The brain of the fur seal, Callorhinus ursinus : with a comparative description of those of Zalophus californianus, Phoca vitulina, Ursus americanus and Monachus tropicalis /

Caption title.

Hortus Americanus : containing an account of the trees, shrubs, and other vegetable productions of South-America and the West India Islands, and particularly of the island of Jamaica ... /

"Interspersed with many curious and useful observations, respecting their uses in medicine, diet, and mechanics."

Description of a species of Caligus C. americanus.

Amer. journ. sci. 1838. 34. 225-266. pl. 3-5.

Field evaluation of anthelmintic drug sensitivity using in vitro egg hatch and larval motility assays with Necator americanus recovered from human clinical isolates

A field-applicable assay for testing anthelmintic sensitivity is required to monitor for anthelmintic resistance. We undertook a study to evaluate the ability of three in vitro assay systems to define drug sensitivity of clinical isolates of the human hookworm parasite Necator americanus recovered from children resident in a village in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. The assays entailed observation of drug effects on egg hatch (EHA), larval development (LDA), and motility of infective stage larvae (LMA). The egg hatch assay proved the best method for assessing the response to benzimidazole anthelmintics, while the larval motility assay was suitable for assessing the response to ivermectin. The performance of the larval development assay was unsatisfactory on account of interference caused by contaminating bacteria. A simple protocol was developed whereby stool samples were subdivided and used for immediate egg recovery, as well as for faecal culture, in order to provide eggs and infective larvae, respectively, for use in the egg hatch assay and larval motility assay systems. While the assays proved effective in quantifying drug sensitivity in larvae of the drug-susceptible hookworms examined in this study, their ability to indicate drug resistance in larval or adult hookworms remains to be determined. (c) 2005 Australian Society for Parasitology Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A survey of the intestinal transcriptomes of the hookworms, Necator americanus and Ancylostoma caninum, using tissues isolated by laser microdissection microscopy

The gastrointestinal tracts of multi-cellular blood-feeding parasites are targets for vaccines and drugs. Recently, recombinant vaccines that interrupt the digestion of blood in the hookworm gut have shown efficacy, so we explored the intestinal transcriptomes of the human and canine hookworms, Necator americanus and Ancylostoma caninum, respectively. We used Laser Microdissection Microscopy to dissect gut tissue from the parasites, extracted the RNA and generated cDNA libraries. A total of 480 expressed sequence tags were sequenced from each library and assembled into contigs, accounting for 268 N. americanus genes and 276 A. caninum genes. Only 17% of N. americanus and 36% of A. caninum contigs were assigned Gene Ontology classifications. Twenty-six (9.8%) N. americanus and 18 (6.5%) A. caninum contigs did not have homologues in any databases including dbEST-of these novel clones, seven N. americanus and three A. caninum contigs had Open Reading Frames with predicted secretory signal peptides. The most abundant transcripts corresponded to mRNAs encoding cholesterol-and fatty acid-binding proteins, C-type lectins, Activation-Associated Secretory Proteins, and proteases of different mechanistic classes, particularly astacin-like metallopeptidases. Expressed sequence tags corresponding to known and potential recombinant vaccines were identified and these included homologues of proteases, anti-clotting factors, defensins and integral membrane proteins involved in cell adhesion. (c) 2006 Australian Society for Parasitology Inc Published by Elsevier Ltd. All fights reserved.