A Severe Hellenic CMV Tomato Isolate: Symptom Variability in Tobacco, Characterization and Discrimination of Variants

A severe strain of Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) originating from an infected tomato plant (Gastouni-Olympia, Greece) was isolated in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi nc), after three serial local lesion passages in Chenopodium quinoa and designated CMV-G. CMV-G induces yellow mosaic (YM) symptoms in tobacco. When CMV-G was passed mechanically through C. quinoa, phenotypic variants inducing YM or green mild mosaic (MM) in tobacco were isolated. Aphid transmission, from different hosts, appears to be an effective approach for separating MM variants of CMV-G from YM variants. In particular, aphid transmission from zucchini proved to be very efficient in selecting for MM variants. In contrast, aphids transmitted only YM variants from tomato plants. Molecular characterization of CMV-G and its progeny resulted in their classification in the CMV subgroup IB, free of satellite RNA, being the first discovery of the subgroup IB in Greece. In the Solanaceae family (tobacco, tomato, pepper) YM variants induced more severe symptoms than the MM variants. YM and MM phenotype was stable in tobacco for all seven passages tried using the obtained YM and MM variants. Cross-protection experiments showed that an isolated MM variant was able to protect tobacco plants against a challenge infection by a YM variant.     

Rapid detection of Arthroderma vanbreuseghemii in rabbit skin specimens by PCR-RFLP

Three commercial rabbit farms independently reported suspected dermatophyte infections during 2004. Cultures confirmed that the infection was caused by the zoophilic Tricophyton mentagrophytes, while mating studies and sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS)1/4 polymerase chain reaction products, directly amplified from skin lesions and from pure culture isolates, established its Arthroderma vanbreuseghemii lineage. Subsequently, the corresponding DdeI restriction profiles of the ITS1/4 PCR products matched one of the two published T. mentagrophytes complex profiles. Sequence analysis of the published ITS sequences predicted distinct DdeI restriction sites for Arthroderma benhamiae and A. vanbreuseghemii, while all DdeI-generated restriction fragment length polymorphisms of the rabbit isolates were identical to those of A. vanbreuseghemii. The proposed procedure can be used for rapid dermatophyte detection and presumptive T. mentagrophytes identification.     

An analysis of Greek wood and wood product imports: Evidence from the linear quadratic aids

The consumption of wood and wood products in Greece is based greatly on imports necessitating every year a great proportion of public expenditures. The study of wood and wood product imports consequently, is important to the national economy and can be a useful guide for the forest farms, wood industries and wood firms. In this paper the Greek aggregate import demand for Unprocessed wood (such as logs) Processed wood (such as sawn wood), Veneer Crafts (such as veneer sheets) and Wood Manufactures during the period 1969–2001 is empirically analysed using the linear approximation of quadratic AIDS (QUAIDS) model. Imports of Unprocessed wood, Veneer Crafts and Wood Manufactures are found to be price-elastic, in contrast to Processed wood imports. Processed wood, Veneer Crafts and Wood Manufacture imports are found to be expenditure-elastic while Unprocessed wood is found to be an inferior good. Substitution possibilities are found to be significant between Veneer Crafts and all the remaining wood imports and between Processed wood and Unprocessed wood.     

Asymmetry in price transmission between the producer and the consumer prices in the wood sector and the role of imports: The case of Greece

The present paper studies the existence of asymmetry in the price transmission mechanism between the producer and the consumer prices in the sector of forest products. In particular, the research is focused οn the round wood of long length (> 2 m). For the study of the asymmetry, the Johansen cointegration analysis was used while at the same time two dynamic models were estimated: The Error Correction Model (ECM Model), and the LSE?Henry general to specific model (GETS model). With the assistance of the cointegration technique, we surveyed the existence of a long-run relationship between the producers and the consumers in the Greek round wood market, while the application of the Granger causality test has shown that the consumer price Granger causes the producer price whereas the reverse is not valid. Furthermore, the application of the GETS model confirmed the existence of asymmetry in the price transmission mechanism within the round wood market. Finally, the role of imports in the determination of the producer prices is vital and is confirmed by the findings of the cointegration technique and the Granger causality test.