Effects of plane of nutrition on growth,feed intake,digestibility and nitrogen balance in Murrah graded male buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) calves in Nepal

An experiment was conducted using 17 male buffalo calves to assess the effects of plane of nutrition on dry matter intake (DMI), daily gain (DG), body size measurement, apparent digestibility and nitrogen (N) balance. To attain 250 kg BW, the calves were allocated into three groups: H, L‐H and L, receiving the concentrate at 1.50% of BW, 0.75% of BW until 190 kg BW and 1.50% thereafter and 0.75% of BW, respectively. The animals had ad libitum access to urea‐treated rice straw (UTRS). The DMI of UTRS through the experiment was higher in L and L‐H than H, showing 3.52, 2.90 and 2.62 kg/day, respectively (P < 0.01), but the total DMI did not differ among the treatment groups. The DG throughout the experiment was high in the order of H, L‐H and L, showing 0.72, 0.57 and 0.45 kg, respectively (P < 0.01). The digestibility of DM, organic matter, crude protein, neutral and acid detergent fiber and N retention were higher in H than in L (P < 0.05). The findings of this study thus revealed the greater DG has an advantage of shortening the growing period around 3 months, and consequently increasing benefit in fattening of buffalo calves in Nepal.     

Homolog of FlhDC, a master regulator for flagellum synthesis: required for pathogenicity in Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora

 Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora (Ecc) is a causal agent of soft-rot diseases in a wide variety of plants. Here, we have isolated nonmotile mutants in Ecc by in vivo insertional mutagenesis using a transposon Tn5. The sequence disrupted by the Tn5 insertion in YMU1 and YMU5 mutants was highly homologous to that of flhC and flhD genes, respectively. They are involved in the initiation of the expression of flagellum-related genes in many gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella. With electron microscopy, the flhC and the flhD homolog mutants were shown to be aflagellate. Furthermore, the virulence of these mutants was greatly reduced in Chinese cabbage and potato compared to that of the parental strain. These results suggest that flagellar formation is required for the pathogenicity of Ecc. Received: November 5, 2002 / Accepted: December 2, 2002 Acknowledgments This research was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid (12052210) and by a grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (13073).     

Quantitative trait loci associated with lodging tolerance in soybean cultivar ‘Toyoharuka’

Lodging tolerance (LT) is an important trait for high yield and combine-harvesting efficiency in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]. Many previous studies have investigated quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for lodging score (LS) in soybean. Most of the investigated QTLs were located in the proximal region of maturity or growth habit loci. The aim of this study was to identify genetic factors for LT not associated with maturity or growth habit. QTL analysis was performed using a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from a cross between ‘Toyoharuka’ (TH), a lodging-tolerant cultivar, and ‘Toyomusume’ (TM). The genotypes of TH and TM were estimated as both e1e2E3E4 and dt1. The average LS over 4 years was used for QTL analysis, identifying a major and stable QTL, qLS19-1, on chromosome 19. The LS of the near-isogenic line (NIL) with the TH allele at Sat_099, the nearest marker to qLS19-1, was significantly lower than the NIL with the TM allele at that position. The TH allele at Sat_099 rarely had a negative influence on seed yield or other agronomic traits in both NILs and the TM-backcrossed lines. Our results suggest that marker-assisted selection for qLS19-1 is effective for improving LT in breeding programs.     

Reflection and transmission of visible light by sugi wood: effects of cellular structure and densification

Transmittance and reflectance of visible light by sugi wood (Cryptomeria japonica) were investigated in the longitudinal (L) and tangential (T) directions. Transmittance was the highest in the L direction and reflectance was the highest in the T direction, suggesting that structural anisotropy influences transmittance and reflectance. Intra-ring variations observed with a microspectrometer indicated that T transmittance was higher for latewood than for earlywood, but there was no such trend in for L transmittance in which the highest levels occurred near the annual ring boundaries, on either the earlywood or latewood side, and the lowest at the transition from earlywood to latewood. Dependence of L transmittance on wavelength also showed variations according to the intra-ring position. The increasing of transmittance of earlywood at wavelengths?<?500 nm with increasing wavelength was observed, but this was not confirmed for latewood because of absorption by lignin. These observations supported a previously published finding, which was based on measurements in the radial direction, that the number of internal cell wall reflections, rather than density, determines wood lightness. Indeed, in the L direction, most of the incident light passes through lumens in earlywood and through cell walls in latewood, while it is subjected to numerous internal reflections at the interface between lumens and cell walls. This was further confirmed by the transmittance of earlywood being greatly decreased by radial compression.     

