Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficiency of some herbal pesticides on reproductive parameters of silverleaf whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae)

The silverleaf whitefly is one of the most important pests found commonly in Iran and in the world. The development of alternative methods instead of chemical applications is necessary in pest management for human health and environment protection. The objective of this research was to assess the effects of extracts of two medicinal plant species: Calotropis procera and Allium sativum, and a formulation containing azadirachtin on fecundity and fertility of the silverleaf whitefly, grown on greenhouse tomato plants. The effects were compared to that of pymetrozine, a synthetic insecticide. According to the results, there was a significant difference among treatments for all reproductive parameters. Gross fecundity rates for pesticides control, herbal extract control, C. procera extract, A. sativum extract, azadirachtin and pymetrozine were 184.75, 146.72, 80.11, 82.18, 63.06 and 55.96 eggs, respectively. These herbal extracts were effective against this pest and they can be the suitable choices for replacing these chemical insecticides.
Evaluation of DNA Extraction Methods for Molecular Analyses of Microbial Communities in Modern Calcareous Microbialites

We evaluated and optimized three rapid methods for extraction of high-quality DNA from carbonate-encrusted microbial communities using modern calcifying oncolites built by cyanobacteria and diatoms in a high-calcium freshwater river. Pulverization, acid (HCl) dissolution, and chelator-mediated (EDTA) dissolution of the carbonate matrix were used and optimized to liberate microbial cells from their mineral encasing. This was followed by cell lysis and DNA extraction and isolation. HCl dissolution yielded no measurable DNA, probably due to hydrolysis, whereas pulverization and EDTA dissolution yielded averages of 3.5 and 7.8 μg per gram of sample, respectively, of high molecular weight DNA. These DNA isolates could be used successfully for PCR-amplification of 16S rRNA gene segments (alleles) and subsequent fingerprinting of the cyanobacterial (including diatoms) and total bacterial communities through denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) separation. Fingerprints showed no differences in microbial community composition between the pulverization and EDTA dissolution methods. While the pulverization method was faster, we demonstrate here that EDTA carbonate dissolution is superior because it preserves vertical stratification of the microbial communities lost using the pulverization method, thus allowing for spatially resolved community analyses.
Autoradiographic study of α1‐ and α2‐noradrenergic and serotonin1A receptors in the spinal cord of normal and chronically transected cats

Serotoninergic and noradrenergic drugs have been shown to initiate and/or modulate locomotion in cats after spinal cord transection and in patients suffering from spinal cord injuries. To establish a firmer basis for locomotor pharmacotherapy, the distribution of α1‐ and α2‐noradrenergic and serotonin1A (5‐HT1A) receptors was examined in the spinal cord of control cats and of from animals with spinal cord transection at T13 some weeks or months previously. In control cats, the highest levels of α1‐noradrenergic receptors, labeled with [3H]prazosin, were found in laminae II, IX, and X. The α2‐noradrenergic receptors, labeled with [3H]idazoxan, were found mainly in laminae II, III, and X, with moderate densities in lamina IX. After spinal transection, both receptors did not change in segments above the lesion. At 15 and 30 days after spinal transection, binding significantly increased in laminae II, III, IV, and X for α2 and in laminae I, II, III, and IX for α1 receptors in lumbar segments. For longer survival times, binding densities returned to near control values. The 5‐HT1A receptors, labeled with [3H]8‐hydroxy‐dipropylaminotetralin, were found mainly in laminae I–IV and X. After spinal transection, binding significantly increased only in laminae II, III, and X of lumbar segments at 15 and 30 days. Thereafter, binding returned to control values. The pronounced upregulation of different monoaminergic receptors observed in the lumbar region in the first month after spinal transection suggests that these receptors may be important during the period when cats normally recover functions such as locomotion of the hindlimbs. J. Comp. Neurol. 406:402–414, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Spatial Scale of Variation in Fitness of Erigeron annuus

Environmental heterogeneity can maintain genetic variation when it disrupts the genetic correlation of fitness across environments such that no single genotype is superior in all sites. Whether spatial variation in selection leads to a stable polymorphism depends in part on the scale of environmental heterogeneity relative to dispersal and density dependence. I measured the lifetime survival and reproduction of six genotypes of Erigeron annuus (Asteraceae) along two 30-m transects in an early-successional field. Significant genotype-environment interactions for fitness occurred at scales of 10-20 cm and 1-3 m, which shows that selection was significantly heterogeneous at those scales. The spatial pattern of fitness variation was shown by the decline of the cross-environment genetic correlation of fitness as a function of distance. Correlations of fitness among plots separated by 10 cm and 75 cm were significantly larger than expected for randomly chosen plots. Beyond 1 m there was little similarity in the fitnesses of genotypes, and by 3 m the cross-environment correlation of fitness was marginally less than expected (P = .07). Overall, the genetic correlations were greater than zero, primarily because one genotype had uniformly low fitness. Two independent transects showed very similar spatial patterns of correlation with distance. These results show selection is fine grained and varies over spatial scales (20 cm and 3 m) that are similar to the scale of competition and dispersal, respectively.
Effects of Biological Control Agents on Nuisance Cyanobacterial and Diatom Blooms in Freshwater Systems

