Congenital Syphilis Like Many Years Ago

This case concerns a premature infant with typical signs of congenital syphilis born to an untreated foreign mother. Syphilis prevalence in pregnant women has been rising in Italy since the beginning of the 21st century, mainly due to immigration. A correct antenatal syphilis screening and consequent adequate therapy of pregnant woman are fundamental to prevent the neonatal infection

A Multidisciplinary Approach Providing New Insight into Fruit Flesh Browning Physiology in Apple (<i>Malus x domestica</i> Borkh.)

<div><p>In terms of the quality of minimally processed fruit, flesh browning is fundamentally important in the development of an aesthetically unpleasant appearance, with consequent off-flavours. The development of browning depends on the enzymatic action of the polyphenol oxidase (PPO). In the ‘Golden Delicious’ apple genome ten <i>PPO</i> genes were initially identified and located on three main chromosomes (2, 5 and 10). Of these genes, one element in particular, here called <i>Md-PPO</i>, located on chromosome 10, was further investigated and genetically mapped in two apple progenies (‘Fuji x Pink Lady’ and ‘Golden Delicious x Braeburn’). Both linkage maps, made up of 481 and 608 markers respectively, were then employed to find QTL regions associated with fruit flesh browning, allowing the detection of 25 QTLs related to several browning parameters. These were distributed over six linkage groups with LOD values spanning from 3.08 to 4.99 and showed a rate of phenotypic variance from 26.1 to 38.6%. Anchoring of these intervals to the apple genome led to the identification of several genes involved in polyphenol synthesis and cell wall metabolism. Finally, the expression profile of two specific candidate genes, up and downstream of the polyphenolic pathway, namely phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO), provided insight into flesh browning physiology. <i>Md-PPO</i> was further analyzed and two haplotypes were characterised and associated with fruit flesh browning in apple.</p> </div

Diagram of the biosynthetic pathway for polyphenol compounds, highlighting the cascade of compounds produced from phenylalanine and the action of the PPO enzyme.

<p>Diagram of the biosynthetic pathway for polyphenol compounds, highlighting the cascade of compounds produced from phenylalanine and the action of the PPO enzyme.</p

Trait distribution for L^*, a^* and b^* parameters measured after 60 minutes of exposure to air.

<div><p>The panels on the left are for POP_1 (‘Fuji x Pink Lady’), while the panels on the right are for POP_2 (‘Golden Delicious x Braeburn’). The grey bars in each panel represent the data distribution observed, while the black line is the normal fit of data. The x-axis gives the value for the three indexes, while the y-axis plots the number of observations.</p> <p>The position of the four parental varieties is indicated by four letters: F_’Fuji’, PL_’Pink Lady’, GD_’Golden Delicious’ and B_’Braeburn’.</p></div

Physical localization of the ten <i>PPO</i> genes discovered in the ‘Golden Delicious’ genome.

<p>The position in Kb is plotted for each chromosome on the left , while the gene ID is shown on the right. </p

Md-PPO haplotype validation in the POP_2 progeny.

<div><p>White bars represent individuals characterised by a heterozygous haplotype (“np”), while the grey bars show the homozygous category (“nn”). The standard error is reported in each bar.</p> <p>On the x-axis, 30-0 and 60-0 are the percentage variation of ∆ a^* calculated between T₃₀-T₀ and T₆₀-T₀ respectively (2). indicates the ∆ value calculated after two months’ cold storage.</p> <p>As for the analysis carried out for the POP_1, five apples (biological replicates) were assessed for each genotypes, and for each fruit the flesh browning was measured of the two halves (technical replicates). </p> <p>Asterisks show statistically significant comparison based on the LSD-ANOVA test (<i>P</i>-value ≤ 0.05).</p></div

QTL-LOD profile targeted on 6 linkage groups of the POP_1 and related to several flesh browning components.

<div><p>In particular:.</p> <p>LG9: b^*_T₀ (solid red).</p> <p>LG10: L^*T_30-0 (solid green), a^*_T_30-0 (solid violet), L^*_T_60-0 (solid dark green), a^*_T_60-0 (dashed black), L^*T_30-0% (dashed blue), L^*_T_60-0% (dashed pink).</p> <p>LG11: a^*_T₃₀ (solid dark green), b^*_T₃₀ (solid red), a^*_T₆₀ (solid blue), L^*_T_30-0 (solid green), a^*_T_30-0 (solid violet), b^*_T_30-0 (solid light blue), a^*_T_60-0 (dashed black), L^*_T_30-0% (dashed blue), a^*_T_30-0% (dashed yellow), L^*_T_60-0% (dashed pink), a^*_T_60-0% (dashed light green).</p> <p>LG13: b^*_T₃₀ (solid blue).</p> <p>LG14: b^*_T₃₀ (solid black), a^*_T₆₀ (solid yellow), b^*_T₆₀ (solid pink), L^*_T_60-30 (dashed red), a^*_T_60-30 (dashed green).</p> <p>LG16: a^*_T₀ (solid black).</p> <p>The QTL analysis was performed by using the phenotypic data of 47 seedlings of the POP_1. For each seedling a total of five apples were considered (biological replicates), and for each fruit the browning was measured on the two cut halves (technical replicates).</p></div