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Development of a loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay for the detection of Tilletia controversa based on genome comparison
Abstract Tilletia controversa causing dwarf bunt of wheat is a quarantine pathogen in several countries. Therefore, its specific detection is of great phytosanitary importance. Genomic regions routinely used for phylogenetic inferences lack suitable polymorphisms for the development of species-specific markers. We therefore compared 21 genomes of six Tilletia species to identify DNA regions that were unique and conserved in all T. controversa isolates and had no or limited homology to other Tilletia species. A loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for T. controversa was developed based on one of these DNA regions. The specificity of the assay was verified using 223 fungal samples comprising 43 fungal species including 11 Tilletia species, in particular 39 specimens of T. controversa, 92 of T. caries and 40 of T. laevis , respectively. The assay specifically amplified genomic DNA of T. controversa from pure cultures and teliospores. Only Tilletia trabutii generated false positive signals. The detection limit of the LAMP assay was 5 pg of genomic DNA per reaction. A test performance study that included five laboratories in Germany resulted in 100% sensitivity and 97.7% specificity of the assay. Genomic regions, specific to common bunt ( Tilletia caries and Tilletia laevis together) are also provided.Abstract Tilletia controversa causing dwarf bunt of wheat is a quarantine pathogen in several countries. Therefore, its specific detection is of great phytosanitary importance. Genomic regions routinely used for phylogenetic inferences lack suitable polymorphisms for the development of species-specific markers. We therefore compared 21 genomes of six Tilletia species to identify DNA regions that were unique and conserved in all T. controversa isolates and had no or limited homology to other Tilletia species. A loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for T. controversa was developed based on one of these DNA regions. The specificity of the assay was verified using 223 fungal samples comprising 43 fungal species including 11 Tilletia species, in particular 39 specimens of T. controversa, 92 of T. caries and 40 of T. laevis , respectively. The assay specifically amplified genomic DNA of T. controversa from pure cultures and teliospores. Only Tilletia trabutii generated false positive signals. The detection limit of the LAMP assay was 5 pg of genomic DNA per reaction. A test performance study that included five laboratories in Germany resulted in 100% sensitivity and 97.7% specificity of the assay. Genomic regions, specific to common bunt ( Tilletia caries and Tilletia laevis together) are also provided
Discrimination of Tilletia controversa from the T. caries/T. laevis complex by MALDI-TOF MS analysis of teliospores
Abstract The fungal genus Tilletia includes a large number of plant pathogens of Poaceae . Only a few of those cause bunt of wheat, but these species can lead to significant yield losses in crop production worldwide. Due to quarantine regulations and specific disease control using appropriate seed treatments for the different disease agents, it is of high importance to distinguish Tilletia caries and Tilletia laevis as causal agents of common bunt accurately from Tilletia controversa , the causal agent of the dwarf bunt. Several studies have shown that matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a useful tool to differentiate closely related fungal species. The aim of this study was to assess whether MALDI-TOF MS analysis is able to distinguish specimens of the three closely related pathogens T. caries , T. laevis , and T. controversa and whether it may constitute an alternative method to the morphology-based identification or germination tests. Spectral data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD030401. Spectra-based hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) of the obtained mass spectra showed two main clusters. One cluster included specimens of T. controversa , whereas the second cluster comprised T. laevis and T. caries specimens. Even though main spectral profiles (MSPs) for species identification are missing, MALDI-TOF MS has proven to be a useful method for distinguishing between T. controversa and the two causal agents of common bunt, using direct analysis of teliospores, but was unable to separate T. caries and T. laevis species. Key points • MALDI-TOF MS was developed to classify Tilletia species causing bunt of wheat. • Best results were achieved when combining HCA and DAPC analysis. • The method resulted in an accuracy of 98.51% testing 67 Tilletia specimens. Graphical abstractAbstract The fungal genus Tilletia includes a large number of plant pathogens of Poaceae . Only a few of those cause bunt of wheat, but these species can lead to significant yield losses in crop production worldwide. Due to quarantine regulations and specific disease control using appropriate seed treatments for the different disease agents, it is of high importance to distinguish Tilletia caries and Tilletia laevis as causal agents of common bunt accurately from Tilletia controversa , the causal agent of the dwarf bunt. Several studies have shown that matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a useful tool to differentiate closely related fungal species. The aim of this study was to assess whether MALDI-TOF MS analysis is able to distinguish specimens of the three closely related pathogens T. caries , T. laevis , and T. controversa and whether it may constitute an alternative method to the morphology-based identification or germination tests. Spectral data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD030401. Spectra-based hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) of the obtained mass spectra showed two main clusters. One cluster included specimens of T. controversa , whereas the second cluster comprised T. laevis and T. caries specimens. Even though main spectral profiles (MSPs) for species identification are missing, MALDI-TOF MS has proven to be a useful method for distinguishing between T. controversa and the two causal agents of common bunt, using direct analysis of teliospores, but was unable to separate T. caries and T. laevis species. Key points • MALDI-TOF MS was developed to classify Tilletia species causing bunt of wheat. • Best results were achieved when combining HCA and DAPC analysis. • The method resulted in an accuracy of 98.51% testing 67 Tilletia specimens. Graphical abstrac
