Confocal Raman microscopy has a number of advantages in investigating the human stratum corneum (SC) in vivo and ex vivo. The penetration profiles of xenobiotics in the SC, as well as depth profiles of the physiological parameters of the SC, such as the concentration of water depending on the strength of hydrogen bonds, total water concentration, the hydrogen bonding state of water molecules, concentration of intercellular lipids, the lamellar and lateral packing order of intercellular lipids, the concentration of natural moisturizing factor molecules, carotenoids, and the secondary and tertiary structure properties of keratin are well investigated. To consider the depth-dependent Raman signal attenuation, in most cases a normalization procedure is needed, which uses the main SC’s protein keratin-related Raman peaks, based on the assumption that keratin is homogeneously distributed in the SC. We found that this assumption is not accurate for the bottom part of the SC, where the water concentration is considerably increased, thus, reducing the presence of keratin. Our results demonstrate that the bottom part of the SC depth profile should be multiplied by 0.94 in average in order to match this non-homogeneity, which result in a decrease of the uncorrected values in these depths. The correctly normalized depth profiles of the concentration of lipids, water, natural moisturizing factor and carotenoids are presented in this work. The obtained results should be taken into consideration in future skin research using confocal Raman microscopy.

An osseous choristoma is a benign tumor consisting of regular bone tissue in an irregular localization. Choristomas in the head and neck region are rare. Most frequently, they are found in the region of the tongue or oral mucosa. There are also very few reports on osseous choristomas in the submandibular region. We present the case of a woman with a large, caudal osseous choristoma within the lateral cervical triangle. Literature review is given about all of the reported cases in the region of the neck. The pathogenesis is yet unexplained. Our case supports the theory that the development of an osseous choristoma is a reaction to a former trauma. Cervical osseous choristomas are seldom, but they represent an important differential diagnosis when dealing with a cervical tumor

Ribosomal RNA synthesis in Escherichia coli involves a transcription complex, in which RNA polymerase is modified by a signal element on the transcript, Nus factors A, B, E and G, ribosomal protein S4 and inositol mono-phosphatase SuhB. This complex is resistant to ρ-dependent termination and facilitates ribosomal RNA folding, maturation and subunit assembly. The functional contributions of SuhB and their structural bases are presently unclear. We show that SuhB directly binds the RNA signal element and the C-terminal AR2 domain of NusA, and we delineate the atomic basis of the latter interaction by macromolecular crystallography. SuhB recruitment to a ribosomal RNA transcription complex depends on the RNA signal element but not on the NusA AR2 domain. SuhB in turn is required for stable integration of the NusB/E dimer into the complex. In vitro transcription assays revealed that SuhB is crucial for delaying or suppressing ρ-dependent termination, that SuhB also can reduce intrinsic termination, and that SuhB-AR2 contacts contribute to these effects. Together, our results reveal functions of SuhB during ribosomal RNA synthesis and delineate some of the underlying molecular interactions.

Plant-microbe associations are thought to be beneficial for plant growth and resistance against biotic or abiotic stresses, but for natural ecosystems, the ecological analysis of microbiome function remains in its infancy. We used transformed wild tobacco plants (Nicotiana attenuata) which constitutively express an antimicrobial peptide (Mc-AMP1) of the common ice plant, to establish an ecological tool for plant-microbe studies in the field. Transgenic plants showed in planta activity against plant-beneficial bacteria and were phenotyped within the plants´ natural habitat regarding growth, fitness and the resistance against herbivores. Multiple field experiments, conducted over 3 years, indicated no differences compared to isogenic controls. Pyrosequencing analysis of the root-associated microbial communities showed no major alterations but marginal effects at the genus level. Experimental infiltrations revealed a high heterogeneity in peptide tolerance among native isolates and suggests that the diversity of natural microbial communities can be a major obstacle for microbiome manipulations in nature.

