In a survey of 504 health learn more professionals, they found that 51.9% of providers agreed or strongly agreed that “antidiarrheals keep toxins or pathogens inside of you where

they do more damage to the gut” while 53.8% agreed or strongly agreed that “antidiarrheals prolong illness by delaying excretion of the pathogen.”16 Concern has been raised that the use of loperamide and antibiotics in dysentery infections can precipitate shock and enterocolitis;20,21 however, the data supporting this concern have been in pediatric patients and have not been observed as a risk in infected adults. The use of antimotility agents combined with antibiotics in severe diarrhea and dysentery remains controversial with most guidelines advocating against use of antimotility agents, although at least one small study found no adverse treatment effects in a population being treated for bacillary dysentery.24 Additional well-controlled studies treating

all-type ambulatory diarrhea (including dysentery and inflammatory types) should be conducted to evaluate safety and efficacy of combined regimens. While practice patterns among all providers were not found to be consistent with current management guidelines, this website we identified three practitioner characteristics which appear to be related to relatively better scoring on the treatment scenarios posed in this study; having and MD/DO, greater knowledge about TD epidemiology/etiology, and favorable attitudes toward the safety and effectiveness of antimotility agents and antibiotics. This is the first study which has evaluated the effect of practitioner type on treatment of TD. While lower than the overall provider average, physician assistants scored relatively higher on the scenario responses compared to nurses and medics/independent duty corpsman. Given that these allied health professionals are important frontline providers, improvements in education and training of these provider types should

be a priority. Although providers who reported recent TD training did not score significantly higher than those who had not received any training, it is encouraging that we were able to identify improved scores among providers who had a better understanding of TD etiology and more favorable attitudes toward the safety Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase and usefulness of antimotility agents and antibiotics. This finding suggests that improved education of providers of all levels on what is causing TD and what field efficacy studies have demonstrated should increase provider performance and ultimately result in more effective management and reduction of duty time lost. An expert review of TD literature performed by DuPont and colleagues recommended pretravel education as an important means of combating TD.22 Increasing provider’s knowledge of management and treatment of TD should also translate to improved pretravel guidance directed toward patients traveling to high risk areas.

These results indicate that the MEAa normally enhances processing of sexual odors within the MEApd and that this interaction is primarily unidirectional. Furthermore, lesions of the MEAa, but not the MEApd, decreased Fos expression within several connected forebrain nuclei, suggesting that the MEAa provides the primary excitatory output of the MEA during sexual odor processing. In Experiment 2,

we observed a similar pattern of decreased Fos expression, using fiber-sparing, NMDA lesions of the MEAa, suggesting that the decreases in Fos expression were not attributable exclusively to damage to passing fibers. Taken together, these results provide the first direct test of how the different sub-regions within the MEA interact during odor Verteporfin solubility dmso processing, and highlight the role of the MEAa in transmitting sexual odor information to the posterior MEA, as well as to related forebrain

nuclei. “
“Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience, University of Bordeaux, CNRS UMR 5297, Bordeaux, France Synaptic vesicles Fluorouracil order (SVs) from excitatory synapses carry vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUTs) that fill the vesicles with neurotransmitter. Although the essential function of VGLUTs as glutamate transporters has been well established, the evidence for additional cell-biological functions is more controversial. Both VGLUT1 and VGLUT2 disruptions in mice result in a reduced number of SVs away from release sites, flattening of SVs, and the appearance of tubular structures. Therefore, we analysed the morphology, biochemical composition and trafficking of SVs at synapses of VGLUT1−/− mice in order to test for a function of VGLUTs in the formation or clustering of SVs. Analyses with high-pressure freezing

immobilisation and electron tomography pointed to a role of VGLUT1 transport function in the tonicity of excitatory SVs, explaining the aldehyde-induced flattening of SVs observed in VGLUT1−/− synapses. We confirmed the steep reduction in the number of SVs previously observed in VGLUT1−/− presynaptic terminals, find more but did not observe accumulation of endocytotic intermediates. Furthermore, SV proteins of adult VGLUT1−/− mouse brain tissue were expressed at normal levels in all subcellular fractions, suggesting that they were not displaced to another organelle. We thus assessed the mobility of the recently documented superpool of SVs. Synaptobrevin2–enhanced green fluorescent protein time lapse experiments revealed an oversized superpool of SVs in VGLUT1−/− neurons. Our results support the idea that, beyond glutamate loading, VGLUT1 enhances the tonicity of excitatory SVs and stabilises SVs at presynaptic terminals.

