Identification of Diverse Mycoviruses Through Metatranscriptomics Characterization of the Viromes of Five Major Fungal Plant Pathogens

Mycoviruses can have a marked effect on natural fungal communities and influence plant health and productivity. However, a comprehensive picture of mycoviral diversity is still lacking. To characterize the viromes of five widely dispersed plant-pathogenic fungi, Colletotrichum truncatum, Macrophomina phaseolina, Diaporthe longicolla, Rhizoctonia solani, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, a high-throughput sequencing-based metatranscriptomic approach was used to detect viral sequences. Total RNA and double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) from mycelia and RNA from samples enriched for virus particles were sequenced. Sequence data were assembled de novo, and contigs with predicted amino acid sequence similarities to viruses in the nonredundant protein database were selected. The analysis identified 72 partial or complete genome segments representing 66 previously undescribed mycoviruses. Using primers specific for each viral contig, at least one fungal isolate was identified that contained each virus. The novel mycoviruses showed affinity with 15 distinct lineages: Barnaviridae, Benyviridae, Chrysoviridae, Endornaviridae, Fusariviridae, Hypoviridae, Mononegavirales, Narnaviridae, Ophioviridae, Ourmiavirus, Partitiviridae, Tombusviridae, Totiviridae, Tymoviridae, and Virgaviridae. More than half of the viral sequences were predicted to be members of the Mitovirus genus in the family Narnaviridae, which replicate within mitochondria. Five viral sequences showed strong affinity with three families (Benyviridae, Ophioviridae, and Virgaviridae) that previously contained no mycovirus species. The genomic information provides insight into the diversity and taxonomy of mycoviruses and coevolution of mycoviruses and their fungal hosts

Exploring Alternative Terrain in the Rehabilitation and Treatment of Offenders: Findings from a Prison-based Music Project

The arts in prison settings have provided an alternative or complimentary component to rehabilitation. Despite increased interest, studies capturing the voice of offenders participating in projects and the long-term impact are limited. Data from semistructured interviews with 18 men who had taken part in a music-based project while incarcerated, including one group of five participants who were tracked for 18 months with supplemented data from correctional staff and official documentation, is presented. Participants of the art-based projects comment on changes they believe to have derived from participating in the project, particularly relating to emotions, self-esteem, self-confidence, communication and social skills. An exoffender sample of participants reported that participation in art projects provide experiences that promote beneficial skills that have been useful for post prison life

Impacts of climate change on plant diseases – opinions and trends

There has been a remarkable scientific output on the topic of how climate change is likely to affect plant diseases in the coming decades. This review addresses the need for review of this burgeoning literature by summarizing opinions of previous reviews and trends in recent studies on the impacts of climate change on plant health. Sudden Oak Death is used as an introductory case study: Californian forests could become even more susceptible to this emerging plant disease, if spring precipitations will be accompanied by warmer temperatures, although climate shifts may also affect the current synchronicity between host cambium activity and pathogen colonization rate. A summary of observed and predicted climate changes, as well as of direct effects of climate change on pathosystems, is provided. Prediction and management of climate change effects on plant health are complicated by indirect effects and the interactions with global change drivers. Uncertainty in models of plant disease development under climate change calls for a diversity of management strategies, from more participatory approaches to interdisciplinary science. Involvement of stakeholders and scientists from outside plant pathology shows the importance of trade-offs, for example in the land-sharing vs. sparing debate. Further research is needed on climate change and plant health in mountain, boreal, Mediterranean and tropical regions, with multiple climate change factors and scenarios (including our responses to it, e.g. the assisted migration of plants), in relation to endophytes, viruses and mycorrhiza, using long-term and large-scale datasets and considering various plant disease control methods

Improving EPI imaging quality and sound levels with bandwidth selection

Echo planar imaging (EPI) is a rapid sequence that has been applied with great success to diffusion, perfusion and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain. However, the oscillating gradients in EPI can produce artefacts such as Nyquist or N/2 ghosting, plus they generate a high level of acoustic noise. Nyquist ghosting is the result of a time shift between the odd and even echoes produced by oscillating readout gradients. Each alternate echo has to be time-reversed before Fourier transformation, and any misalignment or shape asymmetry results in ghosting in the reconstructed image, typically a ghost half the field of view away from the main image in the phase encoding direction. Where the image and Nyquist ghost overlaps, interference patterns are generated and signal to noise is lost. In fMRI, activation data from these regions becomes ambiguous. Misalignment of alternate echoes can be addressed by adjusting the timing of digitization, adjusting the gradients or postprocessing with the aid of reference scans[1,2], but these are not effective in removing shape asymmetry, which is the result of time-reversal asymmetry in the gradient waveform caused by eddy currents and static magnetic field inhomogenieties. The combination of currents within the gradient coils (or eddy currents within conductive structures) and the static magnetic field evokes Lorentz forces, which in turn induces vibrations within the gradients and other structures, which couple to the surrounding air to generate noise.[3,4] The rapid gradient switching in EPI induces large Lorentz forces, which increases with field strength and gradient current.[4] Apart from concerns of patient comfort and safety, the intense noise generated with EPI can evoke spurious fMRI signal in various areas of the brain[5,6,7] and hampers delivery of acoustic stimuli and overt vocal response. The effect of the switching frequency of the readout gradient upon acoustic noise levels has been investigated for gradient echo EPI at 4T.[8,9] Acoustic sound levels can be minimized by appropriate choice of bandwidth, however nothing has been reported about corresponding effects on Nyquist ghosting. Maximum bandwidth is desirable in EPI to reduce echo spacing and geometric distortions. Although low bandwidths generate low noise and low Nyquist ghosting, using a higher bandwidth, which provides minimum ghosting and noise, is a superior alternative. The relationship between frequency of readout and Nyquist ghosting plus acoustic noise was investigated at 1.5 and 4T systems, with identical Sonata gradients

