Vegetation drives the structure of active microbial communities on an acidogenic mine tailings deposit.

Plant-microbe associations are increasingly recognized as an inextricable part of plant biology and biogeochemistry. Microbes play an essential role in the survival and development of plants, allowing them to thrive in diverse environments. The composition of the rhizosphere soil microbial communities is largely influenced by edaphic conditions and plant species. In order to decipher how environmental conditions on a mine site can influence the dynamics of microbial communities, we characterized the rhizosphere soil microbial communities associated with paper birch, speckled alder, and spruce that had naturally colonized an acidogenic mine tailings deposit containing heavy metals. The study site, which had been largely undisturbed for five decades, had highly variable vegetation density; with some areas remaining almost barren, and others having a few stands or large thickets of mature trees. Using Illumina sequencing and ordination analyses (redundancy analysis and principal coordinate analysis), our study showed that soil bacterial and fungal community structures correlated mainly with vegetation density, and plant species. Tailings without any vegetation were the most different in bacterial community structure, compared to all other areas on the mine site, as well as an adjacent natural forest (comparison plot). The bacterial genera Acidiferrobacter and Leptospirillum were more abundant in tailings without vegetation than in any of the other sites, while Bradyrhizobium sp. were more abundant in areas of the tailings deposit having higher vegetation density. Frankia sp. is equally represented in each of the vegetation densities and Pseudomonas sp. present a greater relative abundance in boreal forest. Furthermore, alder rhizosphere showed a greater relative abundance of Bradyrhizobium sp. (in comparison with birch and spruce) as well as Haliangium sp. (in comparison with birch). In contrast, fungal community structures were similar across the tailings deposit regardless of vegetation density, showing a greater relative abundance of Hypocrea sp. Tailings deposit fungal communities were distinct from those found in boreal forest soils. Alder rhizosphere had greater relative abundances of Hypocrea sp. and Thelephora sp., while birch rhizosphere were more often associated with Mollisia sp. Our results indicate that, with increasing vegetation density on the mine site, the bacterial communities associated with the individual deciduous or coniferous species studied were increasingly similar to the bacterial communities found in the adjacent forest. In order to properly assess and restore disturbed sites, it is important to characterize and understand the plant-microbe associations that occur since they likely improve plant fitness in these harsh environments.

Department of Veterans Affairs Polytrauma Rehabilitation Centers: Inpatient Rehabilitation Management of Combat-Related Polytrauma.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the signature injuries of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. To ensure that rehabilitation care needs of veterans and active duty servicemembers with TBI and polytrauma injuries were met, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) established the Polytrauma System of Care (PSC) in 2005. The 5 VA Polytrauma Rehabilitation Centers provide tertiary, acute inpatient rehabilitation for the PSC. Interdisciplinary treatment teams of multiple rehabilitation disciplines provide the complex, patient-centered care to achieve maximum benefit. After discharge, veterans and servicemembers with TBI and polytrauma receive lifelong support and care through the PSC.

Gut Bacterial Microbiota and its Resistome Rapidly Recover to Basal State Levels after Short-term Amoxicillin-Clavulanic Acid Treatment in Healthy Adults.

Clinical effects of antimicrobials and probiotics in combination have been reported, however, little is known about their impact on gut microbiota and its resistome. In this study 16S rRNA gene amplicon, shotgun metagenomics sequencing and antibiotic resistance (ABR) microarray were used on fecal samples of 70 healthy participants, taken at four time points in probiotic (Lactobacillus rhamnosus R0011 and Lactobacillus helveticus R0052) and placebo groups to profile the gut bacterial microbiota and its resistome following administration of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid for one week. Significant shifts in microbiota family composition caused by the antimicrobial in both groups that included decreases in the proportion of Lachnospiraceae, Coriobacteriaceae and unidentified Clostridiales; and notable increases for the proportion of Enterobacteriaceae, Bacteroidaceae and Porphyromonadaceae compared to baseline levels. Resistome showed a corresponding enrichment of ABR genes compared to baseline from such classes as aminoglycosides and beta-lactams that were linked, by in silico inference, to the enrichment of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Despite perturbations caused by short-term antibiotic treatment, both gut microbiota and resistome showed prompt recovery to baseline levels one week after cessation of the antimicrobial. This rapid recovery may be explained by the hypothesis of community resilience.

