Deoxynivalenol content in italian organic durum wheat: Results of a six-year survey

Deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination was investigated of Italian durum wheat from organic agriculture. A number of 661 samples from 13 genotypes were collected within the national organic durum wheat network variety trials during the six-year period between 2007–2012 in five different growing areas across Italy (Northern Italy, Marches, Central Apennines, West-Central Italy, Apulia). Mean temperatures and total rainfalls in April, May and June were collected nearby the study sites. Average DON contamination value along the whole study period was 67 μg/kg, and DON was detected only in 36% of the samples. Noteworthy, 95% of the analyzed grain revealed a DON contamination lower than 334 μg/kg. Maximum allowed DON level for unprocessed durum wheat set by European Union (1750 μg/kg) was exceeded only in four samples (0.6%). The highest mean DON values were detected in Northern Italy (175 μg/kg) and Marches (131 μg/kg). The same was for the percentage of positive samples (80% and 58%, respectively). Lower mean values and percentages of contaminated samples were found in West-Central Italy (22 μg/kg and 29%, respectively), Apennines (3 μg/kg and 8%, respectively) and Apulia (2 μg/kg and 7%, respectively). Statistical analysis (Generalized Linear Model, GLZ) was carried out to highlight the effect of factors like cultivation year, growing area and genotype. It revealed a huge effect of year, growing areas and their interaction, while the effect of genotype resulted significantly but quite less than the other main factors. The effect of the year could be explained by climatic data, which suggested an influence of rainfall and temperature at heading on both DON concentration values and percentage of contaminated samples. Results of this study put in evidence a low DON contamination in Italian organic durum wheat

Le varietà di sorgo da granella consigliate per le semine 2017

Nel 33º anno di prove di confronto tra ibridi di sorgo da granella sono stati realizzati 5 campi sperimentali, 2 nel Nord, 2 in Italia centrale e 1 in Sicilia. Le rese medie sono risultate simili a quelle del 2015, pur con notevoli differenze tra i diversi areali di coltivazion

Preliminary survey on the co-occurrence of DON and T2+HT2 toxins in durum wheat in Italy

This study was carried out to determine the co-occurrence of deoxynivalenol (DON) and the sum of T2 and HT2 toxins in durum wheat samples belonging to eight cultivars grown in a national network experimental trials over a three-year period (2011–2013). The effect of several factors (cultivar, year and cultivation area) affecting the occurrence of the two types of mycotoxins and their relationship with several agronomic and grain quality parameters were assayed by statistical analysis (GLZ). The results highlighted the different trend of incidence and contamination rate of the two types of mycotoxins in relation to the cropping year and to the growing examined areas. Year and its interaction with the cultivation area was the most important factor affecting the DON contamination, whereas genotype and its interaction with the year mainly influenced T2+HT2 toxins contamination rate. DON and T2+HT2 contamination levels were not significantly correlated with each other. The evidence that the two types of mycotoxins were differently related with several agronomic and grain quality parameters could be connected to the effects of the respective fungal disease on wheat plant

Paxos in the NIC: Hardware Acceleration of Distributed Consensus Protocols

Modern network infrastructures rich of logically centralized agents, such as DHCP, AAA, SDN controller agents, need to use redundancy in order to guarantee high availability and consensus protocols to have strong consistency. Unfortunately, consensus protocols, which are traditionally deployed as application-layer services running on end-to-end servers, are often recognized as system performance bottlenecks. In this paper, we present a possible solution leveraging programmable network hardware in order to offer consensus as service for the application, thus reducing occupied server resources and accelerating the protocol with programmable hardware. This is obtained by defining a high-level abstraction for describing consensus protocols and conducting a feasibility study through the implementation of the Paxos protocol with a SmartNIC

Fusarium langsethiae in Italy: geographical distrbution, pathogenicity and toxin production.