Five initialization and ensemble generation methods are investigated with respect to their impact on the prediction skill of the German decadal prediction system “Mittelfristige Klimaprognose” (MiKlip). Among the tested methods, three tackle aspects of model‐consistent initialization using the ensemble Kalman filter, the filtered anomaly initialization, and the initialization method by partially coupled spin‐up (MODINI). The remaining two methods alter the ensemble generation: the ensemble dispersion filter corrects each ensemble member with the ensemble mean during model integration. And the bred vectors perturb the climate state using the fastest growing modes. The new methods are compared against the latest MiKlip system in the low‐resolution configuration (Preop‐LR), which uses lagging the climate state by a few days for ensemble generation and nudging toward ocean and atmosphere reanalyses for initialization. Results show that the tested methods provide an added value for the prediction skill as compared to Preop‐LR in that they improve prediction skill over the eastern and central Pacific and different regions in the North Atlantic Ocean. In this respect, the ensemble Kalman filter and filtered anomaly initialization show the most distinct improvements over Preop‐LR for surface temperatures and upper ocean heat content, followed by the bred vectors, the ensemble dispersion filter, and MODINI. However, no single method exists that is superior to the others with respect to all metrics considered. In particular, all methods affect the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in different ways, both with respect to the basin‐wide long‐term mean and variability and with respect to the temporal evolution at the 26° N latitude.

Background More and more herbaria are digitising their collections. Images of specimens are made available online to facilitate access to them and allow extraction of information from them. Transcription of the data written on specimens is critical for general discoverability and enables incorporation into large aggregated research datasets. Different methods, such as crowdsourcing and artificial intelligence, are being developed to optimise transcription, but herbarium specimens pose difficulties in data extraction for many reasons.

New information To provide developers of transcription methods with a means of optimisation, we have compiled a benchmark dataset of 1,800 herbarium specimen images with corresponding transcribed data. These images originate from nine different collections and include specimens that reflect the multiple potential obstacles that transcription methods may encounter, such as differences in language, text format (printed or handwritten), specimen age and nomenclatural type status. We are making these specimens available with a Creative Commons Zero licence waiver and with permanent online storage of the data. By doing this, we are minimising the obstacles to the use of these images for transcription training. This benchmark dataset of images may also be used where a defined and documented set of herbarium specimens is needed, such as for the extraction of morphological traits, handwriting recognition and colour analysis of specimens.

Recent studies investigating groundwater parameters, e.g., heads, chemical composition, and heat transfer, argued that groundwater flow paths in the Lower Yarmouk Gorge (LYG) area are controlled by geological features such as faults or dikes. However, the nature of such features, as well as their exact locations, were so far unknown. In the present paper, we propose a new fault pattern in the LYG area by compiling and revising geological and geophysical data from the study area, including borehole information, geological map cross sections, and seismic data from the southern Golan Heights and northern Ajloun mountains. The presented pattern is composed of strike–slip and thrust faults, which are associated with the Dead Sea transform system and with the Kinnarot pull-apart basin. Compressional and tensional structures developed in different places, forming a series of fault blocks probably causing a non-uniform spatial hydraulic connection between them. This study provides a coarse fault-block model and improved structural constraints that serve as fundamental input for future hydrogeological modeling which is a suggested solution for an enigmatic hydrological situation concerning three riparian states (Syria, Jordan, and Israel) in a water-scarce region. In areas of water scarcity and transboundary water resources, transient 3-D flow simulations of the resource are the most appropriate solution to understand reservoir behavior. This is an important tool for the development of management strategies. However, those models must be based on realistic geometry, including structural features. The study at the LYG is intended to show the importance of such kinds of structural investigations for providing the necessary database in geologically stressed areas without sufficient data. Furthermore, during the hydrogeological investigation, a mismatch with results of pull-apart basin rim fault evolution studies was discovered. We argue that this mismatch may result from the settings at the eastern rim of the basin as the en-echelon changes from pull-apart basins (Dead Sea, Kinnarot, Hula) to a push-up ridge (Hermon).

