“
“Seventeen selleck screening library Lactobacillus strains were tested for cell surface hydrophobicity

(CSH) using the salt aggregation test (SAT) and Congo red binding (CRB) assay. CRB was dependent on pH and ionic strength and was protease-sensitive. In the presence of 100 μg mL−1 cholesterol, the CRB was significantly reduced. Autoaggregating (AA) Lactobacillus crispatus strains showed 50% more CRB than the reference strain, the curli-producing Escherichia coli MC4 100. CRB of L. crispatus 12005, L. paracasei F8, L. plantarum F44 and L. paracasei F19 were enhanced when grown in Man Rogosa Sharpe (MRS) broth with 0.5% taurocholic acid (TA) or 5% porcine bile (PB) (P < 0.05). CSH was also enhanced for the non-AA strains L. plantarum F44, L. paracasei F19 and L. rhamnosus GG when grown in MRS broth with 0.5% TA, 5% PB or 0.25% mucin, with enhanced biofilm formation in MRS broth with bile (P < 0.05). Two AA strains, L. crispatus 12005 and L. paracasei F8, developed biofilm independent of bile or mucin.

In summary, under bile-stressed growth conditions, early (24-h cultures) biofilm formation is associated with an increase in hydrophobic cell surface proteins and high CRB. Late mature (72-h culture) biofilm contained more carbohydrates, as shown by crystal violet staining. High cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH) is a common property of many bacteria colonizing the skin and various Selleck Ku 0059436 mucosal surfaces (Doyle & Rosenberg, 1990; Goulter et al., 2010). For many pathogens a high CSH is associated with the first step to colonizing these surfaces and open surgical wounds, often associated with biofilm formation on surgical sutures and indwelling medical devices such as vascular catheters (Klotz, 1990; Wadström, 1990). Some lactobacilli species which colonize the gut and

urogenital tract are not pathogens but have a Qualified Presumption of Safety (QPS) status recognized by the European Food Safety Authority (2007). These indigenous lactobacilli often showed the presence of specific hydrophobic cell surface proteins (CSPs), such as the S-layer of Lactobacillus crispatus and mucus-binding proteins in L. reuteri (Avall-Jääskeläinen & Palva, 2005; Mackenzie et al., 2010). Doxacurium chloride The Congo red binding (CRB) assay was first developed to analyze the presence of hydrophobic CSPs of enterovirulent Shigellae and curli-producing Escherichia coli (Lindahl et al., 1981; Qadri et al., 1988; Blanco et al., 2012). It is also a well established method to study the virulence traits of several bacterial species (Kay et al., 1985; Cangelosi et al., 1999). For example, CRB-negative Shigellae mutants with a low CSH and deficient in specific hydrophobic CSPs are non-virulent (Qadri et al., 1988). More recently, a rough phenotype of the oral pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans was shown to produce CRB-CSPs and is also defined as surface amyloid (Kimizuka et al., 2009).

All vaccines were administered by nurses in the immunization clinic and all medications were dispensed from the campus pharmacy. Institutional review board (IRB) approval was obtained prior to initiating the study. Basic characteristics of the travelers and the frequencies (or the average numbers) of the pretravel recommendations between the PTC and the PCP groups were compared by using chi-square test (or Fisher’s exact test) for categorical variables, and two-sample t-test or Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test (non-parametric version of independent-samples t-test) for continuous variables, if the normality assumptions

underlying the t-test were violated. The primary outcomes for vaccines and medications were (1) indicated and ordered, (2) indicated

and not ordered (excluding refused/declined), (3) not indicated and ordered, (4) and ordered and received (excluding refused/declined). The univariate and multivariate logistic Bleomycin in vivo regressions (results not shown in tables) were performed to help to rate the findings according to their importance as risk/protective factors. All variables that showed an association with pretravel recommendations in the univariate models having p values below 0.10 were entered into the more comprehensive multiple logistic regression models, which included visit type (PTC or PCP), trip duration, purposes of travel (study abroad and volunteer work), and destination (Southeast Asia). All statistical significance was assessed using an alpha level of 0.05. Statistical analysis was performed Quizartinib using SAS 9.2. In 2007, 513 travelers were identified, 172 were seen by a PCP and 341 were seen in the PTC. Travelers who were seen in the PTC were more often prescribed antibiotics for self-treatment of travelers’ diarrhea when indicated (96% vs 50%, p < 0.0001), while