Biological control agents such as bacteria and ciliates were tested alone and in combination for their abilities to decrease densities of the warm-weather cyanobacterium, Microcystis aeruginosa, and the cold-weather centric diatom, Stephanodiscus hantzschii. The growth of Microcystis aeruginosa was effectively suppressed by the algicidal bacterium, Streptomyces neyagawensis, and the predator heterotrich ciliate, Stentor roeselii. However, co-treatment increased the algal density rather than decreasing it, suggesting that Streptomyces neyagawensis and Stentor roeselii have an antagonistic relationship. Additional experiments revealed that the density of Stephanodiscus hantzschii was effectively reduced by the bacterium, Pseudomonas putida, and by the abovementioned strain of Stentor roeselii. Co-treatment had a greater antialgal effect than treatment with either bio-agent alone, indicating that the two act synergistically. These results suggest the potential antialgal efficacy of treatments with multiple biological control agents, providing new insight that may be useful for the bioremediation of nuisance algal blooms in freshwater.
Fall diel diet composition of American eel (Anguilla rostrata) in a tributary of the Hudson River, New York, USA

American eel (Anguilla rostrata), a once common species, is now in decline throughout much of its native range in North America. There is little information on the role of American eel in river food webs. A better understanding of the diet and ecological role of American eel will help in the conservation of this important species. During autumn 2009, eel and aquatic invertebrate samples were collected from Hannacroix Creek, a tributary of the Hudson River, in Albany and Greene counties, New York, USA. Eel diet was analyzed by the eel size and time period (day or night). A high proportion of eel stomachs were empty (73%). Eel diets varied among size classes and day and night feeding periods (p = 0.001). Diet overlap was significant between small and medium eels caught both during the day (α = 0.71) and at night (α = 0.84). Nocturnal diet and nocturnal invertebrate samples were similar (α = 0.65), indicating a preference for bottom feeding during the night. Mayfly nymphs were the major prey consumed in each period by all size classes. Among eels that fed, night-feeding eels had the greatest stomach weight (as a percent of total body weight). The swim-bladder parasite, Anguillicoloides crassus, was also observed in eels of all size classes with nearly 50% afflicted.
Mutation of the Tobacco Mosaic Tobamovirus 126- and 183-kDa Proteins: Effects on Phloem-Dependent Virus Accumulation and Synthesis of Viral Proteins

The masked and U1 strains of tobacco mosaic tobamovirus differ in symptom phenotype and in phloem-dependent accumulation in tobacco. The symptom phenotype is determined by eight amino acids in the 126- and 183-kDa proteins that differ between the two strains. In this study, slow phloem-dependent accumulation of the masked strain was shown to be determined by these same eight amino acids, but some symptomatically severe mutants altered at specific positions within the eight amino acids were inefficient in phloem-dependent accumulation. Therefore, the appearance of severe symptoms does not require rapid phloem-dependent accumulation. There was no consistent relationship between the accumulation of virus coat protein, movement protein, or 126- and 183-kDa protein in inoculated protoplasts and the efficiency of phloem-dependent accumulation in stem tissue. Therefore, the difference in phloem-dependent accumulation between the masked strain, its mutants, and the U1 strain in most instances resulted from the fu.
PHOTOSYNTHETIC PERFORMANCE, LIGHT ABSORPTION, AND PIGMENT COMPOSITION OF MACROCYSTIS PYRIFERA (LAMINARIALES, PHAEOPHYCEAE) BLADES FROM DIFFERENT DEPTHS 1

Macrocystis pyrifera (L.) C. Agardh is a canopy‐forming species that occupies the entire water column. The photosynthetic tissue of this alga is exposed to a broad range of environmental factors, particularly related to light quantity and quality. In the present work, photosynthetic performance, light absorption, pigment composition, and thermal dissipation were measured in blades collected from different depths to characterize the photoacclimation and photoprotection responses of M. pyrifera according to the position of its photosynthetic tissue in the water column. The most important response of M. pyrifera was the enhancement of photoprotection in surface and near‐surface blades. The size of the xanthophyll cycle pigment pool (XC) was correlated to the nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) of chl a fluorescence capacity of the blades. In surface blades, we detected the highest accumulation of UV‐absorbing compounds, photoprotective carotenoids, ΣXC, and NPQ. These characteristics were important responses that allowed surface blades to present the highest maximum photosynthetic rate and the highest PSII electron transport rate. Therefore, surface blades made the highest contribution to algae production. In contrast, basal blades presented the opposite trend. These blades do not to contribute significantly to photosynthetate production of the whole organism, but they might be important for other functions, like nutrient uptake.
Risk and food: environmental concerns and consumer practices

