Untersuchungen über den Proteingehalt virusinfizierter Futtergräser

Unter Verwendung verschiedener Methoden der Inokulation wurde das Verhalten von acht Aprikosensorten sowie 18 Pflaumensorten bzw. -zuchtklonen gegenüber dem Plum pox virus (PPV) überprüft und verglichen. Die eingesetzten Methoden führten zu übereinstimmenden Ergebnissen in Hinblick auf Virusresistenz und -anfa¨lligkeit. Die einbezogenen Aprikosensorten entwickelten nach der Übertragung des PPV entweder chlorotische Blattflecken oder sie verhielten sich immun. Überempfindlichkeitsreaktionen waren nicht zu beobachten. Die geprüften Pflaumengenotypen reagierten auf eine Virusinfektion mit der Ausbildung chlorotischer und nekrotischer Symptome, die allein oder gemeinsam auftraten. Immunität lag in keinem Fall vor. Bei dem untersuchten Aprikosensortiment besteht offensichtlich keine Korrelation zwischen Virusisolat, dessen Stammzugehörigkeit (entsprechend den Ergebnissen der PCR) und Resistenzverhalten. Bei Pflaumen scheint der Einflu g des Virusisolates auf das Resistenzniveau grö g er zu sein.     

Virulence determines beneficial trade‐offs in the response of virus‐infected plants to drought via induction of salicylic acid

It has been hypothesized that plants can get beneficial trade‐offs from viral infections when grown under drought conditions. However, experimental support for a positive correlation between virus‐induced drought tolerance and increased host fitness is scarce. We investigated whether increased virulence exhibited by the synergistic interaction involving Potato virus X (PVX) and Plum pox virus (PPV) improves tolerance to drought and host fitness in Nicotiana benthamiana and Arabidopsis thaliana. Infection by the pair PPV/PVX and by PPV expressing the virulence protein P25 of PVX conferred an enhanced drought‐tolerant phenotype compared with single infections with either PPV or PVX. Decreased transpiration rates in virus‐infected plants were correlated with drought tolerance in N. benthamiana but not in Arabidopsis. Metabolite and hormonal profiles of Arabidopsis plants infected with the different viruses showed a range of changes that positively correlated with a greater impact on drought tolerance. Virus infection enhanced drought tolerance in both species by increasing salicylic acid accumulation in an abscisic acid‐independent manner. Viable offspring derived from Arabidopsis plants infected with PPV increased relative to non‐infected plants, when exposed to drought. By contrast, the detrimental effect caused by the more virulent viruses overcame potential benefits associated with increased drought tolerance on host fitness.     

梅园昆虫群落特征、动态及优势种生态位

系统调查梅园昆虫群落并对群落组织水平和时空生态位进行测定.结果表明,群落结构较丰富,有昆虫6目23科,群落物种数、多样性指数、均匀性指数随时间推移而增加;在害虫中桃蚜和桃小食心虫空间生态位宽度最大,朝鲜球坚蚧时间生态位宽度最大;在天敌中黑缘红瓢虫时间和空间生态位宽度均最大,异色瓢虫、红点唇瓢虫及寄生蜂次之.黑缘红瓢虫与朝鲜球坚蚧的生态位重叠值在时空二维上均较大,且二者在时间上的同步性和空间上的同域性均优于其它天敌,为优势种群,应加以保护和利用.     

Horticultural mineral oil influences Plum pox virus transmission by Myzus persicae

The residual activity of horticultural mineral oil (HMO) on the ability of green peach aphids, Myzus persicae (Sulzer), (GPA) to transmit Plum pox virus (PPV) to peach was measured by infection rates of detached leaves from plants sprayed with either HMO or water as a control that were inoculated using transfer of 25 viruliferous aphids per leaf at 0, 2, 4, 7, 9, 11 and 14 days after treatment (DAT). Persistent effects of HMO residue on the probing and feeding behaviours of GPA were also monitored with the electrical penetration graph (EPG) system. For glasshouse‐grown peach seedlings, the residual activity of HMO reduced PPV infection rates by more than 58% for up to 4 DAT following an initial reduction of approximately 81%. EPG recordings of GPA feeding behaviour showed that HMO significantly delayed first feeding probes and first intracellular punctures by more than 50 min without changing the ensuing stylet penetration behaviour. Applying HMO reduced virus infection rates for up to a week depending on the environmental conditions. EPG monitoring of aphid probing showed that HMO reduced the mean duration and mean number of potential drop (PD) phase feeding occurrences, compared with the water control. A reduction in the PD that has been shown to be related to the transmission of non‐persistently transmitted viruses may partly explain the reduction in PPV infection rates.     

