Attentional Bias for Cues Signaling Punishment and Reward in Adolescents:Cross-Sectional and Prognostic Associations with Symptoms of Anxiety and Behavioral Disorders

Heightened reward sensitivity has been proposed as a risk factor for developing behavioral disorders whereas heightened punishment sensitivity has been related to the development of anxiety disorders in youth. Combining a cross-sectional (n = 696, mean age = 16.14) and prospective (n = 598, mean age = 20.20) approach, this study tested the hypotheses that an attentional bias for punishing cues is involved in the development of anxiety disorders and an attentional bias for rewarding cues in the development of behavioral disorders. A spatial orientation task was used to examine the relation between an attentional bias for punishing cues and an attentional bias for rewarding cues with anxiety and behavioral problems in a subsample of a large prospective population cohort study. Our study indicates that attentional biases to general cues of punishment and reward do not seem to be important risk factors for the development of anxiety or behavioral problems respectively. It might be that attentional biases play a role in the maintenance of psychological problems. This remains open for future research

Cognitive-behavior therapy for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders:A meta-analysis of secondary outcomes

Anxiety-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) effectively reduces anxiety in children and adolescents. An important remaining question is to what extent anxiety-focused CBT also affects broader outcome domains. Additionally, it remains unclear whether parental involvement in treatment may have impact on domains other than anxiety. A meta-analysis (nstudies = 42, nparticipants = 3239) of the effects of CBT and the moderating role of parental involvement was conducted on the following major secondary outcomes: depressive symptoms, externalizing behaviors, general functioning, and social competence. Randomized controlled trials were included when having a waitlist or active control condition, a youth sample (aged<19) with a primary anxiety disorder diagnosis receiving anxiety-focused CBT and reported secondary outcomes. Controlled effect sizes (Cohen's d) were calculated employing random effect models. CBT had a large effect on general functioning (-1.25[-1.59;0.90], nstudies = 17), a small to moderate effect on depressive symptoms (-0.31[-0.41;-0.22], nstudies = 31) and a small effect on externalizing behaviors (-0.23[-0.38;-0.09], nstudies = 12) from pre-to post-treatment. Effects remained or even further improved at follow-up. Social competence only improved at follow-up (nstudies = 6). Concluding, anxiety-focused CBT has a positive effect on broader outcome domains than just anxiety. Higher parental involvement seemed to have beneficial effects at follow-up, with improvements in general functioning and comorbid symptoms

Phytosanitary Interventions for Safe Global Germplasm Exchange and the Prevention of Transboundary Pest Spread: The Role of CGIAR Germplasm Health Units

The inherent ability of seeds (orthodox, intermediate, and recalcitrant seeds and vegetative propagules) to serve as carriers of pests and pathogens (hereafter referred to as pests) and the risk of transboundary spread along with the seed movement present a high-risk factor for international germplasm distribution activities. Quarantine and phytosanitary procedures have been established by many countries around the world to minimize seed-borne pest spread by screening export and import consignments of germplasm. The effectiveness of these time-consuming and cost-intensive procedures depends on the knowledge of pest distribution, availability of diagnostic tools for seed health testing, qualified operators, procedures for inspection, and seed phytosanitation. This review describes a unique multidisciplinary approach used by the CGIAR Germplasm Health Units (GHUs) in ensuring phytosanitary protection for the safe conservation and global movement of germplasm from the 11 CGIAR genebanks and breeding programs that acquire and distribute germplasm to and from all parts of the world for agricultural research and food security. We also present the challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations stemming from the experience of GHUs, which collaborate with the national quarantine systems to export and distribute about 100,000 germplasm samples annually to partners located in about 90 to 100 countries. Furthermore, we describe how GHUs adjust their procedures to stay in alignment with evolving phytosanitary regulations and pest risk scenarios. In conclusion, we state the benefits of globally coordinated phytosanitary networks for the prevention of the intercontinental spread of pests that are transmissible through plant propagation materials

Short interspersed nuclear element (SINE) sequences in the genome of the human pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus Af293.