We present a nonhydrostatic finite-volume global atmospheric model formulation for numerical weather prediction with the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) at ECMWF and compare it to the established operational spectral-transform formulation. The novel Finite-Volume Module of the IFS (henceforth IFS-FVM) integrates the fully compressible equations using semi-implicit time stepping and non-oscillatory forward-in-time (NFT) Eulerian advection, whereas the spectral-transform IFS solves the hydrostatic primitive equations (optionally the fully compressible equations) using a semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian scheme. The IFS-FVM complements the spectral-transform counterpart by means of the finite-volume discretization with a local low-volume communication footprint, fully conservative and monotone advective transport, all-scale deep-atmosphere fully compressible equations in a generalized height-based vertical coordinate, and flexible horizontal meshes. Nevertheless, both the finite-volume and spectral-transform formulations can share the same quasi-uniform horizontal grid with co-located arrangement of variables, geospherical longitude–latitude coordinates, and physics parameterizations, thereby facilitating their comparison, coexistence, and combination in the IFS. We highlight the advanced semi-implicit NFT finite-volume integration of the fully compressible equations of IFS-FVM considering comprehensive moist-precipitating dynamics with coupling to the IFS cloud parameterization by means of a generic interface. These developments – including a new horizontal–vertical split NFT MPDATA advective transport scheme, variable time stepping, effective preconditioning of the elliptic Helmholtz solver in the semi-implicit scheme, and a computationally efficient implementation of the median-dual finite-volume approach – provide a basis for the efficacy of IFS-FVM and its application in global numerical weather prediction. Here, numerical experiments focus on relevant dry and moist-precipitating baroclinic instability at various resolutions. We show that the presented semi-implicit NFT finite-volume integration scheme on co-located meshes of IFS-FVM can provide highly competitive solution quality and computational performance to the proven semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian integration scheme of the spectral-transform IFS.

Introduction.The article deals with the problem of forced labor in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Despite the existence of profound scientific publications devoted to this problem in Russia and abroad, it still needs to be developed. The article emphasizes the urgency of its research in historical, anthropological and humanities perspective, because personal experience of those who survived after forced labor in Nazi Germany, must be stored in collective memory and comprehended by subsequent generations.

Methods and materials. Digital Humanities based on the method of oral history allows to solve this problem. The article presents two options of practical implementation of the issue: the online archive of the interview Forced Labor in 1939-1945. Memories and history and related online platform Learning based on interviews. Forced labor in 1939-1945. The archive includes about 600 narrative biographical interviews with victims of Nazi forced labor in 26 countries. The site accompanying the archive is now available in English, German, Russian and Czech. The second project is based on six specially selected interviews from the archive. Broad source base and nationally-oriented concept of forced labor in Nazi Germany, presented on the platform, create the historical context necessary for using this resource primarily in the secondary educational system of the Russian Federation.

Analysis and results. The article shows the possibility of using archive-interviews in science and education, and emphasizes that traditional and new methods of historical research can complement each other. The article emphasizes that biographical films created on the basis of interviews can make the memory of forced labor in Nazi Germany, first of all, of “eastern workers” and Soviet prisoners of war more visible in Russian cultural memory. Contribution of authors to writing an article. Characteristics of peculiarity of oral historical sources, online collections of interviews, compensation payments are given by D. Thousendfreund. Analytics of the project “Forced Labor 1939-1945. Memoirs and History “and online platform” Learning based on interviews. Forced labor 1939-1945”, as well as conclusions are prepared by N.P. Timofeev. Introduction, problem historiography and general editing of the article belong to T.V. Evdokimova.

Carbon dots have attracted much attention due to their unique optical, chemical and electronic properties enabling a wide range of applications. The properties of carbon dots can be effectively adjusted through modifying their chemical composition. However, a major challenge remains in understanding the core and surface contributions to optical and electronic transitions. Here, three blue luminescent carbon dots with carboxyl, amino and hydroxyl groups were comprehensively characterized by UV-vis absorption and emission spectroscopy, synchrotron-based X-ray spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy. The influence of the surface functionality on their fluorescence was probed by pH-dependent photoluminescence measurements. Moreover, the hydrogen bonding interactions between water and the surface groups of carbon dots were characterized by infrared spectroscopy. Our results show that both core and surface electronic states of blue luminescent carbon dots contribute to electronic acceptor levels while the chemical nature of the surface groups determines the hydrogen bonding behavior of the carbon dots. This comprehensive spectroscopic study demonstrates that the surface chemistry has a profound influence on the electronic configuration and surface–water interaction of carbon dots, thus affecting their photoluminescence properties.

