Fuchs (Austria)

Este trabajo registra por primera vez la presencia de los murciélagos Eptesicus furinalis, Glossophaga morenoi, Myotis auriculus y Platyrrhinus helleri para el estado de Hidalgo, México. Los ejemplares mencionados se obtuvieron durante los muestreos realizados entre agosto de 2008 y mayo de 2010. Los registros aumentan la distribución conocida de las cuatro especies. De cada ejemplar se proporcionan las medidas externas y craneales, la condición reproductiva, así como el tipo de vegetación donde fueron encontrados.

Guest editors “Recent Advances in Breast Imaging”(Helbich, Fuchsjäger) Editor-in-chief, Investigative Radiology(Runge)

To review the direct DNA testing for Huntington's disease (HD) in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria from 1993 to 1997, and to analyze the population with regard to age structure, gender, and family history. Twelve laboratories (nine in Germany, two in Austria, and one in Switzerland) recorded data pertaining to repeat number, gender, age at molecular diagnosis, and family history of probands. The molecular test was categorized as either diagnostic (for symptomatic individuals), presymptomatic (for individuals at risk), and prenatal (for pregnancies at risk). A total of 3,090 HD patients, 992 individuals at risk, and 24 fetuses were investigated using DNA analysis. The clinical diagnosis was confirmed in 65.6% of patients. A total of 38.5% of individuals at risk inherited an expanded CAG repeat. The female-to-male ratio showed a distinct predominance of women both in the diagnostic and presymptomatic groups. Of the fetuses tested, six were carriers of an expanded CAG repeat. Two pregnancies were interrupted; one pregnancy was not. No information about the parents' decision was obtained for the remaining three pregnancies. Approximately 20% of the estimated 10,000 HD patients living in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria have been identified by DNA analysis (total population, approximately 100 million; incidence of HD, 1:10,000). Assuming a ratio of HD patients to individuals at risk of 1:3, approximately 30,000 individuals are, in principle, eligible for a presymptomatic test. Less than 3 to 4% of individuals at risk have requested a presymptomatic test. This shows that the assumed enormous request of predictive testing has not occurred. More surprisingly, prenatal diagnoses were found to be rare.

We compared the protein and glycoprotein patterns of 39 Bacillus stearothermophilus strains of various origins by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The ultrastructures of the cell walls of intact cells were examined by freeze-etching, negative-staining, and thin-sectioning techniques. A total of 30 strains possessed a paracrystalline protein or glycoprotein surface layer (S-layer) which resembled the highest-molecular-weight band(s) on the electrophoretograms. We found a remarkable heterogeneity in the molecular weights of the S-layer subunits and the geometry and constants of the S-layer lattices, even among closely related strains. All of the strains examined were equally susceptible to lysozyme, indicating that the S-layers have pores at least 3.5 nm wide.

Using 13 strains isolated from extraction juices of sugar beet factories and comparative strains of the species C. thermosaccharolyticum and C. tartarivorum, a new description of the species C. thermohydrosulfuricum is provided.