travelers seen by Vitamin B12 a PCP were more likely to be prescribed antibiotics not consistent with guidelines (not ordered when indicated 49% vs 6%, p < 0.0001 and ordered when not indicated 21% vs 3%, p < 0.0001) (Table 1). Furthermore, patients who were seen in the PTC were more likely to pick up their antibiotic from the pharmacy than those who were prescribed antibiotics by a PCP (75% vs 63%, p = 0.04). Travelers seen in the PTC were also more often prescribed antimalarials when indicated (98% vs 81%, p < 0.0001), while those seen by a PCP were more frequently prescribed antimalarials not consistent with guidelines (not ordered when indicated 15% vs 1%, p < 0.0001 and ordered when not indicated 19% vs 2%, p < 0.0001). There was no statistically significant difference in antimalarial pickup rates from the pharmacy between the two groups (Table 1). Results regarding the ordering and receipt of vaccines were similar to those of antibiotics and antimalarials. To account for multiple vaccines ordered at the same time, the primary outcomes for vaccines were calculated per patient and were used for comparison purposes.

In this report, we present microscopic-based evidences that the TIMM process actually starts with a septation defect, leading to aberrant cell morphologies. Moreover, the septation defect of CH34 could be induced by NaOCl, thus showing that the TIMM phenotype may be part of a more general stress response. Sequence analysis of a TIMM survivor exhibiting a recurrent recognizable

lysA mutation ruled out the possibility of http://www.selleckchem.com/products/Metformin-hydrochloride(Glucophage).html a genetic ground linking TIMM survival and peptidoglycan synthesis. “
“Luminous marine bacteria usually emit bluish-green light with a peak emission wavelength (λmax) at about 490 nm. Some species belonging to the genus Photobacterium are exceptions, producing an accessory blue fluorescent protein (lumazine protein: LumP) that causes a blue shift, from λmax ≈ 490 to λmax ≈ 476 nm. However, the incidence of blue-shifted light emission or the

presence of accessory fluorescent proteins in bacteria of the genus Vibrio has never been reported. From our spectral analysis of light emitted by 16 luminous strains of the genus Vibrio, it was revealed that most strains of Vibrio azureus emit a blue-shifted light with a peak at approximately 472 nm, whereas other Vibrio strains emit light with a peak at around 482 nm. Therefore, we investigated the mechanism underlying this blue shift in V. azureus NBRC 104587T. Here, we describe the blue-shifted light emission spectra and the isolation of a blue fluorescent protein. Intracellular protein analyses showed that this strain had a blue fluorescent this website protein (that we termed VA-BFP), the fluorescent spectrum of which was

HSP90 almost identical to that of the in vivo light emission spectrum of the strain. This result strongly suggested that VA-BFP was responsible for the blue-shifted light emission of V. azureus. Luminous bacteria occur ubiquitously in marine environments and have been isolated from seawater, sediment, detritus, and light-emitting organs of marine animals (Reichelt & Baumann, 1973; Ramesh et al., 1990; Nealson & Hastings, 1991; Dunlap & Kita-Tsukamoto, 2006). To date, 23 species of luminous marine bacteria have been identified, consisting of 11 Vibrio species, four Aliivibrio species, six Photobacterium species, and two Shewanella species (Gomez-Gil et al., 2004; Dunlap & Kita-Tsukamoto, 2006; Ast et al., 2007; Urbanczyk et al., 2007, 2008; Yoshizawa et al., 2009a, b, 2010a, b, in press). Luminous bacteria use bacterial luciferase to produce a bluish-green light. The luciferase catalyzes the oxidation of reduced riboflavin-5′-phosphate (FMNH2) with a long-chain aliphatic aldehyde and molecular oxygen, and the peak light emission generally occurs around 490 nm (Hastings & Nealson, 1977).

