Krisis kesihatan mental ibu tunggal B40 semasa pandemik COVID-19 : kajian kes di Pulau Pinang

The COVID-19 pandemic has a negative impact on the mental health and well-being of single mothers, especially from the B40 income group. The role of single mothers as sole breadwinner is challenged due to changes in their daily routines and work routines during the pandemic. Single mothers were also reported to have a lower quality of life and poor mental health than married mothers. This study explored the mental health crisis faced by single mothers in Penang during the COVID-19 pandemic. A focused group discussion (FGD) was conducted on ten (10) B40 single mothers from Balik Pulau, Penang who were selected based on inclusive criteria that have been set, using purposive sampling method. Thematic analysis technique was applied to identify themes of mental health crises experienced by B40 single mothers. Findings showed that single mothers from the B40 group experience sadness, depression, grief, anxiety, and loneliness, which may deteriorate their mental health. Financial and social support are fundamental for single mothers to elevate their mental health status after being affected by the pandemic. The findings of this study may help relevant parties to understand the mental health challenges faced by the single mothers. It can provide a guideline in designing appropriate intervention programs to enhance the well-being and quality of life of B40 single mothers

Investigation on host specificity of Pantoea stewartii subspecies stewartii strains isolated from jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) infected with bronzing disease in Malaysia

A new disease of jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) known as fruit bronzing was observed in the Pahang state of Malaysia between 2016 to 2017. Symptoms included yellowish-orange to reddish discoloration of the affected pulps and rags in the fruit. This disease is caused by Pantoea stewartii subspecies stewartii (P. stewartii subsp. stewartii), a Gram-negative bacterium that primarily infected corn. It produced typical bacterial wilt or Stewart's wilt disease symptom in corn, sorghum, sudangrass, oat, triticale, and foxtail millet as well as localized rotting in pineapple. The aim of this study is to assess and evaluate the pathogenicity of P. stewartii subsp. stewartii in different local jackfruit cultivars and its other host plants. Three bacterial strains, which were earlier confirmed as of P. stewartii subsp. stewartii through phenotypic and molecular characterization were subjected to pathogenicity test in three different commercial jackfruit cultivars; J32, J33 and Cj3, and to other host plants genus; cucumber and pineapple. The emergence of bronzing symptom and disease severity were recorded daily up to 14 days of inoculation. After two weeks of incubation, the pathogen was re-isolated from infected fruits in order to complete Koch’s Postulates. Reddish-brown symptom was induced in the inoculated jackfruit, but at different time rate for each variety. As for pineapple, the symptom of localized ring was observed, while in inoculated cucumber produced wilting and changed of color from green to yellow. The outcome of this study is expected to enhance our understanding on pathogenic diversity of P. stewartii subsp. stewartii in various local jackfruit cultivars and other major hosts of the bacterium

Whole genome resequencing data and grain quality traits of the rice cultivar Mahsuri and its blast disease resistant mutant line, Mahsuri Mutant

In Malaysia, rice mutant varieties that are genetically altered to confer resistance against blast disease have been substantially developed through mutational breeding program. However, due to the limited accessible information on the mutant lines, mutant gene variants corresponding to the disease resistance and other useful agronomic traits are yet to be exploited. Here, we conducted whole genome re-sequencing of blast resistance with kernel elongation traits in mutant line, Mahsuri Mutant (87,639,446 bp raw reads), and its parental line, Mahsuri (85,156,783 bp raw reads) using Illumina Novaseq 6000 sequencing platform with 30x sequencing coverage. The generated genome sequences are aimed to facilitate the discovery of causal mutation and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to the intended traits. The identified SNPs can be further employed to develop allele-specific SNP molecular markers to locate the mutant gene regions. The NGS data obtained (FASTQ format) of the parental and mutant lines have been deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database under sequence read archive (SRA) xwith accession numbers SRR24388814 (Mahsuri) and SRR22952097 (Mahsuri Mutant) respectively