Microstructure and texture of fresh and smoked Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., fillets from fish reared and slaughtered under different conditions

This study was carried out to examine differences in microstructure and texture of fresh and smoked farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L. fillets with different biological characteristics. The left fillet was analysed fresh and compared with the salted and smoked right fillet from each individual fish. Light microscopy and image analysing techniques were used to study both transversal and longitudinal sections of the muscle. The fish muscle fibres shrank during the salting and smoking process, but sarcomere length did not change. After smoking, a considerable number of fat globules were dispersed among the muscle fibres. The biological characteristics studied were based upon diploid and triploid fish held in both sea cages and land‐based tanks. Different starvation times were used and one group was stressed during slaughter. The cross‐sectional area of muscle fibres from triploid fish was found to be larger than from diploid fish, both in fresh and smoked fillets.     

Serum progesterone and estradiol-17beta concentrations, and lapaloscopic observations of the ovary in the cheetah (Acinonyxjubatus) with pregnant mare serum gonadotropin and human chorionic gonadotropin treatments.

In 3 adult female cheetahs, induced-superovulation treatment was conducted, by means of 200 IU of pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG) and 100 IU of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) 80 hr after PMSG. The administration of PMSG created a sharp increase in the estradiol-17beta concentration, resulting in 232 pg/ml 8 hr later in one specimen out of three. The hCG administration showed an increase in the progesterone concentration of 2.29 ng/ml 46 hr later. In addition, after direct observation of the ovary surface by laparoscopy, 5 follicles in the right ovary over 2 mm in diameter, and 7 corpora lutea (5 in the right ovary and 2 in the left) were found. It is assumed that ovulation can be induced with hCG after 80 hr on PMSG during a cheetah's diestrus or proestrus.     

Objective Bayesian Analysis of Geometrically Anisotropic Spatial Data

Anisotropic models are often used in spatial statistics to analyze spatially referenced data. Within a Bayesian framework we develop default priors for the anisotropic Gaussian random field model with and without including a nugget parameter accounting for the effects of microscale variations and measurement errors. We present Jeffreys priors and a reference prior and study their posterior propriety. Moreover, we obtain that the predictive distributions at ungauged locations have finite variance. We also show that the seemingly uninformative uniform prior for the anisotropy parameters, ratio and angle, yields an improper posterior. Finally, we find that the proposed priors have good frequentist properties and we illustrate our approach by analyzing two data sets for which we discuss model choice as well as predictions and uncertainty estimates.     

Diphenylamine residues in apples caused by contamination in fruit storage facilities

The potential of fruit storage facilities that are contaminated with the widely used chemical antioxidant diphenylamine to cross-contaminate untreated apples (Malus × domestica Borkh.) was studied. A new sample preparation method identified the storage room paint, contaminated from past treatments, as the major source of cross-contamination in the analyzed facilities. Diphenylamine amounts of up to 917 g were found in a single storage room and were shown to correlate with the extent of cross-contamination on stored apples. Our data support a diffusion-based mechanism where the wall paint releases the antioxidant to the storage room atmosphere even years after the last treatment. Given the extent of cross-contamination found in our model experiments and under commercial storage conditions, we deduce a significant risk of exceeding the potentially upcoming maximum residue level of 0.01 mg kg(-1) on stored fruit in contaminated rooms even years after the last diphenylamine treatment.     

Involvement of jasmonic acid signalling in bacterial wilt disease resistance induced by biocontrol agent Pythium oligandrum in tomato

When the biocontrol agent Pythium oligandrum (PO) colonizes the rhizosphere, it suppresses bacterial wilt disease in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Micro‐Tom) caused by Ralstonia solanacearum, and a homogenate of its mycelia exhibits elicitor activity, inducing an ethylene (ET)‐dependent defence response in Micro‐Tom. Since salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) play an important role in plant defence responses to pathogens, the involvement of SA‐ and JA‐dependent signal transduction pathways in resistance to R. solanacearum was investigated in tomato roots treated with a mycelial homogenate of PO. Bacterial wilt disease was also suppressed in tomato cv. Moneymaker treated with the PO homogenate. However, the SA‐inducible PR‐1(P6) gene was not up‐regulated in either Micro‐Tom or Moneymaker. SA did not accumulate in homogenate‐treated roots in comparison with distilled water‐treated controls, even 24 h after inoculation. Induced resistance against R. solanacearum was not compromised in SA‐non‐accumulating NahG transgenic plants treated with the PO homogenate. On the other hand, the expression of the JA‐responsive gene for the basic PR‐6 protein was induced in both tomato cultivars treated with the PO homogenate. Furthermore, quantitative disease assays showed that the induced resistance against R. solanacearum was compromized in PO homogenate‐treated jai1‐1 mutant plants defective in JA signalling. These results indicated that the JA‐dependent signalling pathway is required for PO‐induced resistance against R. solanacearum in tomato.     

Genetic evidence of human mediated,historical seed transfer from the Tyrolean Alps to the Romanian Carpathians in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Larix decidua</Emphasis> (Mill.) forests

Key message

Historic transfer of larch from Alpine sources to Southern and Eastern Carpathians has been verified by means of nuclear genetic markers. Tyrolean populations can be differentiated into a north-western and south-eastern group, while Romanian populations are separated according to the Southern and Eastern Carpathians. Low-level introgression from Alpine sources is found in autochthonous Carpathian populations.

