シリアサンジャガイモYウイルス ニ タイスル ポリクローナルコウタイ ノ ショサクセ

ジャガイモYウイルス(PVY)はシリアのジャガイモ生産における主要ウイルスの一つとされ,ジャガイモ生産の阻害要因となっている。PVY感染の無い種イモの生産と供給が主要な防除手段であるが,そのためには,効果的なウイルス検査法が必要である。酵素結合抗体法(ELISA)は複数種類のジャガイモウイルス検出には最も一般的な技術であるが,それぞれのウイルスに対して特異的な抗血清が利用できることが必須条件となる。本研究では,シリアに発生したPVY分離株を純化し,ウサギに免疫することにより抗血清をはじめて作製した。この抗血清を利用し多くのシリア産PVYを用いたELISAによる検討では,市販の抗血清と同等の検出能力を有し,両抗血清間に結果の相違は認められなかった。また,非特異的反応も生じなかった。さらに,検出限界は高かった。以上より,本研究ではシリアで分離されたPVYに対して初めてシリア国産抗血清を得ることができ,抗血清の恒常的輸入を不要にしたことに大きな意義があると考えられる。Potato virus Y (PVY) is reported to be the main virus occurring in potato fields and it increases the cost of potato production in Syria. Producing and utilizing of certified seed potatoes with minimum PVY infection is the main control key that requires efficient virus detection methods. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using specific antisera is the most common method for the detection of potato viruses. In this study we report the production of PVY antiserum in Syria for the first time. This antibody was produced against a Syrian PVY isolate and its reliability was confirmed by testing a panel of PVY infected samples collected from Syria. The results of ELISA using this antibody were consistent with those obtained using Agdia PVY antibody and no significant differences were found. In addition this antibody was highly specific to PVY with undetectable cross reaction to plant proteins. Moreover it was shown to be very sensitive and PVY infection could be detected in highly diluted plant saps. Since this antibody was produced against a Syrian isolate of PVY it has advantages over imported PVY specific antiserum

Knowledge Priorities on Climate Change and Water in the Upper Indus Basin: A Horizon Scanning Exercise to Identify the Top 100 Research Questions in Social and Natural Sciences

River systems originating from the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) are dominated by runoff from snow and glacier melt and summer monsoonal rainfall. These water resources are highly stressed as huge populations of people living in this region depend on them, including for agriculture, domestic use, and energy production. Projections suggest that the UIB region will be affected by considerable (yet poorly quantified) changes to the seasonality and composition of runoff in the future, which are likely to have considerable impacts on these supplies. Given how directly and indirectly communities and ecosystems are dependent on these resources and the growing pressure on them due to ever-increasing demands, the impacts of climate change pose considerable adaptation challenges. The strong linkages between hydroclimate, cryosphere, water resources, and human activities within the UIB suggest that a multi- and inter-disciplinary research approach integrating the social and natural/environmental sciences is critical for successful adaptation to ongoing and future hydrological and climate change. Here we use a horizon scanning technique to identify the Top 100 questions related to the most pressing knowledge gaps and research priorities in social and natural sciences on climate change and water in the UIB. These questions are on the margins of current thinking and investigation and are clustered into 14 themes, covering three overarching topics of ‘governance, policy, and sustainable solutions’, ‘socioeconomic processes and livelihoods’, and ‘integrated Earth System processes’. Raising awareness of these cutting-edge knowledge gaps and opportunities will hopefully encourage researchers, funding bodies, practitioners, and policy makers to address them

Forging volumetric methods

The last two decades have seen a “volumetric turn” within Anglophone social sciences and humanities scholarship. This turn is premised on the idea that space may be better understood in three-dimensional terms – with complex heights and depths – rather than as a series of two-dimensional areas or surfaces. While there is an increasingly diverse and rich set of scholarship accounting for voluminous complexities in the air, oceans, ice, mountains, and undergrounds, all too often this work foregrounds state and military-led approaches to volume. This has resulted in a limited methodological toolkit through which to explore voluminous complexities as they emerge and extend beyond military and state contexts. Often reliant on elite interviews, archives, and cartographies, there has been little critical discussion of both methodological practice and the “flatness” of research outputs articulating three-dimensional worlds. In this paper we address this by foregrounding the role of immersive and multisensory methodologies (sounding volumes, seeing-sensing drone volumes, and object volumes). To conclude, we offer avenues for further inquiry, including attending to shifting everyday voluminous experiences in the Anthropocene, and the need to diversify the communication of “volume” research