Effect of preharvest bagging and of embryo abortion on calcium levels in 'Kensington pride' mango fruit

Bagging mango fruit during their development on the tree can reduce insect and disease damage. However, it is also possible that bagging can interfere with transpiration and associated calcium accumulation. Low calcium concentrations have been correlated with poor mango fruit quality. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of bagging at various stages of fruit development on calcium concentration and postharvest quality of 'Kensington Pride' mangoes. Fruits were bagged at 41, 25 or 9 days before harvest. No statistically significant differences in either skin or flesh calcium concentration were found between the bagged (plastic or paper) and unbagged fruits. Postharvest weight loss was enhanced and shelf life reduced in the 'plastic bagged' fruits. In an ancillary study, calcium concentrations in 'Kensington Pride' nubbins (seedless fruit) were compared with those in seeded fruit, since it has been shown with apple fruit that greater seededness is positively correlated with increased flesh calcium concentrations. Conversely, however, calcium concentrations in the flesh of mango nubbins were found to be significantly higher (0.80 mg/g dry weight) than those in seeded fruit (0.58 mg/g dry weight) of similar size

Reducing skin damage and improving postharvest efficiency of Calypso mango

‘B74’ mango (marketed as CalypsoTM) was bred at Childers in subtropical Queensland specifically to overcome the inconsistent production of the cultivar ‘Kensington Pride’. Ongoing research is maximising its genetic potential in the main production regions. ‘B74’ mango fruit develops an attractive blush during growth and a full yellow skin colour when ripe, but small spots from damaged lenticels often appear on the skin. This affects the visual appeal but does not affect the flesh; nevertheless the value of the fruit is reduced. The project confirmed that fruit can have less LD if they are grown in hotter production, are smaller and more mature, have more blush, and are from trees that had more uniform flowering or smaller canopy area. However, these parameters accounted for only 32-35% of the variation in LD. Not irrigating the trees for 3-8 weeks before harvest may “dry” the fruit out and make them more resistant to LD but this was not observed. ‘B74’ is more prone to this lenticel discolouration (LD) than most other Australian mango cultivars, most likely because it has 3-4 times higher lenticel density on the fruit surface at harvest. LD is worse when the fruit are exposed to water either from rain or during harvesting. In order to reduce contact with water, the fruit were paper bagged (done commercially in apple and other fruit in Japan), or sprayed with a carnauba-based wax, two months or several days before harvest, respectively. Both treatments reduced LD in the ripe fruit. Bagging is labourintensive but may be profitable for high value markets, and wax sprays need commercial testing with whole tree spraying. LD is likely due to an oxidation reaction, similar to when cut apple turns brown. Reducing oxygen around or in the fruit, or using anti-oxidants may reduce the browning reaction. However, holding the fruit in plastic bags, fruit coatings and antioxidant dips before ripening had either no effect. The most promising approaches were eliminating water from the harvesting and packing procedures, and irradiating fruit for export when they were about three days from ripe. Both approaches add extra challenges to the harvest-to-consumer chain, but they may have application is certain circumstances. Mango fruit need to be harvested within 2-4 weeks of reaching minimum maturity to prevent fruit from falling from the tree. This short harvest window results in challenges with picking teams and equipment. Trials attempted to induce earlier or later flowering the spread the harvest window in the hotter production areas. Trials with Ethephon® sprays indicated its potential to stimulate earlier flowering. Removing flowers in the Katherine environment to encourage the trees to re-flower was unsuccessful. The ability to ripen fruit in transit from farm to market will reduce energy costs and infrastructure requirements in market. Commercial tests indicated that the newer 12 m rail containers can retain ‘B74’ fruit temperatures at about 18ºC, and several systems to manage carbon dioxide and ethylene concentrations (both important in fruit ripening) can be controlled

The role of iron uptake in pathogenicity and symbiosis in Photorhabdus luminescens TT01

