Impacts of extreme weather events on pests, damage caused by pests and plant protection measures – first evidence

Der Klimawandel wird voraussichtlich zu einer Zunahme des Auftretens einiger Extremwetterereignisse führen und auch deren Intensität wird verändert sein. Die weltweit seit 1910 erschienene Literatur wurde in diesem Review ausgewertet, um Auswirkungen von Extrem­wetterereignissen auf Schaderreger in Weizen, Mais, Gerste, Zuckerrüben, Kartoffeln, Raps, Ackerfutter und Grünland, den durch diese verursachten Schaden und den Pflanzenschutz zu ermitteln, zu verallgemeinern und daraus Schlussfolgerungen für Forschungs- und Anpassungsmaßnahmen abzuleiten. Nur 111 Arbeiten konnten vertiefend ausgewertet werden. Es finden sich erste Hinweise, dass Extremwetterereignisse infolge des Klimawandels in Deutschland wichtig werdende Schaderreger im Ackerbau, den durch diese Schaderreger verursachten Schaden sowie Pflanzenschutzmaßnahmen beeinflussen können. Die Wirkung auf Schaderreger, Ertrag und physiologisches Leistungsvermögen sowie Stresstoleranz der Kulturpflanzen kann direkt oder indirekt, hemmend oder fördernd sein. Verallgemeinerungen sind beim gegenwärtigen Kenntnisstand noch nicht möglich. Die Forschungsarbeiten zu diesem Themenfeld müssen systematisiert und intensiviert werden. Die Dringlichkeit der Bearbeitung dieses Forschungsfeldes und die Notwendigkeit eines systemaren, interdisziplinären und abgestimmten Forschungsansatzes mit experimentellen und modellgestützten Methoden über verschiedene Versuchsebenen hinweg werden diskutiert. DOI: 10.5073/JfK.2016.09.02, https://doi.org/10.5073/JfK.2016.09.02It is likely that climate change will cause an increase in amounts and intensity of extreme weather events.In this review 111 articles of since 1910 globally published literature concerning the effects of extreme weather events on pests affecting wheat, maize, barley, sugar beet, potato, rape, forage crops and grassland were evaluated to gain information about the damage caused, which was that generalized and conclusions for research and adaption measures were drawn. This leads to first evidence that extreme weather effects resulting from climate change indeed have an effect on important plant pests, the damage they cause and plant protection measures in German agriculture. Their influence on said pests, yield, physiological potential as well as stress tolerance of crop plants can be direct or indirect, restricting or supporting, yet no generalizations can be made just based on this first evidence; more intense research in these areas is required.In this article urgency and necessity of research and evaluation of these areas, including systematic interdisciplinary research approaches featuring experimental and model-based methods on multiple experiment levels are discussed. DOI: 10.5073/JfK.2016.09.02, https://doi.org/10.5073/JfK.2016.09.0

Extreme weather events and their effects on plant pests infesting wheat, barley and maize

In dieser Übersichtsarbeit wurden weltweit verfügbare Informationen zum Einfluss der Extremwetterereignisse Hitze, Dürre/Trockenheit, Starkregen, Überflutung, Dauerregen, Starkfrost, Kahlfrost, Frühfrost, Spätfrost, Sturm, Hagel, Strahlung, Nassschnee auf wichtige Schaderreger in Weizen, Gerste und Mais zusammengetragen und diskutiert. Die 78 auswertbaren gefundenen Arbeiten befassen sich mit dem Einfluss der Extremwetterereignisse Dürre, Trockenheit, Hitze, Starkregen, Überflutung und Kahlfrost auf die Schaderregergruppen Pilze, Insekten und Viren. Zum Einfluss der anderen recherchierten Extrema bzw. Schaderregergruppen dieser Kulturen wurden keine Informationen gefunden. Die meisten der verwerteten Arbeiten widmeten sich dem Einfluss von Trockenheit/Dürre und Hitze auf Pilzkrankheiten, hier insbesondere Fusarium- und Aspergillus-Arten und verschiedene Blattlausarten bzw. den durch sie an den Kulturpflanzen verursachten Schäden. Hierzu zählt auch die Mykotoxin­belastung des Erntegutes. Gefundene Aussagen sind teils widersprüchlich und insgesamt sind die Informationen noch sehr lückenhaft. Verallgemeinerungen sind daher nicht möglich. Vorschläge für weitere Forschungsarbeiten, wie die Erhebung zu Primärdaten zu Temperatur­extremen, aber auch erhöhten Nachttemperaturen und deren Implementierung in vorhandene Simulations- und Prognosemodelle werden gemacht.In this review article 78 evaluable globally accessible articles regarding the influence of heat, drought, heavy rain, flooding, black frost, early frost, late frost, extreme frost, storm, hail, radiation and wet snow have on significant plant pests – namely fungi, insects and viruses – infesting wheat, barley and maize are summarized and discussed. The influence of other extremes and/or plant pests wasn't backed up enough by research, hence it wasn't evaluated. Sufficient evaluable literature was available for the influence drought and heat have on fungal infections, especially Fusarium and Aspergillus species and various species of aphids and the damage caused by them, including the mycotoxin levels in the grains of wheat and maize. As statements obtained from literature are partly contradicting and overall lacking information, a generalization of results is impossible. Suggestions for further research, such as the obtainment of primary data concerning temperature extremes, increased night time temperatures and their implementation in existing simulation and prediction models are made

