72 and 074 for the

two sets of models, respectively, and

72 and 0.74 for the

two sets of models, respectively, and significantly lower at 0.55 for genotyping. The two sets of models performed comparably well and significantly outperformed genotyping as predictors of response. The models identified alternative regimens predicted to be effective in almost all cases. It is encouraging that models that do not require a genotype were able to predict responses to common second-line therapies in settings where genotyping is unavailable. “
“Combining noninvasive tests increases diagnostic accuracy for staging liver fibrosis in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected selleck products patients, but this strategy remains to be validated in HIV/HCV coinfection. We compared the performances of transient elastography (TE), Fibrotest (FT), the aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) and two algorithms

combining TE and FT (Castera) or APRI and FT (SAFE) in HIV/HCV coinfection. One hundred and sixteen HIV/HCV-coinfected patients (64% male; median age 44 years) enrolled in two French multicentre studies (the HEPAVIH cohort and FIBROSTIC) for whom TE, FT and APRI data were available were included in the study. Diagnostic accuracies for significant fibrosis (METAVIR F ≥ 2) and cirrhosis (F4) were evaluated by measuring the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and calculating percentages of correctly classified (CC) patients, taking liver biopsy as a reference. For CP-868596 mouse F ≥ 2, both TE and FT (AUROC = 0.87 and 0.85, respectively) had a better diagnostic performance than APRI (AUROC = 0.71; P < 0.005).

Although the percentage of CC patients was VDA chemical significantly higher with Castera’s algorithm than with SAFE (61.2% vs. 31.9%, respectively; P < 0.0001), this percentage was lower than that for TE (80.2%; P < 0.0001) or FT (73.3%; P < 0.0001) taken separately. For F4, TE (AUROC = 0.92) had a better performance than FT (AUROC = 0.78; P = 0.005) or APRI (AUROC = 0.73; P = 0.025). Although the percentage of CC patients was significantly higher with the SAFE algorithm than with Castera's (76.7% vs. 68.1%, respectively; P < 0.050), it was still lower than that for TE (85.3%; P < 0.033). In HIV/HCV-coinfected patients, TE and FT have a similar diagnostic accuracy for significant fibrosis, whereas for cirrhosis TE has the best accuracy. The use of the SAFE and Castera algorithms does not seem to improve diagnostic performance. "
“We evaluated the efficacy, safety and tolerability of etravirine in paediatric patients vertically infected with HIV-1. A multicentre retrospective study of 23 multidrug-resistant paediatric patients (five children and 18 adolescents) enrolled in the study from 1 September 2007 to 28 February 2010 was carried out. We performed a longitudinal analysis of immunological, virological and clinical data. The median age of the patients was 14.2 years [interquartile range (IQR) 12.5–15.8 years]. At baseline, the median HIV-1 RNA was 29 000 (4.

e left hemisphere) parietal and premotor areas when participants

e. left hemisphere) parietal and premotor areas when participants kept their eyes open, but ipsilateral (right) parietal areas when the eyes were closed.

Our findings converge with these in suggesting that the neural activity associated with the location of the hand in a crossed-hands posture (i.e. the activity associated with an effect of posture) may switch hemispheres according to the sensory information available about the hand. Why might visual information about hand posture lead to effects of posture being represented differently across hemispheres? Lloyd et al. (2003), on the basis of their fMRI findings, provide one explanation. They interpret posture effects in the BOLD (blood oxygen level-dependent) response to tactile stimuli as the neural representation selleck chemicals of hand position, and argue that with only proprioceptive information about posture, the brain favours coding the hand with respect to an external spatial frame of reference. They suggest that when visual cues are made available in addition this strengthens the brain’s use of an anatomical frame of reference.

On the surface, this interpretation may seem at odds with the findings by Röder et al. (2004), who report a study showing that use of an external frame of reference for localizing touch is dependent on visual experience in early life. They showed that sighted and late blind individuals are more affected by crossing their hands than congenitally blind individuals who grew www.selleckchem.com/products/MG132.html up without vision from birth. However, it is important to draw a distinction between effects of current visual information on spatial coding, and effects of prolonged visual

experience on spatial coding. Here we manipulate current visual information, and would argue that there is no conflict between: (i) current visual information leading to a greater weighting of an anatomical code in representations of hand position, and (ii) prolonged visual experience leading to an Oxalosuccinic acid ability to locate a tactile stimulus in external spatial coordinates. It is also important to note that we are not arguing that in our study participants did not invoke an external reference frame for locating tactile stimuli when they had vision of their hands – indeed, they showed effects of posture both when they could (Exp. 1) and could not see their hands (Exp. 2). Rather, we interpret our results as showing that, irrespective of the spatial code for locating touch, the representation of hand position which mediated tactile localisation was weighted more towards an anatomical rather than an external reference frame. In that sense our findings are consistent with arguments that visual cues to the hand enhance an external code for tactile localization (Röder et al., 2004; Azañón & Soto-Faraco, 2007).

