Characterization of the natural variation in Arabidopsis thaliana metabolome by the analysis of metabolic distance

Metabolite fingerprinting is widely used to unravel the chemical characteristics of biological samples. Multivariate data analysis and other statistical tools are subsequently used to analyze and visualize the plasticity of the metabolome and/or the relationship between those samples. However, there are limitations to these approaches for example because of the multi-dimensionality of the data that makes interpretation of the data obtained from untargeted analysis almost impossible for an average human being. These limitations make the biological information that is of prime importance in untargeted studies be partially exploited. Even in the case of full exploitation, current methods for relationship elucidation focus mainly on between groups variation and differences. Therefore, a measure that is capable of exploiting both between- and within-group biological variation would be of great value. Here, we examined the natural variation in the metabolome of nine Arabidopsis thaliana accessions grown under various environmental conditions and established a measure for the metabolic distance between accessions and across environments. This data analysis approach shows that there is just a minor correlation between genetic and metabolic diversity of the nine accessions. On the other hand, it delivers so far in Arabidopsis unexplored chemical information and is shown to be biologically relevant for resistance studies

Bacteria-inducing legume nodules involved in the improvement of plant growth, health and nutrition

Bacteria-inducing legume nodules are known as rhizobia and belong to the class Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria. They promote the growth and nutrition of their respective legume hosts through atmospheric nitrogen fixation which takes place in the nodules induced in their roots or stems. In addition, rhizobia have other plant growth-promoting mechanisms, mainly solubilization of phosphate and production of indoleacetic acid, ACC deaminase and siderophores. Some of these mechanisms have been reported for strains of rhizobia which are also able to promote the growth of several nonlegumes, such as cereals, oilseeds and vegetables. Less studied are the mechanisms that have the rhizobia to promote the plant health; however, these bacteria are able to exert biocontrol of some phytopathogens and to induce the plant resistance. In this chapter, we revised the available data about the ability of the legume nodule-inducing bacteria for improving the plant growth, health and nutrition of both legumes and nonlegumes. These data showed that rhizobia meet all the requirements of sustainable agriculture to be used as bio-inoculants allowing the total or partial replacement of chemicals used for fertilization or protection of crops

Epidemiology of Gastrointestinal Parasites of Cattle in and Around Hosanna Town, Southern Ethiopia

Dembelo Tiele,1 Ephrem Sebro,2 Deginet H/Meskel,3 Mesfin Mathewos4 1Department of Veterinary Epidemiology, Wachemo University, Hosanna, Southern Region, Ethiopia; 2Department of Veterinary Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Wachemo University, Hosanna, Southern Region, Ethiopia; 3Department of Animal Science, Wachemo University, Hosanna, Southern Region, Ethiopia; 4Department of Veterinary Pathology, Wolaita Sodo University, Wolaita Sodo, Southern Region, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Mesfin Mathewos, Wolaita Sodo University, School of Veterinary Medicine, P. O. Box 138, Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia, Email [email protected]: Gastrointestinal parasites are ubiquitous parasitic agents of cattle all over the world, and cause both clinical and subclinical parasitism that results in significant financial losses. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the prevalence and the risk variables related to gastrointestinal tract (GIT) parasites in cattle in Hossana town and the nearby area.Methods: On a total of 400 faecal samples, a cross-sectional investigation with a random sampling technique was carried out utilizing a coprologic parasitological examination.Results: Two hundred and sixty-nine (67.2%) of the 400 faecal samples analyzed had one or more gastrointestinal parasites. Of this, 163 (40.75%) cattle had two or more parasites while a single infection was recorded in 106 (26.5%) cattle. Mixed infection of Strongyle+Fasciola (14%) was found a higher prevalence followed by Strongyle+Paramphistomum (7.75%) as compared to other GIT parasite combination. Major classes of parasites recorded include Trematodes, Nematodes, Cestodes, and Protozoa. The major parasites observed were Strongyle type (18.25%), Paramphistomum (9.5%), Fasciola (8.25%), Toxocara (3.25%) and Eimeria (2.75%). Strongyle type eggs were the most predominant type of eggs identified while Trichuris (2.25%) and Moniezia (1.5%) were observed to have relatively lowprevalence. There was a high relationship between risk factors such as age, body condition, and management system with the prevalence of GIT parasites.Conclusion: The high frequency of GIT parasite infection in cattle in the research area necessitates the strategic deworming and effective management practices necessary for gastrointestinal parasite eradication.Keywords: cattle, coprology, epidemiology, gastrointestinal parasites, hossan

Variations in seed and post-harvest residue yields and residues quality of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) as a ruminant feedstuff