Summary Environmental risks related to food consumption produce needs among consumers to handle such risks through their consumption practices. Consumers’ ways of coping with risks are dependent on the social relations of everyday life, of which consumption practices are a part. Risk-handling in food consumption is socio-culturally broader than the cognitive rationality assumed in expert knowledge and administrative procedures on risk and risk-handling. Likewise, risk-handling in food consumption is also characterized by ambivalences. The objective of the article is to show that an important social and cultural source of ambivalence in consumers’ handling of risk in food consumption comes from food consumption practices being caught in the tension between desire and control. The article proposes a heuristic theoretical device, called ‘the contested space of the body’, which is used to discuss the bodily dimension of consumer risk-handling. This is based on a Danish empirical study of parents with small children. A typology of consumers’ riskhandling is presented which diAers from traditional typologies of consumer segments by allowing for overlaps and shifts between the individual positions in the typology. The three types of risk-handling are the worried, the irritated and the pragmatic. The results suggest that in worried risk-handling control marginalizes desire, in irritated risk-handling desire is openly in conflict with control, and in pragmatic risk-handling relief from the contested space of the body is attempted.
Microrefuges from drying for invertebrates in a seasonal wetland

Seasonally intermittent freshwater environments show large temporal changes in area and environmental conditions (which may be harsh). We investigated whether microhabitats that retain moisture could provide a refuge during drying in a seasonal wetland. We investigated occupancy by invertebrates of three potential microrefuge types: surface depressions, shallow cracks and deeper fissures in the sediment of a wetland in Western Australia. Our aims were to determine whether the assemblages occupying these microrefuges differed and whether they changed as the wetland dried and reflooded. Ten microrefuges of each type were sampled for invertebrates, sediment and temperature during each of three hydrological phases: the damp phase (surface water absent but sediment moist), the dry phase (groundwater at its lowest level) and the reflooded phase (surface water present). Sediment samples taken from each microrefuge in the damp and dry phases were reflooded in the laboratory to reveal species aestivating or present as eggs, and sediment organic matter content was measured. Sediment organic matter content did not change between wetland phases. The invertebrate assemblage in the microrefuges showed almost complete species turnover between phases. Invertebrate composition differed between microrefuges, and temperature in the deeper fissures was on average >10 °C lower than in surface depressions and shallow cracks. Microcrustaceans and gastropods survived the drier months as resting stages in the microrefuges and either emerged or hatched from eggs upon reflooding. Several species, including isopods and caddisflies, were collected only from cracks and fissures as the wetland dried. During drying, a high diversity of carnivorous species was observed in the microrefuges. Sediment microrefuges apparently underpin resistance to drought by invertebrates in South Lake. Those species that depend on sediment fissures to survive may be threatened by the declining groundwater table in the region. Changes to wetland hydrology and other human activities that affect wetland sediment or vegetation will affect the range of microrefuges available to invertebrates to survive drying and may thus alter wetland biodiversity.
Sabeeha Merchant[OPEN]

If you had told young Sabeeha that she would become editorin-chief of The Plant Cell, the world’s leading publication for the plant sciences, and work alongside Nobel prize winners at the University of California, Berkeley, she would have ignored you before turning back to reading her latest novel. Which is just as it should be, when you’re 12. Truth be told, she might have dismissed any foretelling of an academic career in the sciences, and muchof thepath that ledher toacademiawaspavedbyaseriesof fortunate events, not unlike the circumstances surrounding the rise of her laboratory’smain focus of research to prominence, the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
Path analysis for kernel traits associated with grain mould resistance in food type sorghum

Abstract This study was carried out with the following objectives: (1) to determine the correlation and compensatory effects among seed and grain traits under grain mould incidence (GMI) and (2) to determine the direct and indirect effect of these kernel traits on seed germination and seedling vigour through the use of path-coefficient analysis. This analysis was applied to data from the cross between RT × 430 and Sureño, grain mould susceptible and resistant lines respectively. Seeds from six generations (P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1P1 and BC1P2) were planted at four Texan locations. Results indicate that an increase of GMI led directly to a decrease of grain size, grain density, seed germination, seedling vigour and test weight. Grain density had the highest negative and floury endosperm the highest positive correlation with GMI. Breeding and management practices that maximize grain density should enhance grain mould resistance and improve seed germination and seedling vigour.
Lipopolysaccharides Possessing Twol-Glycero-d-manno-heptopyranosyl-α-(1→5)-3-deoxy-d-manno-oct-2-ulopyranosonic Acid Moieties in the Core Region

