1,720,980 research outputs found
Genetic Transformation and Genomic Resources for Next-Generation Precise Genome Engineering in Vegetable Crops
Full text linkFunctional Hyperspectral Imaging by High-Related Vegetation Indices to Track the Wide-Spectrum Trichoderma Biocontrol Activity Against Soil-Borne Diseases of Baby-Leaf Vegetables
Full text linkResearch has been increasingly focusing on the selection of novel and effective biological control agents (BCAs) against soil-borne plant pathogens. The large-scale application of BCAs requires fast and robust screening methods for the evaluation of the efficacy of high numbers of candidates. In this context, the digital technologies can be applied not only for early disease detection but also for rapid performance analyses of BCAs. The present study investigates the ability of different Trichoderma spp. to contain the development of main baby-leaf vegetable pathogens and applies functional plant imaging to select the best performing antagonists against multiple pathosystems. Specifically, sixteen different Trichoderma spp. strains were characterized both in vivo and in vitro for their ability to contain R. solani, S. sclerotiorum and S. rolfsii development. All Trichoderma spp. showed, in vitro significant radial growth inhibition of the target phytopathogens. Furthermore, biocontrol trials were performed on wild rocket, green and red baby lettuces infected, respectively, with R. solani, S. sclerotiorum and S. rolfsii. The plant status was monitored by using hyperspectral imaging. Two strains, Tl35 and Ta56, belonging to T. longibrachiatum and T. atroviride species, significantly reduced disease incidence and severity (DI and DSI) in the three pathosystems. Vegetation indices, calculated on the hyperspectral data extracted from the images of plant-Trichoderma-pathogen interaction, proved to be suitable to refer about the plant health status. Four of them (OSAVI, SAVI, TSAVI and TVI) were found informative for all the pathosystems analyzed, resulting closely correlated to DSI according to significant changes in the spectral signatures among health, infected and bio-protected plants. Findings clearly indicate the possibility to promote sustainable disease management of crops by applying digital plant imaging as large-scale screening method of BCAs' effectiveness and precision biological control support
Label-Free Detection of Gliadin in Food by Quartz Crystal Microbalance-Based Immunosensor
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Mitochondrial DNA editing in potato through mitoTALEN and mitoTALECD: molecular characterization and stability of editing events
Full text linkBackground
The aim of this study was to evaluate and characterize the mutations induced by two TALE-based approaches, double-strand break (DSB) induction by the FokI nuclease (mitoTALEN) and targeted base editing by the DddA cytidine deaminase (mitoTALECD), to edit, for the first time, the mitochondrial genome of potato, a vegetatively propagated crop. The two methods were used to knock out the same mitochondrial target sequence (orf125).
Results
Targeted chondriome deletions of different sizes (236–1066 bp) were induced by mitoTALEN due to DSB repair through ectopic homologous recombination of short direct repeats (11–12 bp) present in the target region. Furthermore, in one case, the induced DSB and subsequent repair resulted in the amplification of an already present substoichiometric molecule showing a 4288 bp deletion spanning the target sequence. With the mitoTALECD approach, both nonsense and missense mutations could be induced by base substitution. The deletions and single nucleotide mutations were either homoplasmic or heteroplasmic. The former were stably inherited in vegetative offspring.
Conclusions
Both editing approaches allowed us to obtain plants with precisely modified mitochondrial genomes at high frequency. The use of the same plant genotype and mtDNA region allowed us to compare the two methods for efficiency, accuracy, type of modifications induced and stability after vegetative propagation
Liquid-phase sequence capture and targeted re-sequencing revealed novel polymorphisms in tomato genes belonging to the MEP carotenoid pathway
Full text linkAbstractTomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants are characterized by having a variety of fruit colours that reflect the composition and accumulation of diverse carotenoids in the berries. Carotenoids are extensively studied for their health-promoting effects and this explains the great attention these pigments received by breeders and researchers worldwide. In this work we applied Agilent’s SureSelect liquid-phase sequence capture and Illumina targeted re-sequencing of 34 tomato genes belonging to the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) carotenoid pathway on a panel of 48 genotypes which differ for carotenoid content calculated as the sum of β-carotene, cis- and trans-lycopene. We targeted 230 kb of genomic regions including all exons and regulatory regions and observed ~40% of on-target capture. We found ample genetic variation among all the genotypes under study and generated an extensive catalog of SNPs/InDels located in both genic and regulatory regions. SNPs/InDels were also classified based on genomic location and putative biological effect. With our work we contributed to the identification of allelic variations possibly underpinning a key agronomic trait in tomato. Results from this study can be exploited for the promotion of novel studies on tomato bio-fortification as well as of breeding programs related to carotenoid accumulation in fruits.</jats:p
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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