, 2010; Hu et al, 2010) Serotyping, a procedure that relies on

, 2010; Hu et al., 2010). Serotyping, a procedure that relies on the composition of capsular material, is an important

step in the identification of S. suis. While initially classified in the early 1960s under the Lancefield scheme (S, R, and RS), strains of S. suis have subsequently been classified into this website serotype 1 (group S), serotype 2 (group R), and serotype 1/2 (RS) (Gottschalk et al., 2001). Currently, there are 35 serotypes of S. suis (1 to 34 and 1/2) (Messier et al., 2008). All serotypes are not responsible for serious diseases and pathogenicity may vary within the same serotype. Serotype 2 is most frequently associated with pathology (Gottschalk et al., 2001), although other serotypes are also the source of many infections (Tian et al., 2004; Costa et al., 2005; Zhang

et al., 2008). The existence of nontypeable isolates of S. suis has been reported (Marois et al., 2007; Wei et al., 2009). More specifically, Wei et al. (2009) characterized 407 strains of S. suis isolated from diseased pigs in China and recovered 5.4% of nontypeable isolates, while serotype 2 represented 43.2% of the isolates. In Canada, between 12% and 20% of strains recovered from diseased pigs are untypeable (Higgins & Gottschalk, 2001). In the present study, seven nontypeable strains buy Z-VAD-FMK of S. suis isolated from infected animals were characterized with regard to their cell surface properties and compared with serotype 2 strains. The S. suis strains used in this study and their origins are listed in Table 1. Bacteria were routinely grown aerobically in Todd Hewitt Broth (THB, BBL Microbiology Systems, Cockeysville, MA) without agitation at 37 °C. Bacteria used in the assays described below were harvested from overnight (16–18 h) cultures. Wells of a flat-bottomed microtitre plate (Nunc-Immuno® MaxiSorp; Nalge Nunc International, Rochester, NY) were filled with 100 μL of fibronectin (0.1 mg mL−1; Chemicon International, Danvers, MA) or bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a control (1 mg mL−1; Fisher Scientific, MycoClean Mycoplasma Removal Kit Ottawa, ON, Canada), and the plate was incubated overnight at room temperature. The

protein solution was then removed by aspiration and 0.05% glutaraldehyde (100 μL) was subsequently added. After 45 min at room temperature, glutaraldehyde was removed and the wells were washed twice with distilled water. Cells of S. suis harvested from an overnight culture were suspended in 50 mmol L−1 phosphate-buffered saline (PBS; pH 7.2) to an OD660 nm of 1 and 100 μL was added to each well. The plate was incubated at 37 °C for 90 min under agitation. Unbound bacteria were then removed by aspiration and the wells were washed three times with PBS containing 0.01% Tween 20 to minimize nonspecific hydrophobic interactions. Adherent bacteria in the wells were fixed with 100 μL of methanol for 15 min, washed extensively with distilled water and then stained with 0.

, 1993) Apart from these findings, little is known on the pathog

, 1993). Apart from these findings, little is known on the pathogenic potential and the genetic relationship of E. coli O26:H32 with O26:H11/NM strains. Molecular typing methods are used for epidemiological investigation of outbreaks and for control and monitoring of the transmission click here of potential pathogens from animals or food to humans. PFGE became the ‘gold standard’ for molecular genotyping and source tracking of many foodborne bacteria including EHEC (http://pulsenetinternational.org/). Because PFGE is relatively laborious and time-consuming, faster methods that have the advantage of being easily standardized

and automated were recently developed, focusing on DNA sequence-based typing. MLST involves sequence comparison of selected housekeeping and virulence genes and has been used successfully for a number of bacteria for both evolutionary and epidemiological R428 ic50 studies (http://www.mlst.net/). However, MLST cannot discern between strains that are clonally highly conserved, but epidemiologically unlinked, such as EHEC O157. Recent work has focused on multiple-locus variable number of

