Pseudodidymella fagi in Slovakia: First detection,morphology and culture characteristics

Pseudodidymella fagi, described from infected leaves of Fagus crenata in Japan, has recently been spreading in Europe, where it causes leaf blotch of European beech Fagus sylvatica. In the years 2008–2016, an outbreak of P. fagi was observed on European beech in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, and it is reported here for the first time from Slovakia where it was detected in 2017. The identification of the pathogen is supported by the morphological analyses of material observed in vivo and in vitro and molecular analyses based on ITS sequences. Detailed morphological characterization of cultures based on European material, on F. sylvatica, is provided here for the first time.     

Study of Viscoelastic Properties of Wheat Kernels Using Compression Load Method

The method to measure hardness and other viscoelastic properties of intact wheat kernels is presented. Wheat with 9.3% moisture showed high elastic behavior compared with wheat tempered at 22.5% moisture that showed a plastic behavior. Load‐deformation curves showed that bread wheat behaves as a more plastic material than durum wheat, which is a more elastic material. Yield point of all the wheat samples was ≈18.5 N, independent of wheat type and moisture content. The height of the wheat kernel increased linearly, and the compression area increased exponentially, with increasing moisture content. The modulus of elasticity of wheat ranged from 99.2 MPa for 22.5% moisture content to 394.8 MPa for 9.3% moisture content. Young's modulus range for soft wheat such as Salamanca, Saturno, and Cortazar cultivars was 232.2–308.5 MPa, as compared with Rayón bread wheat at 321.5 MPa and the Altar, Sofía, and Rafi cultivars of durum wheat that had elastic moduli of 438.7–485.8 MPa. The compression force and final stress decreased from 69.9 N and 40.1 MPa in soft wheat to 90 N and 78.9 MPa in durum, respectively. Total work range was 14.7 MPa/sec in soft wheat to 19.7 MPa/sec for durum wheat and, as expected, was higher in the durum and bread wheat than in soft wheat. The plastic part ranged from 2.4 MPa/sec in soft wheat to 0.6 MPa/sec in durum wheat.     

Effects of myo‐inositol on proliferation,differentiation, oxidative status and antioxidant capacity of carp enterocytes in primary culture

This study investigated the effects of myo‐inositol (MI) on the growth and antioxidant capacity of carp enterocytes. The enterocytes were incubated in media containing 0, 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 mg MI L^?1 for 96 h. The results indicated that MI could increase cell viability. In addition, the activities of cellular alkaline phosphatase (AKP), gamma‐glutamyl transpeptidase (γ‐GT), Na⁺, K⁺‐adenosine trisphosphatase (Na⁺, K⁺‐ATPase) and creatinkinase (CK) increased with MI supplementation at levels ranging from 15 to 60 mg MI L^?1 medium, indicating an improvement in cell differentiation and function. Further, enzymatic antioxidant ability, as measured by total superoxide dismutase (T‐SOD), Cu/Zn‐SOD, Mn‐SOD, catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione‐S‐transferase (GST) activities, improved with MI supplementation. Finally, cell damage, as indicated by lactic acid dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) content of the medium and cellular protein carbonyls (PC), was all depressed by MI. Correlation analyses showed that cell viability (MTT) was positively related to the antioxidant enzyme activities, but negatively related to cell damage (LDH, MDA and PC). In summary, the data showed that MI could improve the growth of fish enterocytes. This result may be partly due to the enhanced antioxidant status and depressed oxidative damage.     

The limits of the binary power law describing spatial variability for incidence data

Taylor's power law (TPL), an empirical law relating the observed variance to mean density (or abundance), has found wide applicability for characterizing heterogeneity in many disciplines. However, when the density variable has an upper bound, the TPL does not hold and the binary power law (BPL) needs to be used instead. The BPL has been shown to describe the heterogeneity of numerous plant disease epidemic systems. In this study, a generic stochastic simulator was used to study the extent to which the BPL can satisfactorily describe incidence data. Results showed that the symmetrical BPL does hold whenever there is a positive correlation among neighbours on the probability of a plant becoming infected, or where disease development is not influenced by the neighbours. These results held for a wide range of neighbourhood sizes, strengths of neighbourhood influence, and size of the sampling quadrats. However, the symmetrical BPL did not hold when there is a negative influence among neighbours. The more general asymmetrical BPL (ABPL) fitted the data with positive or negative neighbourhood influence, but because a negative neighbourhood effect is generally unlikely for plant epidemics, the symmetrical BPL is preferred over the ABPL because of its parsimony. The magnitude of the estimated BPL parameters increased with increasing neighbourhood influence and sampling‐quadrat size. However, except when the power parameter equals 1, inferring specific underlying mechanisms generating the data or comparing BPL estimates from different studies is difficult, because of the large effect of sampling on the BPL parameter estimates.     