Extreme weather events and their effects on plant pests infecting potato, sugar beet, rape and grassland

Extremwetterereignisse sind Bestandteil von Klimasystemen und unterliegen daher auch dem Klimawandel. Einige werden zunehmen. In diesem Review wurden die weltweit verfügbaren Informationen zum Einfluss der Extremwetterereignisse Hitze, Dürre/Trockenheit, Starkregen, Überflutung, Dauerregen, Starkfrost, Kahlfrost, Frühfrost, Spätfrost, Sturm, Hagel, Strahlung, Nassschnee auf wichtige Schaderreger der Kartoffeln, der Zuckerrüben, im Raps und im Grünland zusammengestellt und analysiert. Nur 33 Arbeiten konnten zum Einfluss der Extrem­wetterereignisse Dürre, Trockenheit, Hitze, Starkregen, Dauerregen, Überflutung, Staunässe, Hagel, Strahlung sowie Starkfrost auf Vertreter aus den Schad­erregergruppen Pilze, Insekten, Bakterien, Unkräuter, Nematoden, Säugetiere und Schnecken vertiefend aus­gewertet werden. In diese Analyse flossen in stärkerem Maße als für wissenschaftliche Reviews üblich Ergeb­nisse von Erhebungen, die von Pflanzenschutzdiensten der Bundesländer gemacht wurden und in Fachzeitschriften der Praxis verbreitet werden, ein. Damit konnten wichtige Hinweise zur dokumentierten Beeinflussung von Schaderregern, besonders an Kartoffeln, aber auch an Zuckerrüben und zur Beeinflussung von Pflanzenschutzmaßnahmen durch Extremwetterereignisse berücksichtigt werden. Diese Quellen, in deren Hintergrund häufig sowohl Befalls- als auch Ertrags- und Wetterdaten verfügbar sind, sollten zukünftig stärker berücksichtigt werden. Die gefundenen und analysierten Hinweise zeigen, dass sowohl Schaderreger als auch Pflanzenschutzmaßnahmen von Extremwetterereignissen beein­flusst werden. Für Verallgemeinerungen und Schlussfolgerungen sind jedoch die Informationen noch zu lückenhaft. Die Forschung muss sich verstärkt diesen Fragen widmen, um ein klareres Bild gewinnen zu können.Extreme weather events are a part of climatic systems, hence will be influenced by climates change, causing some of them to increase. In this review all 33 evaluable globally accessible articles that could be found, regarding the influence of heat, drought, heavy rain, flooding, black frost, early frost, late frost, extreme frost, hail, radia­tion and wet snow have on plant pests affecting pota­toes, sweet beets, rape and grassland are summarized and evaluated. These articles only provided sufficient in-depth information of the effects on fungi, insects, bacteria, viruses, weeds, nematodes, mammals and snails. In this analysis a scientifically unusually high amount of literature were results of evaluations conducted by the plant protection services of the German states, which were broadcasted in professional journals of agricultural practice. This way, important evidence in form of documented influences of plant pests infesting potatoes and sweet beets, but also the influence extreme weather has on plant protection measures, could be obtained. These sources should have a more important role in the future, as they have a background full of harvest-, infection- and weather data. Obtained evidence does show that both plant pests and plant protection measures are affected by extreme weather events, but at this point there are still too many data gaps as to provide generalizations or conclusions. It is important that more intense research is conducted to answer these questions

