Differences in virulence of Diplocarpon earlianum isolates on selected strawberry cultivars

Huit isolats de Diplocarpon earlianum ont été évalués sur 18 cultivars de fraisiers (Fragaria x ananassa) pour leur virulence, laquelle a été mesurée par leur capacité de causer un pourcentage de surface foliaire portant des symptômes. Des différences significatives ont été observées entre les isolats et les cultivars, ainsi que pour l'interaction isolat x cultivar. Quatre des huit isolats, sur la moyenne des 18 cultivars de fraisiers, avaient une surface foliaire portant des symptômes de 6,7-9,6 % et ils ont été classifiés dans le groupe defaible virulence. Les quatre autres isolats avaient une surface portant des symptômes variant de 25,9-45,8 % et formaient un groupe de forte virulence. Parmi les cultivars testés, 'Vibrant' était résistant et 'Micmac' était susceptible à tous les isolats dans les deux groupes de virulence; 'Honeyoye', 'Redcoat', 'Scotland', 'St. Clair' et 'Vantage' étaient résistants au groupe de faible virulence, mais ils présentaient des interactions différentielles envers les isolats du groupe de forte virulence, les 11 autres cultivars étaient sensibles au groupe de forte virulence mais ils démontraient des interactions différentielles envers les isolats du groupe de faible virulence. Il est suggéré que plusieurs isolats de l'agent pathogène soient requis pour tester des génotypes de fraisiers pour leur résistance à la tache pourpre. Une méthode d'essai utilisant des disques foliaires a été développée et elle peut être utilisée pour évaluer la susceptibilité de génotypes de fraisiers au D. earlianum en laboratoire.Eight isolates of Diplocarpon earlianum were evaluated for virulence, measured as the ability to produce percent leaf area with symptoms (LAS), on 18 cultivars of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa). Significant differences were observed from isolate and cultivar effects, and isolate x cultivar interaction. Four of the eight isolates, on the average of 18 strawberry cultivars, had LAS ranging from 6.7-9.6%, and were classified as a group of low virulence. The remaining four isolates had LAS ranging from 25.9-45.8% and formed a high virulence group. Of the cultivars tested, 'Vibrant' was resistant and 'Micmac' was susceptible to all isolates in both virulence groups; 'Honeoye', 'Redcoat', 'Scotland', 'St. Clair' and 'Vantage' were resistant to the low virulence group, but had differential interactions to isolates in the high virulence group; the remaining 11 cultivars were susceptible to the high virulence group, but had differential interactions to isolates in the low virulence group. It is suggested that a number of different pathogen isolates are required to test strawberry genotypes for leaf scorch resistance. A leaf disk assay was developed in this study and can be used for laboratory evaluations of strawberry genotypes for susceptibility to D. earlianum

Noise-robust method for image segmentation

Segmentation of noisy images is one of the most challenging problems in image analysis and any improvement of segmentation methods can highly influence the performance of many image processing applications. In automated image segmentation, the fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering has been widely used because of its ability to model uncertainty within the data, applicability to multi-modal data and fairly robust behaviour. However, the standard FCM algorithm does not consider any information about the spatial linage context and is highly sensitive to noise and other imaging artefacts. Considering above mentioned problems, we developed a new FCM-based approach for the noise-robust fuzzy clustering and we present it in this paper. In this new iterative algorithm we incorporated both spatial and feature space information into the similarity measure and the membership function. We considered that spatial information depends on the relative location and features of the neighbouring pixels. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on synthetic image with different noise levels and real images. Experimental quantitative and qualitative segmentation results show that our method efficiently preserves the homogeneity of the regions and is more robust to noise than other FCM-based methods

Modification to the power spectrum in the brane world inflation driven by the bulk inflaton

We compute the cosmological perturbations generated in the brane world inflation driven by the bulk inflaton. Different from the model that the inflation is a brane effect, we exhibit the modification of the power spectrum of scalar perturbations due to the existence of the fifth dimension. With the change of the initial vacuum, we investigate the dependence of the correction of the power spectrum on the choice of the vacuum.Comment: replaced with the revised version, accepted for publication in PR

Current rectification by simple molecular quantum dots: an ab-initio study

We calculate a current rectification by molecules containing a conjugated molecular group sandwiched between two saturated (insulating) molecular groups of different length (molecular quantum dot) using an ab-initio non-equilibrium Green's function method. In particular, we study S-(CH2)m-C10H6-(CH2)n-S dithiol with Naphthalene as a conjugated central group. The rectification current ratio ~35 has been observed at m = 2 and n = 10, due to resonant tunneling through the molecular orbital (MO) closest to the electrode Fermi level (lowest unoccupied MO in the present case). The rectification is limited by interference of other conducting orbitals, but can be improved by e.g. adding an electron withdrawing group to the naphthalene.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

A first-principles approach to electrical transport in atomic-scale nanostructures

