Severe Fertility Effects of sheepish Sperm Caused by Failure To Enter Female Sperm Storage Organs in Drosophila melanogaster.

In Drosophila, mature sperm are transferred from males to females during copulation, stored in the sperm storage organs of females, and then utilized for fertilization. Here, we report a gene named sheepish (shps) of Drosophila melanogaster that is essential for sperm storage in females. shps mutant males, although producing morphologically normal and motile sperm that are effectively transferred to females, produce very few offspring. Direct counts of sperm indicated that the primary defect was correlated to failure of shps sperm to migrate into the female sperm storage organs. Increased sperm motion parameters were seen in the control after transfer to females, whereas sperm from shps males have characteristics of the motion parameters different from the control. The few sperm that occasionally entered the female sperm storage organs showed no obvious defects in fertilization and early embryo development. The female postmating responses after copulation with shps males appeared normal, at least with respect to conformational changes of uterus, mating plug formation, and female remating rates. The shps gene encodes a protein with homology to amine oxidases, including as observed in mammals, with a transmembrane region at the C-terminal end. The shps mutation was characterized by a nonsense replacement in the third exon of CG13611, and shps was rescued by transformants of the wild-type copy of CG13611 Thus, shps may define a new class of gene responsible for sperm storage.

Candidemia from an upper urinary tract infection complicated by candida endophthalmitis.

A 51-year-old Japanese woman developed candidemia as an outpatient secondary to a Candida albicans upper urinary tract infection complicated by previously undiagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus with poor glycemic control and ureterolithiasis. The patient did not have any risk factors typically associated with candidemia, such as an indwelling vascular catheter, parenteral nutrition or broad-spectrum antibiotic use. During the clinical course, her condition was complicated by unilateral candida endophthalmitis, which progressed despite the administration of systemic antifungal agents and ultimately required vitreous surgery. The etiology of candidemia in this patient and the reason she developed progressive ocular symptoms after starting antifungal treatment are reviewed.

Co-infection with group A Streptococci and Epstein-Barr virus presenting with acute glomerulonephritis and acute left ventricular dysfunction.

Acute pharyngitis is commonly encountered, but a definite etiological diagnosis is difficult. Although co-infection with Group A Streptococci (GAS) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is uncommon, general physicians should consider the possibility of EBV co-infection in patients with GAS pharyngitis who fail to show prompt remission of symptoms following appropriate antibiotic treatment. In this article, we present a rare case of a 16-year-old girl who had co-infection with GAS and EBV. She developed acute glomerulonephritis and left ventricular dysfunction in an overlapping manner. We were able to follow her until she healed, and herein describe the pathogenesis of her systemic and pulmonary edema.

An elderly patient who developed spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma during warfarin therapy.

Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma (SSEH) is an uncommon but clinically important disease, and delayed diagnosis of this condition can have severe consequences. General physicians should consider the possibility of SSEH when they encounter a patient with a sudden onset of unexplained cervical or back pain or subsequent radicular symptoms during anticoagulant therapy. Immediate magnetic resonance imaging is essential for early diagnosis. In this article, we present a rare case of an 80-year-old man who developed cervical SSEH during warfarin therapy.

Transgenic Drosophila simulans strains prove the identity of the speciation gene Lethal hybrid rescue.

Speciation genes are responsible for genetic incompatibilities in hybrids of incipient species and therefore participate in reproductive isolation leading to complete speciation. Hybrid males between Drosophila melanogaster females and D. simulans males die at late larval or prepupal stages due to a failure in chromosome condensation during mitosis. However a mutant male of D. simulans, named Lethal hybrid rescue (Lhr), produces viable hybrid males when crossed to females of D. melanogaster. Recently the Lhr gene has been proposed as corresponding to the CG18468 gene in D. melanogaster. However this identification relied on sequence characteristics more than on a precise mapping and the use of the GAL4/UAS system to drive the transgene in D. melanogaster might have increased the complexity of interaction. Thus here we propose an independent identification of the Lhr gene based on a more precise mapping and transgenic experiments in D. simulans. We have mapped the Lhr gene by using Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and identified within the candidate region the gene homologous to CG18468 as the Lhr gene as it was previously reported. Transgenic experiments in D. simulans with the native promoter of CG18468 prove that it is the Lhr gene of D. simulans by inducing the lethality of the hybrid males.

Targeted expression of Ip3 sponge and Ip3 dsRNA impaires sugar taste sensation in Drosophila.

We evaluated the role of IP(3) in sugar taste reception in Drosophila melanogaster by inactivating the IP(3) signaling using genetic tools. We used the "IP(3) sponge," composed of the modified ligand-binding domain from the mouse IP(3) receptor, which was designed to absorb IP(3) in competition with native IP(3) receptors. Another tool was a transgene that generates double-stranded RNA against IP(3) receptor mRNA. Both inhibitors diminished the sensitivity of flies to trehalose and sucrose, as estimated by behavioral assays and electrophysiological recordings from the sugar receptor cells. The result indicates that IP(3) signaling is indispensable for sugar reception in Drosophila.

REC, a new member of the MCM-related protein family, is required for meiotic recombination in Drosophila.

rec mutations result in an extremely low level of recombination and a high frequency of primary non-disjunction in the female meiosis of Drosophila melanogaster. Here we demonstrate that the rec gene encodes a novel protein related to the mini-chromosome maintenance (MCM) proteins. Six MCM proteins (MCM2-7) are conserved in eukaryotic genomes, and they function as heterohexamers in the initiation and progression of mitotic DNA replication. Three rec alleles, rec(1), rec(2) and rec (3), were found to possess mutations within this gene, and P element-mediated germline transformation with a wild-type rec cDNA fully rescued the rec mutant phenotypes. The 885 amino acid REC protein has an MCM domain in the middle of its sequence and, like MCM2, 4, 6 and 7, REC contains a putative Zn-finger motif. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that REC is distantly related to the six conserved MCM proteins. Database searches reveal that there are candidates for orthologs of REC in other higher eukaryotes, including human. We addressed whether rec is involved in DNA repair in the mitotic division after the DNA damage caused by methylmethane sulfonate (MMS) or by X-rays. These analyses suggest that the rec gene has no, or only a minor, role in DNA repair and recombination in somatic cells.

Identification and characterization of an insect homologue of the vertebrate Golgi apparatus protein 1 (MG-160/cysteine-rich fibroblast growth factor receptor/E-selectin ligand-1/latent transforming growth factor-beta complex protein-1) with a Golgi-specific monoclonal antibody.

A monoclonal antibody 14F10 was raised against Golgi fractions from Sf21 cells and selected as Golgi specific. Immunohistochemical stainings with the antibody localized the antigen in Golgi cisterns of the cells. The antigen was purified and shown to be a 130-K membrane protein with N-glycans and intrachain disulfide bonds. Amino acid sequencing of its peptide fragments revealed that the antigen contained homologous sequences to those encoded by CG7190 and CG7193 Drosophila melanogaster genes. No possible transmembrane domain existed in these deduced amino acid sequences, while one did in that encoded by CG7195, an adjacent gene to CG7193. Furthermore, 5' and 3' expression sequence tags of LD19434 had been mapped to CG7190 and a downstream region of CG7195, respectively. These findings supported that all of these genes actually composed a single gene, which encoded an orthologous protein to a vertebrate Golgi-resident protein, Golgi apparatus protein 1, also called cysteine-rich FGF receptor, E-selectin ligand-1, or latent TGF-beta complex protein-1. Our results suggested that the Golgi apparatus protein 1 played a critical role in the Golgi cisterns through the animal kingdom.