Further analysis of clinical data and studies involving additional sets of patients for verification of this hypothesis will provide a clearer picture helping to link genetic features with evidence-led clinical management of P. aeruginosa keratitis. The Microbiology Ophthalmic Group (MOG) includes Stephen Tuft, Stephen Kaye, Timothy Neal, Derek Tole, John Leeming, Peter McDonnell, Francisco Figueiredo, Fiona Carley, Malcolm Armstrong, Colin WIlloughby, Johnny Moore, Grace Ong. This work was supported by the UKNIHR

and a Dr Hans and Mrs Gertrude Hirsch Awards Scheme Fight for Sight Small Projects Grant. S.T. is supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Ophthalmology, Moorfields find more Eye Hospital. J.S. and H.S. contributed equally to this work. “
“Nhe (‘nonhaemolytic enterotoxin’) is a three-component cytotoxin implicated in the pathogenesis of diarrhoea selleck compound by Bacillus

cereus. Nhe forms pores in pure lipid bilayers, but the function of the individual components (NheA,NheB and NheC) remains unclear. NheB and NheC are structural homologues of ClyA, a pore-forming cytotoxin of Escherichia coli. The non-ionic detergent dodecyl maltoside (DDM) has been shown to inhibit haemolysis of ClyA. We used DDM as a probe to examine the response of the Nhe proteins to DDM micelles. At its critical micellar concentration (0.2 mM), DDM inhibited propidium uptake by the native Nhe complex in Vero and HT29 cell suspensions. Pre-incubation of NheC with DDM did not inhibit cytotoxicity. NheB exhibited marked changes in 1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulphonic acid (ANS) fluorescence after pre-exposure to DDM. Pre-incubation of NheB with DDM resulted in large molecular weight complexes as detected by size exclusion chromatography and diffusion through sized dialysis membranes and prevented binding of NheB to Vero cell monolayers. These data support a model in which conformational changes and oligomerization of NheB are prerequisite events in the Sclareol process of pore formation. The mechanisms by which Bacillus cereus causes diarrhoea in man remain unknown. Two of the putative enterotoxins, haemolysin BL (HBl) and Nhe (see Stenfors Arnesen et al., 2008), are three-component

cytotoxins. Nhe is cytolytic against both erythrocytes and epithelia because of osmotic lysis induced by pores formed in the host cell plasma membrane (Fagerlund et al., 2008). In epithelial cells, all three Nhe components are necessary for maximal cytotoxic activity (Lund & Granum, 1997). However, in certain cell types, namely rat pituitary GH4 cells, only NheA and NheB are necessary for pore formation and cytotoxicity (Haug et al., 2010). NheB and NheC have significant amino acid sequence homology to the HBl proteins. Using the crystal structure of HBl-B as the template, homology modelling predicts that two of the Nhe components, NheB and NheC, possess marked structural resemblance to ClyA of Escherichia coli (Fagerlund et al., 2008).

“
“Previous studies in HIV-infected populations have yielded conflicting results on the effect of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on cognition. Our objective was to investigate the effect of several years of ART with stable

GSK126 price central nervous system penetration effectiveness (CPE) score on neuropsychological performance in HIV-infected individuals. We analysed a clinical cohort of HIV-infected patients who initiated ART between June 2003 and December 2006 and maintained stable CPE scores. Patients were evaluated with a short neuropsychological battery. Using linear regression, we examined the relationship between results of cognitive tests and CPE scores in all patients. Patients were divided into three similarly sized groups (CPE ≤ 1, CPE between 1.5 and 2.5, and CPE ≥ 2.5). We found that ART with high CPE scores was associated with poorer executive performances in HIV-1-infected patients. These results suggest that cognitive performance in treated HIV-infected patients could be influenced by ART. “
“To investigate the presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA and hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in HIV-infected patients initiating antiretroviral therapy in Cameroon. Baseline

blood samples from 169 patients were tested retrospectively for hepatitis B surface antigens (HBsAg), anti-hepatitis B core (anti-HBc), anti-HCV and – if HBsAg or anti-HCV result was positive or indeterminate – for HBV DNA or HCV RNA, ALK inhibitor respectively, using the Cobas Ampliprep/Cobas TaqMan quantitative assay (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany). HBV DNA was detected in 14 of the 18 patients with positive or indeterminate HBsAg results [8.3% of the total study population, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.6–13.5]. The median

