Stomatal patterning and differentiation by synergistic interactions of receptor kinases

Coordinated spacing and patterning of stomata allow efficient gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere. Here we report that three ERECTA (ER)-family leucine-rich repeat-receptor-like kinases (LRR-RLKs) together control stomatal patterning, with specific family members regulating the specification of stomatal stem cell fate and the differentiation of guard cells. Loss-of-function mutations in all three ER-family genes cause stomatal clustering. Genetic interactions with a known stomatal patterning mutant too many mouths (tmm) revealed stoichiometric epistasis and combination-specific neomorphism. Our findings suggest that the negative regulation of ER-family RLKs by TMM, which is an LRR receptor-like protein, is critical for proper stomatal differentiation.     

Short-term mortality predictions for critically ill hospitalized adults: science and ethics

Modern life-sustaining therapy often succeeds in postponing death but may be ineffective at restoring health. Decisions that influence the time and circumstances of an individual's death are now common and require an accurate and comprehensive characterization of likely outcome. Evaluation of alternative outcomes requires acknowledgement that most patients find some outcomes to be worse than death. Improved understanding of major predictors of patient outcome, combined with rapidly expanding technical abilities to collect and manipulate large amounts of detailed clinical data, have created a new intellectual and technical basis for estimating outcomes from intensive medical care. Such objective probability estimates, such as the system described here, can reduce uncertainty about difficult clinical decisions and can be used by physicians, patients, and society to reorient health care toward more scientifically and ethically defensible approaches.     

Efficacy of chlorine dioxide for disease control on stored potatoes

The post-harvest application of chlorine dioxide (ClO₂) was evaluated as a disease suppressant for stored potatoes. Chlorine dioxide was prepared by acidifying a buffered sodium chlorite solution with a food grade acid.In vitro studies verified the effectiveness of C1O₂ at low concentrations (ED₅₀ = 2 to 122 ppm) againstErwinia carotovora (soft rot),Fusarium spp. (dry rot) andHelminthosporium solani (silver scurf). Evaluations of tubers inoculated withPhytophthora infestans (late blight) andFusarium spp. or infected withH. solani and then treated with ClO₂ either going into storage or through the humidification system resulted in a lack of disease suppression. Inconsistent performance of C1O₂ in storage appeared to be a result of several contributing factors. Chlorine dioxide concentrations varied greatly (up to six-fold), depending upon the method of activating and diluting sodium chlorite solutions. Chlorine dioxide is a gas soluble in water and, therefore, is easily released from solution (25% –75% loss) into the air when applied as an aqueous spray. Chlorine dioxide reacts quickly with the tuber and associated organic matter, thereby reducing the effectiveness. Applying higher than currently registered rates may be necessary to achieve measurable disease suppression.     

Caspase activation in equine influenza virus induced apoptotic cell death.

Equine influenza virus (EIV) is the leading cause of acute respiratory infection in horses worldwide. In recent years, the precise mechanism by which influenza infection kills host cells is being re-evaluated. In this report, we examined whether caspases, a group of intracellular proteases, are activated following EIV infection and contribute to EIV-mediated cell death. Western blotting analysis indicated that a nuclear target of caspase-3, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) was proteolytically cleaved in EIV-infected MDCK cells, but not in mock-infected cells. In comparison with caspase-3 specific inhibitor Ac-DEVD-CHO, a general caspase inhibitor Boc-D-FMK provided much stronger inhibition of EIV-induced cytopathic effect and apoptosis. Our results suggest that EIV may activate more than one caspase. Caspase activation and cleavage of its cellular targets may play a critical role in EIV-mediated cytotoxicity.     