This survey is the first reported evaluation of how HIV clinicians use the RITA information at an individual patient level. This survey found that RITA results have

become part of the standard of care in the majority of participating centres and that therefore no additional consent is being obtained from patients. Some centres are still experiencing delays in reporting of results and difficulties with accessing results at clinic level. Some sites see only a small number of new diagnoses, and batch samples RG7422 concentration for testing. Other sites aim to remove samples from patients with a previous positive HIV antibody result, which is recommended by the HPA but may lead to a delay. At the HPA, over 95% of samples are tested and reported within 7 working days. More work is underway to assist local sites to improve turnaround

and reporting times to allow clinicians early access to results. All HPA reports include an interpretation of the avidity score and the need to consider clinical markers in the interpretation of the test. This survey PLX3397 indicates that not all clinicians may access this information, highlighting the need for better data sharing at local level to allow effective use of RITA results in clinical practice. Nevertheless, this survey shows that many clinicians have now incorporated RITA as an additional clinical tool when assessing newly diagnosed HIV patients, in particular, those where the clinical picture suggests an acute HIV seroconversion illness or recent infection and when discussing treatment start. In order to facilitate discussions with patients further, the HPA is considering changing the reporting of results by converting the avidity index into a probability score, for example, the probability in per cent that a newly diagnosed patient was infected within the last 6 months.

Edoxaban Reassuringly, clinicians describe the response from patients on learning about the estimated timing of their infection as overwhelmingly positive or neutral and no adverse events have so far been reported in response to communicating a result. In particular, there are currently no reports that RITA results have been referred to during criminal proceedings, which is strongly discouraged by a recent guidance document published jointly by the National AIDS Trust and the HPA [10]. A complementary patient survey by the HPA in collaboration with four clinics is currently underway exploring the experiences of patients when receiving a RITA result indicating probable recent infection. The majority of respondents stated that RITA results could assist in contact tracing and some independently commented that they have started incorporating RITA into local clinic guidelines for contact tracing.

Supported by ANPCyT, Argentina. M.J.A., J.P.-G., J.I.Q., and M.F.L. are fellows of CONICET, Argentina. J.M.C. is a fellow of ANPCyT. S.L.L.-G. and A.R.L. are members of the scientific career of CONICET. Fig. S1. Scheme of the experiments of competition for nodulation. Fig. S2. Transmission electron micrographs of Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Fig. S3. Water contents of vermiculite

pots under different irrigation procedures. Table S1. Primers, plasmids, and bacterial strains used in this study. Please note: Wiley-Blackwell is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting materials supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing material) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article. “
“The soluble pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase (STH) is an energy-independent flavoprotein that directly catalyzes hydride transfer between NAD(H) and NADP(H) to maintain homeostasis of these two redox cofactors. The sth gene

in JQ1 solubility dmso Escherichia coli was cloned and expressed as a fused protein (EcSTH). buy Ganetespib The purified EcSTH displayed maximal activity at 35 °C, pH 7.5. Heat-inactivation studies showed that EcSTH retains 50% activity after 5 h at 50 °C. The enzyme was stable at 4 °C for 25 days. The apparent Km values of EcSTH were 68.29 μM for NADPH and 133.2 μM for thio-NAD+. The kcat/Km ratios showed that EcSTH had a 1.25-fold preference for NADPH over thio-NAD+. Product inhibition studies showed that EcSTH activity was strongly inhibited by excess NADPH, but not by thio-NAD+. EcSTH activity was enhanced by 2 mM adenine nucleotide and inhibited by divalent metal ions: Mn2+, Co2+, Zn2+, Ni2+ and Cu2+. However, after preincubation for 30 min, most divalent metal ions had little effect on EcSTH activity, except Zn2+, Ni2+ and Cu2+. The enzymatic analysis could provide the important basic knowledge for EcSTH utilizations. Pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase directly catalyzes reversible hydride transfer between NAD(H) and

NADP(H) to maintain homeostasis of these two redox cofactors. There are two pyridine nucleotide Etomidate transhydrogenases in the organisms: the energy-independent soluble pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase (STH or UdhA) (EC 1.6.1.1) and the membrane-bound, energy-dependent pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase (TH or PntAB) (EC 1.6.1.2). PntAB is widely distributed in the mitochondria and some bacteria, and its kinetics, crystal structure and physiological roles have been studied extensively. In contrast, STH is found only in certain Gammaproteobacteria and gram-positive bacteria, and its physiological functions remains obscure. A few microorganisms, notably the Enterobacteriaceae, contain both transhydrogenases (French et al., 1997; Boonstra et al., 1999; Sauer et al., 2004). STH belongs to a well-known family of flavoprotein disulfide oxidoreductases with three clearly delineated domains: one for FAD binding, one for NAD(P)H binding and one for dimerization.