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Photorhabdus </it>are Gram negative bacteria that are pathogenic to insect larvae whilst also having a mutualistic interaction with nematodes from the family <it>Heterorhabditis</it>. Iron is an essential nutrient and bacteria have different mechanisms for obtaining both the ferrous (Fe²⁺) and ferric (Fe³⁺) forms of this metal from their environments. In this study we were interested in analyzing the role of Fe³⁺and Fe²⁺iron uptake systems in the ability of <it>Photorhabdus </it>to interact with its invertebrate hosts.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We constructed targeted deletion mutants of <it>exbD</it>, <it>feoABC </it>and <it>yfeABCD </it>in <it>P. luminescens </it>TT01. The <it>exbD </it>mutant was predicted to be crippled in its ability to obtain Fe³⁺and we show that this mutant does not grow well in iron-limited media. We also show that this mutant was avirulent to the insect but was unaffected in its symbiotic interaction with <it>Heterorhabditis</it>. Furthermore we show that a mutation in <it>feoABC </it>(encoding a predicted Fe²⁺permease) was unaffected in both virulence and symbiosis whilst the divalent cation transporter encoded by <it>yfeABCD </it>is required for virulence in the Tobacco Hornworm, <it>Manduca sexta </it>(Lepidoptera) but not in the Greater Wax Moth, <it>Galleria mellonella </it>(Lepidoptera). Moreover the Yfe transporter also appears to have a role during colonization of the IJ stage of the nematode.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this study we show that iron uptake (via the TonB complex and the Yfe transporter) is important for the virulence of <it>P. luminescens </it>to insect larvae. Moreover this study also reveals that the Yfe transporter appears to be involved in Mn²⁺-uptake during growth in the gut lumen of the IJ nematode. Therefore, the Yfe transporter in <it>P. luminescens </it>TT01 is important during colonization of both the insect and nematode and, moreover, the metal ion transported by this pathway is host-dependent.</p

Pictures of preterm infants elicit increased affective responses and reduced reward-motivation or perspective taking in the maternal brain

Preterm-birth increases the risk of several physical, cognitive, neuromotor, and psychosocial problems in children, and is also related to difficulties in the parent-child relationship. Research suggests that the development of early parent-child interactions in general is affected by deviations from typical infant facial characteristics, which may also be important in the case of small, preterm born infants. Therefore, we examined mothers' (N = 22, of whom 17 had no direct experience with preterm birth) neural responses to pictures of preterm and fullterm infants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We also explored whether neural responses to preterm and full-term infants correlated with mothers' self-reported tendencies to be nurturing and protective with children, and with mothers' ratings of affection or aversion toward pictures of preterm infants. Results revealed that, compared to pictures of full-term infants, those of preterm infants elicited more activity in specific areas of the brain (dmPFC, right insula, left caudate, hippocampi, parahippocampi, and PAG), that have previously been associated with processing of negative emotions and with empathy. In addition, less activity was seen in one area of the brain (vmPFC) known to be associated with reward-motivation or mental state understanding and perspective-taking. Higher self-reported maternal nurturance was associated with increased activity to pictures of preterm infants vs full-term infants in the caudate, which might reflect approach- or reward-related processing. To conclude, neural responses to preterm infants are related to reward-motivation, mentalizing, negative emotions, and empathy. Future studies should examine whether such neural processing of preterm infant stimuli might underlie difficulties in the parent-child relationship of parents with a preterm child

Bipolar Disorder and the TCI: Higher Self-Transcendence in Bipolar Disorder Compared to Major Depression

Personality traits are potential endophenotypes for genetic studies of psychiatric disorders. One personality theory which demonstrates strong heritability is Cloninger's psychobiological model measured using the temperament and character inventory (TCI). 277 individuals who completed the TCI questionnaire as part of the South Island Bipolar Study were also interviewed to assess for lifetime psychiatric diagnoses. Four groups were compared, bipolar disorder (BP), type 1 and 2, MDD (major depressive disorder), and nonaffected relatives of a proband with BP. With correction for mood state, total harm avoidance (HA) was higher than unaffected in both MDD and BP groups, but the mood disorder groups did not differ from each other. However, BP1 individuals had higher self-transcendence (ST) than those with MDD and unaffected relatives. HA may reflect a trait marker of mood disorders whereas high ST may be specific to BP. As ST is heritable, genes that affect ST may be of relevance for vulnerability to BP

What a cute baby! Preliminary evidence from a fMRI study for the association between mothers ? neural responses to infant faces and activation of the parental care system

