The effect of Verticillium and Fusarium wilts on the growth of four melon (Cucumis melo L.) cultivars

The susceptibility of the Greek melon cv. Kokkini banana, Thraki, Peplos and Amynteou to Verticillium dahliae and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis was tested. Seedlings of the four cv. were inoculated by root immersion in a Verticillium and a Fusarium inoculum suspension of 106 spores ml-1 for 1 h. Disease incidence was determinated after 35 days with a disease index, calculated as the product of the ‘leaf symptom index’ and the ‘vascular discoloration index’ of each plant. In addition, certain growth characteristics: plant height, main stem diameter, above-ground fresh and dry weight and root fresh and dry weight were measured, to have a basis for determining the effect of wilt upon plant growth. The adverse effect of the Verticillium and Fusarium wilts on the plants was estimated by the regression line slope coefficient (b) between the disease index and those growth characteristics. Both fungi had a significant negative effect on all the measured characteristics irrespective of the cultivar. Cultivars Kokkini banana and Peplos were the most susceptible, cv. Amynteou and Thraki the least susceptible to both fungi. The four melon cultivars exhibited a different susceptibility to Verticillium and to Fusarium indicating that selective breeding for resistance is a practical possibility

Electrical cortical stimulation can impair production of the alphabet without impairing counting

Neurosurgery has the potential to cure patients with drug-resistant focal epilepsy, but carries the risk of permanent language impairment when surgery involves the dominant hemisphere of the brain. This risk can be estimated and minimized using electrical stimulation mapping (ESM), which uses cognitive and linguistic tasks during cortical ESM to differentiate "eloquent" and "resectable" areas in the brain. One such task, counting, is often used to screen and characterize language during ESM in patients whose language abilities are limited. Here we report a patient with drug-resistant epilepsy arising from the language-dominant hemisphere using fMRI. Our patient experienced loss of the ability to recite or write the alphabet, but not to count, during ESM of the dominant left posterior superior temporal gyrus. This selective impairment extended to both spoken and written production. We suggest the need for caution when using counting as a sole means to screen language function and as a method of testing low functioning patients using ESM

Coding SNPs analysis highlights genetic relationships and evolution pattern in eggplant complexes

[EN] Brinjal (Solanum melongena), scarlet (S. aethiopicum) and gboma (S. macrocarpon) eggplants are three Old World domesticates. The genomic DNA of a collection of accessions belonging to the three cultivated species, along with a representation of various wild relatives, was characterized for the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using a genotype-by-sequencing approach. A total of 210 million useful reads were produced and were successfully aligned to the reference eggplant genome sequence. Out of the 75,399 polymorphic sites identified among the 76 entries in study, 12,859 were associated with coding sequence. A genetic relationships analysis, supported by the output of the FastSTRUCTURE software, identified four major sub-groups as present in the germplasm panel. The first of these clustered S. aethiopicum with its wild ancestor S. anguivi; the second, S. melongena, its wild progenitor S. insanum, and its relatives S. incanum, S. lichtensteinii and S. linneanum; the third, S. macrocarpon and its wild ancestor S. dasyphyllum; and the fourth, the New World species S. sisymbriifolium, S. torvum and S. elaeagnifolium. By applying a hierarchical FastSTRUCTURE analysis on partitioned data, it was also possible to resolve the ambiguous membership of the accessions of S. campylacanthum, S. violaceum, S. lidii, S. vespertilio and S. tomentsum, as well as to genetically differentiate the three species of New World Origin. A principal coordinates analysis performed both on the entire germplasm panel and also separately on the entries belonging to sub-groups revealed a clear separation among species, although not between each of the domesticates and their respective wild ancestors. There was no clear differentiation between either distinct cultivar groups or different geographical provenance. Adopting various approaches to analyze SNP variation provided support for interpretation of results. The genotyping-by-sequencing approach showed to be highly efficient for both quantifying genetic diversity and establishing genetic relationships among and within cultivated eggplants and their wild relatives. The relevance of these results to the evolution of eggplants, as well as to their genetic improvement, is discussed.This work has been funded in part by European Unions Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 677379 (G2P-SOL project: Linking genetic resources, genomes and phenotypes of Solanaceous crops) and by Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (grant AGL2015-64755-R from MINECO/FEDER). Funding has also been received from the initiative "Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Collecting, Protecting and Preparing Crop Wild Relatives", which is supported by the Government of Norway. This last project is managed by the Global Crop Diversity Trust with the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and implemented in partnership with national and international gene banks and plant breeding institutes around the world. For further information see the project website:http://www.cwrdiversity.org/. Pietro Gramazio is grateful to Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for a pre-doctoral (Programa FPI de la UPV-Subprograma 1/2013 call) contract. Mariola Plazas is grateful to Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad for a post-doctoral grant within the Santiago Grisolia Programme (FCJI-2015-24835). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Acquadro, A.; Barchi, L.; Gramazio, P.; Portis, E.; Vilanova Navarro, S.; Comino, C.; Plazas Ávila, MDLO.... (2017). Coding SNPs analysis highlights genetic relationships and evolution pattern in eggplant complexes. PLoS ONE. 12(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180774Se018077412

Fresh consumption tomato performance of a local landrace and derived lines

A local tomato landrace was collected and described. Three lines selected from this base material named 'Local green', 'Local white' and 'Local heartshape' were evaluated for fresh tomato field performance during 1998 and 2000 growing seasons. Early and full harvesting season yield per plant along with yield correlated traits: fruit weight, fruit size and dimensions, and number of loculous along with the fruit quality traits: acidity, total soluble solids and firmness were determined. Data indicated that the local material had a performance within the range of the commercial varieties, both public and F1 hybrids, and it seems to be interesting germplasm source. Furthermore the selected lines had an equally promising performance indicating that line selection within this landrace was effective. In conclusion the base material and selected lines could be used either as sources for tomato germplasm enchancement and/or direct utilization as new varieties