Contingent Valuation of Woodland-Owner Private Amenities in Spain,Portugal, and California

Most of the Mediterranean woodlands in Spain, Portugal, and California are managed as agrosilvopastoral enterprises, producing some combination of livestock, wood, cork products, and crops, as well as wildlife habitat and diverse environmental services. Private amenity benefits to landowners have been suggested as an explanation for high land prices and the persistence of such rangeland enterprises despite apparently marginal cash returns. In this study, private amenity values are estimated using a contingent valuation technique in surveys of private woodland owners as part of five case studies, using a design developed to separate landowner amenity income and capital values. Nonindustrial private landowners were asked about the maximum amount of money that they were willing to give up (to pay) before selling their property to invest in more commercially profitable assets, and the proportion of the market price of their woodland that they think is explained by privately consumed amenities. Amenity values were found to be relevant because, in all cases, landowners were willing to pay &spigt; €120 · ha^-1 · yr^-1, at 2002 prices, and attributed &spigt; 30% of land market price to amenities. These values represent an amenity profitability rate &spigt; 2% in all case studies. The data analysis shows some similarities, but mostly divergences, in the different land-simulated and amenity-simulated markets.     

Developing nutrient profile models: a systematic approach

OBJECTIVE: Nutrient profiling can be defined as the 'the science of categorising foods according to their nutritional composition'. The purpose of the present paper is to describe a systematic and logical approach to nutrient profiling. DESIGN: A seven-stage decision-making process is proposed and, as an illustration of how the approach might operate in practice, the development of a nutrient profiling model for the purpose of highlighting breakfast cereals that are 'high in fat, sugar or salt' is described. RESULTS: The nutrient profile model developed for this paper calculates scores for foods using a simple equation. It enables breakfast cereals to be compared with each other and with other foods eaten at breakfast. CONCLUSION: Nutrient profiling is not new, but hitherto most nutrient profiling models have been developed in an unsystematic and illogical fashion. Different nutrient profiling models are needed for different purposes but a key requirement should be that they are developed using a systematic, transparent and logical process. This paper provides an example of such a process; approaches to validating nutrient profiling models are described elsewhere.     

Widespread selective sweeps affecting microsatellites in Drosophila populations adapting to captivity: Implications for captive breeding programs

Many threatened species are being maintained in captivity to save them from extinction, often with the eventual aim of reintroduction. The objective of genetic management in captivity is to ‘freeze’ evolution i.e. to avoid genetic adaptation to captivity and to retain genetic diversity. Most current genetic management of threatened species addresses the latter, but does not explicitly address the former. The theory underlying current genetic management and its practical implementation assumes neutrality of loci. However, genetic adaptation in captive populations may cause non-neutral behavior at neutral loci due to selective sweeps (hitchhiking) caused by rapid allele frequency changes at linked fitness loci. We compared changes in microsatellite genetic diversity at eight non-coding loci with neutral predictions in 23 pedigreed captive populations of Drosophila melanogaster maintained with effective sizes of 25 (eight replicates), 50 (6), 100 (4), 250 (3) and 500 (2) for 48 generations. Loss of microsatellite heterozygosity was significantly faster (by 12%) than predicted by neutral theory, as assessed by regressing proportion of heterozygosity retained on pedigree inbreeding coefficients. Further, greater than neutral changes were observed for both variances in allele frequencies across replicates (by 25%), and for temporal changes in allele frequencies (by 33%). All eight microsatellite loci showed signals of selectively-driven changes. Rather than having their evolution ‘frozen’, captive populations are undergoing major genome-wide selective sweeps that affect not only fitness loci but linked neutral loci. Captive genetic management for threatened species destined for reintroduction requires modification to explicitly minimize genetic adaptation to captivity.     

An applied fingerprinting system for cultivated potato using simple sequence repeats

