Phylogenomic analysis of a 55.1 kb 19-gene dataset resolves a monophyletic Fusarium that includes the Fusarium solani Species Complex

Scientific communication is facilitated by a data-driven, scientifically sound taxonomy that considers the end-user¿s needs and established successful practice. In 2013, the Fusarium community voiced near unanimous support for a concept of Fusarium that represented a clade comprising all agriculturally and clinically important Fusarium species, including the F. solani species complex (FSSC). Subsequently, this concept was challenged in 2015 by one research group who proposed dividing the genus Fusarium into seven genera, including the FSSC described as members of the genus Neocosmospora, with subsequent justification in 2018 based on claims that the 2013 concept of Fusarium is polyphyletic. Here, we test this claim and provide a phylogeny based on exonic nucleotide sequences of 19 orthologous protein-coding genes that strongly support the monophyly of Fusarium including the FSSC. We reassert the practical and scientific argument in support of a genus Fusarium that includes the FSSC and several other basal lineages, consistent with the longstanding use of this name among plant pathologists, medical mycologists, quarantine officials, regulatory agencies, students, and researchers with a stake in its taxonomy. In recognition of this monophyly, 40 species described as genus Neocosmospora were recombined in genus Fusarium, and nine others were renamed Fusarium. Here the global Fusarium community voices strong support for the inclusion of the FSSC in Fusarium, as it remains the best scientific, nomenclatural, and practical taxonomic option availabl

Percutaneous electrical stimulation of lumbosacral roots in man.

High voltage percutaneous electrical stimulation over the lumbosacral spinal column was used to assess conduction in the cauda equina of 13 normal subjects. Electromyographic activity elicited by such stimulation was recorded from various muscles of the lower limbs. The stimulating cathode was placed over the spinous process of each vertebral body and the anode kept on the iliac crest contralateral to the studied limb. Shifting the cathode in a rostro-caudal direction shortened the response latency in quadriceps, tibialis anterior and extensor digitorum brevis muscles. At moderate intensities (60% maximum), this occurred abruptly when the cathode was placed at levels corresponding to the exit sites from the spinal canal of the roots innervating these muscles. At these intensities, the size of the response in each muscle was largest when the cathode was placed over the conus medullaris or at or below the exit of the motor roots from the spine. Latencies were always equal to or shorter than those obtained with F-wave measurements, suggesting that peripheral motor axons, rather than intraspinal structures were activated by the stimulus. Collision experiments demonstrated that activation occurred at two sites: near the spinal cord and at the root exit site in the vertebral foramina. Recordings made from soleus indicated that larger diameter proprioceptive afferent fibres also could be activated. This technique might have useful clinical applications in the study of both proximal and distal lesions of the cauda equina and provide a non-invasive method of localising such lesions electrophysiologically