Spatial Variation in Western Corn Rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Susceptibility to \u3ci\u3eBacillus thuringiensis\u3c/i\u3e Corn Events in Nebraska

The western corn rootworm (WCR), Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, is an economically important pest species of field corn (Zea mays L.) in the U.S. Corn Belt. Yield losses and control costs exceed greater than $1 billion annually. Over the past 10+ years, growers have adopted transgenic corn hybrids expressing rootworm-active Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins as a primary WCR management tactic. Field-evolved resistance to Cry3Bb1 and mCry3A proteins expressed in single-trait Bt hybrids has been confirmed in some areas of Nebraska. Growers have used different tactics as needed to prevent or mitigate resistance, resulting in a mosaic of selection pressure placed on local populations. Currently, research is needed to characterize WCR susceptibility to these Bt toxins on a local spatial scale. Therefore, this study was conducted to characterize spatial variation in WCR susceptibility to Bt corn events in two corn-intensive production areas of Nebraska. Single-plant larval bioassays were conducted in 2016 and 2017 to characterize the susceptibility of populations from pre-established grids in Keith and Buffalo counties to single-trait Cry3Bb1 and mCry3A proteins. Bioassay results confirmed a mosaic of susceptibility to Cry3Bb1 and mCry3A existed within the two landscapes. Patterns at several spatial scales were observed and some gene flow of resistant alleles was indirectly documented in the landscape. A field history index, comprised of additive and weighted WCR management tactics and agronomic practices was developed in an attempt to explain variation in WCR susceptibility. Regression analyses indicated a strong relationship between past management practices and WCR survival on Cry3Bb1, indicating that localized selection pressure is a major contributing factor in determining current susceptibility. These two study areas can be viewed as model systems to draw potential inferences about the relationship of susceptibility to past Bt management histories. These retrospective case histories will inform use of current rootworm-Bt technologies and contribute to the future development of sustainable rootworm management strategies conducted within an IPM framework. Advisor: Lance J. Meink

Predictive Ability of QCD Sum Rules for Excited Baryons

The masses of octet baryons are calculated by the method of QCD sum rules. Using generalized interpolating fields, three independent sets of QCD sum rules are derived which allow the extraction of low-lying N* states with spin-parity 1/2+, 1/2- and 3/2- in both the non-strange and strange channels. The predictive ability of the sum rules is examined by a Monte-Carlo based analysis procedure in which the three phenomenological parameters (mass, coupling, threshold) are treated as free parameters simultaneously. Realistic uncertainties in these parameters are obtained by simultaneously exploring all uncertainties in the QCD input parameters. Those sum rules with good predictive power are identified and their predictions are compared with experiment where available.Comment: 33 pages, 2 figure

Reduced susceptibility of western corn rootworm (\u3ci\u3eDiabrotica virgifera virgifera\u3c/i\u3e LeConte) populations to Cry34/35Ab1‑expressing maize in northeast Nebraska

The western corn rootworm (WCR; Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte) is a significant pest of maize (Zea mays L.) across the United States Corn Belt. Transgenic maize hybrids expressing insecticidal proteins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have been used to manage WCR since 2003. Widespread resistance to Cry3Bb1 (and associated cross-resistance to mCry3A and eCry3.1Ab) has placed increased selection pressure on Cry34/35Ab1 in single-protein and pyramided transgenic maize hybrids. Data on the susceptibility of Nebraska WCR populations to Cry34/35Ab1 has not been published since 2015 and plant-based bioassays conducted in 2017–2018 confirmed resistance to Cry3Bb1 + Cry34/35Ab1 maize, suggesting resistance to Cry34/35Ab1 has evolved in the Nebraska landscape. Therefore, plant-based bioassays were conducted on F1 progeny of WCR populations collected from northeast Nebraska in 2018 and 2019. Larval survival and development were used to classify resistance to Cry34/35Ab1 in each WCR population. Bioassays confirmed incomplete resistance to Cry34/35Ab1 maize in 21 of 30 WCR populations; 9 of 30 WCR populations remained susceptible to Cry34/35Ab1. Collectively, results indicate that northeast Nebraska WCR populations were in the initial stages of resistance evolution to Cry34/35Ab1 during 2018–2019. Appropriate resistance management strategies are needed to mitigate resistance and preserve efficacy of rootworm-active products containing Cry34/35Ab1

Predicative Ability of QCD Sum Rules for Decuplet Baryons

QCD sum rules for decuplet baryon two-point functions are investigated using a comprehensive Monte-Carlo based procedure. In this procedure, all uncertainties in the QCD input parameters are incorporated simultaneously, resulting in realistic estimates of the uncertainties in the extracted phenomenological parameters. Correlations between the QCD input parameters and the phenomenological parameters are studied by way of scatter plots. The predicted couplings are useful in evaluating matrix elements of decuplet baryons in the QCD sum rule approach. They are also used to check a cubic scaling law between baryon couplings and masses, as recently found by Dey and coworkers. The results show a significant reduction in the scaling constant and some possible deviations from the cubic law.Comment: 13 pages, RevTeX, 5 PS figures embedded with psfig.st

Evidence of western corn rootworm (\u3ci\u3eDiabrotica virgifera virgifera\u3c/i\u3e LeConte) field-evolved resistance to Cry3Bb1 + Cry34/ 35Ab1 maize in Nebraska