© 2018 Common bean is widely grown as a food legume and the post-harvest crop residues (CR) (i.e. haulm + pod wall (HPW)) are valuable as ruminant feedstuffs. The yields and constituents indicative of nutritive value for ruminants of the HPW from a wide range of common bean genotypes (G) were examined at 4 trial sites in Ethiopia during the 2013 main cropping season to assess the extent of genetic variation among G for simultaneous improvement of both HPW attributes and seed yield. Attributes measured were seed and HPW yields and the amounts of the morphological components, their concentrations of total nitrogen (N), neutral detergent fibre (aNDFom) and acid detergent fibre (ADFom), and the dry matter digestibility (DMD). The constituents were measured using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and calibrations based on a large set of reference tropical forages and CR (including common bean), and were validated against other CR reference samples. These CR quality attributes were very well predicted with R2v and RPDv ranging from 0.90 to 0.98 and 3.13–7.36, respectively. There was considerable variation in yields of HPW and seed, and in the proportions and attributes of the HPW fractions among the common bean G. Trial site means for yields of HPW and seed ranged from 0.74 to 2.54 t/ha and 0.79–2.62 t/ha, respectively while for N, aNDFom and ADFom concentrations and DMD of HPW ranged from 7.7 to 11.4 g/kg DM, 648–739 g/kg DM, 502–585 g/kg DM, and 467–570 g/kg DM, respectively. Environment (E), as represented by site, generally affected the yields of HPW and seed (P < 0.001) and nutritive value of the HPW fractions (P < 0.05) as feedstuffs. Seed yield was positively correlated with HPW yield both within and across trial sites (r = 0.92; P < 0.0001), but in general seed yield was not related to the N concentration. Across all sites, seed yield was positively correlated (r = 0.68; P < 0.0001) with haulm DMD. Although this correlation may be due to variation associated with E rather than G, it is nevertheless important in that selection for higher seed yield is likely to also increase metabolisable energy (ME) content of the HPW. There were G x E interaction effects on yields of HPW (P < 0.0001) and seed (P = 0.011), but these were generally less important than E effects which explained 52–58% of the variation. In conclusion the study demonstrated that it is possible to identify genotypes such as ECAB0081 which combine high yields of both seed and HPW, and with HPW attributes which improve their quality as ruminant feedstuffs

Phenotypic and genotypic analysis of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Ethiopia.

Item does not contain fulltextSETTING: National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. OBJECTIVES: To determine the drug susceptibility pattern of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates and to genetically characterise multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) isolates. DESIGN: A total of 107 M. tuberculosis isolates recovered during the period December 2005-August 2006 were tested for drug susceptibility against streptomycin, isoniazid, rifampicin and ethambutol (SHRE) using the proportion method on Lowenstein-Jensen medium. The MDR-TB isolates were tested against kanamycin, ciprofloxacin, capreomycin, D-cycloserine and ethionamide. Genotyping was performed using spoligotyping. RESULTS: MDR-TB was observed in one of the 44 new cases (2.3%) and 45/63 previously treated patients (71.4%). Drug susceptibility testing against second-line drugs (SLDs) showed that 26.1% of all MDR-TB isolates were susceptible to all SLDs tested and 73.9% were resistant to one or more classes of SLD. Extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB was detected in two isolates (4.4%). T3_ETH was the predominant spoligotype, followed by CAS_KILI. In this African setting, no Beijing spoligotype was identified. CONCLUSION: Both MDR- and XDR-TB are present in Ethiopian patients. MDR-TB was found to be associated with T3 and Central Asian genotypes.1 oktober 201

African evolutionary history inferred from whole genome sequence data of 44 indigenous African populations [plus Correction]

Background : Africa is the origin of modern humans within the past 300 thousand years. To infer the complex demographic history of African populations and adaptation to diverse environments, we sequenced the genomes of 92 individuals from 44 indigenous African populations. Results : Genetic structure analyses indicate that among Africans, genetic ancestry is largely partitioned by geography and language, though we observe mixed ancestry in many individuals, consistent with both short- and long-range migration events followed by admixture. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the San genetic lineage is basal to all modern human lineages. The San and Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic, and Nilo-Saharan lineages were substantially diverged by 160 kya (thousand years ago). In contrast, the San and Central African rainforest hunter-gatherer (CRHG), Hadza hunter-gatherer, and Sandawe hunter-gatherer lineages were diverged by ~&#8201;120&#8211;100 kya. Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, and Afroasiatic lineages diverged more recently by ~&#8201;54&#8211;16 kya. Eastern and western CRHG lineages diverged by ~&#8201;50&#8211;31 kya, and the western CRHG lineages diverged by ~&#8201;18&#8211;12 kya. The San and CRHG populations maintained the largest effective population size compared to other populations prior to 60 kya. Further, we observed signatures of positive selection at genes involved in muscle development, bone synthesis, reproduction, immune function, energy metabolism, and cell signaling, which may contribute to local adaptation of African populations. Conclusions : We observe high levels of genomic variation between ethnically diverse Africans which is largely correlated with geography and language. Our study indicates ancient population substructure and local adaptation of Africans