Microbial Communities Associated With Stable Fly (Diptera: Muscidae) Larvae and Their Developmental Substrates

Bacteria are essential for stable fly (Stomoxys calcitrans (L.)) larval survival and development, but little is known about the innate microbial communities of stable flies, and it is not known if their varied dietary substrates influence their gut microbial communities. This investigation utilized 454 sequencing of 16S and 18S amplicons to characterize and compare the bacterial and eukaryotic microbial communities in stable fly larvae and their developmental substrates. The microbial community of the third-instar stable fly larvae is unambiguously distinct from the microbial community of the supporting substrate, with bacterial communities from larvae reared on different substrates more similar to each other than to the communities from their individual supporting substrates. Bacterial genera that were more abundant proportionally in larvae compared to their substrates were Erysipelothrix, Dysgonomonas, Ignatzschineria (Gammaproteobacteria), and Campylobacter (Epsilonprotobacteria). The alphaproteobacteria Devosia, Brevundimonas, Sphingopyxix, and Paracoccus were more abundant proportionally in field substrates compared to their larvae. The main genera responsible for differences between the positive and negative field substrates were Dysgonomonas and Proteiniphilum. In contrast to Dysgonomonas, Proteiniphilum was more abundant in substrate than in the larvae. A large number of sequences were assigned to an unclassified protest of the superphylum Alveolata in larvae and their substrate. Microscopy validated these findings and a previously undescribed gregarine (phylum Apicomplexa, class Conoidasida) was identified in stable fly larvae and adults

Defining and characterizing Aflatoxin contamination risk areas for corn in Georgia, USA: Adjusting for collinearity and spatial correlation

Aflatoxin is a carcinogenic toxin to humans and animals produced by mold fungi in staple crops. Surveys of Aflatoxin are expensive, and the results are usually not available for implementing within season mitigation strategies. Identification of high and low risk areas and years is essential to reduce the number of samples analyzed for Aflatoxin concentration. Previously a risk factors approach was developed to determine county level Aflatoxin contamination risk in southern Georgia, but Aflatoxin concentrations and risk factor data were not analyzed simultaneously and all risk factors had equal weight which is unrealistic. In the current paper we propose a regression approach to overcome these problems. Spatial Poisson profile regression identified clusters of counties which have similar Aflatoxin risk and risk factor profiles, whilst explicitly taking into account multicollinearity in the risk factor data and spatial autocorrelation in the Aflatoxin data. This approach allows examination of the utility of different highly correlated variables including remotely sensed data that could give information at the sub-county level. The results identify plausible clusters compared to previous work but also give the relative importance of the risk factors associated with those clusters. The approach also helps show that some factors like well-drained soil behave differently from expectations and irrigation data is not useful

Determining future aflatoxin contamination risk scenarios for corn in Southern Georgia, USA using spatio-temporal modelling and future climate simulations

© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Aflatoxins (AFs) are produced by fungi in crops and can cause liver cancer. Permitted levels are legislated and batches of grain are rejected based on average concentrations. Corn grown in Southern Georgia (GA), USA, which experiences drought during the mid-silk growth period in June, is particularly susceptible to infection by Aspergillus section Flavi species which produce AFs. Previous studies showed strong association between AFs and June weather. Risk factors were developed: June maximum temperatures > 33 °C and June rainfall  33 °C and rainfall < 50 mm increased and then plateaued for both emissions scenarios. The percentage of years thresholds were exceeded was greater for RCP 8.5 than RCP 4.5. The spatial distribution of high-risk counties changed over time. Results suggest corn growth distribution should be changed or adaptation strategies employed like planting resistant varieties, irrigating and planting earlier. There were significantly more counties exceeding thresholds in 2010-2040 compared to 2000-2030 suggesting that adaptation strategies should be employed as soon as possible.Peer reviewe

Single Atom and Two Atom Ramsey Interferometry with Quantized Fields

Implications of field quantization on Ramsey interferometry are discussed and general conditions for the occurrence of interference are obtained. Interferences do not occur if the fields in two Ramsey zones have precise number of photons. However in this case we show how two atom (like two photon) interferometry can be used to discern a variety of interference effects as the two independent Ramsey zones get entangled by the passage of first atom. Generation of various entangled states like |0,2>+|2,0> are discussed and in far off resonance case generation of entangled state of two coherent states is discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, revised version. submitted to Phys. Rev.

