First record of verticillium wilt (Verticillium longisporum) in winter oilseed rape in the UK

Verticillium longisporum is an important pathogen of oilseed rape (OSR) and vegetable brassicas in several European countries, but has not been reported previously in the UK (Karapapa et al., 1997; Steventon et al., 2002). In 2007, Verticillium wilt was suspected in UK crops of winter OSR (W-OSR) on cv. Castille in Romney Marsh, Kent and on cv. Barrel near Hereford. At these two locations, 32 and 10% of the plants, respectively, appeared to be affected, but the presence of stem canker may have masked some infections. Symptoms were first seen as the crops began to ripen (seeds green-brown to brown, Growth Stage: 6,4-6,5) and included brown and dark grey vertical bands on the stems from soil level into the branches, and premature ripening of some branches (Fig. 1). Microsclerotia were observed on stem samples collected in the field (Fig. 2), suggesting V. longisporum as the causal agent. Cultures were prepared from field samples by immersing stem pieces in 5% sodium hypochlorite solution for one minute, washing twice in sterile distilled water and plating onto potato dextrose agar containing 25 mg/l streptomycin sulphate. Isolates from three plants per outbreak were identified morphologically as V. longisporum. Mean conidial dimensions (25 spores per isolate) were 8.80-9.65 μm (length) and 2.50-2.85 μm (width) and all isolates produced elongated microsclerotia, characters typical of V. longisporum (Karapapa et al., 1997). The identity was confirmed by PCR using species-specific primers (Steventon et al., 2002) and, as a member of the α sub-group, by direct sequencing of the amplicons from primer pairs ITS4-ITS5 and DB19-DB22 (Collins et al., 2003; 2005). Sequences for isolate 003 from Kent were deposited in GenBank (Accession Nos. HQ702376 and HQ702377). All isolates tested from 2008 and 2009 were identical with previously deposited sequences for European OSR isolates (e.g. AF363992 and AF363246 respectively). Pathogenicity was confirmed by inoculating three OSR cv. Castille seedlings per isolate using the root dip technique with 1 x 106 spores/ml (Karapapa et al., 1997) under heated glasshouse conditions at 19°C. Leaf yellowing and blackening of the leaf veins were found 26 days after inoculation (Fig. 3). Yellowing affecting the three oldest leaves increased for seven to nine days. After five weeks the final mean leaf area affected was 63-78% with no differences between isolates. No leaf yellowing occurred in the controls. After five weeks, V. longisporum was re-isolated from all the inoculated seedlings, but not from the non-inoculated controls. In June 2008, infection of W-OSR crops in different fields on the same farms was found on cv. Es Astrid in Kent (56% incidence) and on cv. Lioness in Hereford (15% incidence). The Kent farm had been growing W-OSR alternating with winter wheat for at least 10 years whilst the Hereford farm had grown W-OSR one year in four. These short rotations of OSR may be contributing to the appearance of this disease. This study confirms the identification of V. longisporum on any host in the UK, through molecular studies and detailed spore measurements that were not reported in an earlier review (Gladders, 2009). This pathogen occurs in several European countries and, since OSR may be traded freely, following a Defra consultation, no statutory plant health action is to be taken

Magnetostratigraphy of late neogene glacial, interglacial, and preglacial sediments in the Saskatoon and Regina areas, Saskatchewan, Canada

Sherpa Romeo green journal. Permission to archive accepted author manuscriptTwo new records of glacial stratigraphy obtained from borecores collected in southcentral Saskatchewan are compared to previously published records from Wellsch Valley and Swift Current Creek in southern Saskatchewan. The comparisons are based on magnetostratigraphy and tephrochronology, and describe preglacial, glacial, and interglacial deposits. The new stratigraphy is compared to the composite global marine oxygen isotope record. Although the ages and extents of late Pleistocene continental glaciations are relatively well constrained, they are less well defined for the middle and early Pleistocene. Data presented here highlight recent studies carried out from borecores and outcrops of extensive pre-Illinoian (pre-Saalian) glacial deposits. Based on this new data, at least seven Laurentide (continental) glaciations are recognized in Saskatchewan, and these records are the most extensive to date in the Northern Interior Plains of Canada. The magnetostratigraphic records from the Sutherland Overpass and Wascana Creek sites provide the first evidence of reversely magnetized glacial deposits in the Canadian Prairies. These deposits can be assigned to the latest Matuyama (MIS 20) and indicate that Laurentide (continental) glaciations did not impact southern Saskatchewan until the late Early Pleistocene.Ye

Structural and stereogenic properties of spiro- and ansa-substituted 1,3-propanedioxy derivatives of a spermine-bridged cyclotriphosphazene

Reaction of 1,3-propanediol with the achiral spermine-bridged cyclophosphazene 1 at various molar ratios in THF gives a number of spiro-and ansa-derivatives that exhibit different stereogenic properties, viz. racemic, meso or achiral forms. As expected, spiro forms are preferred (giving mono-, di-, tri- and tetra-substitution), although significant amounts of mono- and di-substituted ansa derivatives also occur. A number of new structures have been characterized by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography in this work; mono-spiro 2, di-mono-ansa 6 and di-spiro/mono-ansa 8. The mono-ansa compound 3 was observed in solution by NMR spectroscopy but no evidence was found for the monospiro/monoansa 5, a necessary precursor of compound 8. The tri-spiro derivative 7 has been isolated and characterized by 31P NMR spectroscopy, whereas the structures of the di-monospiro 4 (meso) and tetra-spiro 9 have been characterized previously. The stereogenic properties of many of the products have been confirmed by X-ray crystallography and/or by 31P NMR spectroscopy on addition of the chiral solvating agent, (S)-(+)-2,2,2-trifluoro-1-(9-anthryl)ethanol. Although the starting compound 1 is achiral, it is found that unsymmetrically-substituted derivatives with 1,3-propanediol give racemic mixtures for the mono-spiro 2 and tri-spiro 7 derivatives, whereas symmetrically-substituted derivatives such as di-mono-ansa 6 and di-spiro/mono-ansa 8 are meso. It is found that care must taken in interpreting the 'splitting' of 31P NMR signals on addition of CSA in terms of 'chirality' of molecules, because some meso compounds give false positive results due to changes from A2X-like to A2B or ABX spin systems

Angiotensin 1-7 Rescues Cognitive Decline and Neuronal Loss Following Traumatic Brain Injury in Mice

Purpose of study: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability in the U.S., accounting for approximately 30% of all injury deaths and 3 million TBI-related emergency visits yearly. There is limited research in the area of mitigating the post-inflammatory effects of non-fatal traumatic brain injury. Angiotensin 1-7, an endogenous peptide that acts on the MAS receptor, has recently shown to be anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, and vasodilatory unlike its relative, angiotensin II. We asked the question of whether Ang 1-7 modulates neuroinflammation and improves cognitive function in mice following traumatic brain injury. Methods: A controlled cortical impactor with a retractable piston was used to model a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Mice either received Ang 1-7 (1 mg/kg, n=12) or normal saline (0.9%, n=12) 2 hours post-TBI and 30 minutes prior to novel objection recognition (NOR) testing on days 1, 3, 7, 14 post-TBI with tissue harvesting for hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Results: Between-group studies showed that Ang 1-7 treated mice showed significantly higher NOR ratios compared to that of the control group. Additionally, statistically significant higher neuronal count in the ipsilateral hippocampal and cortical tissues days 1, 3, 7, and 14 post-TBI was observed in the Ang-1-7 group. Conclusion: Together, these results demonstrate that Ang 1-7 significantly improves cognitive function and rescues further cell loss against secondary intrinsic injury following extrinsic mTBI and suggest that it may be a novel therapy to the effects of mild traumatic brain injury

The Telomerase Database

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that extends DNA at the chromosome ends in most eukaryotes. Since 1985, telomerase has been studied intensively and components of the telomerase complex have been identified from over 160 eukaryotic species. In the last two decades, there has been a growing interest in studying telomerase owing to its vital role in chromosome stability and cellular immortality. To keep up with the remarkable explosion of knowledge about telomerase, we compiled information related to telomerase in an exhaustive database called the Telomerase Database (http://telomerase.asu.edu/). The Telomerase Database provides comprehensive information about (i) sequences of the RNA and protein subunits of telomerase, (ii) sequence alignments based on the phylogenetic relationship and structure, (iii) secondary structures of the RNA component and tertiary structures of various subunits of telomerase, (iv) mutations of telomerase components found in human patients and (v) active researchers who contributed to the wealth of current knowledge on telomerase. The information is hierarchically organized by the components, i.e. the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), telomerase RNA (TR) and other telomerase-associated proteins. The Telomerase Database is a useful resource especially for researchers who are interested in investigating the structure, function, evolution and medical relevance of the telomerase enzyme

Distributionally chaotic families of operators on Fréchet spaces

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Communications on Pure and Applied Analysis (CPAA) following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Conejero, J. A., Kostić, M., Miana, P. J., & Murillo-Arcila, M. (2016). Distributionally chaotic families of operators on Fréchet spaces.Communications on Pure and Applied Analysis, 2016, vol. 15, no 5, p. 1915-1939, is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3934/cpaa.2016022The existence of distributional chaos and distributional irregular vectors has been recently considered in the study of linear dynamics of operators and C-0-semigroups. In this paper we extend some previous results on both notions to sequences of operators, C-0-semigroups, C-regularized semigroups, and alpha-timesintegrated semigroups on Frechet spaces. We also add a study of rescaled distributionally chaotic C-0-semigroups. Some examples are provided to illustrate all these results.The first and fourth authors are supported in part by MEC Project MTM2010-14909, MTM2013-47093-P, and Programa de Investigacion y Desarrollo de la UPV, Ref. SP20120700. The second author is partially supported by grant 174024 of Ministry of Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia. The third author has been partially supported by Project MTM2013-42105-P, DGI-FEDER, of the MCYTS; Project E-64, D.G. Aragon, and Project UZCUD2014-CIE-09, Universidad de Zaragoza. The fourth author is supported by a grant of the FPU Program of Ministry of education of Spain.Conejero, JA.; Kostic, M.; Miana Sanz, PJ.; Murillo Arcila, M. (2016). Distributionally chaotic families of operators on Fréchet spaces. Communications on Pure and Applied Analysis. 15(5):1915-1939. https://doi.org/10.3934/cpaa.2016022S1915193915

The Essential Nucleolar Yeast Protein Nop8p Controls the Exosome Function during 60S Ribosomal Subunit Maturation

The yeast nucleolar protein Nop8p has previously been shown to interact with Nip7p and to be required for 60S ribosomal subunit formation. Although depletion of Nop8p in yeast cells leads to premature degradation of rRNAs, the biochemical mechanism responsible for this phenotype is still not known. In this work, we show that the Nop8p amino-terminal region mediates interaction with the 5.8S rRNA, while its carboxyl-terminal portion interacts with Nip7p and can partially complement the growth defect of the conditional mutant strain Δnop8/GAL::NOP8. Interestingly, Nop8p mediates association of Nip7p to pre-ribosomal particles. Nop8p also interacts with the exosome subunit Rrp6p and inhibits the complex activity in vitro, suggesting that the decrease in 60S ribosomal subunit levels detected upon depletion of Nop8p may result from degradation of pre-rRNAs by the exosome. These results strongly indicate that Nop8p may control the exosome function during pre-rRNA processing

Changing Fonts in Education: How the Benefits Vary with Ability and Dyslexia

ABSTRACT. Previous research has shown that presenting educational materials in slightly harder to read fonts than is typical engenders deeper processing. This leads to better retention and subsequent recall of information. Before this extremely simple-to-implement and cost-effective adaptation can be made routinely to educational materials, it needs to be shown to benefit all students, or at the very least not to hinder any particular group. The authors found that students across the ability spectrum demonstrate a significant improvement in retention and recall when presented with information in a disfluent font. Significantly, those students with dyslexia are also found to greatly benefit