The defective seed5 (des5) mutant: effects on barley seed development and HvDek1, HvCr4, and HvSal1 gene regulation

Barley, one of the major small grain crops, is especially important in climatically demanding agricultural areas of the world, with multiple uses within food, feed, and beverage. The barley endosperm is further of special scientific interest due to its three aleurone cell layers, with the potential of bringing forward the molecular understanding of seed development and cell specification from Arabidopsis and maize. Work done in Arabidopsis and maize indicate the presence of conserved seed developmental pathways where Crinkly4 (Cr4), Defective kernel1 (Dek1), and Supernumerary aleurone layer1 (Sal1) are key players. With the use of microscopy, a comprehensive phenotypic characterization of the barley defective seed5 (des5) mutant is presented here. The analysis further extends to molecular quantification of gene expression changes in the des5 mutant by qRT-PCR. Moreover, full-length genomic sequences of the barley orthologues were generated and these were annotated as HvDek1, HvCr4, and HvSal1. The most striking results in this study are the patchy reduction in number of aleurone cells, rudimentary anticlinal aleurone cell walls, and the specific change of HvCr4 expression compared to HvDek1 and HvSal1. The data presented support the involvement of Hvdes5 in establishing aleurone cells. Finally, how these results might affect the current model of aleurone and epidermal cell identity and development is discussed with a speculation regarding a possible role of Des5 in regulating cell division/ secondary cell wall building

Factors associated with dishonesty in high school students

Graduation date: 193

A European multicenter evaluation study to investigate the performance on commercially available selective agar plates for the detection of carbapenemase producing <i>Enterobacteriaceae</i>

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) advised to prioritize monitoring carbapenemase producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) in food producing animals. Therefore, this study evaluated the performance of different commercially available selective agars for the detection of CPE using spiked pig caecal and turkey meat samples and the proposed EFSA cultivation protocol. Eleven laboratories from nine countries received eight samples (four caecal and four meat samples). For each matrix, three samples contained approximately 100 CFU/g CPE, and one sample lacked CPE. After overnight enrichment in buffered peptone water, broths were spread upon Brilliance™ CRE Agar (1), CHROMID® CARBA (2), CHROMagar™ mSuperCARBA™ (3), Chromatic™ CRE (4), CHROMID® OXA-48 (5) and Chromatic™ OXA-48 (6). From plates with suspected growth, one to three colonies were selected for species identification, confirmation of carbapenem resistance and detection of carbapenemase encoding genes, by methods available at participating laboratories. Of the eleven participating laboratories, seven reported species identification, susceptibility tests and genotyping on isolates from all selective agar plates. Agars 2, 4 and 5 performed best, with 100% sensitivity. For agar 3, a sensitivity of 96% was recorded, while agar 1 and 6 performed with 75% and 43% sensitivity, respectively. More background flora was noticed for turkey meat samples than pig caecal samples. Based on this limited set of samples, most commercially available agars performed adequately. The results indicate, however, that OXA-48-like and non-OXA-48-like producers perform very differently, and one should consider which CPE strains are of interest to culture when choosing agar type

Apicidin-like gene cluster (oNRPS31) in the three <i>F. avenaceum</i> strains (Fa05001_Scaffold14, FaLH03_contig11, FaLH27_contig13) compared to the characterized apicidin gene cluster from <i>F. incarnatum</i> and the HC-toxin gene clusters from <i>Cochliobolus carbonum</i>, <i>Pyrenophora tritici-repentis</i> and <i>Setosphaeria turcica</i> (A).

<p>The genes are colored based on homology across the species. Chemical structure of apicidin and HC-toxin (B). See Table S8 in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0112703#pone.0112703.s001" target="_blank">File S1</a> for further details.</p

The number of identified signature genes for secondary metabolism in the three <i>F. avenaceum</i> strains compared to the other public <i>Fusarium</i> genome sequences.

<p>The number of genes that are unique for <i>F. avenaceum</i> is given in the parentheses. Gene classes: type I iterative PKS (PKS I), type III PKS (PKS III), non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS), terpene synthase class I head-to-tail type (TS I HT), terpene synthase class I head-to-head type (TS I HH), terpene synthases class II (TS II) and aromatic prenyltransferases (DMATS).</p><p>*incl. ERG20, COQ1, BTS1,</p><p>**incl. ERG9,</p><p>***incl. ERG7.</p><p>The number of identified signature genes for secondary metabolism in the three <i>F. avenaceum</i> strains compared to the other public <i>Fusarium</i> genome sequences.</p

Sliding window map with numbers of SNP's and indels per 20 kb in the three <i>F. avenaceum</i> strains Fa05001, FaLH03 and FaLH27 on the 11 supercontigs.

<p>Locations of the polyketide synthase and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase genes in the strain FaLH27 are plotted on the supercontigs.</p

Metabolic profiling of the three <i>F. avenaceum</i> strains.

<p>Metabolic profiling of the three <i>F. avenaceum</i> strains.</p