Diplodia seriata, cause of black fruit rot in organically grown apples in Holland, Belgium and Northern Germany

A fruit rot resembling Gloeosporium infections but appearing on fruits prior to harvest was noticed in organic apple orchards in Holland, Belgium and Northern Germany in 2007. Infections were most commonly observed on ‘Elstar’, but other cultivars were also affected. Fruit colonisation progressed in two steps, whereby a latent stage of sunken black lesions in immature fruits gave rise to a rapidly spreading firm brown rot upon fruit ripening. Isolation experiments from both stages consistently yielded a single species of fungus identified as Diplodia seriata, formerly known under the teleomorph name Botryosphaeria obtusa. Lesions of D. seriata were also seen on leaves as necrotic light brown spots surrounded by a purple halo, and occasionally on small twigs as cankers. Fruit mummies on apple twigs were heavily colonised by D. seriata and are thus likely to carry inoculum for fruit infections during late summer or in the following growing season

Basement and Regional Structure Along Strike of the Queen Charlotte Fault in the Context of Modern and Historical Earthquake Ruptures

The Queen Charlotte fault (QCF) is a dextral transform system located offshore of southeastern Alaska and western Canada, accommodating similar to 4.4 cm/yr of relative motion between the Pacific and North American plates. Oblique convergence along the fault increases southward, and how this convergence is accommodated is still debated. Using seismic reflection data, we interpret offshore basement structure, faulting, and stratigraphy to provide a geological context for two recent earthquakes, an M-w 7.5 strike-slip event near Craig, Alaska, and an M-w 7.8 thrust event near Haida Gwaii, Canada. We map downwarped Pacific oceanic crust near 54 degrees N, between the two rupture zones. Observed downwarping decreases north and south of 54 degrees N, parallel to the strike of the QCF. Bending of the Pacific plate here may have initiated with increased convergence rates due to a plate motion change at similar to 6 Ma. Tectonic reconstruction implies convergence-driven Pacific plate flexure, beginning at 6 Ma south of a 10 degrees bend the QCF (which is currently at 53.2 degrees N) and lasting until the plate translated past the bend by similar to 2 Ma. Normal-faulted approximately late Miocene sediment above the deep flexural depression at 54 degrees N, topped by relatively undeformed Pleistocene and younger sediment, supports this model. Aftershocks of the Haida Gwaii event indicate a normal-faulting stress regime, suggesting present-day plate flexure and underthrusting, which is also consistent with reconstruction of past conditions. We thus favor a Pacific plate underthrusting model to initiate flexure and accommodation space for sediment loading. In addition, mapped structures indicate two possible fault segment boundaries along the QCF at 53.2 degrees N and at 56 degrees N.USGS Earthquake Hazards External Grants ProgramNational Earthquake Hazards Reduction ProgramUTIG Ewing/Worzel FellowshipInstitute for Geophysic

Properties of the phonon-induced pairing interaction in YBa2_2Cu3_3O7_7 within the local density approximation

The properties of the phonon-induced interaction between electrons are studied using the local density approximation (LDA). Restricting the electron momenta to the Fermi surface we find generally that this interaction has a pronounced peak for large momentum transfers and that the interband contributions between bonding and antibonding band are of the same magnitude as the intraband ones. Results are given for various symmetry averages of this interaction over the Fermi surface. In particular, we find that the dimensionless coupling constant in the d-wave channel $\lambda^d$, relevant for superconductivity, is only 0.022, i.e., even about ten times smaller than the small value of the s-wave channel. Similarly, the LDA contribution to the resistivity is about a factor 10 times smaller than the observed resistivity suggesting that phonons are not the important low-energy excitations in high-T$_c$ oxides.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

A mass spectrometry-guided genome mining approach for natural product peptidogenomics.

Peptide natural products show broad biological properties and are commonly produced by orthogonal ribosomal and nonribosomal pathways in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. To harvest this large and diverse resource of bioactive molecules, we introduce here natural product peptidogenomics (NPP), a new MS-guided genome-mining method that connects the chemotypes of peptide natural products to their biosynthetic gene clusters by iteratively matching de novo tandem MS (MS(n)) structures to genomics-based structures following biosynthetic logic. In this study, we show that NPP enabled the rapid characterization of over ten chemically diverse ribosomal and nonribosomal peptide natural products of previously unidentified composition from Streptomycete bacteria as a proof of concept to begin automating the genome-mining process. We show the identification of lantipeptides, lasso peptides, linardins, formylated peptides and lipopeptides, many of which are from well-characterized model Streptomycetes, highlighting the power of NPP in the discovery of new peptide natural products from even intensely studied organisms