The ability to quickly and accurately identify potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) clones is important to potato-breeding programs, seed and commercial potato growers, and marketing and utilization of potato cultivars. Since 1990, the Michigan State University Potato Breeding and Genetics Program has used an isozyme-based fingerprinting system to identify potato cultivars. Isozyme analysis is an economical and effective means of discriminating potato clones; however, isozyme analysis requires fresh, healthy tuber or leaf tissue. DNA-based fingerprinting using simple sequence repeats (SSRs or microsatellites) has been shown to discriminate between potato clones. The objective of this study was to identify the most useful SSR primer pairs that accurately and efficiently distinguish clones for an applied fingerprinting system of cultivated potato. SSR primer pairs with high polymorphism were selected from previous tetraploid potato studies. DNA isolated from 17 potato clones representing round-white, russet, and red market classes were visualized on both polyacrylamide (PAGE) and agarose gel systems. Polymorphism was observed in all 18 primer combinations on PAGE and 14 using agarose gel electrophoresis. All 17 cultivars were discriminated on PAGE with various combinations of two primer pairs: STIIKA using STACCAS3, STIN-HWI, or STM0031; and STACCAS3 using STGBSS1, POTM1-2, STM1104, or STM0031. The combination of STM0019, STM0031, STGBSS1, and POTM1-2 was able to differentiate all 17 clones using agarose gel electrophoresis. PAGE was determined to be the preferred system for variety identification, but agarose gel electrophoresis can be used to differentiate lines when specific varietal comparisons are needed. In addition, five different DNA source tissue types were evaluated (fresh foliar, freeze-dried foliar, fresh tuber, freeze-dried tuber epidermis, and freeze-dried tuber tissue). Amplification products were similar for all five tissue sources used for DNA isolation. This ability to isolate DNA from freeze-dried tissue will allow cultivar identification when fresh tissue is not available. The SSR primer pairs presented here can be used as a practical fingerprinting system for cultivated potato identification.     

An outbreak of chronic pneumonia and polyarthritis syndrome caused by Mycoplasma bovis in feedlot bison (Bison bison).

Mycoplasma bovis was identified by a specific lesion, conventional bacterial culture, immunohistochemistry, and polymerase chain reaction in 2 feedlot bison found dead with severe, chronic, caseonecrotic pneumonia; polyarthritis; and laryngitis. On microscopic examination, pulmonary lesions were characterized by prominent, well-defined areas of caseous necrosis and bronchiectasis. Immunohistochemical analysis of lung exhibited staining in bronchiolar epithelium and in random areas of caseous necrosis. On gross examination, the laryngeal lesion observed in 1 animal was typical of changes seen in cases of calf diphtheria. Nasal swabs taken from 6 clinically ill bison from the same feedlot revealed 1 animal shedding M. bovis by the nasal route. No other pathogens were recovered from the pulmonary or laryngeal lesions; however, Mannheimia haemolytica was cultured from the nasal swabs of 2 clinically ill bison, although not from the animal found to be shedding M. bovis. Several other affected bison had swollen joints and exhibited lameness and a reluctance to move. Changes observed in dead and clinically ill bison from this feedlot are similar to what has been described in the literature as chronic pneumonia and polyarthritis syndrome in feedlot cattle caused by M. bovis. Based on the severity of the lesions, and the number of dead and affected animals, bison in a feedlot setting appear to exhibit sensitivity to infection with M. bovis.     

Preliminary study of community development and scleractinian recruitment on fibreglass artificial reef units in the sedimented waters of Singapore

• 1. Fibreglass was used to make specially designed reef enhancement units (REUs) for three reef sites in Singapore. Units were established in areas measuring approximately 20 × 50 m.
• 2. The units are compact and light enough to be deployed from small boats by scuba divers, and are suitable for shallow reefs with limited visibility.
• 3. The design of the REUs precludes excessive sediment build‐up on the settlement surfaces, while allowing water currents to flow through the system.
• 4. The REUs were monitored monthly over two years to observe community development and scleractinian coral recruitment on the exterior surfaces. Recruitment was compared between REUs and rubble quadrats at one study site.
• 5. The REUs were colonized by turf algae within the first month, followed by crustose coralline algae, macroalgae, ascidians and hydroids. At the end of two years, the percentage cover of crustose coralline algae at all three sites was more than 50%.
• 6. The first incidence of coral recruitment was six months post deployment, and recruitment rates at the end of the monitoring period ranged from 0.10 to 4.75 recruits per square metre for the three sites. Recruits show better survival and growth on REUs compared to rubble areas.
• 7. The most abundant recruit was Pocillopora damicornis, followed by favids, acroporids and poritids.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.