First Report of Asiatic Brown Rot (Monilinia polystroma) and Brown Rot (Monilinia fructicola) on Pears in Italy

Brown rot caused by Monilinia spp. is an important fruit postharvest decay causing severe losses in stone and pome fruits with a significant economic impact. In Italy, three Monilinia species (M. laxa, M. fructicola, and M. fructigena) are the causal agents of blossom and twig blight and brown fruit rot in stone fruit. M. polystroma has been observed on peaches in Italy (2) and has been reported in Czech Republic and Hungary (3), Poland (4), Serbia (5), and Switzerland (1) on pome fruits and apricots. In September 2013, stored var. Abate Fetel pears showing brown rot symptoms were observed in Emilia Romagna region. In 20% of the symptomatic pears, circular and brown to black decay spots were observed, covered by a large number of yellowish or buff-colored stromata, while decayed tissues remained firm, resembling M. polystroma symptoms. In another 13% of stored pears, the decayed tissues remained firm, and decay lesions were covered with numerous grayish pustules containing spores. Putative pathogens were isolated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 25°C in darkness for 5 days. The colonies grown on PDA were yellowish, with irregular black stromatal crusts at the edges of the colonies after 10 to 12 days of incubation. Some colonies developed, at their margins, sporogenous tissue slightly elevated above the colony surface that was buff/pale luteous (4). Conidia developing from such cultures were one celled, ovoid or limoniform, smooth and hyaline, measuring 12.2 to 20.4 × 8.4 to 12.3 µm when grown on V8 juice agar (V8) at 22°C, and matched the description of those for M. polystroma. Other colonies, which developed a gray mass of spores in concentric rings with the reverse side black, were morphologically identified as M. fructicola. The colony margins were smooth edged, and the conidia were one-celled, limoniform, hyaline, and measuring 12.1 to 17.4 × 8.1 to 11.2 µm on V8 at 22°C. Isolate identificaton was obtained using the universal primers for Monilinia spp. (3). Pathogenicity was confirmed using surface-sterilized mature var. Abate Fetel and William pears wounded with a sterile needle, and inoculated with 20 µl of an M. polystroma or M. fructicola conidial suspension (103 spores/ml). After 7 days of incubation at 20°C, typical symptoms of Asiatic brown rot or brown rot developed on both the wounds of all inoculated pears, while controls remained symptomless. Mean colony diameters measured after 7 days were 47.3 mm for Asiatic brown rot and 44.1 mm for brown rot, and there were no significant differences in colony diameter after 7 days between M. polystroma and M. fructicola (α < 0.05). After 14 days, yellowish exogenous stromata appeared on the surface of pears infected by M. polystroma, whereas numerous grayish pustules containing spores appeared on pears inoculated with M. fructicola. Control pears still remained symptomless. The fungus isolated from inoculated fruit exhibited the same morphological features as the original isolates, and PCR/sequencing analysis using primers ITS1 and ITS4 confirmed the results of the universal primers (3) (GenBank Accession Nos. GU067539.1 and HQ893748.1). Although the presence of M. polystroma and M. fructicola has been documented in Italy, this is the first time these two species were observed on Italian pears. This report suggests a broader impact since M. polystroma and M. fructicola have not been previously reported on pears in Europe. Because of the importance of pears in the Italian fruit industry, knowledge about the occurrence of new pathogens will facilitate the adoption of adequate control strategies to reduce postharvest losses

Use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in cancer patients. An italian multicenter survey

INTRODUCTION: Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) include a wide range of products (herbs, vitamins, minerals, and probiotics) and medical practices, developed outside of the mainstream Western medicine. Patients with cancer are more likely to resort to CAM first or then in their disease history; the potential side effects as well as the costs of such practices are largely underestimated. PATIENTS AND METHOD: We conducted a descriptive survey in five Italian hospitals involving 468 patients with different malignancies. The survey consisted of a forty-two question questionnaire, patients were eligible if they were Italian-speaking and receiving an anticancer treatment at the time of the survey or had received an anticancer treatment no more than three years before participating in the survey. RESULTS: Of our patients, 48.9% said they use or have recently used CAM. The univariate analysis showed that female gender, high education, receiving treatment in a highly specialized institute and receiving chemotherapy are associated with CAM use; at the multivariate analysis high education (Odds Ratio, (OR): 1.96 95% Confidence Interval, CI, 1.27-3.05) and receiving treatment in a specialized cancer center (OR: 2.75 95% CI, 1.53-4.94) were confirmed as risk factors for CAM use. CONCLUSION: Roughly half of our patients receiving treatment for cancer use CAM. It is necessary that health professional explore the use of CAM with their cancer patients, educate them about potentially beneficial therapies in light of the limited available evidence of effectiveness, and work towards an integrated model of health-care provision

Amending entanglement-breaking channels via intermediate unitary operations

We report a bulk optics experiment demonstrating the possibility of restoring the entanglement distribution through noisy quantum channels by inserting a suitable unitary operation (filter) in the middle of the transmission process. We focus on two relevant classes of single-qubit channels consisting in repeated applications of rotated phase-damping or rotated amplitude-damping maps, both modeling the combined Hamiltonian and dissipative dynamics of the polarization state of single photons. Our results show that interposing a unitary filter between two noisy channels can significantly improve entanglement transmission. This proof-of-principle demonstration could be generalized to many other physical scenarios where entanglement-breaking communication lines may be amended by unitary filters