Epiphytic colonization of Ustilaginoidea virens on biotic and abiotic surfaces implies the widespread presence of primary inoculum for rice false smut disease

Ustilaginoidea virens (Uv), the causative agent of rice false smut disease, infects developing rice spikelets at the booting stage, and transforms individual grains of the panicle into smut balls. Epidemics of the disease occur when the rice booting and heading stages coincide with rainy days. Using a green fluorescent protein (GFP)‐labelled Uv isolate that can form false smut balls on rice panicles, it was found that under high humidity and free water conditions the Uv isolate could colonize leaves of plants belonging to various families including the Poaceae (Oryza sativa, Echinochloa crusgalli, Digitaria sanguinalis and Leptochloa chinensis), the Brassicaceae (Arabidopsis thaliana) and the Solanaceae (Nicotiana benthamiana) without symptoms. Over several days, some conidia could germinate on the leaves of these plants and in water on the surface of Parafilm and cellophane, form hyphae and differentiate conidiophores to generate a large number of secondary conidia, while other conidia were able to directly produce secondary conidia. Conversely, in the absence of water some conidia could either bud to form new conidia or were converted into chlamydospores. These data indicate that Uv is one of a few fungal pathogens reported to have epiphytic characteristics. The rapid generation of a large number of spores on biotic and abiotic surfaces greatly increases the inoculum that can infect rice spikelets, resulting in the occurrence of rice false smut disease epidemics. These findings are important in the development of disease control strategies.     

The Possible Involvement of Salsolinol and Hypothalamic Prolactin in the Central Regulatory Processes in Ewes During Lactation

Salsolinol, a dopamine‐related compound and prolactin‐producing cells were found in the ovine hypothalamus. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that salsolinol, acting from the CNS level, is able to stimulate pituitary prolactin release as well as prolactin mRNA expression in the anterior pituitary cells (AP) and in the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) in lactating ewes. The intracerebroventricular infusions of salsolinol in two doses, total of 50 ng or 5 μg, were performed in a series of five 10‐min infusions at 20‐min intervals. All infusions were made from 12:30 to 15:00 and the pre‐infusion period was from 10:00 to 12.30 h. The prolactin concentration in plasma samples, collected every 10 min, was determined by radioimmunoassay; prolactin mRNA expression in AP and MBH tissues was determined by real‐time PCR. The obtained results showed that salsolinol infused at the higher dose significantly (p < 0.001) increased plasma prolactin concentration in lactating ewes, when compared with the concentration noted before the infusion and with that in lactating controls. In lactating ewes, the relative levels of prolactin mRNA expression in the AP and MBH were up to twofold and fivefold higher respectively than in non‐lactating ewes (p < 0.05). In our experimental design, salsolinol did not significantly affect the ongoing process of prolactin gene expression in these tissues. We conclude that in ewes, salsolinol may be involved, at least, in the process of stimulation of prolactin release during lactation and that hypothalamic prolactin plays an important role in the central mechanisms of adaptation to lactation.     

Soil degradation processes and plant colonization in abandoned terraced fields overlying pumice tuffs

The state of soil degradation/regeneration in abandoned agricultural terraced fields over pumiceous tuffs has been assessed in this paper. In an initial stage, the relationships between soil types, surface microfeatures as indicators of soil degradation, physicochemical properties, plant colonization and vegetation structure were studied by means of multivariate statistical analyses (PCA, DCA, CCA and TWINSPAN®). Aerial photographs interpretation, DEMs and field surveys allowed us to identify 47 different environments for abandoned fields along 7 altitudinal transects (33 abandoned field terraces). In each study site, an inventory of the existing plant species and of morphological surface microfeatures were also made, by the line‐intercept method. Plant colonization in the field plots studied relates to the variation of soils properties according to a climatic altitudinal gradient. The soil properties most closely related to the abandonment age (decrease of soil salinity and clay content, and increase of soil alkalinity and total organic C and N), have contributed to the growth of plant communities with a high degree of climacity. The protection degree offered to the soils by the different vegetation types as a function of their structure and life‐forms strongly determines the occurrence of the different soil surface microfeatures as indicators of soil degradation or recovery. The acceleration of the early stages of succession by active planting of seeds from shrub species in the lower and upper areas, followed by reforestation in the latter ones, may be the best improvement practices to achieve an effective ecological recovery of the fields and simultaneously to attenuate soil degradation. The reassuming of agriculture may be desirable in those fields placed in middle heights, provided they show the best soil and climate conditions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.