, 2005). PHA production appears to be an important trait for root colonization and plant growth promotion by azospirilla. Plant growth promotion effects are more consistent with A. brasilense inoculants containing cells with high amounts of PHA. For instance, field experiments carried out in South America with maize and wheat revealed that increased crop yields were consistently obtained using inoculants prepared with PHA-rich Azospirillum cells (Dobbelaere et al., 2001; Helman et al., 2011; Table 3). Carotenoids are tetraterpenoid selleck organic pigments that occur in

plants and in some bacteria and fungi. In bacteria, carotenoids counteract photo-oxidative Anti-diabetic Compound Library purchase damage (Krinsky, 1979). They are known to quench singlet oxygen and to have chain-breaking ability in radical-mediated autoxidation reactions (Burton & Ingold, 1984; Ziegelhoffer & Donohue, 2009). Many azospirilla produce carotenoids (Fig. 3), and

30 years ago, Nur et al. (1981) suggested that in this bacterium, carotenoids play an important role in protecting nitrogenase against oxidative damage, thus being critical for nitrogen fixation under nitrogen-deficient conditions. This hypothesis was confirmed by comparative studies using A. brasilense strains producing different levels of carotenoids (Hartmann & Hurek, 1988; Baldani et al., 2005). Bacteria that live in the rhizosphere experience variations in temperature, Urease salinity, osmolarity, pH, and availability of nutrients and oxygen (Zahran, 1999). In response to specific stimuli, bacterial sigma factors alter the pattern of gene expression by changing the affinity and specificity of RNA polymerase to different promoters during initiation of transcription (Heimann, 2002). Among the different sigma factors, group 4 s70 sigma factors were initially thought to be involved in responses to changes in the extra-cytoplasmic compartment of the cell and hence were

called extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factors (Heimann, 2002). In the case of rhizosphere bacteria, it is assumed that these sigma factors are critical in adaptation, survival, and proliferation in the soil, particularly under stressful conditions. The involvement of the ECF sigma factor RpoE (also known as σE) in regulation of carotenoid synthesis in A. brasilense as well as in its tolerance to abiotic stresses was recently investigated by Mishra et al. (2011). An in-frame rpoE deletion mutant of A. brasilense Sp7 was carotenoidless and slow-growing, and was more sensitive than the wild type to salt, ethanol, and methylene blue stresses. Expression of rpoE in the rpoE deletion mutant complemented the defects in growth, carotenoid biosynthesis, and sensitivity to the different stresses (Mishra et al., 2011).

Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among pilgrims as they arrived at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah for the 2009 Hajj and as they departed from the same airport during the week after the Hajj. Nasopharyngeal and throat swabs were tested

for 18 respiratory virus types and subtypes using the xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel FAST assay. Results. A total of 519 arriving pilgrims and 2,699 departing pilgrims were examined. Their mean age was 49 years and 58% were male. In all, 30% of pilgrims stated that they had received pandemic influenza A(H1N1) vaccine before leaving for the Hajj www.selleckchem.com/products/DAPT-GSI-IX.html and 35% of arriving pilgrims reported wearing a face mask. Only 50% of arriving

pilgrims were aware of www.selleckchem.com/products/torin-1.html preventive measures such as hand hygiene and wearing a mask. The prevalence of any respiratory-virus infection was 14.5% (12.5% among arriving pilgrims and 14.8% among departing pilgrims). The main viruses detected (both groups combined) were rhinovirus-enterovirus (N = 414, 12.9%), coronaviruses (N = 27, 0.8%), respiratory syncytial virus (N = 8, 0.2%), and influenza A virus (N = 8, 0.2%) including pandemic influenza A(H1N1) (N = 3, 0.1%). The prevalence of pandemic influenza A(H1N1) was 0.2% (N = 1) among arriving pilgrims and 0.1% (N = 2) among departing pilgrims. The prevalence of any respiratory virus infection was lower among those who said they received H1N1 vaccine compared to those who said they did not receive it (11.8% vs 15.6%, respectively, p = 0.009). Conclusion. We found very low pandemic influenza A(H1N1) prevalence selleck chemical among arriving pilgrims and no evidence that amplification of transmission had occurred among departing pilgrims. Hajj, the pilgrimage to the holy city of Makkah, is the largest annual gathering of its kind in the world. It brings more than 2 million pilgrims from 160 countries

