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Query: UMLS:C0016632 (Fox)
 1,461 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) are vectors of important diseases affecting wild and domestic animals. During the last decade they have played a major role in the epidemiology of the largest bluetongue epizootic ever recorded in Europe, the disease is transmitted between hosts almost exclusively by bites of Culicoides midges and affects both domestic and wild ruminants however severe disease usually occurs in certain breeds of sheep and some species of deer. An accurate vector identification is of major importance in arthropod borne diseases surveillance, as great differences in vectorial capacity are found even between close species. Unfortunately, specialized taxonomic knowledge of Culicoides identification is rarely available in routine surveillance, mainly based on wing morphology. Recently, some European species of Culicoides belonging to the subgenus Avaritia Fox, 1955 and Culicoides Latreille, 1809 have been described as new bluetongue virus vectors. In the present study, by using a fragment of the barcode region (COI gene) we report the presence of up to 11 species within the subgenus Culicoides in Catalonia (NE Spain), a region recently affected by a bluetongue epizootic. The molecular analysis revealed new non-described cryptic species which were grouped in three complexes of morphologically similar species, two in the Pulicaris complex resembling Culicoides pulicaris, two in the Fagineus complex resembling Culicoides fagineus and three in the Newsteadi complex resembling Culicoides newsteadi. The phylogenetic relationships among them showed that cryptic species detected in both Pulicaris and Fagineus complexes were closely related, whereas those in the Newsteadi complex were more distant. Accurate analysis of all species using morphological and molecular approaches resulted in the detection of diagnostic metric traits for cryptic species and the design of several new species-specific single and multiplex PCR assays to identify unambiguously all the species, most of them still lacking a specific molecular diagnosis.
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PMID:Identification of cryptic species of Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in the subgenus Culicoides and development of species-specific PCR assays based on barcode regions. 1968 96

Anti-NeuN (Neuronal Nuclei) is a monoclonal antibody used extensively to specifically detect post-mitotic neurons. Anti-NeuN reactivity is predominantly nuclear; by western it detects multiple bands ranging in molecular weight from 45 kDa to >75 kDa. Expression screening putatively identified R3hdm2 as NeuN; however immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry of the two major NeuN species at 45-50 kDa identified both as the RNA binding protein Rbfox3 (a member of the Fox family of alternative splicing factors), confirming and extending the identification of the 45 kDa band as Rbfox3 by Kim et al. Mapping of the anti-NeuN reactive epitopes in both R3hdm2 and Rbfox3 reveals a common proline- and glutamine-rich domain that lies at the N-terminus of the Rbfox3 protein. Our data suggests that alternative splicing of the Rbfox3 pre-mRNA itself leads to the production of four protein isoforms that migrate in the 45-50 kDa range, and that one of these splicing choices regulates Rbfox3/NeuN sub-cellular steady-state distribution, through the addition or removal of a short C-terminal extension containing the second half of a bipartite hydrophobic proline-tyrosine nuclear localization signal. Rbfox3 regulates alternative splicing of the Rbfox2 pre-mRNA, producing a message encoding a dominant negative form of the Rbfox2 protein. We show here that nuclear Rbfox3 isoforms can also enhance the inclusion of cryptic exons in the Rbfox2 mRNA, resulting in nonsense-mediated decay of the message, thereby contributing to the negative regulation of Rbfox2 by Rbfox3 through a novel mechanism.
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PMID:NeuN/Rbfox3 nuclear and cytoplasmic isoforms differentially regulate alternative splicing and nonsense-mediated decay of Rbfox2. 2174 13

In this study, species boundaries were examined for 15 described and 2 undescribed species within the economically important Culicoides subg. Avaritia Fox from Australasia and Eastern Asia. We used an integrative taxonomic approach incorporating DNA barcoding, nuclear gene sequencing, and retrospective morphological analyses. Some arbovirus vector species such as Culicoides fulvus Sen and Das Gupta and Culicoides wadai Kitaoka were genetically and morphologically uniform across sampled distributions, but others including Culicoides actoni Smith and Culicoides brevipalpis Delfinado contained 2 or more genetically independent populations of 'cryptic species' that in some cases were sympatric. Some of these 'cryptic species' exhibited consistent morphological differences, while differences are yet to be found for others species. Additionally, an undescribed species, C. Avaritia sp. No. 3, was found to be synonymous with C. fulvus. These results refine our understanding of the distribution of individual species of C. subg. Avaritia and demonstrate that species descriptions and distribution records need revision for part of the Culicoides fauna. Furthermore, because vector competence studies for most of these species are based entirely on Australian populations, the competence of the putative cryptic species identified elsewhere will require independent assessment. Finally, integrative taxonomic assessment requires genetic and morphological assessment of material from the type localities in order to clarify the status and distribution of species, especially for clades containing cryptic species. International collaboration is needed to facilitate this research.
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PMID:Integrative taxonomy to investigate species boundaries within Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae): a case study using subgenus Avaritia from Australasia and Eastern Asia. 2674 Dec 49