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Much attention has been focused on the moss family Mniaceae over the past 50 years, yet new discoveries continue to be made. Plagiomnium decursivum joins P. floridanum as the second new species of Plagiomnium Section Plagiomnium described in the past ten years. Careful morphological and anatomical studies, coupled with evidence from isozymes and gene sequencing, reveal that a species from Japan referred to in an earlier paper (Wyatt & Odrzykoski 1998) as "P. acutum" is actually new to science. In addition, the taxon referred to in that paper as "P. acutum-J" is in fact P. acutum, and the taxon referred to as "P. cuspidatum-F" is now named P. floridanum (Wyatt & Odrzykoski 2012). The new species, P. decursivum, is compared to its closest relative, P. acutum, and to the other four species of Section Plagiomnium. It differs in having smaller leaves with long, broad decurrencies, longer leaf cells with corner thickenings, and shorter teeth composed of a single cell. Based on isozyme data, it is concluded that allopolyploid P. cuspidatum has P. decursivum as one haploid progenitor and that P. floridanum is most likely the other. Moreover, sequencing of two regions of chloroplast DNA (rps4 and rpL16) suggests that P. floridanum may have been the maternal parent in crosses that launched the allopolyploid. The relative isolation of P. drummondii and P. japonicum within the section is apparent from both morphology and genetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since late 2013, after an absence of seven years, outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) infection have reemerged and swept rapidly across Japan, resulting in significant economic losses. In this study, we report the emergence, mixed infection, and genetic characterization of 15 novel field PEDV variants with large genomic deletions. The sizes of deletion varied between 582 nt (194 aa) and 648 nt (216 aa) at positions 28–714 (10–238) on the S gene (protein). Among 17 PEDV samples isolated from individual pigs, all of them contained at least two distinct genotypes with large genomic deletions, and 94.1% of them were found to consist of strains with an intact S gene. These variants were found in eight primary and nine recurrent outbreaks, and they might be associated with persistent PEDV infection in the farms. Full-length S and ORF3 genes of eight variants derived from 2 samples were characterized. This is the first report of mixed infections caused by various genotypes of PEDV and would be important for the studies of viral isolation, pathogenesis, and molecular epidemiology of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Huge groundwater reserves are under the foot of Mt. Fuji, the tallest volcanic mountain in Japan, and the residence time of the groundwater as estimated from the36Cl/Cl isotope ratio is in the range of 20–35 years. All springwater samples contain nearly saturated concentrations of oxygen. The groundwater field was separated into four areas based on regional slopes of the groundwater table and estimated groundwater flow directions. Springwater samples showed that physicochemical characteristics of the groundwater in the region are relatively constant; Ion concentrations were characterized as the Ca-HCO3type, irrespective of location at the foot of the mountain. The density of prokaryotes in the springwater, which was in the range of 102–104cells mL−1, was low compared with any other groundwater so far reported. Although the density of prokaryotes was low, retrieved clones show that the prokaryotes belonged to eight bacterial and two archaeal phyla, and included both aerobic and obligate anaerobic prokaryotes. Some retrieved clones were related to thermophilic prokaryotes, which are optimally adapted to temperatures greater than 40°C. This finding suggests that at least some of the source of the groundwater was located at a depth of 600 m or greater, based on a temperature gradient of 4°C/100 m. This depth is far below the lava layer which was taken to be a substantial pool of groundwater. Microbiological information may provide insight into the transport route of groundwater until it emerges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]