Diversity of seed albumins in some Lathyrus species related to L. sativus L.: An electrophoretic study

Electrophoretic analysis of seed albumins covered 66 Lathyrus accessions representing L. amphicarpos, L. blepharicarpus, L. cicera, L. gorgoni, L. marmoratus, L. pseudocicera and L. stenophyllus. The number of major albumin bands recorded in particular species varied from two in L. amphicarpos to eight in L. gorgoni. Apart from L. amphicarpos, all the species under study showed intraspecific variation. In total, 21 bands were distinguished. The results were compared with the corresponding data reported earlier for L. sativus. All the data were statistically analysed. The species examined in this study proved to be distantly related to L. sativus. Distinctness of particular Lathyrus species was quite marked except for L. cicera and L. marmoratus which produced similar electrophoretic seed albumin patterns.     

Diversity of seed albumins in the grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.): an electrophoretic study

Electrophoretic analysis of seed albumins covered 105 Lathyrus sativus accessions originating from different geographical regions. Four major albumin bands were responsible for the detected variation. Due to differences in the number and combination of these bands, eleven electrophoretic seed albumin patterns were distinguished; four of them were rare phenotypes found in less than 1% of the 817 examined individuals. Electrophoretic data were subjected to statistical analysis using hierarchical UPGMA grouping and biplot techniques. Generally, no correlation was found between occurrence of either the seed albumin patterns or the major albumin bands and geographical origin of the forms under study. On the other hand, data concerning frequency distribution of the major albumin bands tended to separate two groups of accessions, white-seeded with large seeds and coloured-seeded with relatively small seeds; coloured-seeded accessions with rather large seeds mixed with the above groups.     

SYSTEMIC ASPERGILLOSIS IN A CAT

An 8–year–old male domestic shorthair cat with partial anorexia, occasional cough and behavior change was found to have multiple pulmonary and cerebral lesions. At necropsy a diagnosis of systemic Aspergillosis was made. This report describes the clinical, radiographic and pathologic features of systemic Aspergillosis in a cat.     

USE OF A PERFORMANCE SCALE IN SMALL ANIMAL RADIATION THERAPY

A performance scale (Animal Medical Center Performance Scale) for use in dogs and cats was developed by modifying the Karnofsky Performance Status that is used in people. It was then applied to 209 animals that received definitive radiotherapy. The results after a minimum of 1 year of observation after therapy indicated that survival times were significantly longer for those animals that scored 80 or higher on the scale. Further studies will be needed to determine its usefulness with specific tumor types.     

Recognition of cancer in vivo by nuclear magnetic resonance

Pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance has been used to differentiate in vivo between normal mouse tail tissue and a malignant transplanted melanoma, S91, located on the tail. The tumor displayed a nuclear (proton) spin-lattice relaxation time of approximately 0.7 second contrasted with the simultaneously measured normal tail tissue relaxation time of approximately 0.3 second.     

Immunohistochemical detection of arteriolar hyperplasia in canine liver biopsy samples using the claudin-5 antibody

Claudins are key tight junctional proteins between adjacent epithelial, mesothelial or endothelial cells, which are responsible for the permeability of the paracellular space. This paper describes that the endothelial cells of normal hepatic arterioles, portal venules and portal lymphatics as well as the endothelium of sinusoids from dogs show strong membranous claudin-5 cross-reactivity. In 25 liver biopsy samples taken from dogs with portal vein hypoperfusion, an increased number of arterioles was detected in the portal areas (PAs) by the use of humanised anti-claudin-5 antibody. The increased number of hyperplastic hepatic arterioles per PA was 5-6, 8-12 and 15-20 in the case of small, medium-sized and large PAs, respectively. It is suggested that the claudin-5 marker can improve the detection of hepatic arteriolar proliferation in the PAs of liver samples.     

Recent developments in genome editing and applications in plant breeding

Increasing genetic variation beyond natural variation is an important aim in plant breeding. In the past 70 years, random mutagenesis by irradiation or by chemicals has created numerous mutants which have been frequently used in breeding. However, their application is hampered by the mutational load due to many background mutations. In the past 10 years, new techniques for site‐directed mutagenesis have been introduced to plant breeding which are commonly referred to as “genome editing.” Among these, the CRISPR/Cas9 system turned out to be the most efficient and easy to apply. DNA is cleaved by a nuclease precisely at a target site where a mutation is likely to be beneficial. The DNA is healed by the cellular repair system either by error‐prone non‐homologous end joining or by homologous recombination, by which small DNA fragments can be inserted at the target site. In this review, we describe the application of targeted mutagenesis to crop plants and the modification of agronomically important traits, which could have direct impacts on plant breeding.