Antitranspirant-induced increases in leaf water potential increase tuber calcium and decrease tuber necrosis in water-stressed potato plants

Experiments were undertaken with field-grown potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) plants to test the hypothesis that altering leaf:tuber water potential gradients within a plant subjected to low soil moisture will allow greater Ca accumulation in tubers and reverse Ca deficiency-related tuber necrosis. Antitranspirant formulations containing a wax emulsion and a spreader/sticker surfactant increased leaf water potential during a drought episode, significantly reducing the potential gradient that develops between leaf and tuber during a period of stress. Increased leaf water potential in treated plants was associated with decreased leaf Ca and increased tuber Ca. Tuber necrosis was found to be reduced in treated plants, thus increasing tuber quality.     

Absence of fodrin (spectrin-like protein) under the pseudopod membrane in stimulated thyroid cells

A fodrin-like protein purified from porcine thyroid cells and characterized by its properties identical to those of pig brain spectrin (F. Regnouf et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 153, 313-319 (1985)) has been localized by immunofluorescence and electron immunocytochemistry in porcine and rat thyroid. Fodrin-like polypeptides were detected in subplasmalemmal meshworks of microfilaments attached to isolated or in situ plasma membranes. In resting cells, fodrin was found under apical and basolateral membrane domains, whereas it was always absent under the pseudopod membrane domain induced by acute TSH stimulation in vitro, using monolayers of porcine cultured cells attached to collagen permeable substrates, as well as in vivo, using rats intravenously treated with TSH. Thyroid fodrin could be involved in exocytosis and membrane stabilization which occurs during the formation of pseudopods induced by TSH stimulation.     

Identification of Alkaloid Compounds Arborinine and Graveoline from Ruta angustifolia (L.) Pers for their Antifungal Potential against Isocitrate lyase (ICL1) gene of Candida albicans

Mycopathologia - Candida albicans has been reported globally as the most widespread pathogenic species contributing candidiasis from superficial to systemic infections in immunocompromised...     

缅甸稻飞虱的发生和防控情况(英文)

稻飞虱是缅甸水稻种植区常见且分布广泛的一类害虫,可造成农作物不同程度的减产.稻飞虱的爆发与高产品种的大规模推广种植具有一致性,同时其种群变化也与天气条件有关.近年来,缅甸中部部分省份稻飞虱大量孳生,在一定程度上,这与氮肥施用水平有关.雨季稻飞虱种群增加,7月和8月为高峰期.在缅甸,主要通过培育抗虫、抗旱、抗逆等水稻品种来防控稻飞虱.同时用诱虫灯进行早期入侵的虫源的监测,必要时,采用化学杀虫剂防治.缅甸部分农场还采用了病虫害综合管理系统(IPM),以建立健康、安全、可调节的水稻生态系统及可持续的病虫害管理.     

Genomic rearrangements generate hypervariable mini-chromosomes in host-specific isolates of the blast fungus

Supernumerary mini-chromosomes–a unique type of genomic structural variation–have been implicated in the emergence of virulence traits in plant pathogenic fungi. However, the mechanisms that facilitate the emergence and maintenance of mini-chromosomes across fungi remain poorly understood. In the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae (Syn. Pyricularia oryzae), mini-chromosomes have been first described in the early 1990s but, until very recently, have been overlooked in genomic studies. Here we investigated structural variation in four isolates of the blast fungus M. oryzae from different grass hosts and analyzed the sequences of mini-chromosomes in the rice, foxtail millet and goosegrass isolates. The mini-chromosomes of these isolates turned out to be highly diverse with distinct sequence composition. They are enriched in repetitive elements and have lower gene density than core-chromosomes. We identified several virulence-related genes in the mini-chromosome of the rice isolate, including the virulence-related polyketide synthase Ace1 and two variants of the effector gene AVR-Pik. Macrosynteny analyses around these loci revealed structural rearrangements, including inter-chromosomal translocations between core- and mini-chromosomes. Our findings provide evidence that mini-chromosomes emerge from structural rearrangements and segmental duplication of core-chromosomes and might contribute to adaptive evolution of the blast fungus.