Preoperative CYFRA 21-1 and CEA as Prognostic Factors in Patients with Stage I Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Objective: To validate the prognostic value of preoperative levels of CYFRA 21-1, CEA and the corresponding tumor marker index (TMI) in patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: Two hundred forty stage I NSCLC patients (80 in pT1 and 160 in pT2; 100 squamous cell carcinomas, 91 adenocarcinomas, 32 large-cell carcinomas, 17 with other histologies; 171 males and 69 females) who had complete resection (R0) between 1986 and 2004 were included in the analysis. CYFRA 21-1 and CEA were measured using the Elecsys system (Roche) and AxSym-System (Abbott), respectively. Univariate analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method to identify potential associations between survival and age, gender, CYFRA 21-1, CEA and TMI. Results: Overall 3- and 5-year survival rates were 74 and 64%, respectively. Male gender (p = 0.0009) and age 1 70 years (p = 0.0041) were associated with a worse prognosis; there were no differences between pT1 and pT2 nor between histological subtypes. Three- year survival was 72% for CYFRA 21-1 levels > 3.3 ng/ml versus 75% for levels 6.7 ng/ ml versus 75% for CEA 70 years were associated with a worse outcome, but elevated levels of CEA and CYFRA 21-1, and TMI risk were not. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

Generation and characterization of a mitotane-resistant adrenocortical cell line

Mitotane is the only drug approved for the therapy of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). Its clinical use is limited by the occurrence of relapse during therapy. To investigate the underlying mechanisms in vitro, we here generated mitotane-resistant cell lines. After long-term pulsed treatment of HAC-15 human adrenocortical carcinoma cells with 70 µM mitotane, we isolated monoclonal cell populations of treated cells and controls and assessed their respective mitotane sensitivities by MTT assay. We performed exome sequencing and electron microscopy, conducted gene expression microarray analysis and determined intracellular lipid concentrations in the presence and absence of mitotane. Clonal cell lines established after pulsed treatment were resistant to mitotane (IC50 of 102.2 ± 7.3 µM (n = 12) vs 39.4 ± 6.2 µM (n = 6) in controls (biological replicates, mean ± s.d., P = 0.0001)). Unlike nonresistant clones, resistant clones maintained normal mitochondrial and nucleolar morphology during mitotane treatment. Resistant clones largely shared structural and single nucleotide variants, suggesting a common cell of origin. Resistance depended, in part, on extracellular lipoproteins and was associated with alterations in intracellular lipid homeostasis, including levels of free cholesterol, as well as decreased steroid production. By gene expression analysis, resistant cells showed profound alterations in pathways including steroid metabolism and transport, apoptosis, cell growth and Wnt signaling. These studies establish an in vitro model of mitotane resistance in ACC and point to underlying molecular mechanisms. They may enable future studies to overcome resistance in vitro and improve ACC treatment in vivo

Cyclin D1 in ASM Cells from Asthmatics Is Insensitive to Corticosteroid Inhibition

Hyperplasia of airway smooth muscle (ASM) is a feature of the remodelled airway in asthmatics. We examined the antiproliferative effectiveness of the corticosteroid dexamethasone on expression of the key regulator of G1 cell cycle progression—cyclin D1—in ASM cells from nonasthmatics and asthmatics stimulated with the mitogen platelet-derived growth factor BB. While cyclin D1 mRNA and protein expression were repressed in cells from nonasthmatics in contrast, cyclin D1 expression in asthmatics was resistant to inhibition by dexamethasone. This was independent of a repressive effect on glucocorticoid receptor translocation. Our results corroborate evidence demonstrating that corticosteroids inhibit mitogen-induced proliferation only in ASM cells from subjects without asthma and suggest that there are corticosteroid-insensitive proliferative pathways in asthmatics

Early prediction of therapy response in patients with acute myeloid leukemia by nucleosomal DNA fragments