24 h exposure to 4 °C primes Arabidopsis thaliana in the pre-bolting rosette stage for several days against full cold activation of the ROS responsive genes ZAT10 and BAP1 and causes stronger cold-induction of pleiotropically stress-regulated genes. Transient over-expression of thylakoid ascorbate peroxidase (tAPX) at 20 °C mimicked and tAPX transcript silencing antagonized cold-priming of ZAT10 expression. The tAPX effect could not be replaced by over-expression of stromal ascorbate peroxidase (sAPX) demonstrating that priming is specific to regulation of tAPX availability and, consequently, regulated locally at the thylakoid membrane. Arabidopsis acquired cold primability in the early rosette stage between 2 and 4 weeks. During further rosette development, primability was widely maintained in the oldest leaves. Later formed and later maturing leaves were not primable demonstrating that priming is stronger regulated with plant age than with leaf age. In 4-week-old plants, which were strongest primable, the memory was fully erasable and lost seven days after priming. In summary, we conclude that cold-priming of chloroplast-to-nucleus ROS signalling by transient post-stress induction of tAPX transcription is a strategy to modify cell signalling for some time without affecting the alertness for activation of cold acclimation responses.

The Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) in China, with the largest dam in the world, stores a large volume of water and may influence the Earth’s gravity field on sub-seasonal to interannual timescales. Significant changes of the total water storage (TWS) might be detectable by satellite-based data provided by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. To detect these store water changes, effects of other factors are to be removed first from these data due to band-limited representation of near-surface mass changes from GRACE. Here, we evaluated three current popular land surface models (LSMs) basing on in situ measurements and found that the WaterGAP Global Hydrology Model (WGHM) demonstrates higher correlation than other analyzed models with the in-situ rainfall measurement. Then we used the WGHM outputs to remove climate-induced TWS changes, such as surface water storage, soil, canopy, snow, and groundwater storage. The residual results (GRACE minus WGHM) indicated a strong trend (3.85 ± 2 km3/yr) that is significantly higher than the TGR analysis and hindcast experiments (2.29 ± 1 km3/yr) based on in-situ water level measurements. We also estimated the seepage response to the TGR filling, contributions from other anthropogenic dams, and used in-situ gravity and GPS observations to evaluate dominant factors responsible for the GRACE-based overestimate of the TGR volume change. We found that the modeled seepage variability through coarse-grained materials explained most of the difference between the GRACE based estimate of TGR volume changes and in situ measurements, but the agreement with in-situ gravity observations is considerably lower. In contrast, the leakage contribution from 13 adjacent reservoirs explained ~74% of the TGR volume change derived from GRACE and WGHM. Our results demonstrate that GRACE-based overestimate TGR mass change mainly from the contribution of surrounding artificial reservoirs and underestimated TWS variations in WGHM simulations due to the large uncertainty of WGHM in groundwater component. In additional, this study also indicates that reservoir or lake volume changes can be reliably derived from GRACE data when they are used in combination with relevant complementary observations. View Full-Text

Ions have a profound effect on the geometrical structure of liquid water and an aqueous environment is known to change the electronic structure of ions. Here we combine photoelectron spectroscopy measurements from liquid microjets with molecular dynamical and quantum chemical calculations to address the reverse question, to what extent do ions affect the electronic structure of liquid water? We study aqueous solutions of sodium iodide (NaI) over a wide concentration range, from nearly pure water to 8 M solutions, recording spectra in the 5 to 60 eV binding energy range to include all water valence and the solute Na+ 2p, I− 4d, and I− 5p orbital ionization peaks. We observe that the electron binding energies of the solute ions change only slightly as a function of electrolyte concentration, less than 150 ± 60 meV over an ∼8 M range. Furthermore, the photoelectron spectrum of liquid water is surprisingly mildly affected as we transform the sample from a dilute aqueous salt solution to a viscous, crystalline-like phase. The most noticeable spectral changes are a negative binding energy shift of the water 1b2 ionizing transition (up to −370 ± 60 meV) and a narrowing of the flat-top shape water 3a1 ionization feature (up to 450 ± 90 meV). A novel computationally efficient technique is introduced to calculate liquid-state photoemission spectra using small clusters from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations embedded in dielectric continuum. This theoretical treatment captured the characteristic positions and structures of the aqueous photoemission peaks, reproducing the experimentally observed narrowing of the water 3a1 feature and weak sensitivity of the water binding energies to electrolyte concentration. The calculations allowed us to attribute the small binding energy shifts to ion-induced disruptions of intermolecular electronic interactions. Furthermore, they demonstrate the importance of considering concentration-dependent screening lengths for a correct description of the electronic structure of solvated systems. Accounting for electronic screening, the calculations highlight the minimal effect of electrolyte concentration on the 1b1 binding energy reference, in accord with the experiments. This leads us to a key finding that the isolated, lowest-binding-energy, 1b1, photoemission feature of liquid water is a robust energetic reference for aqueous liquid microjet photoemission studies.