DAI BARCONI ALL’UNIVERSITÀ. PERCORSI DI INCLUSIONE LINGUISTICA PER MINORI STRANIERI NON ACCOMPAGNATI

Recension

Antifungal effect of volatile organic compounds produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CPA-8 against fruit pathogen decays of cherry

The present work focuses on the antifungal effect of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CPA-8 against Monilinia laxa, M. fructicola and Botrytis cinera, three postharvest fruit pathogens of sweet cherry fruit. VOCs were evaluated with a double petri dish assay against mycelial and colony growth of target pathogens. For this purpose, CPA-8 was grown on different media and cultured for 24 and 48 h at 30 °C before assays. Data showed that mycelial growth inhibition was higher when CPA-8 was grown on Tryptone Soya Agar (TSA) while no differences were generally observed when CPA-8 was cultured for either, 24 and 48 h. Moreover, no effects were observed on colony growth. The main volatile compounds emitted by CPA-8 were identified by solid-phase microextraction (SPME)-gas chromatography as 1,3 pentadiene, acetoin (3-hydroxy-2-butanone) and thiophene. Pure compounds were also tested in vitro on mycelial growth inhibition and their EC50 values against the three pathogens were estimated. Thiophene was the most effective VOC, showing more than 82% suppression of mycelial growth at the highest concentration (1.35 μL/mL headspace) and EC50 values ranging from 0.06 to 6.67 μL/mL headspace. Finally, the effectiveness of thiophene and CPA-8 VOCs was evaluated against artificially inoculated cherry fruits. Among the target pathogens, M. fructicola was clearly controlled by CPA-8 with less than 25% of rotten fruits compared to the control (65% disease incidence) and for all pathogens, less than 37.5% of CPA-8 treated decayed fruits produced spores (disease sporulation). Otherwise, pure thiophene showed no effect against any pathogen on disease incidence and disease sporulation. The results indicated that VOCs produced by B. amyloliquefaciens CPA-8 could develop an additive antifungal effect against postharvest fruit pathogens on stone fruit.This research was supported by the European project BIOCOMES FP7-612713 and by the Catalan government (Generalitat de Catalunya) for the PhD grant 2016-FI-B2 00143 (Amparo M. Gotor)

Natural bovine coronavirus infection in a calf persistently infected with bovine viral diarrhea virus: Viral shedding, immunological features and s gene variations

The evolution of a bovine coronavirus (BCoV) natural infection in a calf persistently infected with bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) was described. The infected calf developed intermittent nasal discharge, diarrhea and hyperthermia. The total number of leukocytes/mL and the absolute differential number of neutrophils and lymphocytes resulted within the normal range, but monocytes increased at T28 (time 28 post‐infection). Flow‐cytometry analysis evidenced that the CD8+ subpopulation increased at T7 and between T28 and T35. BCoV shedding in nasal discharges and feces was detected up to three weeks post infection and high antibody titers persisted up to T56. The RNA BCoV load increased until T14, contrary to what was observed in a previous study where the fecal excretion of BCoV was significantly lower in the co‐infected (BCoV/BVDV) calves than in the calves infected with BCoV only. We can suppose that BVDV may have modulated the BCoV infection exacerbating the long viral excretion, as well as favoring the onset of mutations in the genome of BCoV detected in fecal samples at T21. An extensive study was performed to verify if the selective pressure in the S gene could be a natural mode of variation of BCoV, providing data for the identification of new epidemic strains, genotypes or recombinant betacoronaviruses

Mechanisms of endothelial cell dysfunction in cystic fibrosis

Although cystic fibrosis (CF) patients exhibit signs of endothelial perturbation, the functions of the cystic fibrosis conductance regulator (CFTR) in vascular endothelial cells (EC) are poorly defined. We sought to uncover biological activities of endothelial CFTR, relevant for vascular homeostasis and inflammation. We examined cells from human umbilical cords (HUVEC) and pulmonary artery isolated from non-cystic fibrosis (PAEC) and CF human lungs (CF-PAEC), under static conditions or physiological shear. CFTR activity, clearly detected in HUVEC and PAEC, was markedly reduced in CF-PAEC. CFTR blockade increased endothelial permeability to macromolecules and reduced trans‑endothelial electrical resistance (TEER). Consistent with this, CF-PAEC displayed lower TEER compared to PAEC. Under shear, CFTR blockade reduced VE-cadherin and p120 catenin membrane expression and triggered the formation of paxillin- and vinculin-enriched membrane blebs that evolved in shrinking of the cell body and disruption of cell-cell contacts. These changes were accompanied by enhanced release of microvesicles, which displayed reduced capability to stimulate proliferation in recipient EC. CFTR blockade also suppressed insulin-induced NO generation by EC, likely by inhibiting eNOS and AKT phosphorylation, whereas it enhanced IL-8 release. Remarkably, phosphodiesterase inhibitors in combination with a β2 adrenergic receptor agonist corrected functional and morphological changes triggered by CFTR dysfunction in EC. Our results uncover regulatory functions of CFTR in EC, suggesting a physiological role of CFTR in the maintenance EC homeostasis and its involvement in pathogenetic aspects of CF. Moreover, our findings open avenues for novel pharmacology to control endothelial dysfunction and its consequences in CF