tandem repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) as a possible alternative to MLST and PFGE. MLVA uses amplification and fragment size analysis of polymorphic regions of DNA containing variable numbers of tandem repeat sequences (Lindstedt, 2005). This method has been found to be very useful in discriminating otherwise indistinguishable types in highly clonal organisms. Currently, MLVA typing systems have been described for generic E. coli (Lindstedt et al., 2007) and for E. coli O157 strains (Lindstedt et al., 2003, 2004; Noller et al., 2003; Keys et al., 2005; Hyytia-Trees et al., 2006). MLVA was successfully used for tracing back outbreaks and sources of EHEC O157 and O103 strains in food, animals and humans (Lindstedt et al., 2003; Cooley Baricitinib et al., 2007; Murphy et al., 2008; Schimmer et al., 2008). In this work, we compared PFGE as a gold-standard method with MLVA for genetic profiling of 62 EPEC, EHEC and other E. coli O26 strains from different sources that were isolated over a 60-year

time period and were from different countries distributed over three continents. A total of 62 E. coli O26 strains from the collection of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), isolated from human patients (n=39), animals (18) and food (5) were investigated. The strains were isolated between 1947 and 2006 and originated from eight countries on three continents such as Argentina (n=1), Brazil (9), Finland (1), France (3), Germany (39), New Zealand (5), Switzerland (2), and the United Kingdom (2). Thirty of the strains were serotyped as O26:H11, 26 strains were nonmotile (O26:NM) and six strains were typed as O26:H32. A subset of these strains from human patients and from animals was described previously for their virulence markers and for their genotypes (Beutin et al.

2% for neighbours, colleagues and community residents, and 299%

2% for neighbours, colleagues and community residents, and 29.9% and 38.8% for medical staff and family members, respectively). Greater proportions of doctors (14.0%) and family members (15.9%) showed concern for the participants

than neighbours, colleagues and community residents (6.7%) (P>0.05). With regard to secondary stigma, a considerable proportion (38.3%) of HIV-positive participants reported that their family members were discriminated against (Table 4). The SCL-90 scores in our investigation indicate that the psychological status of HIV-positive people is a cause of concern, especially in terms of the find more obsessive–compulsive, depression, anxiety and anger/hostility subscales. The two overriding psychological problems were depression and anxiety, which is consistent with the findings of Kuang [22]. We also found obsessive–compulsive and anger/hostility subscale Lumacaftor scores above the threshold of 2.0 in more than half of men and women with HIV infection. Sun et al. [18] found that all of the mean scores for SCL-90 subscales of PLWHA in China

were higher than 2.0, which is different from our results. The participants in the research of Sun et al. were PLWHA registered at health care centres, while the HIV-infected participants in our investigation were HIV-positive people registered with local CCDCs but who had no symptoms and had not received ART. Although psychological distress in HIV-positive people without symptoms is not as severe as in people living with AIDS, their higher scores vs. the control group indicate that more attention should be paid to the psychological status of the HIV-positive group. Even if they do not receive ART, medical care (or at least psychological care) should be given to HIV-positive people before symptoms of AIDS appear. In our study, we found that the psychological

status of infected female individuals was worse than that of male subjects, especially for depression and anxiety. The more frequent and severe occurrence of psychological distress among HIV-infected women may be explained by their lower social status Coproporphyrinogen III oxidase than men in the Confucianism-guided society of China. Consequently, women in traditional Chinese families experience greater physical and mental stress [23]. Previous studies have also found that women living with HIV are especially vulnerable to discrimination because of their gender, their class status and the stigma associated with the disease, and share more disease disclosure concerns than men [24,25]. As women are the fastest growing group of HIV-infected individuals in China [26], it is particularly important that the treatment and care of HIV-infected women be improved. Policy strategies that alleviate the psychological burdens of HIV-infected women will be crucial to their treatment and care. Further studies on the psychological effects of HIV infection in women in China should be conducted.