BACKGROUND: Elevated levels of nucleosomal DNA fragments can be detected in plasma and sera of patients with malignant diseases. METHODS: We investigated the course of nucleosomal DNA, thymidine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase and leukocytes in sera of 25 patients with acute myeloid leukemia during the first cycle of induction chemotherapy and tested their power to distinguish between patients with complete remission and those with no remission. RESULTS: Almost all patients showed strongly decreasing levels of nucleosomal DNA during the first week, in some cases after initial peaks. In overall analysis of variance, DNA levels could clearly distinguish between patients with complete remission, who had higher DNA values, and those with insufficient response (p = 0.017). The area under the curve of DNA values of days 2–4 after start of therapy (AUC 2–4) discriminated between both groups with a sensitivity of 56% at a specificity of 100%. Further, pretherapeutic levels and AUC 2–4 of nucleosomal DNA correlated significantly with blast reduction after 16 days. A tendency to higher levels in patients with complete response was also found for thymidine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase and leukocytes, however the difference did not reach the level of significance (p = 0.542, p = 0.260, and p = 0.144, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that nucleosomal DNA fragments are valuable markers for the early prediction of therapeutic efficacy in patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Nucleosomes in colorectal cancer patients during radiochemotherapy

Apoptotic markers and tumor-associated antigens might be suitable to indicate the response to radiochemotherapy early. We analyzed the courses of nucleosomes, CEA, CA 19-9 and CYFRA 21-1 in 25 colorectal cancer patients during radiochemotherapy (4 postoperative, 13 preoperative, 8 local relapse therapy). Blood was taken before therapy, daily during the first week, once weekly during the following weeks, and at the end of the radiochemotherapy. After a temporary decline 6 h after the first irradiation, nucleosomes rose in most patients rapidly reaching a maximum during the first days which was followed by a subsequent decrease. In patients receiving postoperative therapy after complete resection of tumor, nucleosome levels generally were lower than in patients with preoperative or relapse therapy. Correspondingly, CEA, CA 19-9 and CYFRA 21-1 levels of postoperatively treated patients were the lowest whereas those with tumor relapse had the highest ones. During preoperative therapy, lower nucleosome concentrations were found in patients with response to therapy resulting in a smaller area under the curve of days 1-3 (AUC) than in those with progressive disease (p = 0.028). The other parameters did not indicate the response to therapy at the initial treatment phase. In conclusion, the course of nucleosomes (AUC) might be valuable for the early prediction of therapy response in preoperatively treated colorectal cancer patients. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Mammalian expression of the human sex steroid-binding protein of plasma (SBP or SHBG) and testis (ABP) Characterization of the recombinant protein

AbstractA full-length 1,209 bp cDNA encoding the human sex steroid-binding protein of plasma (SBP or SHBG) and testis (ABP) was constructed and expressed in BHK-21 cells. The sequence agrees with the published gene and protein sequences. The cells were found to secrete SBP following transfection and G418r selection. The recombinant protein binds 5α-dihydrotestosterone with a Kd of 0.28 nM. It also binds testosterone and 17β-estradiol but not progesterone, estrone or cortisol revealing a steroid-binding specificity identical to that of human SBP, SDS-PAGE patterns are less complex than human SBP and show a monomeric molecular weight of about 43 kDa

Nucleosomes in pancreatic cancer patients during radiochemotherapy

Nucleosomes appear spontaneously in elevated concentrations in the serum of patients with malignant diseases as well as during chemo- and radiotherapy. We analyzed whether their kinetics show typical characteristics during radiochemotherapy and enable an early estimation of therapy efficacy. We used the Cell Death Detection Elisaplus ( Roche Diagnostics) and investigated the course of nucleosomes in the serum of 32 patients with a local stage of pancreatic cancer who were treated with radiochemotherapy for several weeks. Ten of them received postsurgical therapy, 21 received primary therapy and 1 received therapy for local relapse. Blood was taken before the beginning of therapy, daily during the first week, once weekly during the following weeks and at the end of radiochemotherapy. The response to therapy was defined according to the kinetics of CA 19-9: a decrease of CA 19-9 650% after radiochemotherapy was considered as `remission'; an increase of >= 100% ( which was confirmed by two following values) was defined as `progression'. Patients with `stable disease' ranged intermediately. Most of the examined patients showed a decrease of the concentration of nucleosomes within 6 h after the first dose of radiation. Afterwards, nucleosome levels increased rapidly, reaching their maximum during the following days. Patients receiving postsurgery, primary or relapse therapies did not show significant differences in nucleosome values during the time of treatment. Single nucleosome values, measured at 6, 24 and 48 h after the application of therapy, could not discriminate significantly between patients with no progression and those with progression of disease. However, the area under the curve of the first 3 days, which integrated all variables of the initial therapeutic phase, showed a significant correlation with the progression-free interval ( p = 0.008). Our results indicate that the area under the curve of nucleosomes during the initial phase of radiochemotherapy could be valuable for the early prediction of the progression-free interval. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel