Pathogenicity of Fusarium species causing head blight in barley

The pathogenicity of eight Fusarium species causing fusarium head blight (FHB) in barley was studied under controlled conditions. Six barley genotypes varying in resistance to FHB were artificially inoculated with six isolates each of F. acuminatum, F. avenaceum, F. crookwellense, F. culmorum, F. equiseti, F. graminearum, F. poae and F. sporotrichioides 10-14 d after heading. Symptoms of FHB were rated as disease severity using a 0-9 scale, 4, 7, 14, 21 and 28 d after inoculation, and as percentage of infected spikelets (IS) after 21 d. All species tested caused head blight symptoms on the barley genotypes, but only F. crookwellense, F. culmorum and F. graminearum resulted in severe disease development (> 65% IS) and were considered highly pathogenic. Fusarium avenaceum had 48% IS, which was significantly lower than those of the three highly pathogenic species and was moderately pathogenic. The remaining species had 65 %) et ont été considérés comme fortement pathogènes. Avec un PÉI de 48 %, qui était significativement inférieur à ceux des trois espèces les plus pathogènes, le Fusarium avenaceum a été considéré comme moyennement pathogène. Les autres espèces ont eu un PÉI de moins de 15 % et ont été considérées comme faiblement pathogènes. Des différences significatives (P < 0,05) ont été observées entre les espèces pour l'agressivité parmi les isolats et pour la sensibilité parmi les génotypes d'orge, ce qui suggère que le tri pour la résistance à la FÉ doit faire appel à des isolats agressifs ou à un mélange de plusieurs isolats. C'est la première fois que le F. crookwellense est signalé comme fortement pathogène et le F. avenaceum comme moyennement pathogène sur l'orge

Effect of harvest date on barley grain contamination with Fusarium spp. and deoxynivalenol in northeastern Ontario

The effect of harvest date on the incidence of seed-borne Fusarium spp. and deoxynivalenol (DON) concentration in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) was studied using three cultivars at three locations in Ontario in both 2004 and 2005. The profile of seed-borne Fusarium spp. was dominated by F. equiseti (Corda) Sacc., F. sporotrichioides Sherb., and F. poae (Peck) Wollenw., isolated from 4.4%, 3.3%, and 1.6% of the kernels, representing 39.3%, 29.4%, and 14.2% of the Fusarium pathogen population, respectively. Fusarium graminearum Schwabe and F. avenaceum (Fr.) Sacc. were each recovered from <1% of the kernels and represented 8.3% and 6.6% of the pathogen population, respectively. Other species, including F. acuminatum Ellis & Everh., F. culmorum (W.G. Sm.) Sacc., and F. semitectum Berk. & Rav., collectively occurred only on 0.2% of all kernels and represented <2% of the population. The incidence level of all Fusarium spp. increased from 6.9 to 13.9% when harvest was delayed. Of the commonly recovered species, only F. avenaceum and F. sporotrichioides levels increased with the delayed harvest, while other species did not follow a clear pattern. DON concentration in the harvested grain ranged from 0.20 to 0.28 mg kg‑1 with the five harvest dates, and was not statistically different. Significant differences in the incidence of all Fusarium spp. and in DON concentration were observed among cultivars, locations, and between the 2 yr of the study. The highest DON concentration observed in this study was 0.5 mg kg‑1, which is below the Canadian tolerance level of 1.0 mg kg‑1.L’effet de la date de récolte sur l’incidence des concentrations aéroportées de Fusarium spp. et de désoxynivalénol (DON) chez l’orge (Hordeum vulgare L.) a été étudié à l’aide de trois cultivars dans trois sites en Ontario en 2004 et 2005. Le profil des Fusarium spp. aéroportées était dominé par F. equiseti (Corda) Sacc., F. sporotrichioides Sherb. et F. poae (Peck) Wollenw., retrouvées dans 4,4 %, 3,3 % et 1,6 % des grains et représentant 39,3 %, 29,4 % et 14,2 % de la population pathogène de Fusarium, respectivement. Fusarium graminearum Schwabe et F. avenaceum (Fr.) Sacc. ont été retrouvées dans <1 % des grains et représentaient 8,3 % et 6,6 % de la population pathogène, respectivement. D’autres espèces, y compris F. acuminatum Ellis & Everh., F. culmorum (W.G. Sm.) Sacc. et F. semitectum Berk. & Rav., étaient présentes dans seulement 0,2 % des grains et représentaient <2 % de la population. Le taux d’incidence de toutes les espèces de Fusarium augmentait de 6,9 à 13,9 % lorsque la récolte était retardée. Chez les espèces les plus souvent retrouvées, seuls les taux de F. avenaceum et F. sporotrichioides ont augmenté lorsqu’on retardait la récolte, alors que les autres espèces n’ont pas suivi de tendance claire. Les concentrations de DON dans les grains récoltés variaient entre 0,20 et 0,28 mg kg‑1 selon les cinq dates de récolte et n’étaient pas statistiquement différentes. Des différences significatives dans l’incidence de toutes les espèces de Fusarium et dans les concentrations de DON ont été observées entre les cultivars, entre les sites, et entre les deux années de l’étude. La concentration de DON la plus élevée observée au cours de l’étude était de 0,5 mg kg‑1, ce qui se situe sous le seuil canadien de tolérance de 1,0 mg kg‑1