Microbial Communities Associated With Stable Fly (Diptera: Muscidae) Larvae and Their Developmental Substrates

Bacteria are essential for stable fly (Stomoxys calcitrans (L.)) larval survival and development, but little is known about the innate microbial communities of stable flies, and it is not known if their varied dietary substrates influence their gut microbial communities. This investigation utilized 454 sequencing of 16S and 18S amplicons to characterize and compare the bacterial and eukaryotic microbial communities in stable fly larvae and their developmental substrates. The microbial community of the third-instar stable fly larvae is unambiguously distinct from the microbial community of the supporting substrate, with bacterial communities from larvae reared on different substrates more similar to each other than to the communities from their individual supporting substrates. Bacterial genera that were more abundant proportionally in larvae compared to their substrates were Erysipelothrix, Dysgonomonas, Ignatzschineria (Gammaproteobacteria), and Campylobacter (Epsilonprotobacteria). The alphaproteobacteria Devosia, Brevundimonas, Sphingopyxix, and Paracoccus were more abundant proportionally in field substrates compared to their larvae. The main genera responsible for differences between the positive and negative field substrates were Dysgonomonas and Proteiniphilum. In contrast to Dysgonomonas, Proteiniphilum was more abundant in substrate than in the larvae. A large number of sequences were assigned to an unclassified protest of the superphylum Alveolata in larvae and their substrate. Microscopy validated these findings and a previously undescribed gregarine (phylum Apicomplexa, class Conoidasida) was identified in stable fly larvae and adults

Peanut gene expression profiling in developing seeds at different reproduction stages during Aspergillus parasiticus infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Peanut (<it>Arachis hypogaea </it>L.) is an important crop economically and nutritionally, and is one of the most susceptible host crops to colonization of <it>Aspergillus parasiticus </it>and subsequent aflatoxin contamination. Knowledge from molecular genetic studies could help to devise strategies in alleviating this problem; however, few peanut DNA sequences are available in the public database. In order to understand the molecular basis of host resistance to aflatoxin contamination, a large-scale project was conducted to generate expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from developing seeds to identify resistance-related genes involved in defense response against <it>Aspergillus </it>infection and subsequent aflatoxin contamination.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We constructed six different cDNA libraries derived from developing peanut seeds at three reproduction stages (R5, R6 and R7) from a resistant and a susceptible cultivated peanut genotypes, 'Tifrunner' (susceptible to <it>Aspergillus </it>infection with higher aflatoxin contamination and resistant to TSWV) and 'GT-C20' (resistant to <it>Aspergillus </it>with reduced aflatoxin contamination and susceptible to TSWV). The developing peanut seed tissues were challenged by <it>A. parasiticus </it>and drought stress in the field. A total of 24,192 randomly selected cDNA clones from six libraries were sequenced. After removing vector sequences and quality trimming, 21,777 high-quality EST sequences were generated. Sequence clustering and assembling resulted in 8,689 unique EST sequences with 1,741 tentative consensus EST sequences (TCs) and 6,948 singleton ESTs. Functional classification was performed according to MIPS functional catalogue criteria. The unique EST sequences were divided into twenty-two categories. A similarity search against the non-redundant protein database available from NCBI indicated that 84.78% of total ESTs showed significant similarity to known proteins, of which 165 genes had been previously reported in peanuts. There were differences in overall expression patterns in different libraries and genotypes. A number of sequences were expressed throughout all of the libraries, representing constitutive expressed sequences. In order to identify resistance-related genes with significantly differential expression, a statistical analysis to estimate the relative abundance (<it>R</it>) was used to compare the relative abundance of each gene transcripts in each cDNA library. Thirty six and forty seven unique EST sequences with threshold of <it>R </it>> 4 from libraries of 'GT-C20' and 'Tifrunner', respectively, were selected for examination of temporal gene expression patterns according to EST frequencies. Nine and eight resistance-related genes with significant up-regulation were obtained in 'GT-C20' and 'Tifrunner' libraries, respectively. Among them, three genes were common in both genotypes. Furthermore, a comparison of our EST sequences with other plant sequences in the TIGR Gene Indices libraries showed that the percentage of peanut EST matched to <it>Arabidopsis thaliana</it>, maize (<it>Zea mays</it>), <it>Medicago truncatula</it>, rapeseed (<it>Brassica napus</it>), rice (<it>Oryza sativa</it>), soybean (<it>Glycine max</it>) and wheat (<it>Triticum aestivum</it>) ESTs ranged from 33.84% to 79.46% with the sequence identity ≥ 80%. These results revealed that peanut ESTs are more closely related to legume species than to cereal crops, and more homologous to dicot than to monocot plant species.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The developed ESTs can be used to discover novel sequences or genes, to identify resistance-related genes and to detect the differences among alleles or markers between these resistant and susceptible peanut genotypes. Additionally, this large collection of cultivated peanut EST sequences will make it possible to construct microarrays for gene expression studies and for further characterization of host resistance mechanisms. It will be a valuable genomic resource for the peanut community. The 21,777 ESTs have been deposited to the NCBI GenBank database with accession numbers <ext-link ext-link-type="gen" ext-link-id="ES702769">ES702769</ext-link> to <ext-link ext-link-type="gen" ext-link-id="ES724546">ES724546</ext-link>.</p

