Tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia virus and its vector Bemisia tabaci in Sicilia (Italy): present status and control possibilities*

Tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia begomovirus (TYLCSV) appeared in Sicilia (IT) in 1988, creating great threats to agriculture and causing huge losses, especially in south‐eastern areas of the island, where protected tomato cultivation is widespread. Towards the mid‐1990s, a reduction occurred in the virus epidemics, probably due to new approaches which have been applied to rational control of its vector, the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. More recently, TYLCSV has increased again, creating great concern among local tomato producers and stimulating new research. Besides studies on natural enemies of the vector, aiming to investigate their role and distribution, the main current research lines in Sicilia concern the possibility of reducing both whitefly activity, using photoselective plastics as covers, and virus damage, by growing tolerant tomato genotypes.     

Complexing the Marine Sesquiterpene Euplotin C by Means of Cyclodextrin-Based Nanosponges: A Preliminary Investigation

Euplotin C is a sesquiterpene of marine origin endowed with significant anti-microbial and anti-tumor properties. Despite the promising functional profile, its progress as a novel drug candidate has failed so far, due to its scarce solubility and poor stability in aqueous media, such as biological fluids. Therefore, overcoming these limits is an intriguing challenge for the scientific community. In this work, we synthesized β-cyclodextrin-based nanosponges and investigated their use as colloidal carriers for stably complex euplotin C. Results obtained proved the ability of the carrier to include the natural compound, showing remarkable values of both loading efficiency and capacity. Moreover, it also allowed us to preserve the chemical structure of the loaded compound, which was recovered unaltered once extracted from the complex. Therefore, the use of β-cyclodextrin-based nanosponges represents a viable option to vehiculate euplotin C, thus opening up its possible use as pharmacologically active compound.     

Relationship between serum cortisol levels and some physiological parameters following reining training session in horse

The changes of cortisol, red blood cells (RBC), hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR) and rectal temperature (RT) were evaluated after a reining training session in eight Quarter Horses. All parameters were measured before exercise (T0), immediately after exercise (T1), 1 h after exercise (T2), 2 h after exercise (T3) and 24 h after exercise (T4). One‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated measures, followed Bonferroni's post hoc test, showed a significant effect of the reining training session (P < 0.0001) on cortisol, RBC, Hb, Hct, HR, RR and RT. Simple linear regression analysis showed the positive correlation (P < 0.05) between cortisol changes and variations of studied parameters in T1, T3 and T4. Exercise‐induced cortisol concentrations reflect the physiological response of reining training, suggesting that the changes observed are useful to assess the performance in reining horses and their reining training adaptability.     

Firm Demography and Regional Development: Evidence from Italy

This article contributes to the literature on firm demography and regional development in at least three different ways. First, consumption, rather than employment, which is the most common variable seen in literature, is used to measure the impact of firm demography on regional development. Second, while the literature is mainly focused on the relationship between new business formation and regional development, we investigate both entry and exit flows of firms. Third, we decompose each of these flows into spatial and sectoral components. The empirical investigation looks at the Italian regions with reference to the period 2004–2009. Results seem to be substantially divergent between the South and the rest of Italy.     

Genomic prediction for yields,processing and nutritional quality traits in cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Current potato breeding approaches are hampered by several factors including costly seed tubers, tetrasomic inheritance and inbreeding depression. Genomic selection (GS) demonstrated interesting results regardless of the ploidy level, and can be harnessed to circumvent these problems. In this work, three GS models were evaluated using 50,107 informative SilicoDArT markers and 11 traits in two values for cultivation and use (VCU) potato trials. Two key breeding problems modelled included predicting the performance of (i) new and unphenotyped clones (cross‐validation) and (ii) a VCU using another as training set (TS). GS models performed comparably. Cross‐validation accuracy was high for D35, D45, DMW and BVAL, in ascending order. Prediction accuracies of the VCUs were highly correlated, but the best prediction was obtained for the smaller VCU using the bigger as TS. Cross‐validation and VCU prediction accuracies were higher when bigger TSs were used. The findings herein indicate that GS can be attractively integrated in potato breeding, particularly in early clonal generations to predict and select for traits with low heritability which would otherwise require more testing years, environments and resources.     

The effects of starving and feeding on Dover sole (Solea solea,Soleidae, Linnaeus, 1758) stress response and early larval development

In the view of an urgent necessity to improve the quantity and the quality of farmed fish species, there is a strong need to improve our basic knowledge on the effects of first feeding during the developmental stages of fish larvae. High mortality, mainly due to food deprivation or inappropriate food quality, has been observed in many larval fish species, but knowledge about the morphological, biochemical and molecular processes related to this topic is still poorly understood. The understanding of the early larval ontogeny as well as the larval nutritional requirements and the molecular and cellular mechanisms elicited by fish larvae during food deprivation and starvation are thus of primary importance. At this regard, this study investigates, in Dover sole larvae, the effects of starvation and starving/re‐feeding procedures at a morphological, histological, biochemical and molecular level. The results evidenced that starved larvae progressively decrease in growth, lipid content, affected their gastrointestinal tract and muscle development and increased cortisol and heat shock protein 70 levels. On the contrary, starved and re‐fed larvae showed, after the restoration of a favourable feeding condition, a compensatory growth. In conclusion, this is the first study analysing through a multidisciplinary approach the effects of food deprivation on the development of an important economic species, the Dover sole.     

Glomangioma in the Prepuce of a Dog

A case of preputial glomangioma in an 8-year-old Springer Spaniel dog is reported. The dog presented a solitary nodular mass, approximately 3.5 x 5.2 cm in diameter, located on the lateral wall of the prepuce at the base of the penis. Histologically, the excised tumour mass consisted of proliferating round epithelioid cells arranged in a cordon-like structure around small blood vessels. The neoplastic cells were positive for alpha smooth muscle actin and negative for cytokeratin, desmin, S-100 protein and neurone-specific enolase. Based on these pathologic features, the tumour was diagnosed as glomangioma, a neoplasm extremely rare in dogs. To our knowledge, this is the first report of preputial glomangioma in the dog.