Copyright: © 2016 The Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation: Kanhayuwa L, Coutts RHA (2016) Short Interspersed Nuclear Element (SINE) Sequences in the Genome of the Human Pathogenic Fungus Aspergillus fumigatus Af293. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0163215. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163215.Novel families of short interspersed nuclear element (SINE) sequences in the human pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, clinical isolate Af293, were identified and categorised into tRNA-related and 5S rRNA-related SINEs. Eight predicted tRNA-related SINE families originating from different tRNAs, and nominated as AfuSINE2 sequences, contained target site duplications of short direct repeat sequences (4-14 bp) flanking the elements, an extended tRNA-unrelated region and typical features of RNA polymerase III promoter sequences. The elements ranged in size from 140-493 bp and were present in low copy number in the genome and five out of eight were actively transcribed. One putative tRNAArg-derived sequence, AfuSINE2-1a possessed a unique feature of repeated trinucleotide ACT residues at its 3'-terminus. This element was similar in sequence to the I-4_AO element found in A. oryzae and an I-1_AF long nuclear interspersed element-like sequence identified in A. fumigatus Af293. Families of 5S rRNA-related SINE sequences, nominated as AfuSINE3, were also identified and their 5'-5S rRNA-related regions show 50-65% and 60-75% similarity to respectively A. fumigatus 5S rRNAs and SINE3-1_AO found in A. oryzae. A. fumigatus Af293 contains five copies of AfuSINE3 sequences ranging in size from 259-343 bp and two out of five AfuSINE3 sequences were actively transcribed. Investigations on AfuSINE distribution in the fungal genome revealed that the elements are enriched in pericentromeric and subtelomeric regions and inserted within gene-rich regions. We also demonstrated that some, but not all, AfuSINE sequences are targeted by host RNA silencing mechanisms. Finally, we demonstrated that infection of the fungus with mycoviruses had no apparent effects on SINE activity.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

The Transcriptome of Compatible and Incompatible Interactions of Potato (Solanum tuberosum) with Phytophthora infestans Revealed by DeepSAGE Analysis

Late blight, caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, is the most important disease of potato (Solanum tuberosum). Understanding the molecular basis of resistance and susceptibility to late blight is therefore highly relevant for developing resistant cultivars, either by marker-assissted selection or by transgenic approaches. Specific P. infestans races having the Avr1 effector gene trigger a hypersensitive resistance response in potato plants carrying the R1 resistance gene (incompatible interaction) and cause disease in plants lacking R1 (compatible interaction). The transcriptomes of the compatible and incompatible interaction were captured by DeepSAGE analysis of 44 biological samples comprising five genotypes, differing only by the presence or absence of the R1 transgene, three infection time points and three biological replicates. 30.859 unique 21 base pair sequence tags were obtained, one third of which did not match any known potato transcript sequence. Two third of the tags were expressed at low frequency (<10 tag counts/million). 20.470 unitags matched to approximately twelve thousand potato transcribed genes. Tag frequencies were compared between compatible and incompatible interactions over the infection time course and between compatible and incompatible genotypes. Transcriptional changes were more numerous in compatible than in incompatible interactions. In contrast to incompatible interactions, transcriptional changes in the compatible interaction were observed predominantly for multigene families encoding defense response genes and genes functional in photosynthesis and CO2 fixation. Numerous transcriptional differences were also observed between near isogenic genotypes prior to infection with P. infestans. Our DeepSAGE transcriptome analysis uncovered novel candidate genes for plant host pathogen interactions, examples of which are discussed with respect to possible function

Digital Gene Expression Analysis Based on Integrated De Novo Transcriptome Assembly of Sweet Potato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.]

