Characterization of a bean landrace from Sicily: the ‘fagiolo Badda di Polizzi'

Inside the project “Piano per la Produzione di Proteine Vegetali in Sicilia” investigations were carried out to characterize a bean population cultivated in the Parco delle Madonie area, the ‘Fagiolo Badda di Polizzi’. The producers’ interest for this landrace and the appreciation of the consumers could justify the start up of a valorization program through a product certification. Researches on the morpho-physiological aspects and on the nutritional profile were made in trials conducted between 2005 and 2007. All the Badda bean accessions showed an indeterminate plant growth habit, white flowers and a very delayed flowering time. In particular, a certain variability was seen and described for the size and shape of pods and seeds. Two types of Badda are cultivated, differentiated by the secondary seed colour: the “white Badda” and the “black Badda”. Both have ivory has a primary seed coat colour, but the “white Badda” has a brownish spot on the hilum, whereas the “black Badda” shows a black spot. In addition, the secondary colour of the seed coat of the “black Badda” showed two different pigmentations: violet and black, that suggested a genetic differentiation into different sub-populations. Finally, the “black Badda” resulted less susceptible to viral infections than the “white” one. At the molecular level, three accessions of Badda bean (two ‘white’ and one ‘black’) have been compared with control varieties, including one accessions of ‘Fagiolo del Purgatorio’ from Gradoli (VT), seven landraces of the Borlotto type collected in the Marche region and the cultivars Bat, Jalo, Clio and Big Borlotto. The analyses were carried out using 12 Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) primers yielding a total of 140 bands. Although no specific band for the Badda landrace were detected, two amplicons were found only in the accessions of Badda and in Monachello, a bicol-seeded type from the Marche region, morphologically similar to the “black Badda”. The dendrogram obtained from the genetic distances based on ISSRs indicated that the Badda type belongs to the Andean gene pool and that it is distinguishable from the tested controls being grouped into a separate cluster. Within the Badda type, the ‘white’ accessions were not separated from the ‘black’ one

The pronounced decline of anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike trimeric IgG and RBD IgG in baseline seronegative individuals six months after BNT162b2 vaccination is consistent with the need for vaccine boosters

Background: This observational retrospective study aimed to define the kinetics of serum levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) spike trimeric and anti-receptor binding domain (RBD) IgG antibodies up to 6 months after BNT162b2 vaccination. Methods: The sample consisted of 86 SARS-CoV-2 baseline seronegative subjects (median age 45 years, IQR 31-53 years; 52.3% females) undergoing vaccination with Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2. Blood was drawn before receiving the first and the second vaccine dose, as well as 1, 3 and 6 months after the second vaccine dose. The serum levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike trimeric IgG and RBD IgG antibodies were assayed. Results: The peak of both antibodies types was reached 1 month after the second dose (2808 and 2163 BAU/mL for anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike trimeric IgG and RBD IgG), after which serum levels progressively declined, falling after 6 months to 486 BAU/mL and 167 BAU/mL for anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike trimeric IgG and RBD IgG, respectively. The median rate of 6-month decline was 85% and 93% for anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike trimeric IgG and RBD IgG, respectively. The rate of vaccine recipients with serum antibodies levels above the 80% threshold of vaccine efficacy declined from over 95% at the peak to 72% and 5% at 6 months for anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike trimeric IgG and RBD IgG, respectively. Conclusions: The results of this retrospective observational study are consistent with the need for timely administration of vaccine boosters to prevent that humoral immunity will wane