together in a small, geographically confined area.1 Most of the pilgrims stay in large air-conditioned tents (in Mina and Arafat) during the whole period of Hajj. It is not unusual for 50–100 people to share a tent overnight.2 This extreme crowding and continuous close contact greatly increases the risk of spreading infectious diseases, particularly those caused by respiratory viruses.3–5 Acute respiratory infections are very common and are responsible for more than half of admissions to Saudi hospitals during Hajj.6 Respiratory viruses, especially influenza virus, are the main cause of acute respiratory infection during the Hajj.7,8 Respiratory specimens have been positive for viral pathogens in 10%–20% of pilgrims with upper respiratory tract infections.

The t-test results were FDR corrected using a threshold of P < 0.01. In the second analysis, the goal was to examine whether significant ISS

during the Natural Music condition was associated with constant synchronization of subjects’ fMRI GDC-0199 time-series measured across the entire musical sequence, or alternatively whether ISS was associated with isolated and concentrated periods of synchronization measured in the musical sequence. To this end, we performed an inter-subject time-frequency analysis using a continuous wavelet transform in order to examine changes in synchronization over time and frequency (Torrence & Compo, 1998; Grinsted et al., 2004). In this analysis, we computed

the wavelet cross spectra between ROI time series extracted from all pairs of subjects at 64 different frequency scales using the Matlab function ‘wcoher.m’ (www.mathworks.com/products/matlab) with ‘cgau2’ as a mother wavelet. The wavelet cross spectrum Cxy of two time series x and y is defined as: In the third analysis, the Ku-0059436 solubility dmso goal was to examine whether correlations in subjects’ movement patterns within the scanner may have driven ISS results. To address this question, we performed an inter-subject correlation analysis using the time series for each of the six movement parameters. Similar to the main ISS analysis described previously, we calculated Pearson’s correlations for all pair-wise subject comparisons (i.e. 136 subject-to-subject comparisons) for each of the six time-varying movement parameters specified by SPM8 during fMRI data pre-processing (i.e. x, y, z, pitch, roll, yaw) for both the click here Natural Music and the Phase-Scrambled conditions. Data were linearly detrended prior to performing the correlation analysis. The resulting Pearson’s correlation values for all subject-to-subject comparisons were Fisher transformed, and then these values were entered into a paired t-test (i.e. Natural

Music vs. Phase-Scrambled) to examine whether movement correlations measured during the Natural Music condition were significantly different from those measured during the Phase-Scrambled condition. We measured fMRI activity in 17 adult non-musicians while they listened to 9.5 min of symphonic music from the late-Baroque period and the Spectrally-Rotated and Phase-Scrambled versions of those same compositions (control stimuli). Musical stimuli were similar to those used in a previous study investigating neural dynamics of event segmentation in music across the boundaries of musical movements (Sridharan et al., 2007), except that here we removed ‘silent’ movement boundaries from the musical stimuli. This stimulus manipulation enabled us to isolate brain synchronization during audible musical segments.

, 2011); in pure culture, it was shown to degrade 50% of 34 μM RDX within 7 days as a sole source of nitrogen, but was incapable of TNT or HMX degradation, despite previous research showing that the genus Prevotella increased

significantly during an 8-h HMX Crizotinib cost incubation in WRF (Perumbakkam & Craig, 2012). Removal of TNT and all metabolites (< 5% of original TNT recovered as a metabolite) occurred for Butyrivibrio fibriosolvens, Fibrobacter succinogenes, Lactobacillus vitulinus, Selenomonas ruminantium, Streptococcus caprinus, and Succinovibrio dextrinosolvens (De Lorme & Craig, 2009). Anaerovibrio lipolyticus and Desulfovibrio desulfuricans were inhibited by TNT (De Lorme selleck chemicals & Craig, 2009) and HMX (this study), but not by RDX (Eaton et al., 2013). Streptococcus caprinus and the Clostridia organisms have