Infant facial characteristics, i.e., baby schema, are thought to automatically elicit parenting behavior and affective orientation toward infants. Only a few studies, conducted in non-parents, have directly examined the neural underpinnings of this baby schema effect by manipulating distinctiveness of baby schema in infant faces. This study aims to further our understanding of the intuitive nature of parenting, by studying the baby schema effect in mothers of young children (at least one child aged between 2 and 6 years old). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine mothers’ (N = 23) neural responses to unfamiliar infant faces varying in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, it was studied how this neural activation to infant faces was associated with maternal nurturance. Results revealed that infant faces elicited widespread activation in bilateral visual cortices, the hippocampus, sensory-motor areas, parietal and frontal cortices, and the insula, which was not modulated by the distinctiveness of baby schema in the infant faces. Furthermore, higher self-reported maternal nurturance was related to increased neural responses to infant faces in the putamen and amygdala, brain regions known to be associated with reward and salience processing. These findings could suggest that in our small sample of mothers some of the core networks involved in reward and salience processing might be less sensitive to variation in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, unfamiliar infant faces seem to be rewarding only for mothers who report high nurturance. These findings should be considered preliminary, because they need to be replicated in studies with larger samples

Human Trial of a Genetically Modified Herpes Simplex Virus for Rapid Detection of Positive Peritoneal Cytology in the Staging of Pancreatic Cancer

AbstractIntroductionPatients with peritoneal dissemination of pancreatic adenocarcinoma do not benefit from surgical resection, but radiologic and cytologic detection of peritoneal cancer lack sensitivity. This trial sought to determine if an oncolytic virus may be used as a diagnostic agent to detect peritoneal cancer.MethodsPeritoneal washings from patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma were incubated with the enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP)-expressing oncolytic herpes simplex virus (HSV) NV1066. eGFP-positive or negative status was recorded for each specimen and compared to results obtained by conventional cytologic evaluation. These results were correlated with recurrence and survival for patients who underwent R0 resection.ResultsOf 82 patients entered in this trial, 12 (15%) had positive cytology and 50 (61%) had virally-mediated eGFP positive cells in peritoneal washings. All cytology-positive patients were also eGFP positive. HSV-mediated fluorescence detection had sensitivities of 94% and 100% for detection of any and peritoneal metastatic disease; respectively. Median recurrence free and disease specific survival were 6.5 and 18.3months for eGFP positive patients, versus 12.2 and 36.2months for eGFP negative patients (P=0.01 and 0.19); respectively.ConclusionsA genetically modified HSV can be used as a highly sensitive diagnostic agent for detection of micro-metastatic disease in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma and may improve patient selection for surgery

Phosphorus Sorption and Lime Requirements of Maize Growing Acid Soils of Kenya

In Kenya, maize (Zea mays L.) is mainly grown on acid soils in high rainfall areas. These soils are known for low available phosphorus (P), partly due to its sorption by aluminium (Al) and iron oxides. The study determined soil P sorption, lime requirements and the effects of lime on soil pH, Al levels and available P on the main maize growing acids soils in the highlands east and west of Rift Valley (RV), Kenya. Burnt lime containing 21% calcium oxide was used. The soils were strongly to extremely acid (pH 4.85-4.07), had high exchangeable Al3+ (> 2 cmol Al kg-1) and Al saturation (> 20% Al), which most maize germplasm grown in Kenya are sensitive to. The base cations, cation exchange capacity and available P (< 10 mg P kg-1 bicarbonate extractable P) were low, except at one site in the highlands east of RV indicative with history of high fertilizer applications. Highlands east of RV soils had higher P sorption (343-402 mg P kg-1) than the west (107-258 mg P kg-1), probably because of their high Al3+ ions and also the energies of bonding between the soil colloids and phosphate ions. Highlands east of RV also had higher lime requirements (11.4-21.9 tons lime ha-1) than the west (5.3-9.8 tons lime ha-1). Due to differences in soil acidity, Al levels and P sorption capacities within and between highlands east and west of RV, blanket P fertilizer and lime recommendations may not serve all soils equally well. Keywords: acid soils, phosphorus sorption, lime requirement