Comparative genomics reveals low levels of inter- and intraspecies diversity in the causal agents of dwarf and common bunt of wheat and hint at conspecificity of Tilletia caries and T. laevis
Tilletia caries and T. laevis, which are the causal agents of common bunt, as well as T. controversa, which causes dwarf bunt of wheat, threaten especially organic wheat farming. The three closely related fungal species differ in their teliospore morphology and partially in their physiology and infection biology. The gene content as well as intraspecies variation in these species and the genetic basis of their separation is unknown. We sequenced the genome of four T. caries, five T. controversa, and two T. laevis and extended this dataset with five publicly available ones. The genomes of the three species displayed microsynteny with up to 94.3% pairwise aligned regions excluding repetitive regions. The majority of functionally characterized genes involved in pathogenicity, life cycle, and infection of corn smut, Ustilago maydis, were found to be absent or poorly conserved in the draft genomes and the biosynthetic pathway for trimethylamine in Tilletia spp. could be different from bacteria. Overall, 75% of the identified protein-coding genes comprising 84% of the total predicted carbohydrate utilizing enzymes, 72.5% putatively secreted proteins, and 47.4% of effector-like proteins were conserved and shared across all 16 isolates. We predicted nine highly identical secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters comprising in total 62 genes in all species and none were species-specific. Less than 0.1% of the protein-coding genes were species-specific and their function remained mostly unknown. Tilletia controversa had the highest intraspecies genetic variation, followed by T. caries and the lowest in T. laevis. Although the genomes of the three species are very similar, employing 241 single copy genes T. controversa was phylogenetically distinct from T. caries and T. laevis, however these two could not be resolved as individual monophyletic groups. This was in line with the genome-wide number of single nucleotide polymorphisms and small insertions and deletions. Despite the conspicuously different teliospore ornamentation of T. caries and T. laevis, a high degree of genomic identity and scarcity of species-specific genes indicate that the two species could be conspecific. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s43008-022-00098-y
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WIR! Physics for Food - Eine Region denkt um! Mit physikalischer Hochtechnologie den Strukturwandel im ländlichen Raum gestalten
Das Ziel des Teilprojektes „Erhebung von Saatgutqualitätsmerkmalen vor und nach verschiedenen Kaltplasmabehandlungen und Evaluierung des Behandlungseffektes in zeitlicher Dimension“ ist die Gewährleistung der Datenqualität und Reproduzierbarkeit der Saatgutqualitätsparameter Keimfähigkeit und Triebkraft.
Bei den Saatgutproben wurden vor und nach den unterschiedlichen Plasmabehandlungen die Behandlungseffekte auf Keimfähigkeit und Triebkraft untersucht. Die Keimfähigkeit, die ökono-misch relevanteste Eigenschaft von Saatgut, wurde mit den ISTA-Methoden bestimmt (ISTA International Rules for Seed Testing). Die Triebkraft, ein Maß für die Anbauwürdigkeit von Saatgut, wurde mit dem Erdkalttest, einer indirekten Gesundheitsprüfung bestimmt. Neben der Ermittlung des Behandlungseffektes unmittelbar nach der Saatgutbehandlung auf die Keimfähigkeit und die Triebkraft, wurde dieser auch in zeitlicher Dimension erfasst und evaluiert. Dazu wurden die Untersuchungen der Keimfähigkeit und Triebkraft im Turnus von jeweils sechs Monaten wiederholt.
Der Behandlungseffekt auf mit Steinbrandsporen befallene Weizenproben wurde durch einen Feldversuch der SZ-Bauer untersucht. Auf dem Feld bzw. nach der Ernte wurde der Befall „Anzahl befallene Ähren“ bonitiert und nach dem Dreschen die Anzahl Sporen pro Korn bestimmt (SZ-Bauer nach Anleitung durch die Saatgutprüfstelle Freising).
Vor der Behandlung wurde die Anzahl Sporen pro Korn im Labor der LfL mittels der optimierten Filtrationsmethode (Beschlusssammlung Fachgruppe Saatgut im VDLUFA, nach ISTA Working Sheet No 53) bestimmt und geeignete Partien identifiziert, besorgt und an die SZ-Bauer abgegeben
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The 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
Variations on the Author
“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
We 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
Anfälligkeit von Winterweizensorten gegenüber Zwergsteinbrand (Tilletia controversa)
15 Winterweizensorten, geeignet für den Ökologischen Landbau, wurden auf die Anfälligkeit bzgl. Zwergsteinbrand getestet. Die dreijährigen, randomisierten Feldversuche wurden auf zwei Standorten mit jeweils 4 Wiederholungen in 10 m langen Reihen auf natürlich infizierten Standorten angebaut. Aussaat, Unkrautbekämpfung und Ernte erfolgten von Hand. Die Anzahl der infizierten Ähren wurde ausgezählt. Die Bestimmung der Anzahl Brandsporen pro Korn erfolgte nach ISTA
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We 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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