Delta Gold: A new potato variety with yellow flesh,high solids and high quality for baking and processing

Delta Gold is a medium-late maturing, round, yellowish-skinned, yellow-fleshed variety which is excellent for baking and processing. Its yields have been lower than Kennebec; however, specific gravities have been higher. It is moderately resistant to scab and early blight and immune to net necrosis and virus A.     

Ultrastructure, Morphology, and Sporogenesis of Pasteuria penetrans

ABSTRACT Pasteuria penetrans is a bacterial parasite of root-knot nematodes that shows great potential as a biocontrol agent. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy were used to study the ultrastructure, morphology, and sporogenesis of four isolates of P. penetrans. The effects of different Meloidogyne spp. and tobacco cultivars on sporangium size and morphology of endospores attached to the cuticle of second-stage juveniles (J2) of root-knot nematodes also were investigated. The P. penetrans isolates and their origins were P-20 from M. arenaria race 1 in Levy County, FL; P-100 from Meloidogyne sp. in Pasco County, FL; B-4 from Pratylenchus scribneri in Seminole County, FL; and P-120 from Meloidogyne spp. in Alachua County, FL. Sporangia of the four isolates were identical morphologically and similar in their dimensions, ranging from 2.39 to 3.42 mum in diameter and from 1.38 to 2.38 mum in height. Different Meloidogyne spp. and tobacco cultivars had no effect on sporangium size. Endospores attached to J2 were visualized in three forms: endospores retaining the sporangium wall, endospores covered with a thin exosporium, and endospores without covering. Sporogenesis of P. penetrans was similar to that of other gram-positive bacteria and generally matched the seven-stage scheme reported for Bacillus thuringiensis.     

Morphological, cytological and disease resistance studies of the intersectional hybrid between Arachis hypogaea L. and A. glabrata Benth.

Arachis glabrata Benth, variety glabrata collector GK 10596 (PI276233; ICG 8176) belonging to section Rhizomatosae has resistance to rust, late leaf spot and viral diseases. A. hypogaea L. cv MK 374 (section Arachis) is susceptible to rust, late leaf spot and to the viral diseases peanut stripe, peanut mottle and peanut bud necrosis. Hybrids between A. hypogaea cv MK 374 and A. glabrata were produced after inter specific pollinations and embryo culture. The hybrids produced had morphological characters of both parents plus floral abnormalities not seen in either parent. It was possible to identify the hybrids by esterase isozyme analysis when still in culture. Cytological research showed variable chromosome association and also homeology between the genomes of A. hypogaea and A. glabrata. The hybrids inherited resistance to rust, late leaf spot, peanut bud necrosis and peanut stripe diseases from the pollen parent A. glabrata. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Belleisle1: A new maincrop variety with excellent table quality and bruise resistance

Belleisle is a maincrop variety with good yield, exceptional table and handling quality. It has some resistance to common scab, late blight andFusarium sambucinum.     

Proteomic analysis reveals suppression of bark chitinases and proteinase inhibitors in citrus plants affected by the citrus sudden death disease

Citrus sudden death (CSD) is a disease of unknown etiology that greatly affects sweet oranges grafted on Rangpur lime rootstock, the most important rootstock in Brazilian citriculture. We performed a proteomic analysis to generate information related to this plant pathogen interaction. Protein profiles from healthy, CSD-affected and CSD-tolerant stem barks, were generated using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. The protein spots were well distributed over a pI range of 3.26 to 9.97 and a molecular weight (MW) range from 7.1 to 120 kDa. The patterns of expressed proteins on 2-DE gels made it possible to distinguish healthy barks from CSD-affected barks. Protein spots with MW around 30 kDa and pI values ranging from 4.5 to 5.2 were down-regulated in the CSD-affected root-stock bark. This set of protein spots was identified as chitinases. Another set of proteins, ranging in pI from 6.1 to 9.6 with an MW of about 20 kDa, were also suppressed in CSD-affected rootstock bark; these were identified as miraculin-like proteins, potential trypsin inhibitors. Down-regulation of chitinases and proteinase inhibitors in CSD-affected plants is relevant since chitinases are well-known pathogenesis-related protein, and their activity against plant pathogens is largely accepted.     

Impedimetric evaluation of compounds for antifungal activity versus Aspergillus niger

The procedure described utilized a microbial monitoring system (bactometer) to measure impedimetrically the inhibitory activity of known antifungal compounds (2-(thiocyanomethylthio)benzothiazole [TCMTB], 3-iodo-2-propynylbutyl carbamate [IPBC], chlorothalonil, tebuconazole, and copper-8-quinolinolate [Cu-8]) on growth of Aspergillus niger Teigh. in a liquid medium. The MIC values determined were based on the activity of the compounds to inhibit a change in the capacitance of the medium during a 96-h period after inoculation. The MIC values obtained with the bactometer were compared with MIC values derived from the inhibition of radial growth of A. niger on the same liquid medium solidified with agar. The MIC values for all the compounds tested were substantially lower when determined with the bactometer than on agar. The impedimetric evaluation of compounds for antifungal activity offers advantages of speed, sensitivity, and data collection.     

No DNA loss in autotetraploids of Arabidopsis thaliana

To address the issue of genome evolution in autopolyploids and particularly to investigate whether rapid sequence elimination also occurs in autopolyploids as in allopolyploids, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprinting was employed to examine a large number of genomic loci in F₁ hybrids between two different autotetraploids of Arabidopsis thaliana accessions, namely Ler and Col. Using this approach, perfect additivity in the F₁ hybrids was found between the newly‐formed autopolyploids when compared with their parental lines. Using flow cytometry, the study was extended in a quantitative manner, in which the nuclear DNA contents in one autotetraploid A. thaliana accession Ler, was determined. The increase in genome size of the autotetraploid line was additive. Taken together, no evidence was found for genome size reduction due to autopolyploidization of A. thaliana. The results indicating that there was no DNA loss in autotetraploid A. thaliana suggest that a different type of genome evolution may occur in autopolyploids during the initial stages of their formation when compared with allopolyploids.