Binding of sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAG) to a wide spectrum of extracellular regulatory proteins is crucial for physiological processes such as cell growth, migration, tissue homeostasis and repair. Thus, GAG derivatives exhibit great relevance in the development of innovative biomaterials for tissue regeneration therapies. We present a synthetic strategy for the preparation of libraries of defined sulfated oligohyaluronans as model GAG systematically varied in length, sulfation pattern and anomeric substitution in order to elucidate the effects of these parameters on GAG recognition by regulatory proteins. Through an experimental and computational approach using fluorescence polarization, ITC, docking and molecular dynamics simulations we investigate the binding of these functionalized GAG derivatives to ten representative regulatory proteins including IL-8, IL-10, BMP-2, sclerostin, TIMP-3, CXCL-12, TGF-β, FGF-1, FGF-2, and AT-III, and we establish structure–activity relationships for GAG recognition. Binding is mainly driven by enthalpy with only minor entropic contributions. In several cases binding is determined by GAG length, and in all cases by the position and number of sulfates. Affinities strongly depend on the anomeric modification of the GAG. Highest binding affinities are effected by anomeric functionalization with large fluorophores and by GAG dimerization. Our experimental and theoretical results suggest that the diversity of GAG binding sites and modes is responsible for the observed high affinities and other binding features. The presented new insights into GAG–protein recognition will be of relevance to guide the design of GAG derivatives with customized functions for the engineering of new biomaterials.

This dataset is associated with our research article ‘Identification of host-defence related proteins using label-free quantitative proteomic analysis of milk whey from cows with Staphylococcus aureus Subclinical mastitis’ published in International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Milk samples were collected from cows suffering from S. aureus-associated subclinical mastitis and the proteins abundance were identified in comparison with samples collected from the control cows using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based label free proteomics analysis. Following the MS measurements, the raw spectra were processed using MaxQuant-Andromeda software and the protein identification was carried out through a search against Uniprot FASTA files of the Bos taurus reference proteome. Perseus software analysis was applied for computation of protein abundance. The raw file presented in this DiB was deposition at PRIDE repository in the PRIDE repository with the dataset identifier PXD007516.

This study aims to highlight discrepancies between experimental and simulation linked to the mechanisms of Mo and V adsorption onto ferrihydrite (FHY) nanoparticles. We have measured adsorption capacities and uptake efficiencies and then fitted and compared these with outputs from various geochemical and adsorption models that were run as a function of pH, surface area (SA) and ferrihydrite particles size distributions. Our results revealed that the experimental data for the Mo system could be fitted very well, but this was not the case for the V system, when a model default value for the SA of FHY of 600 m2 g−1 was used. The discrepancy in the results for the V system can be explained by the lack of specific V species and/or associated constants in databases and variation in software versions, which change the outputted chemical species. Our comparative results also confirm that any experimental variables used as modelling inputs need to be checked carefully prior to any modelling exercises.

Here we report seasonally resolved sea surface temperatures for the southern Mozambique Channel in the SW Indian Ocean based on multi-trace-element temperature proxy records preserved in two Porites sp. coral cores. Particularly, we assess the suitability of both separate and combined Sr∕Ca and Li∕Mg proxies for improved multielement SST reconstructions. Overall, geochemical records from Europa Island Porites sp. highlight the potential of Sr∕Ca and Li∕Mg ratios as high-resolution climate proxies but also show significant differences in their response at this Indian Ocean subtropical reef site. Our reconstruction from 1970 to 2013 using the Sr∕Ca SST proxy reveals a warming trend of 0.58±0.1 ∘C in close agreement with instrumental data (0.47±0.07 ∘C) over the last 42 years (1970–2013). In contrast, the Li∕Mg showed unrealistically large warming trends, most probably caused by uncertainties around different uptake mechanisms of the trace elements Li and Mg and uncertainties in their temperature calibration. In our study, Sr∕Ca is superior to Li∕Mg to quantify absolute SST and relative changes in SST. However, spatial correlations between the combined detrended Sr∕Ca and Li∕Mg proxies compared to instrumental SST at Europa revealed robust correlations with local climate variability in the Mozambique Channel and teleconnections to regions in the Indian Ocean and southeastern Pacific where surface wind variability appeared to dominate the underlying pattern of SST variability. The strongest correlation was found between our Europa SST reconstruction and instrumental SST records from the northern tropical Atlantic. Only a weak correlation was found with ENSO, with recent warm anomalies in the geochemical proxies coinciding with strong El Niño or La Niña. We identified the Pacific–North American (PNA) atmospheric pattern, which develops in the Pacific in response to ENSO, and the tropical North Atlantic SST as the most likely causes of the observed teleconnections with the Mozambique Channel SST at Europa.