Context

Large scale human mediated transfer of forest reproductive material may have strongly modified the gene pool of European forests. Particularly in European larch, large quantities of seeds from Central Europe were used for plantations in Southern and Eastern Europe starting in the mid nineteenth century.

Aims

Our main objective was to provide DNA marker based evidence for the anthropogenic transfer of Alpine larch reproductive material to native Carpathian populations.

Methods

We studied and compared 12 populations (N?=?771) of Larix decidua in the Alps (Austria, Italy) and in the Southern and Eastern Carpathians (Romania) using 13 microsatellites.

Results

High genetic diversity (H_e?=?0.752; R_S?=?9.4) and a moderate genetic differentiation (F_ST?=?0.13; G′_ST?=?0.28) among populations were found; Alpine and Carpathian populations were clearly separated by clustering methods. A Tyrolean origin of plant material was evident for one out of four adult Romanian populations. In the transferred population, a genetic influence from Carpathian sources was found neither in adults nor in juveniles, while the natural regeneration of two Romanian populations was genetically affected by Alpine sources to a minor degree (2.2 and 2.9% allochthonous individuals according to GeneClass and Structure, respectively).

Conclusion

Tracing back of plant transfer by means of genetic tools is straightforward, and we propose further studies to investigate gene flow between natural and transferred populations.

     

Yield,yield formation,and blackleg disease of oilseed rape cultivated in high-intensity crop rotations

The short-term economic benefit has in recent years prompted farmers to grow oilseed rape (OSR) (Brassica napus L.) and thus the frequency of this crop increased in German crop rotations. Here, we investigate the impact of high-intensity OSR crop rotations on yield, yield formation, and blackleg disease (Leptosphaeria maculans) in a rotation experiment in the Hercynian dry region of Central Germany over two seasons (2014/2015?–?2015/2016). The preceding crop combinations compared were winter wheat (WW) (Triticum aestivum L.)-WW, WW-OSR, OSR-OSR, and an OSR monoculture. Furthermore, the fertilizer treatments 120 kg N ha^?1 and 180 kg N ha^?1 were analyzed.

Higher OSR cropping intensity decreased seed yields, however, with a variation among years and oil yield was highest when OSR was following WW-WW over both years. Minor differences were observed among the yield components, but significantly less pods per m² were developed in a long-term OSR monoculture. The disease assessment clearly showed an increased blackleg incidence and severity when OSR was grown successively.

Results of our study emphasize that high-intensity OSR production will very likely be unsustainable over the long term associated with yield losses and increased infestation levels of blackleg disease.     

Introgressiomics: a new approach for using crop wild relatives in breeding for adaptation to climate change

The need to boost agricultural production in the coming decades in a climate change scenario requires new approaches for the development of new crop varieties that are more resilient and more efficient in the use of resources. Crop wild relatives (CWRs) are a source of variation for many traits of interest in breeding, in particular tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. However, their potential in plant breeding has largely remained unexploited. CWRs can make an effective contribution to broadening the genetic base of crops and to introgressing traits of interest, but their direct use by breeders in breeding programs is usually not feasible due to the presence of undesirable traits in CWRs (linkage drag) and frequent breeding barriers with the crop. Here we call for a new approach, which we tentatively call ‘introgressiomics’, which consists of mass scale development of plant materials and populations with introgressions from CWRs into the genetic background of crops. Introgressiomics is a form of pre-emptive breeding and can be focused, when looking for specific phenotypes, or un-focused, when it is aimed at creating highly diverse introgressed populations. Exploring germplasm collections and identifying adequate species and accessions from different genepools encompassing a high diversity, using different strategies like the creation of germplasm diversity sets, Focused identification of germplasm strategy (FIGS) or gap analysis, is a first step in introgressiomics. Interspecific hybridization and backcrossing is often a major barrier for introgressiomics, but a number of techniques can be used to potentially overcome these and produce introgression populations. The generation of chromosome substitution lines (CSLs), introgression lines (ILs), or multi-parent advanced inter-cross (MAGIC) populations by means of marker-assisted selection allows not only the genetic analysis of traits present in CWRs, but also developing genetically characterized elite materials that can be easily incorporated in breeding programs. Genomic tools, in particular high-throughput molecular markers, facilitate the characterization and development of introgressiomics populations, while new plant breeding techniques (NPBTs) can enhance the introgression and use of genes from CWRs in the genetic background of crops. An efficient use of introgressiomics populations requires moving the materials into breeding pipelines. In this respect public–private partnerships (PPPs) can contribute to an increased use of introgressed materials by breeders. We hope that the introgressiomics approach will contribute to the development of a new generation of cultivars with dramatically improved yield and performance that may allow coping with the environmental changes caused by climate change while at the same time contributing to a more efficient and sustainable agriculture.     

Estradiol receptors and ovalbumin in adenocarcinoma of hens

The origin of adenocarcinomas in 10 hens was studied using an assay for estradiol receptors (ERs) and ovalbumin. ERs were found in nine tumors, and ovalbumin was present in eight tumors. Hormonal regulation of this cancer is indicated, and it is suggested that the origin of the tumor is probably the glands of the oviduct.