5%) The study synbiotic, AKSB, did not demonstrate a preventativ

5%). The study synbiotic, AKSB, did not demonstrate a preventative effect against TD compared to placebo at the interim analysis (n = 174) and therefore study was halted. Although adherence to the study was less than expected, we also found no evidence that AKSB could reduce TD incidence in the 114 subjects who were fully protocol adherent. The study drug, AKSB, was found to be safe in all study participants including those older this website than 60 years (n = 46). We also demonstrated good viability

of organisms within unused capsules indicating that the AKSB synbiotic was of high quality. Probiotic studies for the prevention of TD have indeed shown variable results. Briand and colleagues did not find a protective effect with the use of L acidophilus,[20] whereas other animal[21, 22] and human studies have shown a positive preventative effect of probiotics on TD.[11, 14] Similarly, in a recent meta-analysis, BIRB 796 nmr only 50% of the randomized clinical trials reported efficacy in the prevention of TD. Efficacy was reported with S boulardii, and L rhamnosus GG.[11, 13-15] Compared to placebo, S boulardii[13] decreased the incidence of TD from 39% to 29%–34% but success depended directly on the rigorous use of the preparation and only

1016 of the 3000 (34%) participants completed the study. Despite the high incidence of TD in our study, only seven subjects demonstrated carriage of a pathogen post-travel. AKSB pill microbiologic assessment showed that the capsules still contained viable organisms although there was a decline in the total CFU of probiotic Alectinib molecular weight in approximately half of the pills returned. The medications were not required to be refrigerated but it is possible that travel to high temperature or humid climates may have affected the viability of the organisms. Limitations of this study include the lack of evidence of protocol adherence because the subjects were traveling and data were collected through self-reporting. Of those that reported compliance

only 58.2% were adherent to the protocol. There was no effective way to document reliability of the data entered into the daily diary. As less than half of the participants (43.8%) returned their pill bottles, post-travel pill count was not a reliable measure of compliance. Although there was a lack of protocol adherence, a trend toward benefit would have been expected toward reduction of TD incidence if the synbiotic had a beneficial effect. It is possible that the success of any TD prevention study will be fraught with such problems of compliance. Adherence to the study drugs (and real-life preventive medications) could potentially be increased with the use of individualized schedules, dosettes, and electronic-reminder devices including mobile smart phone-reminder utilization. These have been studied well in the HIV population for drug adherence.

Improvements identified

Improvements identified PD-0332991 supplier included the involvement of the whole pharmacy team to ensure patients understood how they should use them. One implementation pharmacist had given the questionnaires to the wrong patients and therefore the results should be interpreted with caution. It was not possible to remove these from the analysis as they were anonymous. Pharmacists were positive about the use of the cards and felt they could help to encourage

patients that do not collect their own medication to present for MUR. The results suggest that patients who self-present may receive more information from MURs than those who don’t however further work, with clearer implementation guidelines and on a larger scale is required. A. Aggarwala, C. Bellb, V. Collingsa aKings College London, London, UK, bKings College Hospital, London, UK The aim of this project

was to evaluate practitioner’s compliance with NICE guidance for treating patients Selleck INCB024360 with plaque psoriasis at King’s College Hospital. Only 30.8% of patients initiated on biological therapy satisfied the NICE criteria for severe psoriasis using PASI and DLQI scores. Practitioner’s at King’s College Hospital were not complying to NICE guidelines for all patients treated with biologics for chronic plaque psoriasis. Improvements in documentation may allow for more accurate evaluation of compliance with NICE guidelines. Chronic plaque psoriasis is the most common form of psoriasis.1 Topical Niclosamide therapy is recommended as first line and second line therapies include phototherapy and standard systemic non-biological agents such as methotrexate.1 Biologic agents are reserved as third line where first and second line have failed and for those with classified severe psoriasis using scoring systems.1 Biologics are expensive (£9500 per patient per year)2 and require extensive monitoring both for response and side effects.1 With wide variations in practice across the UK1 this audit compared standards set by NICE

with practice at King’s College Hospital focusing on whether: Topical therapies were used as first line treatments1 Biologic agents were (a) initiated when both the disease was classified as severe using Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) scores and (b) when there was no response, the patient was intolerant or contraindicated to standard systemic therapies1 Biologics were discontinued if there is not an adequate response by the appropriate week.1 A retrospective cohort review was carried out at King’s College Hospital between October and November 2013. A list of patients currently on or about to commence treatment with a biologic for all skin diseases was acquired from the dermatology department. Inclusion criteria were patients aged 18 years or more and currently on or commencing biological therapy for the treatment of plaque psoriasis.

