A NEW MICROZONE FOR SEED POTATO PRODUCTION IN ROMANIA - HUEDIN AREA - IN CLUJ COUNTY

In the continental temperate climatic area virotical infection of potato was conditioned by the sources of virotical infection and by then viroses vectors. In Huedin micro area, situated intermountain in Cluj County at 600 m altitude, which humid and cool climate and isolated in space in natural way. Were tested 4 types of potato varieties sensitive or resistant at the main viruses of potato: PVY and PLRV. The results of researches was demonstrated that potato seed production can be obtained in the same quality with those produced into the seed traditional areals, when specific elements of classical technology are respected, as they are: in field isolation, early picking up and elimination of any virused plant, systematically control diseases and predators invasion mainly aphids, vegetation interruption at maxim fly of aphids

A NEW MICROZONE FOR SEED POTATO PRODUCTION IN ROMANIA - HUEDIN AREA - IN CLUJ COUNTY

In the continental temperate climatic area virotical infection of potato was conditioned by the sources of virotical infection and by then viroses vectors. In Huedin micro area, situated intermountain in Cluj County at 600 m altitude, which humid and cool climate and isolated in space in natural way. Were tested 4 types of potato varieties sensitive or resistant at the main viruses of potato: PVY and PLRV. The results of researches was demonstrated that potato seed production can be obtained in the same quality with those produced into the seed traditional areals, when specific elements of classical technology are respected, as they are: in field isolation, early picking up and elimination of any virused plant, systematically control diseases and predators invasion mainly aphids, vegetation interruption at maxim fly of aphids

A NEW MICROZONE FOR SEED POTATO PRODUCTION IN ROMANIA -HUEDIN AREA -IN CLUJ COUNTY O NOUĂ MICROZONĂ PENTRU PRODUCEREA CARTOFULUI DE SĂMÂNŢĂ ÎN ROMÂNIA -MICROZONA HUEDIN -DIN JUDEŢUL CLUJ

REZUMAT În climatul temperat continental infecţia virotică a cartofului este condiţionată de sursele de infecţie virotică şi de vectorii virozelor. In microzona Huedin, situată intramontan în judeţul Cluj, cu un climat umed şi răcoros (600 m altitudine; 7,2 0 C media anuală a temperaturii, 18 0 C temperatura medie a lunii celei mai calde a anului -iulie, 604,4 mm precipitaţii anuale) şi izolată în spaţiu în mod natural s-au testat 4 tipuri de soiuri de cartof sensibile sau resistente la principalele virusuri ale cartofului: PVY şi PLRV. Rezultatele cercetării au demonstrat că se poate obţine o producţie de sămânţă de aceeaşi calitate cu cea produsă în zonele tradiţionale de producere a cartofului de sămânţă, dacă se respectă elementele specifice din tehnologia cartofului de sămânţă: izolare în spaţiu, eliminare timpurie şi repetată a plantelor infectate cu viroze, combaterea sistematică a bolilor şi dăunătorilor în special a afidelor, întreruperea vegetaţiei la zborul maxim al afidelor. CUVINTE CHEIE: cartof de sămânţă, microzonă, afide, viroze ABSTRACT In the continental temperate climatic area virotical infection of potato was conditioned by the sources of virotical infection and by then viroses vectors. In Huedin micro area, situated intermountain in Cluj County at 600 m altitude, which humid and cool climate and isolated in space in natural way. Were tested 4 types of potato varieties sensitive or resistant at the main viruses of potato: PVY and PLRV. The results of researches was demonstrated that potato seed production can be obtained in the same quality with those produced into the seed traditional areals, when specific elements of classical technology are respected, as they are: in field isolation, early picking up and elimination of any virused plant, systematically control diseases and predators invasion mainly aphids, vegetation interruption at maxim fly of aphids

Computational models for inferring biochemical networks

Biochemical networks are of great practical importance. The interaction of biological compounds in cells has been enforced to a proper understanding by the numerous bioinformatics projects, which contributed to a vast amount of biological information. The construction of biochemical systems (systems of chemical reactions), which include both topology and kinetic constants of the chemical reactions, is NP-hard and is a well-studied system biology problem. In this paper, we propose a hybrid architecture, which combines genetic programming and simulated annealing in order to generate and optimize both the topology (the network) and the reaction rates of a biochemical system. Simulations and analysis of an artificial model and three real models (two models and the noisy version of one of them) show promising results for the proposed method.The Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNDI–UEFISCDI, Project No. PN-II-PT-PCCA-2011-3.2-0917