Transfusion-Associated Babesiosis after Heart Transplant

We describe a 54-year-old spleen-intact man with transfusion-associated Babesia microti infection after a heart transplant. Adult respiratory distress syndrome developed in the patient, and he required mechanical ventilation. Our experiences with this patient suggest that babesiosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of transplant patients who have fever and hemolytic anemia

Enhanced Optical Coupling and Raman Scattering via Microscopic Interface Engineering

Spontaneous Raman scattering is an extremely powerful tool for the remote detection and identification of various chemical materials. However, when those materials are contained within strongly scattering or turbid media, as is the case in many biological and security related systems, the sensitivity and range of Raman signal generation and detection is severely limited. Here, we demonstrate that through microscopic engineering of the optical interface, the optical coupling of light into a turbid material can be substantially enhanced. This improved coupling facilitates the enhancement of the Raman scattering signal generated by molecules within the medium. In particular, we detect at least two-orders of magnitude more spontaneous Raman scattering from a sample when the pump laser light is focused into a microscopic hole in the surface of the sample. Because this approach enhances both the interaction time and interaction region of the laser light within the material, its use will greatly improve the range and sensitivity of many spectroscopic techniques, including Raman scattering and fluorescence emission detection, inside highly scattering environments

Enhanced Coupling of Light into a Turbid Medium through Microscopic Interface Engineering

There are many optical detection and sensing methods used today that provide powerful ways to diagnose, characterize, and study materials. For example, the measurement of spontaneous Raman scattering allows for remote detection and identification of chemicals. Many other optical techniques provide unique solutions to learn about biological, chemical, and even structural systems. However, when these systems exist in a highly scattering or turbid medium, the optical scattering effects reduce the effectiveness of these methods. In this article, we demonstrate a method to engineer the geometry of the optical interface of a turbid medium, thereby drastically enhancing the coupling efficiency of light into the material. This enhanced optical coupling means that light incident on the material will penetrate deeper into (and through) the medium. It also means that light thus injected into the material will have an enhanced interaction time with particles contained within the material. These results show that, by using the multiple scattering of light in a turbid medium, enhanced light-matter interaction can be achieved; this has a direct impact on spectroscopic methods such as Raman scattering and fluorescence detection in highly scattering regimes. Furthermore, the enhanced penetration depth achieved by this method will directly impact optical techniques that have previously been limited by the inability to deposit sufficient amounts of optical energy below or through highly scattering layers

High Throughput Discovery of Lightweight Corrosion-Resistant Compositionally Complex Alloys

Compositionally complex alloys hold the promise of simultaneously attaining superior combinations of properties such as corrosion resistance, light-weighting, and strength. Achieving this goal is a challenge due in part to a large number of possible compositions and structures in the vast alloy design space. High throughput methods offer a path forward, but a strong connection between the synthesis of a given composition and structure with its properties has not been fully realized to date. Here we present the rapid identification of light weight highly corrosion-resistant alloys based on combinations of Al and Cr in a Cantor-like base alloy (Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ni). Previously unstudied alloy stoichiometries were identified using a combination of high throughput experimental screening coupled with key metallurgical and electrochemical corrosion tests, identifying alloys with excellent passivation behavior. Importantly, the electrochemical impedance modulus of the exposure-modified, air-formed film at the corrosion potential was found as an accurate non-destructive predictor of corrosion and passivation characteristics. Multi-element EXAFS analyses connected more ordered type chemical short range order in the Ni-Al 1st nn shell to poorer corrosion. This report underscores the utility of high throughput exploration of compositionally complex alloys for the identification and rapid screening of vast stoichiometric space