HBV viral load was 2.47 × 107 IU/mL [interquartile range (IQR) 3680–1.59 × 108; range 270 to >2.2 × 108]. Twenty-one patients (12.4%, 95% CI 7.9–18.4) were found with HCV RNA (all with positive HCV serology). The median HCV viral load was 928 000 IU/mL (IQR 178 400–2.06 × 106; range 640–5.5 × 106). No patient was co-infected with HBV and HCV. In multivariate analysis, HCV co-infection was associated with greater age [≥45 years vs. <45 years, odds ratio (OR) 11.89, 95% CI 3.49–40.55, P<0.001] and Endonuclease abnormal serum alanine aminotransferase level [≥1.25 × upper limit of normal (ULN) vs. <1.25 × ULN, OR 7.81, 95% CI 1.54–39.66, P=0.01]; HBV co-infection was associated with abnormal serum aspartate aminotransferase level (OR 4.33, 95% CI 1.32–14.17, P=0.02). These high rates of active HBV and HCV co-infections in HIV-positive Cameroonian patients requiring antiretroviral therapy underline the need to promote: (i) screening for HBV and HCV before treatment initiation; (ii) accessibility to tenofovir (especially in HBV-endemic African countries); and (iii) accessibility to treatment for HBV and HCV infections.

“
“Previous studies in HIV-infected populations have yielded conflicting results on the effect of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on cognition. Our objective was to investigate the effect of several years of ART with stable

selleck kinase inhibitor central nervous system penetration effectiveness (CPE) score on neuropsychological performance in HIV-infected individuals. We analysed a clinical cohort of HIV-infected patients who initiated ART between June 2003 and December 2006 and maintained stable CPE scores. Patients were evaluated with a short neuropsychological battery. Using linear regression, we examined the relationship between results of cognitive tests and CPE scores in all patients. Patients were divided into three similarly sized groups (CPE ≤ 1, CPE between 1.5 and 2.5, and CPE ≥ 2.5). We found that ART with high CPE scores was associated with poorer executive performances in HIV-1-infected patients. These results suggest that cognitive performance in treated HIV-infected patients could be influenced by ART. “
“To investigate the presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA and hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in HIV-infected patients initiating antiretroviral therapy in Cameroon. Baseline

blood samples from 169 patients were tested retrospectively for hepatitis B surface antigens (HBsAg), anti-hepatitis B core (anti-HBc), anti-HCV and – if HBsAg or anti-HCV result was positive or indeterminate – for HBV DNA or HCV RNA, Etoposide nmr respectively, using the Cobas Ampliprep/Cobas TaqMan quantitative assay (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany). HBV DNA was detected in 14 of the 18 patients with positive or indeterminate HBsAg results [8.3% of the total study population, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.6–13.5]. The median

HBV viral load was 2.47 × 107 IU/mL [interquartile range (IQR) 3680–1.59 × 108; range 270 to >2.2 × 108]. Twenty-one patients (12.4%, 95% CI 7.9–18.4) were found with HCV RNA (all with positive HCV serology). The median HCV viral load was 928 000 IU/mL (IQR 178 400–2.06 × 106; range 640–5.5 × 106). No patient was co-infected with HBV and HCV. In multivariate analysis, HCV co-infection was associated with greater age [≥45 years vs. <45 years, odds ratio (OR) 11.89, 95% CI 3.49–40.55, P<0.001] and Amrubicin abnormal serum alanine aminotransferase level [≥1.25 × upper limit of normal (ULN) vs. <1.25 × ULN, OR 7.81, 95% CI 1.54–39.66, P=0.01]; HBV co-infection was associated with abnormal serum aspartate aminotransferase level (OR 4.33, 95% CI 1.32–14.17, P=0.02). These high rates of active HBV and HCV co-infections in HIV-positive Cameroonian patients requiring antiretroviral therapy underline the need to promote: (i) screening for HBV and HCV before treatment initiation; (ii) accessibility to tenofovir (especially in HBV-endemic African countries); and (iii) accessibility to treatment for HBV and HCV infections.