Phylogenetic relationships among species of Prunus as inferred by isozyme markers

Summary An isozyme survey of 34 species of Prunus representing subgenera Prunus, Amygdalus, Cerasus, and Lithocerasus detected 110 presumptive alleles at 11 isozyme loci. Principal component analysis was conducted on the covariance matrix derived from allelic frequencies calculated for each species. Cluster analysis was performed on the first 30 principal components. Results generally support traditional classification of Prunus at the subgeneric level, except for members of subgenus Lithocerasus and two members of subgenus Amygdalus. Prunus glandulosa Thunb., P. japonica Thunb., and P. tomentosa Thunb. of subgenus Lithocerasus and P. triloba Lindl. of subgenus Amygdalus appear to represent primitive species. P. besseyi Bailey and P. pumila L. of subgenus Lithocerasus and P. andersonii of subgenus Amygdalus should be assigned to subgenus Prunus. Placement of its members indicates that subgenus Lithocerasus is an artificial grouping of species that are very different genetically although similar phenotypically.Paper No. 12529 of the Journal Series of the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, Raleigh, NC 27695-7643, USA     

Localisation of plum pox virus in apricot stem and petiole tissues by tissue printing onto nitrocellulose membrane

The localisation of plum pox virus (PPV) in stem and petiole tissues of nine susceptible apricot cultivars and GF305 peach seedling has been studied. From stem and petioles consecutive transverse sections spaced at 1 mm were made and tissue sections printed onto nitrocellulose membrane. The resulting prints were probed with a specific antibody for plum pox virus, followed by a rabbit anti-goat antibody conjugated with horse radish peroxidase, in order to localise the virus within the tissues. In stems the virus was mainly present in xylem and pith. The possible presence of the virus in the sclerenchyma is discussed. In petioles the virus was present in epidermis and parenchymas, but not in vessels. The probable movement through the xylem and from cell to cell has been shown.     

QTL analysis of resistance to sharka disease in the apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) ‘Polonais’ × ‘Stark Early Orange’ F1 progeny

Different hypotheses on the genetic control of the resistance to the plum pox virus (PPV) have been reported in apricot, but there was a lack of agreement about the number of loci involved. In recent years, apricot genetic maps have been constructed from progenies derived from ‘Stark Early Orange’ or ‘Goldrich’, two main sources of resistance, three of these including the mapping of the PPV resistance loci. As the location of the locus was not precisely established, we mapped the PPV resistance loci using interval mapping (IM), composite interval mapping (CIM), and the Kruskal–Wallis non-parametric test in the F₁ progeny derived from a cross between the susceptible cv. ‘Polonais’ and ’Stark Early Orange’. Four genomic regions were identified as being involved in PPV resistance. One of these mapped to the upper region of linkage group 1 of ‘Stark Early Orange’, and accounted for 56% of the phenotypic variation. Its location was similar to the one previously identified in ‘Goldrich’ and Prunus davidiana. In addition, a gene strongly associated to these major quantitative trait loci (QTL) was found to be related to PPV infection. Two putative QTLs were detected on linkage groups 3 of ‘Polonais’ and 5 of both ‘Polonais’ and ‘Stark Early Orange’ with both parametric and non-parametric methods at logarithm of odds (LOD) scores slightly above the detection threshold. The last QTL was only detected in the early stage of the infection. PPV resistance is, thus, controlled by a major dominant factor located on linkage group 1. The hypothesis of recessive factors with lower effect is discussed.     

A Study on the Triglyceride Composition in Apricot Kernel Oil,Peach Kernel Oil and Plum Kernel Oil

The triglyceride composition of kernel oils from apricot, peach and plum was separated and analysed by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The results showed that their oils predominantly contained OOO and OLO among 11 triglycerides.     

Delay ripening of ‘Qingnai’ plum (Prunus salicina Lindl.) with 1-methylcyclopropene

‘Qingnai’ plum fruit were treated with 0, 250, 500 or 1000 nL L⁻¹ of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) for 6 h and stored at 20 °C. The fruit firmness, peel color, chlorophyll content, titratable acidity (TA), respiration rate and ethylene production, chlorophyllase, pectin methylesterase (PME) and polygalacturonase (PG) activities were monitored during postharvest ripening of ‘Qingnai’ plums. ‘Qingnai’ plums without 1-MCP treatment soften very rapidly at room temperature after harvest, showing a continuing decrease in hue angle, chlorophyll content, TA and increase in chlorophyllase, PME and PG activities during postharvest storage. In contrast, the 1-MCP-treated fruits showed reduced ethylene production and respiration rate and delayed softening, which was associated with the reduction in the activity of PME and PG. The 1-MCP treatment also significantly inhibited the chlorophyllase activity and peel color development in ‘Qingnai’ plums during postharvest ripening at 20 °C. These results suggest that 1-MCP treatment may be useful for maintaining the fruit quality and extending the postharvest shelf-life of ‘Qingnai’ plums.     

SECRET AGENT, an Arabidopsis thaliana O-GlcNAc transferase, modifies the Plum pox virus capsid protein

The capsid protein of Plum pox virus (PPV-CP) is modified with O-linked GlcNAc (O-GlcNAc). While Arabidopsis has two O-GlcNAc transferases, SECRET AGENT (SEC) and SPINDLY (SPY), previous work suggests that SEC modifies PPV-CP and that the modification plays a role in the infection process. Here, we show that when co-expressed in Escherichia coli SEC modifies PPV-CP. Deletion mapping and site-directed mutagenesis identified three threonine and a serine located near the N-terminus of PPV-CP that are modified by SEC. Two of these threonines have recently been shown to be modified in virus from plants suggesting that SEC has the same specificity in plants and E. coli.