Reversing expansion of Calamagrostis epigejos in a grassland biodiversity hotspot: Hemiparasitic Rhinanthus major does a better job than increased mowing intensity

Questions

Can hemiparasitic Rhinanthus major originating from a local population suppress the competitive clonal grass Calamagrostis epigejos and reverse its expansion in species‐rich semi‐natural grasslands? Does sowing seeds of R. major facilitate restoration of target meadow vegetation? Is R. major more beneficial for biodiversity restoration/conservation than increased mowing intensity, a conventional measure to suppress C. epigejos?

Location

?ertoryje National Nature Reserve, Bílé Karpaty (White Carpathians) Protected Landscape Area, Czech Republic.

Methods

We conducted a before‐after‐control‐impact experiment in meadow patches heavily infested by C. epigejos: eight blocks, each containing four plots with four treatment combinations: (1) traditional management, i.e. mowing once in summer, (2) mowing in summer and autumn (3) mowing in summer and seed sowing of R. major, (4) mowing in summer and autumn and seed sowing of R. major. Above‐ground biomass of C. epigejos and vegetation composition of each of the plots were monitored every year from 2013 to 2016. To assess the effects of treatments, we analysed biomass production of C. epigejos, herb layer cover and vegetation composition.

Results

Both sowing R. major and an additional autumn meadow cut significantly suppressed C. epigejos. Their effects were additive and of comparable size. Both treatments also had significant but markedly different effects on community composition. Rhinanthus major facilitated directional community composition change towards the regional Brachypodio‐Molinetum meadows. In contrast, increased mowing intensity significantly decreased frequency of threatened species, which however may have also been influenced by R. major.

Conclusions

Sowing of autochthonous R. major seeds was demonstrated as an efficient tool to suppress C. epigejos and facilitate community restoration. It can be combined with an additional meadow cut to further accelerate decline of the grass. The additional cut should however be used as a short‐term practice (1–2 years) only to minimize potential negative effects of its long‐term application on some threatened plant species. The effects of R. major are comparable to those of Rhinanthus alectorolophus reported previously. As a species occurring naturally in species‐rich dry grasslands, R. major has a broader and longer‐term application potential than R. alectorolophus in ecological restoration and conservation of these communities.     

Highly purified human-derived follicle-stimulating hormone (Bravelle®) has equivalent efficacy to follitropin-beta (Follistim ®) in infertile women undergoing in vitro fertilization

Background  

These data compare the efficacy and safety of highly purified human-derived follicle-stimulating hormone (Bravelle(R)) and recombinant follitropin-β (Follistim(R)) in women undergoing in vitro fertilization.     

Redox-mediated bypass of restriction point via skipping of G1pm

Background  

It is well known that cancer cells bypass the restriction point, R, and undergo uncontrolled cell proliferation.     

Subcutaneously administered Menopur(R), a new highly purified human menopausal gonadotropin,causes significantly fewer injection site reactions than Repronex(R) in subjects undergoing in vitro fertilization

Background  

The safety and tolerability of a new highly purified, urine-derived human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) preparation [Menopur(R)] was compared with a currently available hMG [Repronex (R)] in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF).     

The binding site for neohesperidin dihydrochalcone at the human sweet taste receptor

Background  

Differences in sweet taste perception among species depend on structural variations of the sweet taste receptor. The commercially used isovanillyl sweetener neohesperidin dihydrochalcone activates the human but not the rat sweet receptor TAS1R2+TAS1R3. Analysis of interspecies combinations and chimeras of rat and human TAS1R2+TAS1R3 suggested that the heptahelical domain of human TAS1R3 is crucial for the activation of the sweet receptor by neohesperidin dihydrochalcone.     

A two-way interface between limited Systems Biology Markup Language and R

Background  

Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) is gaining broad usage as a standard for representing dynamical systems as data structures. The open source statistical programming environment R is widely used by biostatisticians involved in microarray analyses. An interface between SBML and R does not exist, though one might be useful to R users interested in SBML, and SBML users interested in R.     

Ischemic postconditioning attenuates liver warm ischemia-reperfusion injury through Akt-eNOS-NO-HIF pathway

Background  

Ischemic postconditioning (IPO) has been demonstrated to attenuate ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in the heart and brain, its roles to liver remain to be defined. The study was undertaken to determine if IPO would attenuate liver warm I/R injury and its protective mechanism.     

Carvacrol and eugenol effectively inhibit Rhizopus stolonifer and control postharvest soft rot decay in peaches

Aims

This study aimed to investigate the antifungal mechanism of carvacrol and eugenol to inhibit Rhizopus stolonifer and the control of postharvest soft rot decay in peaches.