Visible-to-telecom quantum frequency conversion of light from a single quantum emitter

Quantum frequency conversion (QFC), a nonlinear optical process in which the frequency of a quantum light field is altered while conserving its non-classical correlations, was first demonstrated 20 years ago. Meanwhile, it is considered an essential tool for the implementation of quantum repeaters since it allows for interfacing quantum memories with telecom-wavelength photons as quantum information carriers. Here we demonstrate efficient (>30%) QFC of visible single photons (711 nm) emitted by a quantum dot (QD) to a telecom wavelength (1,313 nm). Analysis of the first and second-order coherence before and after wavelength conversion clearly proves that important properties, such as the coherence time and photon antibunching, are fully conserved during the frequency translation process. Our findings underline the great potential of single photon sources on demand in combination with QFC as a promising technique for quantum repeater schemes.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Konzept zur Reduktion der Regenfleckenkrankheit - Ermittlung von Parametern zur Biologie der Erreger unter westeuropäischen Klimabedingungen als Grundlage für die Weiterentwicklung eines Prognosemodells

Ziel des dreijährigen Projekts war es, Schlüsselparameter der bisher unter europäischen Bedingungen nur wenig erforschten Regenfleckenkrankheit (RFK) zu erarbeiten. In den Regionen Altes Land und Bodensee dominierte in allen drei Versuchsjahren (2007 – 2009) ein und derselbe RFK-Erreger, Peltaster sp.. Weitere RFK-Erreger sowie der Erreger der Fliegenschmutzkrankheit (FSK), Schizothyrium pomi, kamen nur sporadisch vor und sind wahrscheinlich für die Bekämpfung der Symptome derzeit ohne Bedeutung. In beiden Regionen ist die RFK fast ausschließlich auf ökologisch bewirtschaftete Anlagen beschränkt. Eine Besiedlung von Obstanlagen durch RFK-Erreger findet zunächst von außen statt, kann dann aber in den darauf folgenden Jahren durch endogenes Inokulum getragen werden. Fruchtmumien spielen eine Rolle als endogene Infektionsquellen. Umfangreiche Versuche zur Präzisierung der Infektionsbedingungen haben ergeben, dass eine Besiedlung der jungen Früchte bereits zum sehr frühen Zeitpunkt (T-Stadium, BBCH 74) und danach während des gesamten weiteren Saisonverlaufs erfolgen kann. Die Stärke der Symptomausprägung zur Ernte ist in erster Linie davon abhängig, wie lange die Früchte den natürlichen Infektionsbedingungen ausgesetzt waren. Je später in der Saison Infektionen stattfinden, desto weniger Zeit haben die RFK-Pilze für die Besiedlung und Ausbreitung auf der Frucht, so dass späte Infektionen i.d.R. nicht mehr zu starken Befallsgraden führen. Zur Ausprägung von RFK-Symptomen ist Blattfeuchte, auch in Form von Taubildung, ausreichend, jedoch wird die Symptomausbildung mit zunehmenden Niederschlagsmengen deutlich beschleunigt. Sind erste RFK-Symptome in einer Anlage sichtbar, verkürzt sich die zur Inkubation notwendige kumulative Blattnässedauer von etwa 250 auf unter 150 Stunden. Die RFK-Erreger scheinen eine mehrwöchige Trockenphase unbeschadet überdauern zu können. Apfelsorten zeigen deutliche Unterschiede in der Ausprägung der RFK-Symptome. Die Ursachen hierfür müssen in weiteren Untersuchungen geklärt werden

The landscape of viral associations in human cancers

Here, as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, for which whole-genome and—for a subset—whole-transcriptome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumor types was aggregated, we systematically investigated potential viral pathogens using a consensus approach that integrated three independent pipelines. Viruses were detected in 382 genome and 68 transcriptome datasets. We found a high prevalence of known tumor-associated viruses such as Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human papilloma virus (HPV; for example, HPV16 or HPV18). The study revealed significant exclusivity of HPV and driver mutations in head-and-neck cancer and the association of HPV with APOBEC mutational signatures, which suggests that impaired antiviral defense is a driving force in cervical, bladder and head-and-neck carcinoma. For HBV, HPV16, HPV18 and adeno-associated virus-2 (AAV2), viral integration was associated with local variations in genomic copy numbers. Integrations at the TERT promoter were associated with high telomerase expression evidently activating this tumor-driving process. High levels of endogenous retrovirus (ERV1) expression were linked to a worse survival outcome in patients with kidney cancer