A mixed-methods systematic review of the effects of mindfulness on nurses.

AIM: To review the effects of mindfulness-based interventions on Registered Nurses and nursing students. BACKGROUND: Work-related stress among nurses is estimated to be the biggest occupational health problem after musculoskeletal disorders. DESIGN: A mixed-method systematic review incorporating quantitative and qualitative data was conducted. DATA SOURCES: Studies on the effects of mindfulness-based interventions for nurses and nursing students published between 1980 and 2014 were identified through a systematic search in electronic databases: Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library and Cinahl. REVIEW METHODS: Data analysis was conducted based on the framework of Thomas and Harden (2004). RESULTS: A total of 32 studies, including 17 controlled designs, 11 pre-post designs and four qualitative designs were reviewed. Meta-analysis suggests that mindfulness-based interventions may be effective in significantly reducing state anxiety and depression at posttreatment and state anxiety and trait anxiety at follow-up. Qualitative studies and uncontrolled studies shed light on benefits overlooked in RCTs, including improvements in the well-being of individuals (e.g. inner state of calmness, awareness and enthusiasm) and improved performance at work (better communication with colleagues and patients, higher sensitivity to patients' experiences, clearer analysis of complex situations and emotional regulation in stressful contexts). CONCLUSIONS: Mindfulness appeared to improve nurses' mental health significantly. It could be used in worksite health promotion programmes. Only a few studies have explored the impact of mindfulness on nurses' professional behaviours and their relationships with patients and colleagues. Future research should further explore the long-term impacts of mindfulness on performance and well-being at work using sound methodological designs.

[Emotional Memory and Electrocortical Activity in Schizophrenia]. / Mémoire émotionnelle et activités électrocorticales en schizophrénie.

Context Abnormal emotion processing is frequent in schizophrenia and affects social and functional outcome. Past event-related potential (ERP) research investigating processing of affective stimuli in schizophrenia was done mainly with facial expressions and revealed impaired facial emotion recognition in patients relative to control subjects. Experimentations involving fMRI with this group of patients, showed alteration of limbic and frontal regions in response to emotional unpleasant images, compared to neutral stimuli during a memory task. Other studies have also noted an increase in brain activity when the activation of the stimuli was high compared to low arousal stimuli. This may indicate a different sensitivity threshold to emotional arousal and emotional valence involving frontal pathways in these patients. But very few studies attempted to separate the contributions of emotional valence and arousal within an episodic memory protocol with ERP, in that population.Goal The aim of the current research is to investigate brain electro-cortical activity in schizophrenia in response to emotional images during an episodic memory task.Method ERP components were analyzed in 16 schizophrenic and 17 control participants matched for age, sex and intelligence. ERPs were obtained from 56 EEG electrodes. The tasks consisted in a classical episodic memory task that presented 100 repeated old and 100 new photographic images divided into four categories (unpleasant-high arousal, unpleasant-low arousal, pleasant-high arousal and pleasant-low arousal) selected from the International Affective Picture System. The N200, P300 and late positive component (LPC) mean amplitude, were analyzed using repeated-measure analyses of variance (MANOVA).Results Patients with schizophrenia and control subjects gave comparable subjective evaluations of arousal and valence. However, the frontal N200 and the P300 both showed an interaction of the group x memory x valence x hemisphere (F [1.32]=8.36; p <.01). Thus, this complex interaction denotes an increase of the episodic memory effect in the right hemisphere in response to unpleasant stimuli, with schizophrenic patients. With respect to the control group, there is also an increase of this memory effect in the right hemisphere, but in response to pleasant stimuli. The schizophrenic patients presented a smaller LPC memory effect, especially at the frontal region. More specifically, the frontal LPC was reduced, and the clinical group was less reactive to the emotional arousal content, compared to the control group.Discussion Altogether, our results revealed that while the subjective evaluation of emotional pictures is equivalent across groups, cerebral differences are present in schizophrenic patients during emotional recognition. N200 and P300 results in the frontal region suggest impaired selective attention and episodic memory to unpleasant stimuli in patients, while later processes related to conscious recollection (parietal LPC) are not affected with patients affected with schizophrenia.Conclusion This finding provides further support for the notion of a possible discrepancy between the subjective experience and the physiological expression of emotions in schizophrenia patients. Those results could open the door to new clinical research investigations in psychiatry, particularly in the comprehension of a relationship between frontal cortex vulnerability and episodic memory often present in psychosis.