45-μm membrane filter enrichment technique on 01 × TSA (Iizuka e

45-μm membrane filter enrichment technique on 0.1 × TSA (Iizuka et al., 1998). The site was covered by a heap of fallen leaves and located in a grove in the Tokyo metropolitan see more area. Analysis of the almost complete 16S rRNA gene sequence grouped strains ND5 and MY14T within the family Oxalobacteraceae (Betaproteobacteria), most closely related to type strains of the genera Herminiimonas and Oxalicibacterium,

respectively. The genus Herminiimonas presently comprises five validly described species: Herminiimonas fonticola (Fernandes et al., 2005), Herminiimonas aquatilis (Kämpfer et al., 2006), Herminiimonas arsenicoxydans (Muller et al., 2006), Herminiimonas saxobsidens (Lang Venetoclax datasheet et al., 2007) and Herminiimonas glaciei (Loveland-Curtze et al., 2009). The genus Oxalicibacterium, with the type species Oxalicibacterium

flavum, was established by Tamer et al. (2002) and currently comprises three species. The species Oxalicibacterium horti and Oxalicibacterium faecigallinarum have been described recently (Sahin et al., 2009). The present paper deals with a polyphasic approach to describe strains ND5 and MY14T, which have been classified in the genera Herminiimonas and Oxalicibacterium, respectively, and to propose a novel taxon for strain MY14T, named Oxalicibacterium solurbis sp. nov. Physiological and biochemical tests were carried heptaminol out at 30 °C. Conventional biochemical tests were performed according to standard methods (Smibert & Krieg, 1994). Bacterial growth at different pH values (6–9.5), temperatures (−5 to 42 °C) and NaCl concentrations (0–5%) was determined in basal mineral medium supplemented with glycolate and lactate that contained (L−1): 1 g l-glycolate, 1 g dl-lactate, 0.1 g yeast extract (Difco), 100 mL RM1-mineral solution, 1 g (NH4)2SO4, 0.5 g KH2PO4 and 0.5 g K2HPO4. The pH of the medium was adjusted to 6.8 with NaOH. RM1-mineral solution contained (L−1): 2.0 g MgCl2·6H2O, 0.4 g CaCl2·2H2O, 2.0 g NaCl and 10 mL trace element solution (Iizuka et al., 1998). API 20NE,

API 20E strips (bioMérieux) and Biolog GN microplates were used according to the manufacturer’s instructions, and reactions were observed for 7 days. Additional utilization and assimilations of sugars, alcohols and amino acids were determined in the above-indicated basal mineral medium with addition of filter-sterilized solutions of the following substrates (g L−1). Sugars and alcohols: ethanol, 0.5; methanol, 0.5; n-propanol, 0.5; d-ribose, 2.0; xylose, 2.0. Organic acids: acetate, 0.5 and 2.0; benzoate, 0.5; caprylate, 0.5; oxalate, 0.5 and 2.0; fumarate, 2.0; glycolate, 2.0; l-malate, 2.0; l-tartarate, 2.0. Amino acids: aminobutyrate, 2.0; l-arginine HCl, 2.0; l-glycine, 2.0; l-lysine, 2.0; and l-tryptophan, 2.0. The 16S rRNA gene sequences were analysed as described by Iizuka et al. (1998).

In general, the principal events that shape a bacterial chromosom

In general, the principal events that shape a bacterial chromosome are gene duplication, horizontal gene transfer, gene loss and chromosomal rearrangements (Andersson & Hughes, 2009). Of these, gene duplication seems to contribute only modestly, horizontal gene transfer seem to be quite important, and gene deletion and genetic drift, which are countered by positive selection, probably vary with ecological niche and the type of chromosome rearrangements. Of these three contributions, it is likely that gene deletion and genetic drift are the most related to evolutionary time because such events are largely dependent on repeated sequences and mobile elements (Ventura et al., 2007). However, up

to the present, no reliable method of tracing the evolutionary development of chromosomes in terms of these various selleck inhibitor events has been successful. Nonetheless, there is evidence to suggest that the Actinomycetales might have enough coherence across their chromosomes to allow some insights into this problem. Chromosome diversity and similarity within the Actinomycetales are made more interesting because of the topological diversity of their chromosomes; specifically, some families seem to have a preference for linear chromosomes, whereas the majority prefer circular chromosomes (Lin et al., 1993; Reeves et al., 1998; Redenbach et al., 2000; Bentley et al., 2002;

Goshi et al., 2002; Ikeda et al., 2003; Bentley & Parkhill, 2004; McLeod et al., 2006; Ohnishi et al., 2008). In fact, the frequency of linear chromosomes selleckchem within the Actinomycetales is high compared with all other orders in the kingdom Bacteria. What evolutionary factors lead to a linear vs. a circular chromosome remain open to debate (Chen, 1996; Chen et al., 2002; Qin & Cohen, 2002), but it is important to realize that linearity vs. circularity does not seem to affect chromosome structure dramatically.