Background: Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L. [Lam.]) ranks among the top six most important food crops in the world. It is widely grown throughout the world with high and stable yield, strong adaptability, rich nutrient content, and multiple uses. However, little is known about the molecular biology of this important non-model organism due to lack of genomic resources. Hence, studies based on high-throughput sequencing technologies are needed to get a comprehensive and integrated genomic resource and better understanding of gene expression patterns in different tissues and at various developmental stages. Methodology/Principal Findings: Illumina paired-end (PE) RNA-Sequencing was performed, and generated 48.7 million of 75 bp PE reads. These reads were de novo assembled into 128,052 transcripts ($100 bp), which correspond to 41.1 million base pairs, by using a combined assembly strategy. Transcripts were annotated by Blast2GO and 51,763 transcripts got BLASTX hits, in which 39,677 transcripts have GO terms and 14,117 have ECs that are associated with 147 KEGG pathways. Furthermore, transcriptome differences of seven tissues were analyzed by using Illumina digital gene expression (DGE) tag profiling and numerous differentially and specifically expressed transcripts were identified. Moreover, the expression characteristics of genes involved in viral genomes, starch metabolism and potential stress tolerance and insect resistance were also identified

A Wide Extent of Inter-Strain Diversity in Virulent and Vaccine Strains of Alphaherpesviruses

Alphaherpesviruses are widespread in the human population, and include herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and 2, and varicella zoster virus (VZV). These viral pathogens cause epithelial lesions, and then infect the nervous system to cause lifelong latency, reactivation, and spread. A related veterinary herpesvirus, pseudorabies (PRV), causes similar disease in livestock that result in significant economic losses. Vaccines developed for VZV and PRV serve as useful models for the development of an HSV-1 vaccine. We present full genome sequence comparisons of the PRV vaccine strain Bartha, and two virulent PRV isolates, Kaplan and Becker. These genome sequences were determined by high-throughput sequencing and assembly, and present new insights into the attenuation of a mammalian alphaherpesvirus vaccine strain. We find many previously unknown coding differences between PRV Bartha and the virulent strains, including changes to the fusion proteins gH and gB, and over forty other viral proteins. Inter-strain variation in PRV protein sequences is much closer to levels previously observed for HSV-1 than for the highly stable VZV proteome. Almost 20% of the PRV genome contains tandem short sequence repeats (SSRs), a class of nucleic acids motifs whose length-variation has been associated with changes in DNA binding site efficiency, transcriptional regulation, and protein interactions. We find SSRs throughout the herpesvirus family, and provide the first global characterization of SSRs in viruses, both within and between strains. We find SSR length variation between different isolates of PRV and HSV-1, which may provide a new mechanism for phenotypic variation between strains. Finally, we detected a small number of polymorphic bases within each plaque-purified PRV strain, and we characterize the effect of passage and plaque-purification on these polymorphisms. These data add to growing evidence that even plaque-purified stocks of stable DNA viruses exhibit limited sequence heterogeneity, which likely seeds future strain evolution

A systematic review of parental involvement in cognitive behavioural therapy for adolescent anxiety disorders

Anxiety disorders are common among adolescents and lead to poor long-term outcomes. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an evidenced-based intervention for adolescent anxiety disorders, but little is known about whether and how parents should be involved. This systematic review evaluated how parents have been involved and associated treatment outcomes in studies of CBT for adolescent anxiety disorders. Electronic systematic searches were conducted in PsycINFO, Embase, CINAHL, Medline, AMED databases, to identify studies investigating CBT for adolescent anxiety disorder(s) that included parents in treatment. Twenty-three studies were identified. Parents were involved in treatment in a number of different ways: by attending separate parent sessions, joint parent-adolescent sessions, or both, or through provision of a workbook while attending some adolescent sessions. Content varied but was most typically aimed at the parent developing an understanding of core CBT components and skills to help them manage their adolescent’s anxiety and avoidance. Treatment outcomes indicate that CBT with parental involvement is an effective intervention for adolescent anxiety disorders, however it is not possible to draw conclusions regarding whether parental involvement (generally or in any particular form) enhances treatment outcomes. Poor reporting and methodological issues also limit the conclusions. Further research is required to identify whether there are particular types of parental involvement in CBT that bring clinical benefits to adolescents with anxiety disorders generally, as well as in particular circumstances