Acquisition of an Agrobacterium Ri Plasmid and Pathogenicity by Other -Proteobacteria in Cucumber and Tomato Crops Affected by Root Mat

Root mat of cucumbers and tomatoes has previously been shown to be caused by Agrobacterium radiobacter strains harboring a root-inducing Ri plasmid (pRi). Nine other pRi-harboring -Proteobacteria have subsequently been isolated from root mat-infected crops. Fatty acid profiling and partial 16S rRNA sequence analysis identified three of these strains as being in the genus Ochrobactrum, five as being in the genus Rhizobium, and one as being in the genus Sinorhizobium. An in vitro pathogenicity test involving inoculation of cucumber cotyledons was developed. All pRi-harboring -Proteobacteria induced typical root mat symptoms from the cotyledons. Average transformation rates for rhizogenic Ochrobactrum (46%) and Rhizobium (44%) strains were lower than those observed for rhizogenic A. radiobacter strains (64%). However, individual strains from these three genera all had transformation rates comparable to those observed from cotyledons inoculatedwith a rhizogenic Sinorhizobium strain (75%)

List of New Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria (2008-2010)

In 2010 the International Society of Plant Pathology Committee on the Taxonomy of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria published the Comprehensive List of Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria, 1980-2007 to provide an authoritative register of names of plant pathogens. In this manuscript we update the list of names by cataloguing names published from 2008 to 2010. We provide those names that have been validly and effectively published in this time frame, the proposed names that we judged to be invalid and names published earlier that did not make the previous lists. We also discuss problems that arise in the naming of strains that fall into the status Candidatus and nomenclatural problems in the genus Xanthomonas

List of New Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria (2011-2012)

The International Society of Plant Pathology Committee on the Taxonomy of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria has responsibility to evaluate the names of newly proposed pathovars for adherence to the International Standards for Naming Pathovars of Phytopathogenic Bacteria. Currently, the Comprehensive List of Names and the List of New Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria provide the authoritative register of names of bacterial plant pathogens. In this manuscript we up-date the list of names by cataloguing and evaluating names of plant pathogenic bacteria published in 2011 and 2012. We provide those names that have been validly and effectively published in this time frame, the proposed names that we judged to be invalid, and names published earlier that did not make the previous lists

E-retailing ethics in Egypt and its effect on customer repurchase intention

The theoretical understanding of online shopping behaviour has received much attention. Less focus has been given to the formation of the ethical issues that result from online shopper interactions with e-retailers. The vast majority of earlier research on this area is conceptual in nature and limited in scope by focusing on consumers’ privacy issues. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model explaining what factors contribute to online retailing ethics and its effect on customer repurchase intention. The data were analysed using variance-based structural equation modelling, employing partial least squares regression. Findings indicate that the five factors of the online retailing ethics (security, privacy, non- deception, fulfilment/reliability, and corporate social responsibility) are strongly predictive of online consumers’ repurchase intention. The results offer important implications for e-retailers and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of e-ethics from the consumers’ perspective

On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection

A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Relationship of edge localized mode burst times with divertor flux loop signal phase in JET

A phase relationship is identified between sequential edge localized modes (ELMs) occurrence times in a set of H-mode tokamak plasmas to the voltage measured in full flux azimuthal loops in the divertor region. We focus on plasmas in the Joint European Torus where a steady H-mode is sustained over several seconds, during which ELMs are observed in the Be II emission at the divertor. The ELMs analysed arise from intrinsic ELMing, in that there is no deliberate intent to control the ELMing process by external means. We use ELM timings derived from the Be II signal to perform direct time domain analysis of the full flux loop VLD2 and VLD3 signals, which provide a high cadence global measurement proportional to the voltage induced by changes in poloidal magnetic flux. Specifically, we examine how the time interval between pairs of successive ELMs is linked to the time-evolving phase of the full flux loop signals. Each ELM produces a clear early pulse in the full flux loop signals, whose peak time is used to condition our analysis. The arrival time of the following ELM, relative to this pulse, is found to fall into one of two categories: (i) prompt ELMs, which are directly paced by the initial response seen in the flux loop signals; and (ii) all other ELMs, which occur after the initial response of the full flux loop signals has decayed in amplitude. The times at which ELMs in category (ii) occur, relative to the first ELM of the pair, are clustered at times when the instantaneous phase of the full flux loop signal is close to its value at the time of the first ELM

Crown and cane gall of a blackberry-raspberry hybrid caused by Agrobacterium rhizogenes in Northern Italy

During a serious epidemic of crown and cane gall on the blackberry-raspberry hybrid Lockness in a specialized crop in the province of Treviso, Gram-negative bacteria were found associated with tumours. Following experimental inoculation these bacteria caused tumours on tomato stems and on the pot-grown hybrid canes in the greenhouse. These tumourogenic bacteria were found to possess the vir D2 gene, common to Ti and Ri plasmids. The fatty acid profile did not correspond to any known Agrobacterium species, but indicated an affinity with the genus Agrobacterium. A comparative analysis of the sequences of approximately 700 pb of 16 S DNA revealed that the bacteria had a high affinity with the three strains of Agrobacterium rhizogenes, in particular with a strain isolated from a peach tumour. The phenotype matched that of biovar 2. The associated bacteria that caused the crown and cane gall epidemic was identified as an unusual strain of Agrobacterium rhizogenes