fumigatus protein expression following exposure to gliotoxin, Schrettl et al. (2010) identified a threefold upregulation of GliT, a gliotoxin oxidoreductase and a component of the gliotoxin biosynthetic cluster. Subsequent targeted deletion of this gene confirmed its key role in self-protection against gliotoxin toxicity in A. fumigatus and also established a role for gliT in gliotoxin biosynthesis (Scharf et al., 2010; Schrettl et al., 2010). Interestingly, two isoforms of GliT were detected in A. fumigatus; however, the biological significance of this observation Epacadostat remains to be established. In a comprehensive analysis of altered protein expression during A. fumigatus biofilm formation, Bruns et al. (2010) found that at 48 h in mature

biofilms, the expression of genes and proteins involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis in general, and gliotoxin biosynthesis in particular (e.g. GliT), is upregulated. This suggests a protective role for GliT, as gliotoxin was also detected in A. fumigatus biofilms. The expression of GliG, a glutathione s-transferase (GST), was also elevated; however, the recent demonstration that this gene is only involved in gliotoxin biosynthesis, and not self-protection (Davis et al., 2011), underlines the key role of GliT in fungal self-protection against gliotoxin. Metarhizium spp. are important entomopathogenic fungi that have significant potential for use as alternatives to chemical insecticides for agricultural pest control

(Pedrini et al., 2007); however, while genome and EST sequence analyses have been published (Wang MK0683 chemical structure et al., 2009; Gao et al., 2011), few proteomic studies had been undertaken. However, recent studies are beginning to reveal the proteome of this fungus, which may have a significant impact on the future use of Metarhizium spp. Barros et

al. (2010) have used 2D-PAGE to detect 1130 ± 102 and 1200 ± 97 protein spots for Metarhizium acridum conidia and mycelia, respectively. Approximately 35% of protein spots were common to both developmental stages, with the remainder equally occurring only in either conidia or mycelia. Of 94 proteins identified by MALDI-ToF/ToF MS, heat shock proteins and an allergen (Alt a 7) were uniquely eltoprazine identified in conidia, while metabolic proteins (e.g. transaldolase, protein disulphide isomerase and phosphoglycerate kinase) were primarily identified in mycelia. Barros et al. (2010) noted the differences in the extent of expression of identical proteins, and isoform occurrence, between conidia and mycelia. Although not discussed in detail, this observation highlights the requirement for future quantitative proteomic studies to reveal the biological significance of altered protein expression. Interestingly, most protein identifications were achieved by comparison against homologues or orthologues in related fungal species, because few Metarhizium sequence entries were present in the NCBInr data database when this study was undertaken; however, genome availability (Gao et al.

001). The FIGO 1988 staging classification was adopted for this statistical analysis of cervical, endometrial and ovarian cancers. In regard to the clinical staging of cervical cancer, the diagnosis of stage I cervical cancer is influenced by the type of specimen examined, that is, cervical biopsy, cervical conization or total hysterectomy specimens, and it is expected that there may be differences in the interpretation among institutions as well. In addition, stage IVb is also interpreted differently among institutions, and it is possible that some patients may have been diagnosed as having stage IVb due to the presence of distant Cabozantinib concentration metastases or para-aortic lymphadenopathy

on CT and other imaging diagnosis. In the analysis of endometrial and ovarian cancers, surgical staging classification was adopted and the diagnosis without surgery was performed only in a small number of cases comprising 4.5% and 2.1% of patients with endometrial and ovarian cancer, respectively. This suggested that summarized distribution of the surgical stages was still reliable. In regard to the histological types, there is a problem not in cervical, endometrial cancers or ovarian surface epithelial-stromal tumors, but in ovarian Proteasome inhibitor sex cord-stromal and germ cell tumors: there are a small number of patients with these

ovarian tumors and only an insufficient number of cases can be accumulated in a year. Therefore, the influence even from a single case can be large, leading to over- or under-estimation. Consequently, it seems impossible to compare and analyze the changes over time. Prognosis was analyzed by the Kaplan–Meier method. Terminal-stage patients are often transferred to other medical institutions in Japan, and in such cases, information on the patients cannot often be obtained after hospital transfer, which leads to unknown prognosis. Fatal cases are considered to account Casein kinase 1 for most of these prognosis-unknown cases. Therefore, if all these prognosis-unknown cases are counted as alive dropouts, the prognosis may be better estimated even by the Kaplan–Meier method. Accordingly,