A Diverse Soil Microbiome Degrades More Crude Oil than Specialized Bacterial Assemblages Obtained in Culture.

UNLABELLED: Soil microbiome modification may alter system function, which may enhance processes like bioremediation. In this study, we filled microcosms with gamma-irradiated soil that was reinoculated with the initial soil or cultivated bacterial subsets obtained on regular media (REG-M) or media containing crude oil (CO-M). We allowed 8 weeks for microbiome stabilization, added crude oil and monoammonium phosphate, incubated the microcosms for another 6 weeks, and then measured the biodegradation of crude oil components, bacterial taxonomy, and functional gene composition. We hypothesized that the biodegradation of targeted crude oil components would be enhanced by limiting the microbial taxa competing for resources and by specifically selecting bacteria involved in crude oil biodegradation (i.e., CO-M). Postincubation, large differences in taxonomy and functional gene composition between the three microbiome types remained, indicating that purposeful soil microbiome structuring is feasible. Although phylum-level bacterial taxonomy was constrained, operational taxonomic unit composition varied between microbiome types. Contrary to our hypothesis, the biodegradation of C10 to C50 hydrocarbons was highest when the original microbiome was reinoculated, despite a higher relative abundance of alkane hydroxylase genes in the CO-M microbiomes and of carbon-processing genes in the REG-M microbiomes. Despite increases in the relative abundances of genes potentially linked to hydrocarbon processing in cultivated subsets of the microbiome, reinoculation of the initial microbiome led to maximum biodegradation. IMPORTANCE: In this study, we show that it is possible to sustainably modify microbial assemblages in soil. This has implications for biotechnology, as modification of gut microbial assemblages has led to improved treatments for diseases like Clostridium difficile infection. Although the soil environment determined which major phylogenetic groups of bacteria would dominate the assemblage, we saw differences at lower levels of taxonomy and in functional gene composition (e.g., genes related to hydrocarbon degradation). Further studies are needed to determine the success of such an approach in nonsterile environments. Although the biodegradation of certain crude oil fractions was still the highest when we inoculated with the diverse initial microbiome, the possibility of discovering and establishing microbiomes that are more efficient in crude oil degradation is not precluded.

Microbial Community Composition, Functions, and Activities in the Gulf of Mexico 1 Year after the Deepwater Horizon Accident.

Several studies have assessed the effects of the released oil on microbes, either during or immediately after the Deepwater Horizon accident. However, little is known about the potential longer-term persistent effects on microbial communities and their functions. In this study, one water column station near the wellhead (3.78 km southwest of the wellhead), one water column reference station outside the affected area (37.77 km southeast of the wellhead), and deep-sea sediments near the wellhead (3.66 km southeast of the wellhead) were sampled 1 year after the capping of the well. In order to analyze microbial community composition, function, and activity, we used metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and mineralization assays. Mineralization of hexadecane was significantly higher at the wellhead station at a depth of ∼1,200 m than at the reference station. Community composition based on taxonomical or functional data showed that the samples taken at a depth of ∼1,200 m were significantly more dissimilar between the stations than at other depths (surface, 100 m, 750 m, and >1,500 m). Both Bacteria and Archaea showed reduced activity at depths of ∼1,200 m when the wellhead station was compared to the reference station, and their activity was significantly higher in surficial sediments than in 10-cm sediments. Surficial sediments also harbored significantly different active genera than did 5- and 10-cm sediments. For the remaining microbial parameters assessed, no significant differences could be observed between the wellhead and reference stations and between surface and 5- to 10-cm-deep sediments.

Transplanting Soil Microbiomes Leads to Lasting Effects on Willow Growth, but not on the Rhizosphere Microbiome.