Neuromodulation technologies, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), are promising tools for neurorehabilitation, aphasia therapy included, but not yet in common clinical use. Combined with behavioral techniques, in particular treatment-efficient Intensive Language-Action Therapy (ILAT, previously CIAT or CILT), TMS could substantially amplify the beneficial effect of such behavioral therapy alone (Thiel et al., 2013; Martin et al., 2014; Mendoza et al., 2016; Kapoor, 2017). In this randomized study of 17 subjects with post-stroke aphasia in the chronic stage, we studied the combined effect of ILAT and 1-Hz placebo-controlled navigated repetitive TMS (rTMS) to the right-hemispheric inferior frontal cortex—that is, to the anterior part of the non-dominant hemisphere's homolog Broca's area (pars triangularis). Patients were randomized to groups A and B. Patients in group A received a 2-week period of rTMS during naming training where they named pictures displayed on the screen once every 10 s, followed by 2 weeks of rTMS and naming combined with ILAT. Patients in group B received the same behavioral therapy but TMS was replaced by sham stimulation. The primary outcome measures for changes in language performance were the Western Aphasia Battery's aphasia quotient AQ; the secondary outcome measures were the Boston naming test (BNT) and the Action naming test (Action BNT, ANT). All subjects completed the study. At baseline, no statistically significant group differences were discovered for age, post-stroke time or diagnosis. ILAT was associated with significant improvement across groups, as documented by both primary and secondary outcome measures. No significant effect of rTMS could be documented. Our results agree with previous results proving ILAT's ability to improve language in patients with chronic aphasia. In contrast with earlier claims, however, a beneficial effect of rTMS in chronic post-stroke aphasia rehabilitation was not detected in this study.

Background Ornithobacterium (O.) rhinotracheale is an emerging bacterial pathogen in poultry and not fully understood to date. Because of its importance particularly for the global turkey meat industry, reliable diagnostic and characterization methods are needed for early treatment and in future for better vaccine production. The host range of birds infected by O. rhinotracheale or carrying the bacterium in their respiratory tract has constantly increased raising important epidemiological and taxonomic questions for a better understanding of its diversity, ecology and transmission cycles. The purpose of this study was to introduce partial rpoB gene sequencing for O. rhinotracheale into routine diagnostics to differentiate strains isolated from poultry and more diverse avian hosts (i.e., birds of prey, corvids and pigeons) and to compare phylogenetic relationships with results from 16S rRNA gene analysis and multilocus sequence typing (MLST).

Results Partial 16S rRNA gene analysis revealed a high level of homogeneity among the 65 investigated O. rhinotracheale sequences with similarity values ranging from 98.6 to 100% between sequences from non-galliform and poultry species. The corresponding rpoB gene sequences were heterogeneous and ranged in their similarity values from 85.1 to 100%. The structure of the rpoB tree was in strong correlation with previous MLST results revealing three main clusters A (poultry and birds of prey), B (poultry, birds of prey and corvids) and C (pigeons), which were clearly separated from each other.

Conclusions By using partial sequences from a single gene, the rpoB gene analysis is in good agreement with MLST results with a slight decrease in resolution to distinguish more similar strains. The present results provide strong evidence that traditional phenotypic and genetic methods may not properly represent the heterogeneous group of bacteria classified as O. rhinotracheale. From housekeeping gene analyses, it is very likely that the genus Ornithobacterium includes additional species and partial rpoB gene sequencing can be recommended as fast, cost-effective and readily available method to identify strains and differentiate between O. rhinotracheale and Ornithobacterium-like bacteria.