Both black and symbolically white: The 'Bajan-Brit' return migrant as post-colonial hybrid

The research presented in this article centres on an under-researched demographic group of young return migrants, namely, second-generation Barbadians, or 'Bajan-Brits', who have decided to 'return' to the birthplace of their parents. Based on 51 in-depth interviews, the essay examines the experiences of second-generation return migrants from an interpretative perspective framed within post-colonial discourse. The article first considers the Bajan-Brits and issues of race in the UK before their decision to migrate. It is then demonstrated that on 'return', in certain respects, these young, black English migrants occupy a liminal position of cultural, racial and economic privilege, based on their 'symbolic' or 'token' whiteness within the post-colonial context of Barbados. But this very hybridity and inbetweeness means that they also face difficulties and associated feelings of social alienation and discrimination. The ambivalent status of this transnational group of migrants serves to challenge traditional notions of Barbadian racial identity.

Endoparasitism in colonial hosts: patterns and processes

This study begins to redress our lack of knowledge of the interactions between colonial hosts and their parasites by focusing on a novel host-parasite system. Investigations of freshwater bryozoan populations revealed that infection by myxozoan parasites is widespread. Covert infections were detected in all 5 populations studied and were often at high prevalence while overt infections were observed in only 1. Infections were persistent in populations subject to temporal sampling. Negative effects of infection were identified but virulence was low. Infection did not induce mortality in the environmental conditions studied. However, the production of statoblasts (dormant propagules) was greatly reduced in bryozoans with overt infections in comparison to uninfected bryozoans. Overtly-infected bryozoans also grew more slowly and had low fission rates relative to colonies lacking overt infection. Bryozoans with covert infections were smaller than uninfected bryozoans. High levels of vertical transmission were achieved through colony fission and the infection of statoblasts. Increased fission rates may be a strategy for hosts to escape from parasites but the parasite can also exploit the fragmentation of colonial hosts to gain vertical transmission and dispersal. Our study provides evidence that opportunities and constraints for host-parasite co-evolution can be highly dependent on organismal body plans and that low virulence may be associated with exploitation of colonial hosts by endoparasites.

SEF17 fimbriae are essential for the convoluted colonial morphology of Salmonella enteritidis

Salmonella enteritidis isolated from poultry infections generated a convoluted colonial morphology after 48 h growth on colonisation factor antigen (CFA) agar at 25 degrees C. A mutant S. enteritidis defective for the elaboration of the SEF17 fimbrial antigen, in which the agf gene cluster was inactivated by insertion of an ampicillin resistance gene cassette, and other wild-type S. enteritidis transduced to this genotype failed to produce convoluted colonies. However, growth of SEF17(-) mutans at 25 degrees C on CFA agar supplemented with 0.001% Congo red resulted in partial recovery of the phenotype. Immunoelectron microscopy demonstrated that copious amounts of the SEF17 fimbrial antigen were present in the extracellular matrix of convoluted colonies of wild-type virulent S. enteritidis isolates. Bacteria were often hyperflagellated also. Immunoelectron microscopy of SEF17(-) mutants grown on CFA agar+0.001% Congo red demonstrated the elaboration of an as yet undefined fimbrial structure. Isolates of S. enteritidis which were described previously as avirulent and sensitive to environmental stress failed to express SEF17 or produce convoluted colonies. These data indicate an essential role for SEF17, and possibly for another fimbria and flagella, in the generation of the convoluted colonial phenotype. The relationship between virulence and colonial phenotype is discussed.