Friday Facts, September 17, 2010, Vol. 71

Bureau of Nutrition and Health Promotion part of the Iowa Department of Public Health produces of weekly newsletter about the Iowa WIC Program for the State of Iowa citizen.

Friday Facts, December 17, 2010, Vol. 83

Bureau of Nutrition and Health Promotion part of the Iowa Department of Public Health produces of weekly newsletter about the Iowa WIC Program for the State of Iowa citizen.

Agri-News, August 17, 2006, Vol. 6, no. 16

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Agri-News, August 22, 2006, Vol. 6, no. 17

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

EPI Update, June 17, 2011

Weekly newsletter for Center For Acute Disease Epidemiology of Iowa Department of Public Health.

Agri-News, September 17, 2010, Vol. 10, no. 16

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Agri-News, October 8, 2010, Vol. 10, no. 17

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Agri-News, October 16, 2009, Vol. 9, no. 17

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Agri-News, October 17, 2008, Vol. 8, no. 16

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Agri-News, November 7, 2008, Vol. 8, no. 17

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Agri-News, November 6, 2007, Vol. 7, no. 17

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Distinct sets of alphabeta TCRs confer similar recognition of tumor antigen NY-ESO-1157-165 by interacting with its central Met/Trp residues.

Naturally acquired immune responses against human cancers often include CD8(+) T cells specific for the cancer testis antigen NY-ESO-1. Here, we studied T cell receptor (TCR) primary structure and function of 605 HLA-A*0201/NY-ESO-1(157-165)-specific CD8 T cell clones derived from five melanoma patients. We show that an important proportion of tumor-reactive T cells preferentially use TCR AV3S1/BV8S2 chains, with remarkably conserved CDR3 amino acid motifs and lengths in both chains. All remaining T cell clones belong to two additional sets expressing BV1 or BV13 TCRs, associated with alpha-chains with highly diverse VJ usage, CDR3 amino acid sequence, and length. Yet, all T cell clonotypes recognize tumor antigen with similar functional avidity. Two residues, Met-160 and Trp-161, located in the middle region of the NY-ESO-1(157-165) peptide, are critical for recognition by most of the T cell clonotypes. Collectively, our data show that a large number of alphabeta TCRs, belonging to three distinct sets (AVx/BV1, AV3/BV8, AVx/BV13) bind pMHC with equal antigen sensitivity and recognize the same peptide motif. Finally, this in-depth study of recognition of a self-antigen suggests that in part similar biophysical mechanisms shape TCR repertoires toward foreign and self-antigens.

Sequence analysis and expression of the attachment and fusion proteins of canine distemper virus wild-type strain A75/17.

The biological properties of wild-type A75/17 and cell culture-adapted Onderstepoort canine distemper virus differ markedly. To learn more about the molecular basis for these differences, we have isolated and sequenced the protein-coding regions of the attachment and fusion proteins of wild-type canine distemper virus strain A75/17. In the attachment protein, a total of 57 amino acid differences were observed between the Onderstepoort strain and strain A75/17, and these were distributed evenly over the entire protein. Interestingly, the attachment protein of strain A75/17 contained an extension of three amino acids at the C terminus. Expression studies showed that the attachment protein of strain A75/17 had a higher apparent molecular mass than the attachment protein of the Onderstepoort strain, in both the presence and absence of tunicamycin. In the fusion protein, 60 amino acid differences were observed between the two strains, of which 44 were clustered in the much smaller F2 portion of the molecule. Significantly, the AUG that has been proposed as a translation initiation codon in the Onderstepoort strain is an AUA codon in strain A75/17. Detailed mutation analyses showed that both the first and second AUGs of strain A75/17 are the major translation initiation sites of the fusion protein. Similar analyses demonstrated that, also in the Onderstepoort strain, the first two AUGs are the translation initiation codons which contribute most to the generation of precursor molecules yielding the mature form of the fusion protein.