Plants interact closely with microbes, which are partly responsible for plant growth, health, and adaptation to stressful environments. Engineering the plant-associated microbiome could improve plant survival and performance in stressful environments such as contaminated soils. Here, willow cuttings were planted into highly petroleum-contaminated soils that had been gamma-irradiated and subjected to one of four treatments: inoculation with rhizosphere soil from a willow that grew well (LA) or sub-optimally (SM) in highly contaminated soils or with bulk soil in which the planted willow had died (DE) or no inoculation (CO). Samples were taken from the starting inoculum, at the beginning of the experiment (T0) and after 100 days of growth (TF). Short hypervariable regions of archaeal/bacterial 16S rRNA genes and the fungal ITS region were amplified from soil DNA extracts and sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq. Willow growth was monitored throughout the experiment, and plant biomass was measured at TF. CO willows were significantly smaller throughout the experiment, while DE willows were the largest at TF. Microbiomes of different treatments were divergent at T0, but for most samples, had converged on highly similar communities by TF. Willow biomass was more strongly linked to overall microbial community structure at T0 than to microbial community structure at TF, and the relative abundance of many genera at T0 was significantly correlated to final willow root and shoot biomass. Although microbial communities had mostly converged at TF, lasting differences in willow growth were observed, probably linked to differences in T0 microbial communities.

Event-related brain potentials to emotional images and gonadal steroid hormone levels in patients with schizophrenia and paired controls.

Prominent disturbances in the experience, expression, and emotion recognition in patients with schizophrenia have been relatively well documented over the last few years. Furthermore, sex differences in behavior and brain activity, associated with the processing of various emotions, have been reported in the general population and in schizophrenia patients. Others proposed that sex differences should be rather attributed to testosterone, which may play a role in the etiology of schizophrenia. Also, it had been suggested that estradiol may play a protective role in schizophrenia. Surprisingly, few studies investigating this pathology have focused on both brain substrates and gonadal steroid hormone levels, in emotional processing. In the present study, we investigated electrocortical responses related to emotional valence and arousal as well as gonadal steroid hormone levels in patients with schizophrenia. Event-Related Potentials (ERP) were recorded during exposition to emotional pictures in 18 patients with schizophrenia and in 24 control participants paired on intelligence, manual dominance and socioeconomic status. Given their previous sensitivity to emotional and attention processes, the P200, N200 and the P300 were selected for analysis. More precisely, emotional valence generally affects early components (N200), which reflect early process of selective attention, whereas emotional arousal and valence both influences the P300 component, which is related to memory context updating, and stimulus categorization. Results showed that, in the control group, the amplitude of the N200 was significantly more lateralized over the right hemisphere, while there was no such lateralization in patients with schizophrenia. In patients with schizophrenia, significantly smaller anterior P300 amplitude was observed to the unpleasant, compared to the pleasant. That anterior P300 reduction was also correlated with negative symptoms. The N200 and P300 amplitudes were positively correlated with the estradiol level in all conditions, revealing that the N200 and the P300 were reduced, when estradiol level was higher. Conversely, only the P300 amplitude showed positive correlation with the testosterone level.

Clozapine and visuospatial processing in treatment-resistant schizophrenia.

INTRODUCTION: Clozapine, the most widely used option in treatment-resistant schizophrenia, has been shown to be superior to other antipsychotic medications in improving cognitive function in patients. However, the results have not been consistent and the mechanisms underlying this effect have not been elucidated. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate verbal and nonverbal cognition (using visuospatial processing tests) in patients treated with clozapine (initially treatment resistant) and those treated with other second-generation antipsychotics, relative healthy control subjects. Furthermore, we examined neural correlates of visuospatial processing in the three groups. METHODS: Twenty schizophrenia patients treated with clozapine (TR-C group), 23 patients stabilised with atypical antipsychotics other than clozapine (NTR group), and 21 healthy control participants completed a battery of verbal and visuospatial cognitive tests. In addition, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing one of the visuospatial tests (the mental rotation task). The fMRI data were analysed separately in each group using Statistical Parametric Mapping software (SPM5). RESULTS: Overall, schizophrenia patients exhibited deficit on verbal and nonverbal processing relative to the healthy controls, but we observed some interesting differences between the two groups of patients. Specifically, the NTR group performed better than the TR-C group on the Block Design and the Raven's Progressive Matrices. With respect to brain function during mental rotation, the NTR group showed significant activations in regions of the temporal and occipital cortex, whereas the TR-C patients did not. The relative deactivations associated with the task were also more robust in NTR compared to the other group of patients, despite a similar performance. CONCLUSION: Present results suggest better visuospatial processing in the NTR relative to the TR-C group. This difference could be attributed to the treatment resistance itself or a lack of beneficial effect of clozapine relative to other atypical antipsychotics in ameliorating nonverbal abilities. Future studies of the relationship between clozapine and cognition, as well as between treatment resistance and cognition, are warranted.