Here, we will examine the chromosome diversity and similarity of the Actinomycetales, as displayed by the complete chromosome sequences available, and suggest that changes vary Protein kinase N1 across the chromosome (Ventura et al., 2007; Hsaio & Kirby, 2008; Kirby et al., 2008). As the number of chromosome sequences available for the Actinomycetales increases and the genera from which they come broadens, it becomes important to try and understand how chromosome evolution in this order has occurred and is occurring. This is not least because over 80% of the world’s antibiotics originally were identified as being produced by a member of the Actinomycetales (Hopwood, 2006). The majority of prokaryote chromosomes are believed to be circular. However, it can also be stated that biochemical proof of the circularity of many of these chromosomes is lacking and that they are circular by default. This remains true for the Actinobacteria and the Actinomycetales.

, 1985; Jayaswal et al, 1985; Schoonejans et al, 1987; Kao
<

, 1985; Jayaswal et al., 1985; Schoonejans et al., 1987; Kao

& Sequeira, 1991; Kingsley et al., 1993; Dow et al., 1995; Titarenko et al., 1997). On the other hand, DZNeP chemical structure they can also act as a pathogen-associated molecular pattern, recognized by the plant and triggering specific defenses (oxidative burst, increased levels of intracellular calcium, modifications to cell wall) (Dow et al., 2000; Meyer et al., 2001). Therefore, it has been argued that variation in lipopolysaccharides might be expected as a means of avoiding recognition in plant defense (Patil et al., 2007). However, X. campestris pathovar vesicatoria, and presumably other xanthomonads, can suppress lipopolysaccharide-triggered responses through secretion of effectors

via the T3SS (Keshavarzi et al., 2004), suggesting that avoidance of recognition by the plant might be less important. Alternatively, the driver for variation might be interactions with phage (Keshavarzi et al., 2004) or with insect vectors (Pal & Wu, 2009). Functions of TFP include twitching motility (Liu et al., 2001; Mattick, 2002; De La Fuente selleck chemicals llc et al., 2007; Li et al., 2007, 2010; Pelicic, 2008; Bahar et al., 2009) and attachment (Jenkins et al., 2005; Heijstra et al., 2009), meaning that they often play a role in virulence as well as contributing to survival and epiphytic fitness before infection (Roine et al., 1998; Shime-Hattori et al., 2006; Darsonval et al., 2008; Varga et al., 2008). An 8-kb gene cluster in Xcm 4381 (GenBank: ACHT01000072.1) encodes TFP components FimT, PilV, PilW, PilX, PilY1 and PilE. This cluster is adjacent to a tRNA-Asn gene. Nucleotide sequence alignments using mauve (Darling et al., 2004) revealed that in previously

sequenced genomes this TFP-encoding gene cluster was either completely absent or partially deleted and interrupted by transposon-associated sequences. For example, in Xcv 85-10, pilX appears to be replaced by an IS1477 transposase (GenBank: CAJ24495.1). In Xoo KACC10331, it is replaced by a different putative transposase (GenBank: YP_201837.1). 6-phosphogluconolactonase The observation that this TFP gene cluster is uniquely intact in Xcm 4381 suggests that in this strain, unlike other sequenced Xanthomonas strains where it is apparently dispensable, the encoded TFP may have some adaptive function. A different gene cluster in Xvv 702 (GenBank: ACHS01000345.1) encodes homologues of TFP components FimT, PilE, PilY1, PilW and PilV. This region is conserved in the sequenced genomes of X. oryzae pathovar oryzae but not in Xcm 4381. The respective TFP clusters may be functionally redundant. However, there is little sequence similarity between proteins, respectively encoded on the Xvv 702 and the Xcm 4381 TFP clusters. These sequence differences likely translate into differences in physicochemical properties of the resulting TFP systems, including differences in glycosylation (Darling et al., 2004).