It has been assessed that one of the main virulence factor involved in theFusarium head blight (FHB) disease of wheat leading to a severe reduction ofgrain yield and quality is the production of toxins, predominantly deoxynivalenol(DON) in F. graminearum. This toxin delays germination and growth of wheat plants(Champeil, et al., 2004), inducing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production, inhibitingprotein synthesis and stimulating cell death in planta (Desmond et al., 2008).Mycotoxigenic fungi contamination is a real issue, especially for cerealindustry. Therefore, in order to reduce the diffusion of plant disease and health risksdue to DON toxicity, there is a real need to develop analytical methods able to identifyDON-producing fungal variety and to quantify mycotoxins at an early stage of fungalcontamination and in order to accomplish this need we intend to study the interactionbetween F. graminearum and T. aestivum kernels.In this work, the interaction between two Triticum aestivum varieties, Blasco(tolerant) and Sagittario (susceptible), inoculated with two F. graminearum strains(Fg126 and Fg8308), was studied. Two primer pairs (N1-2) designed by Konietznyet al. (2003), on the gene sequences belonging to the thricothecene gene cluster wereused to assess the level of DON production ability of our Fusarium strains throughPCR method. The same primers were used for developing a SYBR green RealTime-PCR assay for quantifying the DNA of F. graminearum strains in artificiallycontaminated soft wheat. The results obtained indicate a different ability of the twostrains in growing on the hosts and, particularly, a higher rate of growth of bothstrains on the susceptible variety vs. tolerant one. It is known that, among the broadrange of defence responses activated in planta when Fusarium invasion occurs, thegeneration of reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as H2O2, is one of the earliestevents. The activities of three antioxidant enzymes (catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase) correlated to ROS and of one more enzyme related tothe defensive response (lipoxygenase), were monitored to give some explanationon the different behaviour of the two wheat varieties in front of F. graminearumcontamination.Moreover, the expression of different genes activated in the interaction by arelative RT-PCR approach was analysed. In the pathogen, these genes encode for thetranscription factor Fgap1 active in the cell defence against oxidative stress, ePGa polygalacturonase involved in cell degradation and tri6, one of the thricotecenesbiosynthesis regulator. In T. aestivum, the expression analysis of a glucosyl transferase(gt) and of the pathogenesis-related protein PR1 (PR1) were carried out. The first genecan be related to a biochemical mechanism of resistance to DON with the ability toconvert DON in a less toxic glucosylated form (Lemmens et al., 2005).Finally, quantitative detection by HPLC of DON, 3GDON, 3-ADON and15-ADON produced from Fusarium species present on samples, was described. Inaddition to DON, some F. graminearum strains may also produce modified forms ofDON called 3-acetyl DON (3-ADON) and 15-acetyl DON (15-ADON).In conclusion, as far as fungal diseases are wide diffused, the control ofcontaminated matrices it’s a priority. Thus, it’s very important to deepen studies ofplant-pathogen interactions, in order to develop control strategies (i.e. quantitative,specie-specific methods) to be applied in diagnostics (i.e. advanced analytical methodfor mycotoxin detection)

Reaction of 72 durum wheat cultivars to wheat spindle streak mosaic virus in central Italy

In Italy, wheat spindle streak mosaic was first detected in a field near Rome in 1985. Subsequently, WSSMV has been identified, either alone or in mixed infection with CSBMV, in approximately 20 other sites throughout the northern and central and regions of the country. Field trials in 1998–99, 2003–04, and 2006–07 at the Experimental Farm of the Cereals Research Institute near Rome in a field with natural inoculum sources of both WSSMV and CSBMV evaluated the reaction to WSSMV using DAS-ELISA of 72 durum wheat cultivars marketed in Italy. Nine of these cultivars were grown over three seasons, 17 over two seasons, and 46 in one season only. The cultivars were grown in 10-m2, solid-seeded plots, distributed in the field according to a randomized Table 2. Estimated mean effects of cereal soil-borne mosaic virus on 34 durum wheat cultivars with different disease severity grown in a field near Bologna, Italy, during 2006–07. Grain yield Plant height Kernel weight Disease Number loss reduction reduction Heading severity of delay score cultivar