BACKGROUND: Western corn rootworm (WCR; Diabrotica virgifera virgifera) field-evolved resistance to transgenic maize expressing the Cry3Bb1 protein derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has been confirmed across the United States Corn Belt. Although use of pyramided hybrids expressing Cry3Bb1 + Cry34/35Ab1 has increased in recent years to mitigate existing WCR Bt resistance, susceptibility of Nebraska WCR populations to this rootworm–Bt pyramid has not been assessed. Plant-based bioassays were used to characterize the susceptibility of WCR populations to Cry3Bb1 and Cry3Bb1 + Cry34/35Ab1 maize. Populations were collected from areas of northeastern Nebraska with a history of planting Bt maize that expressed Cry3Bb1 and Cry34/35Ab1. RESULTS: Significant differences in mean corrected survival among populations within Bt hybrids indicated a mosaic of WCR susceptibility to Cry3Bb1 + Cry34/35Ab1 and Cry3Bb1 maize occurred in the landscape. All field populations exhibited some level of resistance to one or both Bt hybrids when compared to susceptible laboratory control populations in bioassays. Most WCR populations exhibited incomplete resistance to Cry3Bb1 + Cry34/35Ab1 maize (92%) and complete resistance to Cry3Bb1 maize (79%). CONCLUSION: The present study confirms the first cases of field-evolved resistance to Cry3Bb1 + Cry34/35Ab1 maize in Nebraska and documents a landscape-wide WCR Cry3Bb1 resistance pattern in areas characterized by long-term continuous maize production and associated planting of Cry3Bb1 hybrids. Use of a multi-tactic integrated pest management approach is needed in areas of continuous maize production to slow or mitigate resistance evolution to Bt maize

Chiral multiplets versus parity doublets in highly excited baryons

It has recently been suggested that the parity doublet structure seen in the spectrum of highly excited baryons may be due to effective chiral restoration for these states. We argue how the idea of chiral symmetry restoration high in the spectrum is consistent with the concept of quark-hadron duality. If chiral symmetry is effectively restored for highly-lying states, then the baryons should fall into representations of $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R$ that are compatible with the given parity of the states - the parity-chiral multiplets. We classify all possible parity-chiral multiplets: (i) $(1/2,0)\oplus(0, 1/2)$ that contain parity doublet for nucleon spectrum;(ii) $(3/2,0) \oplus (0, 3/2)$ consists of the parity doublet for delta spectrum; (iii) $(1/2,1) \oplus (1, 1/2)$ contains one parity doublet in the nucleon spectrum and one parity doublet in the delta spectrum of the same spin that are degenerate in mass. Here we show that the available spectroscopic data for nonstrange baryons in the $\sim$ 2 GeV range is consistent with all possibilities, but the approximate degeneracy of parity doublets in nucleon and delta spectra support the latter possibility with excited baryons approximately falling into $(1/2,1) \oplus (1, 1/2)$ representation of SU(2)_L\timesSU(2)_R with approximate degeneracy between positive and negative parity $N$ and $\Delta$ resonances of the same spin.Comment: RevTeX, 6 pages. The paper has been expanded in order to make the idea of chiral symmetry restoration as it follows from the concept of quark-hadron duality more transparent. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Negative Parity Baryons in the QCD Sum Rule

Masses and couplings of the negative parity excited baryons are studied in the QCD sum rule. Separation of the negative-parity spectrum is proposed and is applied to the flavor octet and singlet baryons. We find that the quark condensate is responsible for the mass splitting of the ground and the negative-parity excited states. This is expected from the chiral symmetry and supports the idea that the negative-parity baryon forms a parity doublet with the ground state. The meson-baryon coupling constants are also computed for the excited states in the QCD sum rule. It is found that the \pi NN^* coupling vanishes in the chiral limit.Comment: 13pp, LaTeX, 1 EPS figure, uses epsf.sty, Talk given by M.O. at CEBAF/INT workshop "N* physics", Seattle, September (1996), to appear in the proceeding

Stability from Structure: Metabolic Networks Are Unlike Other Biological Networks

In recent work, attempts have been made to link the structure of biochemical networks to their complex dynamics. It was shown that structurally stable network motifs are enriched in such networks. In this work, we investigate to what extent these findings apply to metabolic networks. To this end, we extend a previously proposed method by changing the null model for determining motif enrichment, by using interaction types directly obtained from structural interaction matrices, by generating a distribution of partial derivatives of reaction rates and by simulating enzymatic regulation on metabolic networks. Our findings suggest that the conclusions drawn in previous work cannot be extended to metabolic networks, that is, structurally stable network motifs are not enriched in metabolic networks

Positive and negative-parity flavor-octet baryons in coupled QCD sum rules

We apply the method of the QCD sum rule, in which positive- and negative-parity baryons couple with each other, to the flavor-octet hyperons and investigate the parity splittings. We also reexamine the nucleon in the method, which was studied in our previous paper, by carefully choosing the Borel weight. Both in the nucleon and hyperon channels the obtained sum rules turn out to have a very good Borel stability and also have a Borel window, an energy region in which the OPE converges and the pole contribution dominates over the continuum contribution. The predicted masses of the positive- and negative-parity baryons reproduce the experimental ones fairly well in the $\Lambda$ and $\Sigma$ channels, if we assign the $\Lambda(1670)$ and the $\Sigma(1620)$ to the parity partners of the $\Lambda$ and the $\Sigma$, respectively. This implies that the $\Lambda(1405)$ is not the party partner of the $\Lambda$ and may be a flavor-singlet or exotic state. In the $\Xi$ channel, the sum rule predicts the mass of the negative-parity state to be about 1.8 GeV, which leads to two possibilities; one is that the observed state with the closest mass, $\Xi(1690)$, is the parity partner and the other is that the parity partner is not yet found but exists around 1.8 GeV.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

In silico predictions of variant deleteriousness in the genomes of pig species

Predicting the deleteriousness of observed genomic variants has taken a step forward with the development of the Combined Annotation Dependent Depletion (CADD) [1] methodology, as it allows for comparable evaluations of variants on a genome-wide scale for coding and non-coding variants respectively. ..