Disease relevance of Africa, Western

• METHODS: The relationship, at the individual level, between infection with O. volvulus microfilariae and bilateral blindness was examined, by use of data collected, during the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in western Africa (OCP), from 2315 villages in 11 countries [1].

High impact information on Africa, Western

• Cryptolepine, a naturally occurring indoloquinoline alkaloid used as an antimalarial drug in Central and Western Africa, has been found to bind to DNA in a formerly unknown intercalation mode [2].
• Onset of diabetes in most of the type I subjects was after age 20, and type I diabetics were difficult to recruit for the study, in keeping with reports on the rarity of type I diabetes among Blacks in western Africa and reports of DR4, but not DR3, being correlated with an early age of onset in Caucasians.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)[3]
• Variation in the timing of circadian LUCIFERASE expression was used to map loci affecting the entrained phase of the clock in a recombinant population derived from two geographically distant accessions, Landsberg erecta and Cape Verde Islands. Four quantitative trait loci (QTL) were found with major effects on circadian phase [4].
• In crosses between the Columbia and Cape Verde Islands strains, the cytosine methylation content segregated as an additive Mendelian trait: the high NOR methylation state was tightly associated with the inheritance of the two Columbia-derived NOR loci [5].
• The Cape Verde Islands allele of cryptochrome 2 enhances cotyledon unfolding in the absence of blue light in Arabidopsis [6].

Biological context of Africa, Western

• In the present work we analyzed the seed-soluble OS (sucrose, raffinose, and stachyose) content of several Arabidopsis accessions and thus identified the genotype Cape Verde Islands having a very low RSO content [7].
• Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is frequent in areas of high exposure to aflatoxin and high prevalence of HBV infection, such as western Africa and south-east China. A selective mutation in TP53 (AGG-->AGT at codon 249, Arg-->Ser) has been identified as a hotspot in HCCs from such areas, reflecting DNA damage caused by aflatoxin metabolites [8].
• Mitochondrial (cytochrome b and 12S rRNA) and nuclear (c-mos) genes, analyzed by a variety of methods, indicate that the distinctive northwest African gecko Geckonia chazaliae is a member of the Tarentola clade, being most closely related to the species of the western Canary and Cape Verde islands [9].

Associations of Africa, Western with chemical compounds

• The total Cabo Verde sample clearly displays the characteristic mitochondrial features of the Atlantic fringe of western Africa and testifies to almost no mitochondrial input from the Portuguese colonizers [10].
• Ibogaine is an indole alkaloid found in the roots of Tabernanthe Iboga (Apocynaceae family), a rain forest shrub that is native to western Africa. Ibogaine is used by indigenous peoples in low doses to combat fatigue, hunger and thirst, and in higher doses as a sacrament in religious rituals [11].

Gene context of Africa, Western

• This is the first characterization of CTX-M-15-positive K. pneumoniae in Western Africa [12].
• The intensities of staining were converted to quantitative data and used as trait for QTL analysis using Landsberg erecta x Cape Verde Islands recombinant inbred lines [13].

References