Progesterone and Cerebral Function during Emotion Processing in Men and Women with Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia has been associated with disturbed levels of sex-steroid hormones, including estrogen and testosterone. In the present study we have examined the implication of a less studied hormone progesterone. Forty-three patients with schizophrenia (21 women) and 43 control participants (21 women) underwent functional MRI while viewing emotionally positive, negative, and neutral images. Blood samples were taken prior to the scanning session to evaluate progesterone levels. Simple regression analyses between levels of progesterone and brain activations associated with emotion processing were performed using SPM5. A positive correlation was found between progesterone levels and brain activations during processing of emotionally charged images in both healthy and schizophrenia men, but no significant relationship was revealed in women. These preliminary results indicate that progesterone is significantly associated with brain activations during processing of positive and negative affect in healthy and schizophrenia men, but not in women. Further investigation is warranted.

Emotion processing in women with schizophrenia is menstrual cycle phase and affective valence dependent: an FMRI study.

Despite a large number of functional neuroimaging investigations of emotion processing in schizophrenia, very few have included women. In the present study 21 schizophrenia and 23 healthy women underwent functional MRI (3T) on two occasions (during the follicular and luteal phase of their menstrual cycle) while viewing blocks of emotionally negative, positive and neutral images. During exposure to negatively charged images patients showed relatively less activations than controls during the luteal phase, but no between-group differences were observed during the follicular phase. In contrast, the exposure to positively valenced material produced no significant interaction, but the main effect of group; schizophrenia patients exhibited less activation than healthy controls during both phases of the menstrual cycle. This is the first study demonstrating that atypical neural activations associated with emotion processing in women diagnosed with schizophrenia depend on the menstrual cycle phase and on the affective valence of presented stimuli.

Distribution of antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes in Enterococcus spp. and characterization of isolates from broiler chickens.

Enterococci are now frequent causative agents of nosocomial infections. In this study, we analyzed the frequency and distribution of antibiotic resistance and virulence genotypes of Enterococcus isolates from broiler chickens. Fecal and cecal samples from nine commercial poultry farms were collected to quantify total enterococci. Sixty-nine presumptive enterococci were isolated and identified by API 20 Strep, and their susceptibilities to antibiotics were determined. Genotypes were assessed through the use of a novel DNA microarray carrying 70 taxonomic, 17 virulence, and 174 antibiotic resistance gene probes. Total enterococcal counts were different from farm to farm and between sample sources (P < 0.01). Fifty-one (74%) of the isolates were identified as E. faecium, whereas nine (13%), seven (10%), and two (3%) isolates were identified as E. hirae, E. faecalis, and E. gallinarum, respectively. Multiple-antibiotic resistance was evident in E. faecium and E. faecalis isolates. The most common multiple-antibiotic resistance phenotype was Bac Ery Tyl Lin Str Gen Tet Cip. Genes conferring resistance to aminoglycoside (aac, aacA-aphD, aadB, aphA, sat4), macrolide (ermA, ermB, ermAM, msrC), tetracycline (tetL, tetM, tetO), streptogramin (satG_vatE8), bacitracin (bcrR), and lincosamide (linB) antibiotics were detected in corresponding phenotypes. A range of 9 to 12 different virulence genes was found in E. faecalis, including ace, agg, agrB(Efs) (agrB gene of E. faecalis), cad1, the cAM373 and cCF10 genes, cob, cpd1, cylAB, efaA(Efs), and gelE. All seven E. faecalis isolates were found to carry the gelE gene and to hydrolize gelatin and bile salts. Results from this study showed the presence of enterococci of public and environmental health concerns in broiler chicken farms and demonstrated the utility of a microarray to quickly and reliably analyze resistance and virulence genotypes of Enterococcus spp.

Activation of nanoparticles by biosorption for E. coli detection in milk and apple juice.

Two types of silver nanoparticles were activated by specific sorption of biomolecules for the detection of Escherichia coli. The capture of this bacterium was performed using polyclonal antibodies (anti-E. coli) biosorbed onto nanospheres or nanorice through a protein-A layer. The bacterial detection was achieved using surface enhancement Raman scattering in order to compare the performance of these two nanoparticles. The activated silver nanospheres showed a better performance mainly due to the dimension of these nanoparticles. The detection limit has been established using the automated Raman mapping system. The technique was capable of detecting 10(3) cells/mL in milk and apple juice without any pre-enrichment. With an overall assay time less than 1 h, the process could be easily adapted to detect other pathogens by selecting the pertinent antibody. Furthermore, PCR was used for the DNA verification to assess whether the selected bacterial strain was identical before and after detection.

