The occurrence and distribution of Tuckerella japonica (Acari: Tuckerellidae) on tea bushes, Camellia sinensis and C. assamica, in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, USA.

Adults, immatures and eggs of Tuckerella japonica (Ehara) were collected from unknown clones or varieties of Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze tea bushes in the Clemson University Farm, Coastal Research and Education Center, Charleston, South Carolina; from Assam hybrids in The Caw Caw Nature Preserve in Ravenel, SC; from C. sinensis and C. assamica (Masters) in the Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island, SC; C. sinensis in the Fairhope Tea Plantation in Fairhope, Alabama; and from C. sinensis 'Rosea' and a C. sinensis and C. assamica hybrid in Savannah and Ellabell, Georgia, between 1994 and 2015. This mite was consistently collected from 1-, 2- and 3+-year-old wood of tea plants with significantly greater numbers collected from 2-year-old wood. All stages of the mite were found within longitudinally split areas of the wood where underlying green bark tissues were exposed. As 1-year-old wood matured, there was increased splitting of the bark with increased mite presence. Mature green fruit (= developing seed pods) of tea were also frequented by T. japonica between June-July and October and their numbers were no greater than those on 1- or 3+-year wood. When the fruit were small (March-May) or as they hardened in late fall, they were not suitable feeding sites for this mite. Very few T. japonica were collected from 50 mature, inner or outer leaf samples with none usually found. Tuckerella japonica has multiple, overlapping generations and occurs on tea throughout the year in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, USA.

A novel Staphylococcus aureus vaccine: iron surface determinant B induces rapid antibody responses in rhesus macaques and specific increased survival in a murine S. aureus sepsis model.

Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of nosocomial infections worldwide, and the rate of resistance to clinically relevant antibiotics, such as methicillin, is increasing; furthermore, there has been an increase in the number of methicillin-resistant S. aureus community-acquired infections. Effective treatment and prevention strategies are urgently needed. We investigated the potential of the S. aureus surface protein iron surface determinant B (IsdB) as a prophylactic vaccine against S. aureus infection. IsdB is an iron-sequestering protein that is conserved in diverse S. aureus clinical isolates, both methicillin resistant and methicillin sensitive, and it is expressed on the surface of all isolates tested. The vaccine was highly immunogenic in mice when it was formulated with amorphous aluminum hydroxyphosphate sulfate adjuvant, and the resulting antibody responses were associated with reproducible and significant protection in animal models of infection. The specificity of the protective immune responses in mice was demonstrated by using an S. aureus strain deficient for IsdB and HarA, a protein with a high level of identity to IsdB. We also demonstrated that IsdB is highly immunogenic in rhesus macaques, inducing a more-than-fivefold increase in antibody titers after a single immunization. Based on the data presented here, IsdB has excellent prospects for use as a vaccine against S. aureus disease in humans.