Epidemiology and clinical impact of osteoporosis in Taiwan: A 12-year trend of a nationwide population-based study

Background: Osteoporosis increases the fracture and mortality risk of patients and has a higher disease burden than some cancers. Therefore, global concerns regarding the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis have been raised. However, fast-aging Taiwan lacks national epidemiological data on osteoporosis in recent years. We aimed to establish and update epidemiological data on osteoporosis by analyzing national data from 2008 to 2019. Methods: We estimated the prevalence and incidence of osteoporosis in patients aged ≥50 years based on claims data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance database from 2008 to 2019. We also analyzed the key parameters of fracture care (anti-osteoporosis medication use, bone mineral density examination rate, and length of hospital stay) to understand the secular trend of management and related clinical outcomes (imminent refracture rate and mortality). Results: The number of prevalent osteoporosis increased from 2008 to 2015 and remained constant until 2019; however, the age-standardized prevalence and incidence rates declined from 2008 to 2019 (3.77%–2.91% and 2.08%–1.02%, respectively). The overall incidence rates of hip and spine fractures decreased significantly by 34% and 27%, respectively. For patients with hip and spine fractures, the immanent refracture rates were 8.5% and 12.9% and the 1-year mortality rate remained stable at approximately 15% and 6%, respectively. Conclusion: The age-standardized prevalence and incidence rates decreased remarkably from 2008 to 2019, while the number of prevalent osteoporosis remained steady. Patients with hip fractures encountered a high 1-year mortality rate, while the risk of imminent refracture was notable for patients with spine fractures

Generation and Analysis of the Expressed Sequence Tags from the Mycelium of <i>Ganoderma lucidum</i>

<div><p><i>Ganoderma lucidum</i> (<i>G. lucidum</i>) is a medicinal mushroom renowned in East Asia for its potential biological effects. To enable a systematic exploration of the genes associated with the various phenotypes of the fungus, the genome consortium of <i>G. lucidum</i> has carried out an expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing project. Using a Sanger sequencing based approach, 47,285 ESTs were obtained from <i>in vitro</i> cultures of <i>G. lucidum</i> mycelium of various durations. These ESTs were further clustered and merged into 7,774 non-redundant expressed loci. The features of these expressed contigs were explored in terms of over-representation, alternative splicing, and natural antisense transcripts. Our results provide an invaluable information resource for exploring the <i>G. lucidum</i> transcriptome and its regulation. Many cases of the genes over-represented in fast-growing dikaryotic mycelium are closely related to growth, such as cell wall and bioactive compound synthesis. In addition, the EST-genome alignments containing putative cassette exons and retained introns were manually curated and then used to make inferences about the predominating splice-site recognition mechanism of <i>G. lucidum</i>. Moreover, a number of putative antisense transcripts have been pinpointed, from which we noticed that two cases are likely to reveal hitherto undiscovered biological pathways. To allow users to access the data and the initial analysis of the results of this project, a dedicated web site has been created at <a href="http://csb2.ym.edu.tw/est/" target="_blank">http://csb2.ym.edu.tw/est/</a>.</p></div

<i>G. lucidum</i> genes and their ESTs involved in the biosynthesis of triterpenoids.

<p>EC number: Enzyme commission number.</p><p>The 5^th-day, 14^th-day, 18^th-day, and 30^th-day columns list the numbers of ESTs derived from the <i>G. lucidum</i> mycelia cultivated for corresponding days.</p>*<p>: Derived from the monokaryotic strain, BCRC 37180.</p><p>E_value: The NCBI BLASTP E-value reported for the most similar gene in the non-redundant (NR) database for each putative protein.</p

A tail-to-tail arrangement of sense and <i>cis</i>-NAT gene pairs, <i>CCHL</i> (YMGL ESTG/ESTT 51764) and <i>TIM44</i> (YMGL ESTG/ESTT 51765).

<p>This figure presents an Ensembl-based visualization of the ESTs and ESTGenes/ESTTranscripts, YMGL ESTG/ESTT 51764 and YMGL ESTG/ESTT 51765, on top of <i>G. lucidum</i> genomic contig, contig00912. The former is annotated as cytochrome c heme lyase (<i>CCHL</i>) and the latter is annotated as mitochondrial import inner membrane translocase, subunit Tim44 (<i>TIM44</i>). The EST transcripts were built from overlapping ESTs-genome using a “cluster and merge” algorithm (see the <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0061127#s2" target="_blank">Materials and Methods</a> for details) and only the ESTs sharing identical splicing junctions were merged into an ESTTranscript. The orientation of each transcript was inferred by fitting splicing junctions to the consensus GT-AG pattern. YMGL ESTG/ESTT 51764 and YMGL ESTG/ESTT 51765 are on opposite strands and their 3′ regions corresponding to putative untranslated regions that overlap with each other (as indicated by the non-shaded area in each transcript). These two transcripts show a tail-to-tail arrangement between the sense and <i>cis</i>-natural antisense transcripts.</p