We present a first-principles numerical implementation of Landauer formalism for electrical transport in nanostructures characterized down to the atomic level. The novelty and interest of our method lies essentially on two facts. First of all, it makes use of the versatile Gaussian98 code, which is widely used within the quantum chemistry community. Secondly, it incorporates the semi-infinite electrodes in a very generic and efficient way by means of Bethe lattices. We name this method the Gaussian Embedded Cluster Method (GECM). In order to make contact with other proposed implementations, we illustrate our technique by calculating the conductance in some well-studied systems such as metallic (Al and Au) nanocontacts and C-atom chains connected to metallic (Al and Au) electrodes. In the case of Al nanocontacts the conductance turns out to be quite dependent on the detailed atomic arrangement. On the contrary, the conductance in Au nanocontacts presents quite universal features. In the case of C chains, where the self-consistency guarantees the local charge transfer and the correct alignment of the molecular and electrode levels, we find that the conductance oscillates with the number of atoms in the chain regardless of the type of electrode. However, for short chains and Al electrodes the even-odd periodicity is reversed at equilibrium bond distances.Comment: 14 pages, two-column format, submitted to PR

Microtubule-associated protein 6 mediates neuronal connectivity through Semaphorin 3E-dependent signalling for axonal growth.

Structural microtubule associated proteins (MAPs) stabilize microtubules, a property that was thought to be essential for development, maintenance and function of neuronal circuits. However, deletion of the structural MAPs in mice does not lead to major neurodevelopment defects. Here we demonstrate a role for MAP6 in brain wiring that is independent of microtubule binding. We find that MAP6 deletion disrupts brain connectivity and is associated with a lack of post-commissural fornix fibres. MAP6 contributes to fornix development by regulating axonal elongation induced by Semaphorin 3E. We show that MAP6 acts downstream of receptor activation through a mechanism that requires a proline-rich domain distinct from its microtubule-stabilizing domains. We also show that MAP6 directly binds to SH3 domain proteins known to be involved in neurite extension and semaphorin function. We conclude that MAP6 is critical to interface guidance molecules with intracellular signalling effectors during the development of cerebral axon tracts

Shortening of membrane lipid acyl chains compensates for phosphatidylcholine deficiency in choline-auxotroph yeast

Phosphatidylcholine (PC) is an abundant membrane lipid component in most eukaryotes, including yeast, and has been assigned multiple functions in addition to acting as building block of the lipid bilayer. Here, by isolating S. cerevisiae suppressor mutants that exhibit robust growth in the absence of PC, we show that PC essentiality is subject to cellular evolvability in yeast. The requirement for PC is suppressed by monosomy of chromosome XV or by a point mutation in the ACC1 gene encoding acetyl-CoA carboxylase. Although these two genetic adaptations rewire lipid biosynthesis in different ways, both decrease Acc1 activity, thereby reducing average acyl chain length. Consistently, soraphen A, a specific inhibitor of Acc1, rescues a yeast mutant with deficient PC synthesis. In the aneuploid suppressor, feedback inhibition of Acc1 through acyl-CoA produced by fatty acid synthase (FAS) results from upregulation of lipid synthesis. The results show that budding yeast regulates acyl chain length by fine-tuning the activities of Acc1 and FAS and indicate that PC evolved by benefitting the maintenance of membrane fluidity

Green function techniques in the treatment of quantum transport at the molecular scale

The theoretical investigation of charge (and spin) transport at nanometer length scales requires the use of advanced and powerful techniques able to deal with the dynamical properties of the relevant physical systems, to explicitly include out-of-equilibrium situations typical for electrical/heat transport as well as to take into account interaction effects in a systematic way. Equilibrium Green function techniques and their extension to non-equilibrium situations via the Keldysh formalism build one of the pillars of current state-of-the-art approaches to quantum transport which have been implemented in both model Hamiltonian formulations and first-principle methodologies. We offer a tutorial overview of the applications of Green functions to deal with some fundamental aspects of charge transport at the nanoscale, mainly focusing on applications to model Hamiltonian formulations.Comment: Tutorial review, LaTeX, 129 pages, 41 figures, 300 references, submitted to Springer series "Lecture Notes in Physics

Functional diversity of chemokines and chemokine receptors in response to viral infection of the central nervous system.

Encounters with neurotropic viruses result in varied outcomes ranging from encephalitis, paralytic poliomyelitis or other serious consequences to relatively benign infection. One of the principal factors that control the outcome of infection is the localized tissue response and subsequent immune response directed against the invading toxic agent. It is the role of the immune system to contain and control the spread of virus infection in the central nervous system (CNS), and paradoxically, this response may also be pathologic. Chemokines are potent proinflammatory molecules whose expression within virally infected tissues is often associated with protection and/or pathology which correlates with migration and accumulation of immune cells. Indeed, studies with a neurotropic murine coronavirus, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), have provided important insight into the functional roles of chemokines and chemokine receptors in participating in various aspects of host defense as well as disease development within the CNS. This chapter will highlight recent discoveries that have provided insight into the diverse biologic roles of chemokines and their receptors in coordinating immune responses following viral infection of the CNS