Identification of host genes potentially implicated in the Malus pumila and ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’ interactions

Two‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’ strains (AP and AT), were studied in experimentally infected apple trees to analyze transcriptional profiles during interaction with phytoplasmas. Three groups of sample combinations were employed: healthy - infected, symptomatic - non-symptomatic, and AP-infected - AT-infected sample. The majority of genes were differently expressed between healthy and infected samples. Changes in gene expression involved a wide spectrum of biological functions, including processes of metabolism, cell defence, photosynthesis, transport, transcription, signal transduction and protein synthesis. The possible effect of phytoplasma infection on these processes and their relationships with disease development, symptom appearance and possible plant defence system is discussed. Keywords: Apple, phytoplasmas, ‘Ca. P. mali’, gene expression, transcriptom

Preliminary evaluation of antimicrobial activity of some chemicals on in vitro apple shoots infected by 'Candidatus Phytoplasma mali'.

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Development and application of a microplate method to evaluate the efficacy of essential oils against Penicillium italicum Wehmer, Penicillium digitatum Sacc. and Colletotrichum musea (Berk. M.A. Curtis) Arx, three postharvest fungal pathogens of fruits

A microbioassay was developed for evaluating the in vitro antifungal activity of 30 preselected essential oils. A template based on 10 serial dilutions with eight replicates per dilution arranged on two 96-well ELISA plates was used as a reproducible and standardized design to identify the in vitro effectiveness of these essential oils against Penicillium italicum Wehmer, Penicillium digitatum Sacc. and Colletotrichum musea (Berk. M.A. Curtis) Arx, three postharvest fungal pathogens, on fruits. Growth of mycelium was monitored by measuring optical density (492 nm). Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Cinnamomum verum and Eugenia caryophyllus were found to be still active against all the three pathogens even at 100 ppm. Compared to other methods, this microbioassay proved to be a rapid, reproducible, and efficient method for testing the efficacy of essential oils that inhibit spore germination in P. italicum, P. digitatum and C. musea. The assay requires relatively small amounts of essential oils

A threshold level of NFATc1 activity facilitates thymocyte differentiation and opposes notch-driven leukaemia development.

International audienceNFATc1 plays a critical role in double-negative thymocyte survival and differentiation. However, the signals that regulate Nfatc1 expression are incompletely characterized. Here we show a developmental stage-specific differential expression pattern of Nfatc1 driven by the distal (P1) or proximal (P2) promoters in thymocytes. Whereas, preTCR-negative thymocytes exhibit only P2 promoter-derived Nfatc1beta expression, preTCR-positive thymocytes express both Nfatc1beta and P1 promoter-derived Nfatc1alpha transcripts. Inducing NFATc1alpha activity from P1 promoter in preTCR-negative thymocytes, in addition to the NFATc1beta from P2 promoter impairs thymocyte development resulting in severe T-cell lymphopenia. In addition, we show that NFATc1 activity suppresses the B-lineage potential of immature thymocytes, and consolidates their differentiation to T cells. Further, in the pTCR-positive DN3 cells, a threshold level of NFATc1 activity is vital in facilitating T-cell differentiation and to prevent Notch3-induced T-acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Altogether, our results show NFATc1 activity is crucial in determining the T-cell fate of thymocytes

afterParty:turning raw transcriptomes into permanent resources

BACKGROUND: Next-generation DNA sequencing technologies have made it possible to generate transcriptome data for novel organisms quickly and cheaply, to the extent that the effort required to annotate and publish a new transcriptome is greater than the effort required to sequence it. Often, following publication, details of the annotation effort are only available in summary form, hindering subsequent exploitation of the data. To promote best-practice in annotation and to ensure that data remain accessible, we have written afterParty, a web application that allows users to assemble, annotate and publish novel transcriptomes using only a web browser. RESULTS: afterParty is a robust web application that implements best-practice transcriptome assembly, annotation, browsing, searching, and visualization. Users can turn a collection of reads (from Roche 454 chemistry) or assembled contigs (from any sequencing chemistry, including Illumina Solexa RNA-Seq) into a searchable, browsable transcriptome resource and quickly make it publicly available. Contigs are functionally annotated based on similarity to known sequences and protein domains. Once assembled and annotated, transcriptomes derived from multiple species or libraries can be compared and searched. afterParty datasets can either be created using the existing afterParty server, or using local instances that can be built easily using a virtual machine. afterParty includes powerful visualization tools for transcriptome dataset exploration and uses a flexible annotation architecture which will allow additional types of annotation to be added in the future. CONCLUSIONS: afterParty's main use case scenario is one in which a working biologist has generated a large volume of transcribed sequence data and wishes to turn it into a useful resource that has some durability. By reducing the effort, bioinformatics skills, and computational resources needed to annotate and publish a transcriptome, afterParty will facilitate the annotation and sharing of sequence data that would otherwise remain unavailable. A typical metazoan transcriptome containing several tens of thousands of contigs can be annotated in a few minutes of interactive time and a few days of computational time