Methods and Results

To investigate the antifungal mechanism, the effects of carvacrol and eugenol on the mycelium growth, leakages of cytoplasmic contents, mycelium morphology, cell membrane and membrane composition of R. stolonifer were studied. Carvacrol and eugenol both exhibited dose‐dependent antifungal activity against R. stolonifer, carvacrol at a concentration of 2 μl per plant and eugenol at a concentration of 4 μl per plant inhibited fungal growth completely. The two essential oils (EOs) increased cell membrane penetrability and caused the leakage of cytoplasm, nucleic acid and protein content. The observation using scanning electron microscopy and fluorescent microscopy showed modification of the hyphal morphology and breakage of the cell plasma membrane. Decreased ergosterol contents confirmed that the two EOs could destroy the membrane of R. stolonifer. For the in vivo test, the inhibition of soft rot disease and the induction of defence‐related enzymes were investigated. Carvacrol and eugenol significantly reduced the incidence and severity of soft rot decay in inoculated peaches. The best treatments for controlling soft rot decay were obtained at 0·5 μl l^?1 for carvacrol and 1 μl l^?1 for eugenol. The activities of defence‐related enzymes in peaches were also enhanced by fumigation with two EOs.

Conclusion

This study showed that carvacrol and eugenol could effectively inhibit the growth of R. stolonifer in vitro and successfully control the incidence of soft rot decay in honey peaches.

Significance and Impact of the Study

The above findings may be the main antifungal mechanism of carvacrol and eugenol on R. stolonifer. Furthermore, carvacrol and eugenol are helpful for their commercial application on the preservation of fresh fruit.     

FCI: an R-based algorithm for evaluating uncertainty of absolute real-time PCR quantification

Background  

FCI is an R code for analyzing data from real-time PCR experiments. This algorithm estimates standard curve features as well as nucleic acid concentrations and confidence intervals according to Fieller's theorem.     

Dynamic evolution of bitter taste receptor genes in vertebrates

Background  

Sensing bitter tastes is crucial for many animals because it can prevent them from ingesting harmful foods. This process is mainly mediated by the bitter taste receptors (T2R), which are largely expressed in the taste buds. Previous studies have identified some T2R gene repertoires, and marked variation in repertoire size has been noted among species. However, the mechanisms underlying the evolution of vertebrate T2R genes remain poorly understood.     

Association of <Emphasis Type="Italic">phospholipase A2 receptor 1</Emphasis> polymorphisms with idiopathic membranous nephropathy in Chinese patients in Taiwan

Background  

Idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) is one of the most common forms of autoimmune nephritic syndrome in adults. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether polymorphisms of PLA2R1 affect the development of IMN.     

Transcriptional analysis of an immune-responsive serine protease from Indian malarial vector, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Anopheles culicifacies</Emphasis>

Background  

The main vector for transmission of malaria in India is the Anopheles culicifacies mosquito species, a naturally selected subgroup of which is completely refractory (R) to transmission of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium vivax;     

Toll-like receptor 4 deficiency: Smaller infarcts,but nogain in function

Backgound  

It has been reported that Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) deficiency reduces infarct size after myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (MI/R). However, measurement of MI/R injury was limited and did not include cardiac function. In a chronic closed-chest model we assessed whether cardiac function is preserved in TLR4-deficient mice (C3H/HeJ) following MI/R, and whether myocardial and systemic cytokine expression differed compared to wild type (WT).     

Transcriptional control by two leucine-responsive regulatory proteins in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Halobacterium salinarum</Emphasis> R1

Background  

Archaea combine bacterial-as well as eukaryotic-like features to regulate cellular processes. Halobacterium salinarum R1 encodes eight leucine-responsive regulatory protein (Lrp)-homologues. The function of two of them, Irp (OE3923F) and lrpA1 (OE2621R), were analyzed by gene deletion and overexpression, including genome scale impacts using microarrays.     

Molecular characterisation and genetic mapping of candidate genes for qualitative disease resistance in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.)

Background  

Qualitative pathogen resistance in both dicotyledenous and monocotyledonous plants has been attributed to the action of resistance (R) genes, including those encoding nucleotide binding site – leucine rich repeat (NBS-LRR) proteins and receptor-like kinase enzymes. This study describes the large-scale isolation and characterisation of candidate R genes from perennial ryegrass. The analysis was based on the availability of an expressed sequence tag (EST) resource and a functionally-integrated bioinformatics database.