The Future of Cydia pomonella Granulovirus in Biological Control of Codling Moth

Resistance of codling moth against Cydia pomonella granulovirus (CpGV) products has alarmed growers, extension services, the CpGV producers and the scientific community. During the last two years many activities were initiated in Germany and in Europe to understand this phenomenon and to overcome this problem. Meanwhile, first important results about the distribution, mode of inheritance and the efficacy of novel CpGV isolates overcoming CpGV resistance became available. This contribution will provide an overview about the different developments and the progress made towards an improvement of CpGV application in the future

AFLPs: genetic markers for paternity studies in newts (Triturus vulgaris)

DNA-based genetic markers can reveal paternity whenever the direct assignment of fathers to offspring is precluded by multiple matings and internal fertilisation. Microsatellites are the current marker of choice in many behavioural studies, and have revealed important insights into genetic mating systems of European amphibians. However, the number of amphibian species for which the time-consuming designing of locus-specific microsatellite primers was successful is still limited, and the cross-utilisation of existing markers to closely related taxa seems to have a particularly low success rate. Allozymes can infer parentage without a species-specific protocol, but, due to their low degree of polymorphism, in mate choice experiments require the a priori screening of individuals. Dominant markers such as RAPDs successfully identified closely-related amphibian species and their hybrids, but might be less suited to distinguish between closely related individuals with a putatively high frequency of shared bands

What do we (need to) know about low-susceptibility of codling moth against Cydia pomonella granulovirus (CpGV)!

In 2005, the first codling moth (CM) populations with a reduced susceptibility to Cydia pomonella granulovi-rus (CpGV) products have been observed. This phenomenon might be an indicator of an emerging resis-tance of CM to CpGV. This paper summarizes some aspects of CM CpGV interaction and discusses poten-tial mechanisms in the host virus interaction, which could contribute to the observed low susceptibility. In order to develop and implement successful resistance management strategies, much more knowledge about the plasticity of CM CpGV interaction and the diversity of CM populations is essential

What do we (need to) know about low-susceptibility of codling moth against Cydia pomonella granulovirus (CpGV)!

In 2005, the first codling moth (CM) populations with a reduced susceptibility to Cydia pomonella granulovirus (CpGV) products have been observed. This phenomenon might be an indicator of an emerging resistance of CM to CpGV. This paper summarizes some aspects of CM CpGV interaction and discusses potential mechanisms in the host virus interaction, which could contribute to the observed low susceptibility. In order to develop and implement successful resistance management strategies, much more knowledge about the plasticity of CM CpGV interaction and the diversity of CM populations is essential

Karl Barths Zwinglivorlesung 1922/23

Karl Barth’s Göttingen lecture on Zwingli from 1922/23 is a must-read. It is not only an excellent – though fragmentary – introduction to Zwingli – and Luther as well, especially concerning the debate on the Eucharist, but it also reveals much of Barth’s fundamental understanding of theology: as humans we do not own the truth, we can only search for it. As Barth said much later in his Bonn lecture on the Heidelberg Catechism of 1948: "We do not possess the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a dead good. We must beware of a capitalistic understanding of Christianity.

Karl Barth: Predigten 1911, hg. von Eberhard Busch und Beate Busch-Blum, 2015

No abstract available

Urs Hafner, Kult, Macht und Glaube: Eine kleine Geschichte des Zürcher Grossmünsters, 2007

No abstract available

The annual number of breeding adults and the effective population size of syntopic newts (Triturus cristatus, T-marmoratus)

Pond-breeding amphibians are deme-structured organisms with a population genetic structure particularly susceptible to demographic threats. We estimated the effective number of breeding adults (N-b) and the effective population size (N-e) of the European urodele amphibians Triturus cristatus (the crested newt) and T. marmoratus (the marbled newt), using temporal shifts in microsatellite allele frequencies. Eight microsatellite loci isolated from a T. cristatus library were used, five of which proved polymorphic in T. marmoratus, albeit with high frequencies of null alleles at two loci. Three ponds in western France were sampled, situated 4-10 kilometres apart and inhabited by both species. Parent-offspring cohort comparisons were used to measure N-b; samples collected at time intervals of nine or 12 years, respectively, were used to measure N-e. The adult population census size (N) was determined by mark-recapture techniques. With one exception, genetic distances (F-ST) between temporal samples were lower than among populations. N-b ranged between 10.6 and 101.8 individuals, N-e ranged between 9.6 and 13.4 individuals. For the pond where both parameters were available, N-b/N (overall range: 0.10-0.19) was marginally larger than N-e/N (overall range: 0.09-0.16), which is reflected in the temporal stability of N. In line with the observed differences in reproductive life-histories between the species, N-b/N ratios for newts were about one order of magnitude higher than for the anuran amphibian Bufo bufo. Despite of the colonization of the study area by T. cristatus only some decades ago, no significant genetic bottleneck could be detected. Our findings give rise to concerns about the long-term demographic viability of amphibian populations in situations typical for European landscapes