Functional MRI evidence for dopaminergic neuromodulation of semantic priming in healthy individuals

This study aimed to determine the brain regions involved in the dopaminergic modulation of semantics in healthy individuals by combining pharmacological event-related fMRI with a lexical ambiguity semantic priming task

Livestock grazing and topographic site effects on grassland plant communities after long-term grazing cessation

Ranchers are increasingly expected to manage grasslands for forage production and native biodiversity enhancement goals. However, longstanding relationships between grazing and plant species are often understudied because elucidating effects of grazing absence and presence often requires experimental opportunities that are difficult to establish, such as the introduction of grazing to long-term ungrazed pastures. Addressing this knowledge gap is critical for heterogeneous landscapes where site-specific properties might interact with grazing effects to ultimately structure plant communities. We conducted vegetation surveys for 3 years after grazing was reintroduced to an annual California grassland that was not grazed for more than 60 years. We investigated how grazing affected plant communities in terms of cover and richness of native and invasive species and how topographic sites of summit, backslope and toeslope altered these relationships. The plant communities were affected by the independent effects of grazing, site and year. Across years, native cover was 39% greater in grazed plots compared with ungrazed plots. Native species richness was slightly lower in ungrazed compared with grazed plots for toeslope sites relative to the other topographic positions. Invasive species cover was 17% lower in grazed plots compared with ungrazed plots and no predictors were found to contribute to significant differences across plots. Although we generally did not find expected relationships between site and plant response to grazing, this work demonstrates how managers can use livestock to quickly modify plant communities in areas with a long history of grazing absence.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Cattle Grazing and Yosemite Toad (Bufo canorus Camp) Breeding Habitat in Sierra Nevada Meadows

Exclusion of cattle by fencing has been proposed to alleviate possible negative grazing impacts on hydrologic, water quality, and cover habitat conditions within Sierra Nevada meadows used by Yosemite toads (Bufo canorus Camp) for breeding. Our objectives were to: 1) determine associations between breeding pool habitat conditions and use of potential breeding pools by toads; and 2) determine how habitat conditions respond to cattle exclusion treatments on the Sierra National Forest, California. We randomly selected two toad occupied and two unoccupied breeding pools in each of nine meadows for this study (n=36 breeding pools). After baseline data collection in 2006, three meadow fencing treatments were implemented over the course of 3 yr. Treatments were fencing to exclude cattle from the entire meadow; fencing to exclude cattle from toad breeding and rearing areas, with grazing allowed in the remaining unfenced portion of the meadow; and cattle grazing allowed across entire meadow. We monitored hydrologic, water quality, and cover habitat variables as well as toad occupancy during the breeding seasons of 2006 through 2008. Concentrations of water quality constituents were uniformly low all years regardless of treatment. Occupied pools were shallower, warmer, and more nitrogen enriched than unoccupied breeding pools. We found no evidence of improved toad breeding pool habitat conditions following fencing compared to standard US Forest Service grazing management./La exclusión del ganado por medio de cercos ha sido propuesto para reducir los posibles impactos negativos del pastoreo en la calidad del agua, la hidrología y las condiciones de cobertura del hábitat dentro de las praderas de Sierra Nevada, usados por el sapo yosemite (Bufo canorus Camp) en su reproducción. Nuestros objetivos fueron: 1) Determinar las asociaciones entre las condiciones del hábitat en un estanque de cría y el uso de estanques potenciales de cría por sapos y 2) Determinar cómo las condiciones del hábitat responden a los tratamientos de exclusión del ganado en el bosque Nacional la Sierra en California. Seleccionamos al azar dos estanques de crianza de sapos ocupados y dos sin ocupar en cada una de las nueve praderas para este estudio (n=36 estanques de cría). Después de los valores de referencia recabados en el 2006, se implantaron tres tratamientos de cercos en praderas por un periodo de tres años. Los tratamientos fueron, cercar para apartar el ganado de toda la pradera, cercar para excluir el ganado de la cría del sapo y su área de reproducción, permitiendo el pastoreo en la porción restante de la pradera sin cercar y permitir el pastoreo del ganado en toda la pradera. Se monitoreo la hidrología, calidad del agua y las variables de la cobertura del hábitat, así como la ocupación del sapo durante las temporadas de reproducción del 2006 al 2008. Monitoreamos las variables de hidrología, calidad de agua y la cobertura del hábitat así como la ocupación de los sapos durante las temporadas de reproducción del 2006 al 2008. Las concentraciones de los componentes en la calidad del agua fueron uniformemente bajos todos los años independientemente del tratamiento. Los estanques ocupados fueron menos profundos, más tibios y más ricos en nitrógeno que los estanques para reproducción vacios. No encontramos evidencia que mejoraran las condiciones del hábitat de los estanques de reproducción después del cercado de acuerdo a los parámetros del Servicio de Bosques de los Estados Unidos para manejo de pastizales.The Rangeland Ecology & Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform August 202