptibility in naturally droughted fields of North Africa.

New data for AG haplotype frequencies in Caucasoid populations and selective neutrality of the AG polymorphism.

We present the results of AG antigen typings of three Caucasoid population samples: Lebanese, Tunisians, and Finns. AG haplotype frequencies estimated by maximum-likelihood methods are compared with the frequencies observed in 13 world populations previously tested for AG specificities by computing a genetic distance matrix used in a multivariate analysis. A high degree of polymorphism characterizes the three samples, with 10 haplotypes detected in the Lebanese and 11 haplotypes detected in the Tunisians and Finns; high heterozygosity levels are also present in the three populations. The genetic distance analysis shows that the three populations possess a genetic structure intermediate between those observed in sub-Saharan Africans and in Caucasoids from the Near East and India. This tight correspondence between AG differentiation and geography is confirmed by a highly significant correlation coefficient found between genetic and geographic distances computed worldwide, suggesting that an isolation by distance model of evolution applies to the AG system. The Ewens-Watterson test for selective neutrality on all world populations tested for AG specificities also supports the hypothesis that the AG system behaves like a neutral polymorphism. Overall, the AG differentiation pattern appears to be close to the patterns observed for other serological polymorphisms, such as RH, GM, and HLA, whose evolutionary mechanisms are also discussed.

[Immunogenetic markers (BF, C2, C4, 21-OH, TNF alpha, TCR beta, Ig) and insulin-dependent diabetes in the Tunisian population: serological and molecular study]. / Marqueurs immuno-génétiques (BF, C2, C4, 21-OH, TNF alpha, TCR beta, Ig) et diabète insulino-dépendant dans une population tunisienne: études sérologique et moléculaire.

48 Tunisian people suffering from the IDDM auto-immune disease were compared to 35 control healthy persons for the polymorphisms of the complement BF, C2 and C4 proteins and genes, of the IgG (Gm allotypes) as well as of the TNF alpha and TCR C beta genes. Our study shows that the BFF1-C4A3-C4BQO and BFS-C4AQ0-C4B1 complotypes are associated to IDDM (RR of 2.97 and 3.07 respectively), as previously reported for other circummediterranean populations. The frequency of the Gm 21.28; 1.17; .. haplotype is increased, but not significantly, among the patients. The RFLP analysis reveals that the 2.65 kb SacI allelic restriction fragment of the C2 gene may be considered as a genetic marker of susceptibility to IDDM because its frequency raises to 0.206 among the patients vs 0.021 in the healthy individuals (p less than 0.001). The frequencies of the C4AQ0 and C4BQ0 alleles are more important among the IDDM patients than within the control sample, but the only C4BQ0 allele frequency is significantly increased. Both C4AQ0 and C4BQO result mainly from deletions. The frequencies of the allelic restriction fragments of the TNF alpha and TCRC beta genes are not significantly different among the patients and the controls. But the small sample size don't allow us to conclude definitively. It would be very interesting to extend the RFLP analysis to the TCR V beta and V alpha gene regions on more numerous samples.

Diet, living conditions and nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Tunisia--a case-control study.

We conducted a case-control study of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in Tunisia, on diet, dietary patterns and life style, the characteristics of which had been defined by an anthropological study. Eighty incident cases, diagnosed in Tunisia between November 1986 and November 1987, were each matched for sex, age and place of residence to 2 controls. The subjects were asked for dietary data referring to the year preceding the diagnosis of NPC and, with help of their families, during childhood and after weaning. After adjustment for an empirical living conditions score, the following food items were found to be associated with an increased risk for NPC: preserved spiced meat (quaddid), basic stewing preparation (mixture of red and black pepper, garlic, oil, caraway and coriander), and harissa (red pepper, olive oil, garlic, caraway, salt) taken with bread as a snack during childhood and youth. Moreover, subjects who had been directly weaned from mother's milk on to an adult diet were found to be at higher risk for NPC.

[Preliminary note on anti-insulin antibody formation in diabetics treated with porcine insulin]. / Note préliminaire sur la production d'anticorps anti-insuline chez les diabétiques traités par l'insuline porcine.

In the present study, we have tested the sera of sixty five diabetic patients treated with insulin, researching the action of some physiologic and therapeutic factors (sex, age, insulin dose and time of treatment), to production of anti-insulin antibodies. Our results have shown that an important percentage of diabetic patients treated by porcine insulin produce antibodies: 72% of studied patients, concerning chiefly all the women and patients under-fourty years old. However our results have not pointed out any relation between the administered insulin dose versus the anti-insulin antibodies production, in spite of the early production of these antibodies in a great part of the patients.