Circulating levels of anti-angiogenic VEGF-A isoform (VEGF-Axxxb) in colorectal cancer patients predicts tumour VEGF-A ratios

Purpose: Bevacizumab as an adjunct to chemotherapy improves survival for some patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Immunohistochemical staining of samples from the registration ECOG E3200 trial of bevacizumab with FOLFOX demonstrated that only patients with carcinomas expressing low levels of VEGF-A(165)b, an anti-angiogenic splice variant of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor family of proteins, benefited from bevacizumab treatment. To identify a more useful biomarker of response we tested the hypothesis that circulating VEGF-A(165)b levels correlate with immunohistochemical staining. Experimental Design: 17 patients with biopsy proven colorectal adenocarcinoma had pre-operative blood samples drawn. They underwent resection and had post-resection blood drawn. The plasma was analysed for levels of VEGF-A(xxx)b using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the tumour blocks stained for VEGF-A(xxx)b and pan-VEGF-A. The normalised ratio of VEGF-A(xxx)b expression to that of panVEGF-A expression scored by IHC was calculated and correlated with plasma VEGF-A(165)b levels. Results: Plasma levels of VEGF-A(xxx)b significantly correlated with the VEGF-A(xxx)b:panVEGF-A ratio (r=0.594, P<0.02) in colorectal cancers. Median plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels were 151 pg/ml. The mean (1.5±0.17) and median, IQR (1.8, 1-2) IHC scores of the patients with greater than median plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b were significantly greater than those with less than median plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels (mean ± SEM=0.85±10.12, median, IQR=1, 0.54-1). Conclusion: These results suggest that plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels could be an effective biomarker of response to Bevacizumab. These results indicate that a prospective trial is warranted to explore the use of plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels to stratify patients for colorectal cancer treatment by bevacizumab

Azole Drugs Are Imported By Facilitated Diffusion in Candida albicans and Other Pathogenic Fungi

Despite the wealth of knowledge regarding the mechanisms of action and the mechanisms of resistance to azole antifungals, very little is known about how the azoles are imported into pathogenic fungal cells. Here the in-vitro accumulation and import of Fluconazole (FLC) was examined in the pathogenic fungus, Candida albicans. In energized cells, FLC accumulation correlates inversely with expression of ATP-dependent efflux pumps. In de-energized cells, all strains accumulate FLC, suggesting that FLC import is not ATP-dependent. The kinetics of import in de-energized cells displays saturation kinetics with a Km of 0.64 uM and Vmax of 0.0056 pmol/min/108 cells, demonstrating that FLC import proceeds via facilitated diffusion through a transporter rather than passive diffusion. Other azoles inhibit FLC import on a mole/mole basis, suggesting that all azoles utilize the same facilitated diffusion mechanism. An analysis of related compounds indicates that competition for azole import depends on an aromatic ring and an imidazole or triazole ring together in one molecule. Import of FLC by facilitated diffusion is observed in other fungi, including Cryptococcus neoformans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Candida krusei, indicating that the mechanism of transport is conserved among fungal species. FLC import was shown to vary among Candida albicans resistant clinical isolates, suggesting that altered facilitated diffusion may be a previously uncharacterized mechanism of resistance to azole drugs

THE CONTROL OF PESTS IN ECOSYSTEMS BY UNCHEMICAL METHODS

The most important way to control the pests is to not use chemicals, preventing the environmental pollution in the different ecosystems. We proposed to study and apply the unchemical methods according to ecological pest management, to control some pesticide resistant pests. The research has been oriented to the physical methods: the use of the light radiation reflected by different materials (supports), directly applied on the hostplant leaves or on the ground, which remove the insects from the damaged zone; the use of visual traps (coloured panels and coloured plates), which attract and capture the insects. The researches were carried out in 2002, with five experiences organised in two ecosystems (orchard and mountain grazing). The both categories of methods were very effective