OBJECTIVES/GOALS: We recently identified a CA-MRSA strain in Brooklyn, New York (USA300-BKV) causing an outbreak of severe skin infections in predominantly healthy children. The evolution of USA300-BKV included acquisition of a novel prophage, and our objective is to identify the prophage-encoded gene(s) and mechanism responsible for increased bacterial virulence. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We deleted candidate genes from a novel mosaic block of phage-encoded genes in USA300-BKV that have been shown to enhance virulence in a murine skin infection model. Deletion mutants and complemented clones will be evaluated in vivo to identify culprit genes and determine the effect of lineage-specific genetic variation on the phenotype. Complementary studies include a comprehensive characterization of phage and bacterial genes expressed during lysogeny in vitro using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq), and in vivo using a targeted approach focusing on known bacterial virulence and phage lytic pathways as well as candidate genes identified by in vitro studies. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Comparison of otherwise isogenic lab strains showed that the mosaic block of phage genes present in USA300-BKV enhance skin abscess size in mice, confirming previous results. As this region of the phage, named mΦ11, does not contain known toxin genes, we hypothesize that mΦ11 modulates expression of bacterial host genes to enhance virulence. Thus, transcriptional profiles of CA-MRSA containing mΦ11 and selected deletion mutants are expected to reveal changes in known or novel virulence factors compared to controls. Candidate regulators specific to the mosaic block include an adenine methyltransferase linked to changes in global gene expression of other bacterial species. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Our results will broaden scientific understanding of phage-bacterial interactions and determine the mechanisms by which phage impact virulence independent from toxin gene carriage. Identification of phage-encoded gene(s) enhancing CA-MRSA contagion will inform surveillance efforts and identify novel therapeutic targets.

Two stone tablets in the Wangye Museum, Shenzhen, contain a bilingual Sogdian and Chinese epitaph for a Sogdian merchant and his wife, who lived in the northern Chinese city of Ye 鄴 in the late sixth century ce. The two texts are published here for the first time and accompanied by a detailed commentary on philological and historical points of interest.

The Interplay of Genes and Environment across Multiple Studies (IGEMS) group is a consortium of eight longitudinal twin studies established to explore the nature of social context effects and gene-environment interplay in late-life functioning. The resulting analysis of the combined data from over 17,500 participants aged 25–102 at baseline (including nearly 2,600 monogygotic and 4,300 dizygotic twin pairs and over 1,700 family members) aims to understand why early life adversity, and social factors such as isolation and loneliness, are associated with diverse outcomes including mortality, physical functioning (health, functional ability), and psychological functioning (well-being, cognition), particularly in later life.

The meeting was opened by Ted Bowell, president, at 11 am. The 2006 Division III meetings were reviewed by Guy Consolmagno, secretary; as the minutes of those meetings have already been published, they were assumed to be approved.

The critically endangered Sichuan Hill-partridge Arborophila rufipectus occupies a restricted range in south-central China. Field surveys within this range were undertaken using line transects in 1996 and 1997. Calling males were recorded from nine subtropical forest tracts within an area totalling 1,793 km2 and consisting of primary, natural secondary and replanted broadleaf forest between 1,100 and 2,235 m elevation. The only sightings obtained were in primary forest. The mean density of calling males estimated from data collected during transect surveys was 0.48 ± 0.06 and 0.24 ± 0.16 calling birds km−2 in 1996 and 1997 respectively. There was no difference in density estimates for calling males between primary forest and secondary/replanted broadleaf forest. The principal threat to the continued survival of the species is clear-felling of primary forest, but clear-felled areas are often replanted with native broadleaf trees and records of Sichuan Hill-partridge calls in such plantations offers hope for its future survival. Forest management should be modified to make forestry practices more sympathetic to the conservation of the Sichuan Hill-partridge.

Division III's activities focus on a broad range of astronomical research on bodies in the solar system (excluding the Sun), on extrasolar planets, and on the search for life in the Universe.

Bulk GaN sliced in bars along (11-20) and (1-100) planes from a boule grown in the [0001] direction by HVPE was confirmed as strain free material with a low dislocation density by using several characterization techniques. The high-structural quality of the material allows photoluminescence studies of free excitons, principal donor bound excitons and their two-electron satellites with regard to the optical selection rules. Raman scattering study of the bulk GaN with nonpolar orientations allows a direct access to the active phonon modes and a direct determination of their strain-free positions.

The Working Group was formed at the request of the Board of DivisionIII and approved by the IAU Executive committee in March 2004. This was in recognition of the fact that discoveries in the Trans Neptunian region were repeatedly raising the question of “what is a planet”. The task of the WG was to investigate the options available and give indications of the level of support and opposition for each if more than one option was emerging.

A computer-controlled xyz dispensing system called the Biological Architecture Tool (BAT) has been extensively tested in the creation of multilayered and three-dimensional biological objects: tissue scaffolds and plain and patterned cellular-array slides. The BAT dispensing system has proven its versatility and reliability in tissue engineering and biological experiments. The potential employments of modified versions of the xyz dispensers for in vivo minimally invasive surgery and other in vitro aspects of biological and medical research are discussed.

Second-order nonlinear optical polymers can be divided into four groups regarding arrangements of chromophore dipoles in polymer backbones, namely, side-chain polymers, random, head-to-tail, and head-to-head Main-chain polymers. A variety of polymers with the aforementioned configurations have been designed and synthesized from functionalized amino-nitro azobenzene chromophores. Poling processes of these polymeric materials have been investigated by in-situ poling and second-harmonic generation detection.