Field trap test for bioassay of synthetic (1<Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis>,4<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>)-4-isopropyl-1-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-ol as an aggregation pheromone of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Platypus quercivorus</Emphasis> (Coleoptera: Platipodidae)

An ambrosia beetle, Platypus quercivorus, is a vector of Japanese oak wilt, which causes massive mortality of oak trees in Japan. Previous studies have identified (1S,4R)-4-isopropyl-1-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-ol ((−)-IMCH) as the major component of the aggregation pheromone of P. quercivorus. We tested the ability of synthetic (−)-IMCH to attract P. quercivorus adults. The synthetic compound attracted 14.4 times as many P. quercivorus, of both sexes, as control traps. Control and (−)-IMCH-baited traps both captured 3.32 times as many males as females, probably because of the nature of Lindgren funnel traps and of male-biased emergence sex ratio early in the season of adult flights. (−)-IMCH was proved to be a major component of the aggregation pheromone of P. quercivorus.     

Thermal behaviors and transitions of wood detected by temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry

The thermal properties and transitions of solid and ground wood samples conditioned at different humidity conditions were investigated by temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry. A time-dependent transition was detected as an endothermic peak in the total and non-reversing heat flows and as a step change in the reversing heat flow during the first heating run of samples with moisture contents above 5?%, but it disappeared in the second heating run. These different thermal behaviors indicate that the effect of heat and moisture on the thermal properties of wood is history dependent. This step change in the reversing heat flow is considered to be a glass transition of moist wood. Other relaxation processes (e.g., enthalpy relaxation) occur simultaneously with this glass transition. The temperature ranges of the transition and the relaxation decreased drastically as the moisture content increased up to 11?%, while they remained almost constant at higher moisture contents. In addition, the transitions of the ground wood occurred at lower temperatures than those of the solid wood at similar moisture contents. Kissinger plots revealed that the apparent activation energy for the glass transition of the solid wood with a moisture content of 11?% was about 600?kJ/mol, whereas that of the ground wood was 220?kJ/mol.     

Mechanical behavior of the crystal lattice of natural cellulose in wood under repeated uniaxial tension stress in the fiber direction

This study investigated the relationship between the cellulose crystal lattice strain (crystalline region) and the macroscopic surface strain in specimens of Chamaecyparis obtusa wood under repeated uniaxial tension stress in the fiber direction. Changes in the strain of the crystal lattice were measured from the peak of (004) reflection using the transit X-ray method. The macroscopic surface strain of each specimen was measured with a strain gauge. In both loading and unloading, the surface strain changed linearly with changes in stress. However, crystal lattice strain was not linear but exhibited changes along a curve with changing stress. Under stressed conditions, the crystal lattice strain was always less than the surface strain, regardless of the frequency of repetition in the loading and unloading cycle. The ratio of the crystal lattice strain to the surface strain showed a negative correlation for stress in both loading and unloading. That is, the ratio decreased with increasing stress, and finally tend to converge to a specific value. The ratio (I/I ₀) between the diffracted intensity (I ₀) in the (004) plane in the unloaded condition and the diffracted intensity (I) in the (004) plane in the loaded condition tend to converge on a specific value with increasing frequency of repetition. When the substantial tension Young’s modulus of the wood in the longitudinal direction decreased, the ratio of the strain of the crystal lattice to the surface strain also decreased. Moreover, the ratio decreased with increasing microfibril angle of the specimen.     

Genetic variability and stock structure of red tilefish Branchiostegus japonicus inferred from mtDNA sequence analysis

Sequence analysis based on the anterior part of the mitochondrial DNA control region was carried out to reveal the genetic diversity, stock structure, and historical demography of the red tilefish. Nucleotide sequences of 388 bp in length were determined for 280 individuals taken from eight localities. The molecular diversity, haplotype diversity, and nucleotide diversity were relatively high (average h = 0.929 ± 0.011; average π = 0.008 ± 0.005). The mismatch distribution was not significantly different from the expected distribution for a rapidly expanding population (P = 0.453). The minimum spanning network connecting with full-sequence haplotypes contained star-like topologies derived from multiple ancient lineages, supporting the mismatch distribution analysis. No significant genetic differentiation was observed among eight localities (maximum pairwise F _ST = 0.023, reduced-sequence data set). Our results suggest a large panmictic population of the red tilefish along the coast of Honshu to the East China Sea.