Individuals with the oxytocin OXTR rs53576 A/A genotype showed lower positive affect scores (F=5.532, df=1; p=0.019). This effect was restricted to males (F=13.098, df=1; p=0.00047). Haplotypes constructed with the three markers were associated with positive affect (p=0.0012), negative affect (p<0.0001) and emotional loneliness (p<0.0001). Non-verbal intelligence was significantly reduced

in rs53576 A/A adolescents (T=2.247, p=0.027). Our findings support a role for the oxytocin receptor haplotypes in the generation of affectivity, emotional loneliness and IQ. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Papaya meleira virus (PMeV) is the causal agent of papaya sticky disease. This study describes two methods for molecular diagnosis of PMeV using conventional and real-time PCR. These methods were

shown to be more efficient than current methods of viral detection using extraction Liproxstatin1 of PMeV dsRNA and observation of symptoms in the field. The methods described here were used to evaluate the effect of inoculation of papaya plants with purified PMeV dsRNA on the progress of PMeV infection. A single inoculation with PMeV dsRNA was observed to delay the progress of the virus infection by several weeks. The possibility of vertical transmission of PMeV was also investigated. No evidence was found for PMeV transmission through seeds collected from

diseased fruit. The implications see more of these results for the epidemiology of PMeV and the management of papaya sticky disease are discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“The superior temporal gyrus (STG) is strongly implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, particularly with regards to auditory hallucinations. In this study. using in situ quantitative autoradiography find more in postmortem tissue, we investigated the binding of the [(3)H]ketanserin to 5-HT(2A) receptors and [(3)H] mesulergine to 5-HT(2C) receptors in the left STC of 8 male schizophrenic patients compared to 8 control subjects. A strong [(3)H]ketanserin binding was observed in the STG, however there was a very weak [(3)H] mesulergine binding in the STG. A significant decrease in binding of [(3)H]ketanserin was clearly observed in schizophrenia patients in comparison with control subjects. There were no significant correlations between 5-HT(2A) binding density and age, postmortem intervals, or brain pH. These results suggest that the alterations of the 5-HT(2A) receptors contribute to the pathophysiology of the STG in schizophrenia. Furthermore, there is a clear tendency for a positive correlation between 5-HT(2A) and muscarinic M1 receptor bindings, and for negative correlations between 5-HT(2A) and GABA(A) receptor bindings and between muscarinic M1 and GABA(A) receptor bindings.