Temporal changes in the epidemiology, management, and outcome from acute respiratory distress syndrome in European intensive care units: a comparison of two large cohorts

Background: Mortality rates for patients with ARDS remain high. We assessed temporal changes in the epidemiology and management of ARDS patients requiring invasive mechanical ventilation in European ICUs. We also investigated the association between ventilatory settings and outcome in these patients. Methods: This was a post hoc analysis of two cohorts of adult ICU patients admitted between May 1–15, 2002 (SOAP study, n = 3147), and May 8–18, 2012 (ICON audit, n = 4601 admitted to ICUs in the same 24 countries as the SOAP study). ARDS was defined retrospectively using the Berlin definitions. Values of tidal volume, PEEP, plateau pressure, and FiO2 corresponding to the most abnormal value of arterial PO2 were recorded prospectively every 24 h. In both studies, patients were followed for outcome until death, hospital discharge or for 60 days. Results: The frequency of ARDS requiring mechanical ventilation during the ICU stay was similar in SOAP and ICON (327[10.4%] vs. 494[10.7%], p = 0.793). The diagnosis of ARDS was established at a median of 3 (IQ: 1–7) days after admission in SOAP and 2 (1–6) days in ICON. Within 24 h of diagnosis, ARDS was mild in 244 (29.7%), moderate in 388 (47.3%), and severe in 189 (23.0%) patients. In patients with ARDS, tidal volumes were lower in the later (ICON) than in the earlier (SOAP) cohort. Plateau and driving pressures were also lower in ICON than in SOAP. ICU (134[41.1%] vs 179[36.9%]) and hospital (151[46.2%] vs 212[44.4%]) mortality rates in patients with ARDS were similar in SOAP and ICON. High plateau pressure (> 29 cmH2O) and driving pressure (> 14 cmH2O) on the first day of mechanical ventilation but not tidal volume (> 8 ml/kg predicted body weight [PBW]) were independently associated with a higher risk of in-hospital death. Conclusion: The frequency of and outcome from ARDS remained relatively stable between 2002 and 2012. Plateau pressure > 29 cmH2O and driving pressure > 14 cmH2O on the first day of mechanical ventilation but not tidal volume > 8 ml/kg PBW were independently associated with a higher risk of death. These data highlight the continued burden of ARDS and provide hypothesis-generating data for the design of future studies

The clinical relevance of oliguria in the critically ill patient : Analysis of a large observational database

Funding Information: Marc Leone reports receiving consulting fees from Amomed and Aguettant; lecture fees from MSD, Pfizer, Octapharma, 3 M, Aspen, Orion; travel support from LFB; and grant support from PHRC IR and his institution. JLV is the Editor-in-Chief of Critical Care. The other authors declare that they have no relevant financial interests. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Background: Urine output is widely used as one of the criteria for the diagnosis and staging of acute renal failure, but few studies have specifically assessed the role of oliguria as a marker of acute renal failure or outcomes in general intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Using a large multinational database, we therefore evaluated the occurrence of oliguria (defined as a urine output 16 years) patients in the ICON audit who had a urine output measurement on the day of admission were included. To investigate the association between oliguria and mortality, we used a multilevel analysis. Results: Of the 8292 patients included, 2050 (24.7%) were oliguric during the first 24 h of admission. Patients with oliguria on admission who had at least one additional 24-h urine output recorded during their ICU stay (n = 1349) were divided into three groups: transient - oliguria resolved within 48 h after the admission day (n = 390 [28.9%]), prolonged - oliguria resolved > 48 h after the admission day (n = 141 [10.5%]), and permanent - oliguria persisting for the whole ICU stay or again present at the end of the ICU stay (n = 818 [60.6%]). ICU and hospital mortality rates were higher in patients with oliguria than in those without, except for patients with transient oliguria who had significantly lower mortality rates than non-oliguric patients. In multilevel analysis, the need for RRT was associated with a significantly higher risk of death (OR = 1.51 [95% CI 1.19-1.91], p = 0.001), but the presence of oliguria on admission was not (OR = 1.14 [95% CI 0.97-1.34], p = 0.103). Conclusions: Oliguria is common in ICU patients and may have a relatively benign nature if only transient. The duration of oliguria and need for RRT are associated with worse outcome.publishersversionPeer reviewe