Development of a method to rapidly assess resistance/susceptibility of Micro-Tom tomatoes to Tomato yellow leaf curl virus via agroinoculation of cotyledons

Objective: Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) is one of the pathogens severely damaging tomato crops. Therefore, methods to treat or prevent TYLCV infection need to be developed. For this purpose, a method to conveniently and quickly assess infection of tomatoes by TYLCV is desired. In the present study, we established a quick method to evaluate TYLCV infection using cotyledons of Micro-Tom, a miniature tomato cultivar. Results: First, we constructed a binary plasmid harboring 1.5 copies of the TYLCV genome and transformed Agrobacterium with the plasmid. By injecting agroinoculum from the resulting transformant into the branches of Micro-Tom, we confirmed the susceptibility of Micro-Tom to TYLCV. To shorten the evaluation process of TYLCV infection further, we agroinoculated cotyledons of Micro-Tom 10 days after sowing seeds. We consistently observed typical symptoms of TYLCV infection on true leaves 10 days after agroinoculation. Molecular analysis detected TYLCV progeny DNA in all leaves demonstrating symptoms 6 days after agroinoculation. Therefore, our new protocol enabled assessment of TYLCV infection within 20 days after sowing seeds. Thus, agroinoculation of Micro-Tom cotyledons will accelerate the process of screening TYLCV-resistant Micro-Toms and enable screening of larger numbers of plants more quickly, contributing to the development of TYLCV-resistant tomatoes

High-field magnetization and magnetic phase transition in CeOs2Al10

We have studied the magnetization of CeOs2Al10 in high magnetic fields up to 55 T for H // a and constructed the magnetic phase diagram for H // a. The magnetization curve shows a concave H dependence below T_max \sim40 K which is higher than the transition temperature T_0 \sim29 K. The magnetic susceptibility along the a-axis shows a smooth and continuous decrease down to \sim20 K below T_max \sim40 K without showing an anomaly at T_0. From these two results, a Kondo singlet is formed below T_max and coexists with the antiferro magnetic order below T_0. We also propose that the larger suppression of the spin degrees of freedom along the a-axis than along the c-axis below T_max is associated with the origin of the antiferro magnetic component.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B, Rapid Commu

Genome sequence analysis of new plum pox virus isolates from Japan

Objective To find mutations that may have recently occurred in Plum pox virus (PPV), we collected six PPV-infected plum/peach trees from the western part of Japan and one from the eastern part. After sequencing the full-length PPV genomic RNAs, we compared the amino acid sequences with representative isolates of each PPV strain. Results All new isolates were found to belong to the PPV-D strain: the six isolates collected from western Japan were identified as the West-Japan strain while the one collected from eastern Japan as the East-Japan strain. Amino acid sequence analysis of these seven isolates suggested that the 1407th and 1529th amino acid residues are characteristic of the West-Japan and the East-Japan strains, respectively. Comparing them with the corresponding amino acid residues of the 47 non-Japanese PPV-D isolates revealed that these amino acid residues are undoubtedly unique. A further examination of the relevant amino acid residues of the other 210 PPV-D isolates collected in Japan generated a new hypothesis regarding the invasion route from overseas and the subsequent diffusion route within Japan: a PPV-D strain might have invaded the western part of Japan from overseas and spread throughout Japan

Long-range order and low-energy magnetic excitations in CeRu2Al10

The nature of the unconventional ordered phase occurring in CeRu2Al10 below T0 = 27 K was investigated by neutron scattering. Powder diffraction patterns show clear superstructure peaks corresponding to forbidden (h + k)-odd reflections of the Cmcm space group. Inelastic neutron scattering experiments further reveal a pronounced magnetic excitation developing in the ordered phase at an energy of 8 meV.Comment: 5 pages; 4 figure