Vibrio choleraehas caused seven cholera pandemics since 1817, imposing terror on much of the world, but bacterial strains are currently only available for the sixth and seventh pandemics. The El Tor biotype seventh pandemic began in 1961 in Indonesia, but did not originate directly from the classical biotype sixth-pandemic strain. Previous studies focused mainly on the spread of the seventh pandemic after 1970. Here, we analyze in unprecedented detail the origin, evolution, and transition to pandemicity of the seventh-pandemic strain. We used high-resolution comparative genomic analysis of strains collected from 1930 to 1964, covering the evolution from the first available El Tor biotype strain to the start of the seventh pandemic. We define six stages leading to the pandemic strain and reveal all key events. The seventh pandemic originated from a nonpathogenic strain in the Middle East, first observed in 1897. It subsequently underwent explosive diversification, including the spawning of the pandemic lineage. This rapid diversification suggests that, when first observed, the strain had only recently arrived in the Middle East, possibly from the Asian homeland of cholera. The lineage migrated to Makassar, Indonesia, where it gained the important virulence-associated elementsVibrioseventh pandemic island I (VSP-I), VSP-II, and El Tor type cholera toxin prophage by 1954, and it then became pandemic in 1961 after only 12 additional mutations. Our data indicate that specific niches in the Middle East and Makassar were important in generating the pandemic strain by providing gene sources and the driving forces for genetic events.

Cronobacter sakazakii is an opportunistic pathogen that can cause severe infections. Serotyping provides a basis for the categorization of bacterial strains and is an important tool for epidemiological and surveillance purposes. In this study, of the 135 Cronobacter strains tested initially, 119 were identified as C. sakazakii and used. A serotyping scheme for C. sakazakii that classifies strains based on their different O antigens was developed. Seven antisera that exhibited high agglutinin titers (>640) were produced. O2 and O6 antisera were specific for their homologous strains, O4 and O7 antisera gave heterologous titers with O1 and O6 antigens, respectively, and O1, O3, and O5 antisera cross-reacted with each other and require preabsorption with the other two antigens. All of these 119 C. sakazakii strains were clearly assigned to these seven serotypes. O1 and O2 are the dominant serotypes, comprising 69.7% of the isolates. We also characterized the O-antigen gene clusters using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The grouping of C. sakazakii strains based on their RFLP banding patterns correlated well with the grouping of strains based on our serotyping scheme. The serotype scheme presented here could prove to be a useful tool for serotyping C. sakazakii isolates.

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ABSTRACTThe Gram-negative bacteriumCronobacter sakazakiiis an emerging food-borne pathogen that causes severe invasive infections in neonates. Variation in the O-antigen lipopolysaccharide in the outer membrane provides the basis for Gram-negative bacteria serotyping. The O-antigen serotyping scheme forC. sakazakii, which includes seven serotypes (O1 to O7), has been recently established, and the O-antigen gene clusters and specific primers for threeC. sakazakiiserotypes (O1, O2, and O3) have been characterized. In this study, theC. sakazakiiO4, O5, O6, and O7 O-antigen gene clusters were sequenced, and gene functions were predicted on the basis of homology.C. sakazakiiO4 shared a similar O-antigen gene cluster withEscherichia coliO103. The general features and anomalies of all sevenC. sakazakiiO-antigen gene clusters were evaluated and the relationship between O-antigen structures and their gene clusters were investigated. Serotype-specific genes for O4 to O7 were identified, and a molecular serotyping method for allC. sakazakiiO serotypes, a multiplex PCR assay, was developed by screening against 136 strains ofC. sakazakiiand closely related species. The sensitivity of PCR-based serotyping method was determined to be 0.01 ng of genomic DNA and 103CFU of each strain/ml. This study completes the elucidation ofC. sakazakiiO-antigen genetics and provides a molecular method suitable for the identification ofC. sakazakiiO1 to O7 strains.