shown a strong degradative ability for TNT and RDX, but not HMX (Zhao et al., 2003; De Lorme & Craig, 2009). Lactobacillus vitulinus tends to favor TNT over RDX, although it can degrade both (De Lorme & Craig, 2009; Eaton et al., 2013), while L. ruminus has not been found to be capable of degrading any energetic compound. The general trend we have observed is that microorganisms from the rumen, while sometimes capable as individual strains/isolates, excel as a community in the bioremediation of explosives. Phytoruminal bioremediation is a technique that is proving to be viable for the remediation of energetic compounds, which includes TNT (Fleischmann et al., 2004; Smith et al., 2008; De Lorme & Craig, 2009), RDX (Eaton et al., 2011, 2013), and now HMX (Perumbakkam & Craig, 2012). The authors would like to thank Michael Wiens for technical assistance. This research was supported in part by a gift from Ruminant Solutions, UC (New Mexico), the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station (project ORE00871) and the USDA, Agriculture

Research Service (project 50-1265-6-076). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The authors have no conflict of interests to declare. “
“Human-β-defensins 1-3 (HBD-1-3) and their C-terminal analogs Phd-1-3 do not show antibacterial activity Glycogen branching enzyme against Escherichia coli in the presence of mono- and divalent cations. Activity of peptides was examined against E. coli pretreated with carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP) and salt remedial Escherichia coli ftsEX, a deletion mutant of FtsEX complex [an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter protein], in the presence of Na+, Ca2+, and Mg2+. Activity was observed in the presence of Na+ and Ca2+, although not in the presence of Mg2+ against E. coli, when proton motive force (PMF) was dissipated by CCCP. The peptides exhibited antibacterial activity against E.

At present, only one other study used the RI strains to dissect

the genetic MS-275 order architecture of adult neurogenesis (Kempermann et al., 2006). Their study mapped the variation in SGZ proliferation in a BXD reference panel (derived from C57BL/6J and DBA/2J) to a separate locus from the Chr 3 QTL we identified from mapping variation in the AXB/BXA panel. These differences probably point to the genetic complexities that underlie adult neurogenesis into which we are tapping by using the diverse genetic repertoires presented in the two RI lines. Neurogenesis in the adult brain is a polygenic, multifactorial phenomenon that encompasses several processes, including proliferation, migration of precursors, and then the differentiation and survival of newborn neurons. The net neurogenesis is reflected by the numbers of neurons that become functionally integrated into pre-existing circuitry.

Kempermann et al. (2006) detected inter-strain variation in not just the numbers of SGZ proliferating cells (Ki-67+), but also in the numbers of surviving (BrdU+) and differentiated neurons (BrdU+NeuN+) in the DG. QTL mapping of these three parameters of hippocampal neurogenesis showed little overlap in LRS peaks, suggesting that these three traits are modulated by different genetic loci. A similar analysis has not Buparlisib mouse been done in the RMS. In this study, we investigated the differences in cell proliferation in the RMS of different mouse strains. It is currently unknown whether the observed inter-strain differences will persist into later stages of the OB neurogenesis. The continuous supply of new neurons from the RMS is positively correlated with olfactory

bulb weight, which increases linearly with time in the mouse brain (Williams et al., mafosfamide 2001). We correlated both the adjusted and the unadjusted RMS proliferation data with olfactory bulb weight (Trait ID: 10093) deposited at the AXB/BXA Published Phenotypes database of Gene Network, and no correlation between these two phenotypes was found. This suggests that having more proliferating cells in the RMS does not translate into a larger number of cells in the OB. Clearly, there are other factors regulating the survival and integration of newly generated neurons to the specific bulb layers, mainly the granule and the glomerular cell layers. It has been shown that an enriched olfactory experience and olfactory learning can increase the survival of newly born OB neurons in the adult (Rochefort et al., 2002; Alonso et al., 2006; Mandairon et al., 2006). Another study has examined the functional consequences of having differential numbers of neuroblasts traveling along the SVZ–RMS axis in three inbred strains: C57BL/6J, BALB/c and 129/S1 (Lee et al., 2003).