Zoogeographic, palaeontological and biochemical data support a Southern Hemisphere origin for passerine birds, while accumulating molecular data suggest that most extant avian orders originated in the midLate Cretaceous. We obtained DNA sequence data from the nuclear c-myc and RAG-1 genes of the major passerine groups and here we demonstrate that the endemic New Zealand wrens (Acanthisittidae) are the sister taxon to all other extant passerines, supporting a Gondwanan origin and early radiation of passerines. We propose that (i) the acanthisittids were isolated when New Zealand separated from Gondwana (ca. 82-85 Myr ago), (ii) suboscines, in turn, were derived from an ancestral lineage that inhabited western Gondwana, and (iii) the ancestors of the oscines (songbirds) were subsequently isolated by the separation of Australia from Antarctica. The later spread of passerines into the Northern Hemisphere reflects the northward migration of these former Gondwanan elements.

Renal transplant recipients require periodic surveillance forimmune-based complications such as rejection and infection. Noninvasive monitoring methods are preferred, particularly for children, for whom invasive testing is problematic. We performed a cross-sectional analysis of adult and pediatric transplant recipients to determine whether a urine-based chemokine assay could non-invasively identify patients with rejection amongst other common clinical diagnoses. Urine was collected from 110 adults and 46 children with defined clinical conditions: healthy volunteers, stable renal transplant recipients, and recipients with clinical or subclinical acute rejection (AR) or BK infection (BKI), calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) toxicity, orinterstitial fibrosis (IFTA). Urine was analyzed using a solid-phase bead-array assay for the interferon gamma-induced chemokines CXCL9 and CXCL10. We found that urine CXCL9 and CXCL10 were markedly elevated in adults and children experiencing either AR or BKI (p=0.0002), but not in stable allograft recipients, or recipients with CNI toxicity or IFTA. The sensitivity and specificity of these chemokine assays exceeded that of serum creatinine. Neither chemokine distinguished between AR and BKI. These data show that urine chemokine monitoring identifies patients with renal allograft inflammation. This assay may be usefulfor non-invasively distinguishing those allograft recipients requiring more intensivesurveillance from those with benign clinical courses.

The mitotic recombination behaviour of a duplication of the his4 region on chromosome III in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was studied. The major recombination event between the duplicated segments is gene conversion unassociated with reciprocal recombination. The rad52-1 mutation preferentially decreases mitotic gene conversion. These results suggest that mitotic gene conversion may occur by a different pathway from that occurring in meiosis. This mitotic gene conversion may be important in yeast mating type interconversion and the maintenance of sequence homogeneity in families of repeated eukaryotic genes.

No abstract