Validation and performance comparison of two SARS-CoV-2 IgG/IgM rapid tests.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes a disease called COVID-19. COVID-19 is primarily diagnosed using molecular techniques mainly real-time reverse transcriptase PCR. Reliable and accurate serologic assays for COVID-19, are an important tool for surveillance and epidemiologic studies. In this study, the IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette and the Prima COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in blood, serum and plasma samples collected from patients up to 48 days after symptom onset in Saudi Arabia were validated. Overall, both tests showed poor performance and cannot be utilised for COVID-19 diagnosis as a point of care test or to determine seroprevalence.

Exocyst components promote an incompatible interaction between Glycine max (soybean) and Heterodera glycines (the soybean cyst nematode).

Vesicle and target membrane fusion involves tethering, docking and fusion. The GTPase SECRETORY4 (SEC4) positions the exocyst complex during vesicle membrane tethering, facilitating docking and fusion. Glycine max (soybean) Sec4 functions in the root during its defense against the parasitic nematode Heterodera glycines as it attempts to develop a multinucleate nurse cell (syncytium) serving to nourish the nematode over its 30-day life cycle. Results indicate that other tethering proteins are also important for defense. The G. max exocyst is encoded by 61 genes: 5 EXOC1 (Sec3), 2 EXOC2 (Sec5), 5 EXOC3 (Sec6), 2 EXOC4 (Sec8), 2 EXOC5 (Sec10) 6 EXOC6 (Sec15), 31 EXOC7 (Exo70) and 8 EXOC8 (Exo84) genes. At least one member of each gene family is expressed within the syncytium during the defense response. Syncytium-expressed exocyst genes function in defense while some are under transcriptional regulation by mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). The exocyst component EXOC7-H4-1 is not expressed within the syncytium but functions in defense and is under MAPK regulation. The tethering stage of vesicle transport has been demonstrated to play an important role in defense in the G. max-H. glycines pathosystem, with some of the spatially and temporally regulated exocyst components under transcriptional control by MAPKs.

MAPKDB: A MAP kinase database for signal transduction element identification.

The mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade is a central signal transduction platform, ubiquitous within the eukaryotes. MAPKs function prominently in different essential cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, survival and defense to pathogen attack. The 32 MAPKs of Glycine max (soybean) have been examined functionally to determine if they have any defense role, focusing in on infection by the plant-parasitic nematode Heterodera glycines. Of these 32 MAPKs, 9 have been shown to have a defense function. Hence, the Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase database (MAPKDB) has been developed to assist in such research. The MAPKDB allows users to search the annotations with sequence data for G. max transgenic lines undergoing overexpression (OE) or RNA interference (RNAi) of its defense map kinases. These defense MAPKs include map kinase 2 (MPK2), MPK3, MPK4, MPK5, MPK6, MPK13, MPK16, and MPK20. The database also contains data analysis information for each sample that helps to detect the differential expression of the genes identified within these samples. The database also contains data for each sample that helps to detect the differential expression of the genes identified within these samples. The database has been developed to manage G. max MAPK sequences with sequence alignment for 18 different samples along with two additional OE and RNAi control experiments for a total of 20.