in the present study, information from institutions in which the prognosis was untraceable for 20% or more of the cases was excluded from the analysis. Among the patients with known prognosis, 58.7% of patients with cervical cancer, 65.9% of patients with endometrial cancer, and 60.0% of patients with ovarian cancer were included in the analysis of the prognosis. However, in this method of analysis, it tends to be more difficult to collect information on patients from larger medical institutions, and future investigations are considered necessary to allow more accurate information on the prognosis to be reflected in the Treatment Annual Reports. The Patient Annual Report and Treatment Annual Report on gynecologic tumors (cervical, endometrial, and ovarian cancers and ovarian tumors of borderline malignancy) in Japan are presented in this paper.

A travel history to any country which reported confirmed cases was notified along with the age of the patient. Those with a travel history within 10 days preceding the onset were regarded as imported cases. Comparison of age between those with and without a travel history was performed using the Welch test. Of 4,986 confirmed cases, 903 (18.1%) were imported. Figure 1 compares the age distribution between imported www.selleckchem.com/screening/chemical-library.html and indigenous cases. The mean (SD) and median ages of imported cases were 27.0 (15.6) and 26.0 years, and of indigenous cases were 17.6 (10.9) and 16.0 years. The age of imported cases appeared to be significantly

older than indigenous cases (p < 0.01). While 83.4% of indigenous cases were aged <25 years, only 43.4% of imported cases were <25 years. The risk of infection among imported cases was not found to be accumulated in those aged <20 years, but rather those aged 25 years and older accounted for more than half of the imported infections. The differential age distribution most likely reflected age-specific travel patterns because adults >25 years were more likely to have experienced international travel. An important limitation of the present study is that imported case, which was defined as those with a travel history within 10 days before the illness onset, potentially includes those infected in Japan. Nevertheless, given the significantly

different ages between crudely defined imported and indigenous cases, the age of actual imported cases may be even older than that reported

in Figure 1. As a future subject, in addition to the age-specific Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor Glutamate dehydrogenase absolute number of cases, age-specific incidence of infection among travelers (ie, imported cases divided by the number of travelers) needs to be explored. Whereas the impact of imported cases on the transmission dynamics of importing country can be partly assessed by examining the age-specific number of imported cases,7,8 further clarification of the role of adults in accelerating global spread requires additional insight into the age-specific risk of infection among travelers.9 Epidemiological analysis of travel-associated cases of H1N1 2009 influenza is crucial for understanding the dynamics of international spread and elucidating the most effective strategies for disease control.10 Unlike the local spread of H1N1 2009 influenza, which is frequently driven by infection in schoolchildren, adults play an important role in accelerating international spread. Adults are also likely to be the source of interregional spread within a country. Two important implications are that prevention of international spread (eg, border controls) must not overlook the high frequency of infection even among older adults, and surveillance and monitoring of the spread of disease over long distances need to take into account the impact of age specificity of travel on geographic propagation.11 The work of H. N. was supported by the JST PRESTO program.

6,7 The questionnaires were deposited at the reception desk of a mountain hut (3,145 m) during a summer season. The mountain hut is reachable only by crossing glacier terrain with special equipment (crampons, rope, etc.) and is usually not visited by hikers. The mountaineers have to register at the reception when arriving, and the staff of the hut informed the visitors about the survey and the importance of participation independent of existing CVD and asked them to complete the provided questionnaire. All returned questionnaires this website were collected at the hut until the end of the season. Data were statistically analyzed by SPSS (version 14.0). Comparisons of subgroups were performed by t-tests,

chi-square tests, or Fisher’s exact test as adequate. p Values <0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance. Values are presented as means ± SD or frequencies (95% CI). A total of 497 questionnaires were completed amounting to about 30% of the 1,538 overnight guests during the summer season according to the records of the hut manager (Arthur Lanthaler, personal communication, November 2009). Twenty-four of them had to be excluded because of obviously incorrect data or no data concerning the CVD. Thus, details of 473 individuals [26% female, 74% male, age 41 ± 14 y (range: 6–76 y), body weight 72 ± 14 kg (range: 27–120 kg), and height 175 ± 10 cm (range: 122–199 cm)] were included into