Attention sharing during timing: modulation by processing demands of an expected stimulus.

Varying the location of a nontemporal task during a time estimation task affects temporal estimates. Previous studies have also shown that manipulating the location of a stimulus to ignore may disturb timing similarly, suggesting that the effect might be independent of the processing requirements in the nontemporal task. In Experiment 1, the location of a tone varied during a 2-sec interval production; participants were asked either to ignore the tone or to discriminate its frequency. Productions were longer when the tone was presented later, but only when it was processed. In Experiment 2, short and long tones corresponding to more or less difficult discrimination tasks were used. The location effect was stronger and remained stronger throughout the experiment when participants were tested with the short tone in the first experimental session than when they were tested with the long tone first. These results suggest that timing is influenced by relatively stable attention-sharing strategies.

Phosphorylation of the termini of Cauliflower mosaic virus precapsid protein is important for productive infection.

Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) coat protein precursor (pre-CP) has 489 amino acids (p57) and is processed by the viral proteinase into three major forms: p44, p39, and p37. The N- and C-terminal extensions of pre-CP are released during maturation by the virus-encoded proteinase. We showed that these extensions are phosphorylated at several sites by host casein kinase II (CKII). We have identified the phosphorylated amino acids using an in vitro phosphorylation assay and tested the effect of mutation of these sites on viral infectivity. Mutation of serines S66, S68, and S72 to alanine in the N-terminal extension abolished phosphorylation of the protein in vitro. Also, mutation of all S and T residues in the C-terminus (450 to 489) made this region insensitive to CKII. Amino acid substitutions also were introduced into a full-length infectious clone of CaMV. Mutated forms of the virus with S66, S68, and S72 substituted with A or D showed a delay in symptom development and affected the infectivity of the virus. However, a mutant with an A substitution of all the S and T residues of the C-terminal extension of CP was not infectious. These results suggest that phosphorylation of the N- and C-termini of CaMV pre-CP plays an important role in the initiation of viral infection.

Temporal order in memory and interval timing: an interference analysis.

The effect of varying load in memory tasks performed during a time interval production was examined. In a first experiment, increasing load in memory search for temporal order affected concurrent time production more strongly than varying load in a spatial memory task of equivalent difficulty. This result suggests that timing uses some specific resources also required in processing temporal order in memory, resources that would not be used in the spatial memory task. A second experiment showed that the interference between time production and memory search involving temporal order was stronger when, during the timing task, a decision was made on the temporal position of a memory item, than when information on temporal order was retained throughout the interval to be produced. These results underscore the importance of considering the specific resources and processes involved when the interference between timing and concurrent non-temporal tasks is analyzed.

Timing during interruptions in timing.

Duration and location of breaks in time interval production were manipulated in various conditions of stimulus presentation (Experiments 1-4). Produced intervals shortened and then stabilized as break duration lengthened, suggesting that participants used the break as a preparatory period to restart timing as quickly as possible at the end of the break. This interpretation was supported in Experiment 5, in which similar results were obtained with a reaction time response executed at the end of the break. In all experiments, produced intervals lengthened as the break occurred later during the interval. The authors conclude that varying break location and duration reveal, respectively, the influence of attentional time-sharing before the interruption and of preparatory processes taking place during the break.

Localization of the N-terminal domain of cauliflower mosaic virus coat protein precursor.

Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) open reading frame (ORF) IV encodes a coat protein precursor (pre-CP) harboring an N-terminal extension that is cleaved off by the CaMV-encoded protease. In transfected cells, pre-CP is present in the cytoplasm, while the processed form (p44) of CP is targeted to the nucleus, suggesting that the N-terminal extension might be involved in keeping the pre-CP in the cytoplasm for viral assembly. This study reports for the first time the intracellular localization of the N-terminal extension during CaMV infection in Brassica rapa. Immunogold-labeling electron microscopy using polyclonal antibodies directed to the N-terminal extension of the pre-CP revealed that this region is closely associated with viral particles present in small aggregates, which we called small bodies, adjacent to the main inclusion bodies typical of CaMV infection. Based on these results, we propose a model for viral assembly of CaMV.