Neisseria meningitidis is a leading pathogen of epidemic bacterial meningitis and fulminant sepsis worldwide. Twelve different N. meningitidis serogroups have been identified to date based on antigenic differences in the capsular polysaccharide. However, more than 90% of human cases of N. meningitidis meningitis are the result of infection with just five serogroups, A, B, C, W135, and Y. Efficient methods of detection and genogrouping of N. meningitidis isolates are needed, therefore, in order to monitor prevalent serogroups as a means of disease control and prevention. The capsular gene complex regions have been sequenced from only seven out of the 12 serogroups. In this study, the capsular gene complexes of the remaining five serogroups were sequenced and analyzed. Primers were designed that were specific for N. meningitidis species and for the 12 individual serogroups, and a multiplex PCR assay using these specific primers was developed for N. meningitidis detection and genogrouping. The assay was tested using 15 reference strains covering all 12 serogroups, 143 clinical isolates, and 21 strains from closely related species or from species that cause meningitis. The assay could detect N. meningitidis serogroups and was shown to be specific, with a detection sensitivity of 1 ng of genomic DNA (equivalent to ϳ4 ؋ 10 5 genomes) or 3 ؋ 10 5 CFU/ml in noncultured mock cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens. This study, therefore, describes for the first time the development of a molecular protocol for the detection of all N. meningitidis serogroups. This multiplex PCR-based assay may have use for the clinical diagnosis and epidemiological surveillance of N. meningitidis.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a disease that spread widely in the world during late 2002 to 2004, severely threatened public health. Although there have been no reported infections since 2004, the extremely pathogenic SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), as the causative agent of SARS, has recently been identified in animals, showing the potential for the re-emergence of this disease. Previous studies showed that 27 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutations among the spike (S) gene of this virus are correlated closely with the SARS pathogenicity and epidemicity. We have developed a SNP DNA microarray in order to detect and genotype these SNPs, and to obtain related information on the pathogenicity and epidemicity of a given strain. The microarray was hybridized with PCR products amplified from cDNAs obtained from different SARS-CoV strains. We were able to detect 24 SNPs and determine the type of a given strain. The hybridization profile showed that 19 samples were detected and genotyped correctly by using our microarray, with 100% accuracy. Our microarray provides a novel method for the detection and epidemiological surveillance of SARS-CoV.

Whether inhibition is a unitary or multifaceted construct is still an open question. To clarify the electrophysiological distinction among the different types of inhibition, we used a modified flanker paradigm, in which interference inhibition, rule inhibition, and response inhibition were compared to non-inhibition condition. The results indicated that, compared to the non-inhibition condition (1) the interference inhibition condition induced larger negativities during N2 epoch at the frontal region, (2) the rule inhibition condition elicited a larger N1 at the posterior region, followed by a larger P3a at the frontal region, reflecting the function of proactive cognitive control in the new stimulus-reaction (S-R) association, and (3) the response inhibition condition evoked a larger P3b at the posterior region, reflecting the process of suppressing the old response and reprogramming the new action. These findings provide new evidence that distinct neural mechanisms underlie different types of inhibition.

A wealth of studies have investigated how to overcome experience-based 23 constraints in creative problem solving. One such experience-based constraint is the 24 tendency for people to view tightly organized visual stimuli as single, unified percepts, 25 even when decomposition of those stimuli into component parts (termed chunk 26 decomposition) would facilitate problem solving. The current study investigates the 27 neural underpinnings of chunk decomposition in creative problem solving by 28 analyzing event-related potentials. In two experiments, participants decomposed 29 Chinese characters into the character's component elements and then used the base 30 elements to form a new valid character. The action could require decomposing a 31 "tight" chunk, meaning that the component elements intersected spatially, or a "loose" 32 chunk, in which the component elements did not overlap in space. Behaviorally, 33 individuals made more errors and responded slower to trials involving tight chunks 34 relative to loose-chunks. Analysis of the ERPs revealed that relative to loose chunks, 35 the electrophysiological response to tight chunks contained an increased N2, an 36 increased N400, and a decreased late positive complex. Taken together, these results 37 suggest that chunk tightness is a principle determinant of the difficulty of chunk 38 decomposition, and that chunk tightness provokes neural conflict and semantic 39 violations, factors known to influence the N2 and N400 ERP components.40