Soybean Breeding Aiming at increasing Productivity and Root-Knot Nematode Resistance

In Brazil, the root-knot nematode (Pratylenchus brachyurus) has gained importance, whatever because of the damage caused to soybean crops or because of its broad dispersion and incidences in producing areas. Therefore, this invention aimed at developing a new cultivar resistant to the major soybean diseases as well as to the root-knot nematode. As a result, we developed a soybean cultivar designated UFUS 8301. Generations were advanced by the single seed descent method. Value for Cultivation and Use assays were carried out during a 3-year period (2010/13). Distinctness, uniformity, and stability experiments were carried out during a 2-year period (2011/13). We used the reproduction factor (RF) statistics to assess damage and reproductive potentials of P. Brachyurus; analysis of variance tested differences between means. We accepted the null hypothesis there was no difference between UFUS 8301 and the parameter of resistance Crotalaria spectabilis. UFUS 8301 was found distinct from any other cultivar, homogeneous to the descriptors that had identified it and stable through generations. UFUS 8301 presented 19% oil and 39% protein on the seeds, and yield (3687.5 kg ha-1) above Brazilian national average

Induction of Plasmodium falciparum-Specific CD4+ T Cells and Memory B Cells in Gabonese Children Vaccinated with RTS,S/AS01E and RTS,S/AS02D

The recombinant circumsporozoite protein (CS) based vaccine, RTS,S, confers protection against Plasmodium falciparum infection in controlled challenge trials and in field studies. The RTS,S recombinant antigen has been formulated with two adjuvant systems, AS01 and AS02, which have both been shown to induce strong specific antibody responses and CD4 T cell responses in adults. As infants and young children are particularly susceptible to malaria infection and constitute the main target population for a malaria vaccine, we have evaluated the induction of adaptive immune responses in young children living in malaria endemic regions following vaccination with RTS,S/AS01(E) and RTS,S/AS02(D). Our data show that a CS-specific memory B cell response is induced one month after the second and third vaccine dose and that CS-specific antibodies and memory B cells persist up to 12 months after the last vaccine injection. Both formulations also induced low but significant amounts of CS-specific IL-2(+) CD4(+) T cells one month after the second and third vaccine dose, upon short-term in vitro stimulation of whole blood cells with peptides covering the entire CS derived sequence in RTS,S. These results provide evidence that both RTS,S/AS01(E) and RTS,S/AS02(D) induced adaptive immune responses including antibodies, circulating memory B cells and CD4(+) T cells directed against P. falciparum CS protein.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00307021

Microarray Biochips - Thousands of Reactions on a Small Chip (MOBA)

Wolfgang Mönch, Johannes Donauer, Bernd M. Fischer, Rüdiger Frank, Günter Gauglitz, Carsten Glasenapp, Hanspeter Helm, Paul Hing, Matthias Hoffmann, Peter Uhd Jepsen, Thomas Kleine-Ostmann, Martin Koch, Holger Krause, Nicolae Leopold, Tina Mutschler, Frank Rutz, Titus Sparna, Hans Zapp