Cross-border transmissions of delta substrain AY.29 during Olympic and Paralympic Games

Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, postponed for COVID-19 pandemic, were finally held in summer of 2021. Just before the games, alpha variant was being replaced with more contagious delta variant (B.1.617.2). AY.4 substrain AY.29, which harbors two additional characteristic mutations of 5239C>T (NSP3 Y840Y) and 5514T>C (NSP3 V932A), emerged in Japan and became the dominant strain in Tokyo by the time of the Olympic Games. As of October 18, 98 AY.29 samples are identified in 16 countries outside of Japan. Phylogenetic analysis and ancestral searches identified 46 distinct introductions of AY.29 strains into those 16 countries. United States has 44 samples with 10 distinct introductions, and United Kingdom has 13 distinct AY.29 strains introduced in 16 samples. Other countries or regions with multiple introductions of AY.29 are Canada, Germany, South Korea, and Hong Kong while Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Peru, Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia have only one distinct strain introduced. There exists no unambiguous evidence that Olympic and Paralympic Games induced cross-border transmission of the delta substrain AY.29. Since most of unvaccinated countries are also under sampled for genome analysis with longer lead time for data sharing, it will take longer to capture the whole picture of cross-border transmissions of AY.29.

Queering Dante

This chapter investigates the queer in Dante. By queer we understand a critical practice that resists both heteronormative assumptions about desire and fixed binary notions of gender. The essay explores where and how Dante’s texts engage difference around sexuality/gender, especially sodomy and same-sex desire. It also surveys professional academic reactions to queer moments in Dante’s poem, particularly the sodomy cantos (Inf. XV–XVI, Purg. XXVI), where we detect a distinct strain of homophobic defensiveness. Finally, the essay begins to recount the fascinating history of Dante reception by queer readers—armchair enthusiasts and activists, scholars, poets, writers, and filmmakers.

Complete genome and methylome analysis of Neisseria meningitidis associated with increased serogroup Y disease

Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) due to serogroup Y Neisseria meningitidis emerged in Europe during the 2000s. Draft genomes of serogroup Y isolates in Sweden revealed that although the population structure of these isolates was similar to other serogroup Y isolates internationally, a distinct strain (YI) and more specifically a sublineage (1) of this strain was responsible for the increase of serogroup Y IMD in Sweden. We performed single molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing on eight serogroup Y isolates from different sublineages to unravel the genetic and epigenetic factors delineating them, in order to understand the serogroup Y emergence. Extensive comparisons between the serogroup Y sublineages of all coding sequences, complex genomic regions, intergenic regions, and methylation motifs revealed small point mutations in genes mainly encoding hypothetical and metabolic proteins, and non-synonymous variants in genes involved in adhesion, iron acquisition, and endotoxin production. The methylation motif CACNNNNNTAC was only found in isolates of sublineage 2. Only seven genes were putatively differentially expressed, and another two genes encoding hypothetical proteins were only present in sublineage 2. These data suggest that the serogroup Y IMD increase in Sweden was most probably due to small changes in genes important for colonization and transmission.

Brown trout in Japan − introduction history, distribution and genetic structure

Brown trout Salmo trutta L. lives mainly in European rivers and is also bred in hatcheries for fishery purposes. Since the end of 19th century it has been introduced in all other continents. For the present survey most of the known self-sustaining brown trout river populations in Japan have been sampled and analyzed through sequences of the entire mitochondrial DNA control region and twelve microsatellites. In Japan, brown trout are genetically not homogeneous, probably as a consequence of several introductions, one in the Azusa river and at least one other in the remaining territory. The Chuzenji hatchery houses a genetically very distinct strain, probably due to intense manipulation in isolated scientific experimentations over 30 years. Finally, most populations showed high genetic diversity (Mamachi, Kane and Odori streams, Lake Chuzenji) with the exception of the Azusa river samples. This molecular analysis clearly demonstrates a European north Atlantic origin arrived in two distinct ways.

Effects of a high-cultivation temperature on the physiology of three different Yarrowia lipolytica strains

ABSTRACT Despite the increasing relevance, ranging from academic research to industrial applications, only a limited number of non-conventional, oleaginous Yarrowia lipolytica strains are characterized in detail. Therefore, we analyzed three strains in regard to their metabolic and physiological properties, especially with respect to important characteristics of a production strain. By investigating different cultivation conditions and media compositions, similarities and differences between the distinct strain backgrounds could be derived. Especially sugar alcohol production, as well as an agglomeration of cells were found to be connected with growth at high temperatures. In addition, sugar alcohol production was independent of high substrate concentrations under these conditions. To investigate the genotypic basis of particular traits, including growth characteristics and metabolite concentrations, genomic analysis were performed. We found sequence variations for one third of the annotated proteins but no obvious link to all phenotypic features.

The Politics of A Modest Proposal: Swift and the Irish Crisis of the Late 1720s

Swift’s Modest Proposal (1729) is widely regarded as the most brilliant satire in the English language, but its political context has never been properly explored. Some literary scholars have presented the tract as a parody of political economy; others have concentrated on the imputation of cannibalism, the distinguishing mark of the savage, which Swift redirects away from the natives towards the English settlers and their descendants. But nobody has convincingly related A Modest Proposal to the Irish parliamentary debates and pamphlet discussions of the late 1720s, when three successive harvest failures led to food riots in southern ports, large-scale emigration from the north, and thousands of deaths. Nor has anyone seriously investigated Swift’s hatred of the Irish landlord class, which provides A Modest Proposal with its most powerful, animating grievance. During the 1720s disputes over estate management, leasing practices and the relative merits of tillage and pastoral agriculture reflected the spiralling sense that the colonial mission of Ireland’s Protestant elite was on the point of collapse. Swift joined other patriotic commentators in deploring the conversion of arable land to pasture and the resultant expulsion of communities of villagers. Political economists marshalled statistics to demonstrate that human tenants could be as profitable as livestock. A dramatic deterioration in relations between Ireland’s clerical intelligentsia and the landed elite encouraged a distinct strain of social criticism among Anglican clergymen, who blamed landowners for depopulating the countryside ‐ something that Swift repeatedly associated with those barbarous man-eaters of ancient times, the Scythians. For a century and a half the cultivation of Irish soil had been a barometer of the civilising process; consequently the figure of the grazier had become for Swift the epitome of Irish perversity and self-destruction.