the analyses. Differing sample sizes are a result of incomplete questionnaires. The persons reported to perform 7 ± 6 hours per week sports activity regularly and 91.4% (88.9–93.9) are physically Natural Product Library cell assay active at least once a week. The prevalence of the recorded CVD among the interviewed high-altitude mountaineers was 0.4% (0.0–1.0) for

prior MI, 0% for CAD without MI, 4.2% (2.4–6.0) for hypertension, 1.7% (0.5–2.9) for arrhythmias, and 1.1% (0.2–2.0) for other CVD. In general, 7.4% (5.0–9.8) of the high-altitude mountaineers suffered from one or more CVD. The frequencies of CVD among different age groups are illustrated in Table 1. The self-reported prevalence of CVD among high-altitude Cediranib (AZD2171) mountaineers was lower compared to those recently found in hikers and alpine skiers6 but did not relevantly differ from ski mountaineers.7 The differences between high-altitude mountaineers and hikers cannot be explained by different mean ages or age distribution of the participants but are likely related to two factors. (1) Partly steeper and more demanding terrain (eg, snowfields or climbing passages), the higher weight of the equipment (eg, boots and crampons), and the stronger hypoxic exposure lead to higher demands of strength, endurance, and technical skills during high-altitude mountaineering when compared to hiking. Persons with preexisting CVD are often unable to fulfill these requirements and might refrain from such mountain sport activities.

Comparative genomic analysis of the two strains identified a number of genomic regions and genes containing virulence factors. Of particular interest was the discovery of a novel plasmid

pPAA3 that was previously unknown in the genus Photorhabdus. The pPAA3 plasmid contains a Type IV secretion system similar to the pCRY plasmid in Yersinia pestis. Type IV secretion systems are well-known virulence factors, involved in delivering ‘effectors’ check details such as toxins into eukaryotic cells. We speculate that this plasmid may be responsible for the ability of the Australian isolates to invade nonphagocytic cells in tissue culture, which is not seen in the closely related US isolates that lack this plasmid (Costa et al., 2009). We used a combination of Illumina, 454 and Sanger sequencing

to gather primary sequence data for the P. asymbiotica Kingscliff genome. We also constructed libraries to provide both Illumina-based paired-end reads and large insert fosmid libraries for conventional Sanger-based end sequencing (see Supporting Information, Appendix S1 for details). We used three different workflows, combining different types of sequence data with different assembly algorithms, to look for the optimal de novo assembly (see Fig. S1). The first (Workflow A) used the VCAKE pipeline (Reinhardt et al., 2009) to perform a hybrid assembly of the 454 data and the Illumina paired and unpaired reads. Illumina reads were de novo clustered with vcake version selleck chemicals llc 1.03 into second VCAKE contigs. Newbler then assembles VCAKE contigs and 454 long reads into hybrid contigs. The Newbler scaffolder orients the hybrid contigs into larger hybrid scaffolds using

454 paired-end data. Hybrid scaffolds are cleaned of 1–2 base pairs (bp) indels using Illumina read depth; longer gaps within scaffolds were filled with unused VCAKE and hybrid contigs in Finisher. Finally, polymorphism and coverage in the scaffolds were used to identify any putative repeat regions. The second workflow (Workflow B) used the velvet assembler (version 0.7.27) to produce an assembly of the Illumina paired read data. The third workflow (Workflow C) was a hybrid assembly of Illumina paired read data and 454 data using the VELVET assembler. Once the assemblies were complete, Sanger-derived fosmid end sequences were aligned to the different assemblies to verify that the contigs were in the correct orientation. Sequence alignments were performed using the newbler gsmapper software, providing the assembly contigs as a reference sequence. Alignments were visualized using Seqman (dna star version 8). The optimal draft assembly was selected by choosing the output that had the optimal characteristics of high N50, low N and a sum of contigs equal to the estimated genome size, which was estimated to be ∼5 Mb. For comparisons with the finished genome of P. asymbiotica ATCC43949, Illumina paired-end reads were mapped both to the genome and to the pPAU1 and pCRY plasmids using the maq assembler version 0.6.