The carbohydrate backbone of the core-lipid A region was characterized from the lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) of the plant-pathogenic bacterium Burkholderia caryophylli. For the first time, the presence of two moieties ofl-glycero-d-manno-heptopyranosyl-α-(1→5)-3-deoxy-d-manno-oct-2-ulopyranosonic acid was identified in a core region, which is of particular interest with regard to the biosynthesis of this and of LPSs in general. The LPSs of B. caryophylli were degraded by mild hydrazinolysis (de-O-acylation), treatment with 48% aqueous HF at 4 °C (cleavage of phosphate groups and destruction of the O-specific polysaccharides), reduction with NaBH4, and de-N-acylation utilizing hot KOH. The major oligosaccharide representing the carbohydrate backbone of the core region and lipid A was isolated by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography. Its analysis employing compositional and methylation analyses, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry, and1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy applying various one-dimensional and two-dimensional experiments identified the following structure. STRUCTURE I All sugars are pyranoses and α-linked, if not stated otherwise. Hep isl-glycero-d-manno-heptose, Kdo is 3-deoxy-d-manno-oct-2-ulosonic acid.
Binding of Anti-CD23 Monoclonal Antibody to the Leucine Zipper Motif of FcεRII/CD23 on B Cell Membrane Promotes Its Proteolytic Cleavage

In the present study we have compared the binding of two monoclonal antibodies to CD23, EBVCS1 and mAb25, which recognize the stalk and the lectin domain, respectively, on the CD23 molecule. At 4 °C, EBVCS1 binds to about 10% of the receptors recognized by mAb25 on the B cell surface. At 37 °C, whereas mAb25 reaches its maximal binding within a few seconds, EBVCS1 requires 60 min to bind to the same extent. Stabilization of the oligomeric structure of CD23 with IgE strongly affects in a dose-dependent fashion the number of binding sites seen by EBVCS1 but not thet 1/2 to reach them, suggesting that EBVCS1 binds to the coiled coil region through an allosteric mechanism. EBVCS1 rapidly down-modulates the membrane CD23 expression with a coincident increase of CD23-soluble fragments in the culture medium, an effect that is inhibited by IgE. In contrast, mAb25, as well as IgE, protects CD23 from proteolytic cleavage and stimulates its endocytosis. These results suggest that EBVCS1 unravels the coiled coil structure of CD23, rendering it more susceptible to proteolytic attack. This supports the oligomeric model proposed previously (Gould, H., Sutton, B., Edmeades, R., and Beavil, A. (1991) Monogr. Allergy 29, 28–49). The biological significance of these observations is discussed.
Effects of tomato spotted wilt virus isolates, host plants, and temperature on survival, size, and development time of Frankliniella occidentalis

Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) replicates in both its plant hosts and its thrips vectors. Replication of TSWV within thrips suggests the potential for pathological effects that could affect the fitness of its vectors directly, whereas infection of the plant may alter its suitability as a host for thrips development. This study was undertaken to examine the influence of TSWV isolate, host plant, and temperature on potential direct and host‐mediated effects of virus infection of the thrips and the plant on Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), an important vector of TSWV. Neonate F. occidentalis were reared to adult eclosion on excised foliage of Datura stramonium (L.) (Solanaceae) or Emilia sonchifolia (L.) (Compositae) infected with either the CFL or RG2 isolate of TSWV, or not infected. Effects of the TSWV isolates and host plants on thrips were measured at 18.3, 23.9, and 29.4 °C. Results demonstrate significantly improved survival and a small but significant decrease in development time of F. occidentalis on TSWV‐infected plants. These effects resulted from the combined influence of the direct effects of the virus on infected thrips and plant‐mediated effects resulting from virus infection of the thrips’ host plant. Our results extend previous findings and help to explain inconsistencies among previously published reports by demonstrating that the manifestation and magnitude of effects of TSWV on F. occidentalis are dependent on host plant, virus isolate, and temperature.
Metabolic consequences of exercise in organs of rainbow trout

The effects of exhaustive swimming on a number of metabolic parameters were assessed in six organs of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Glycogen phosphorylase was activated in four organs (liver, gill, heart, and white skeletal muscle), the largest increases in phosphorylase a activity being 5.3- and 6-fold in liver and white muscle, respectively. Exhausted fish showed elevated lactate levels in all organs except brain with absolute increases of about 12 μmol/g wet weight in white and red skeletal muscles but only about 1 μmol/g in internal organs. ATP content dropped dramatically in skeletal muscles after exercise but remained constant in other organs. Fructose-2,6-bisphosphate levels rose in liver and brain but dropped in gill and heart during exercise. Kinetic properties of trout liver 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase and pyruvate kinase were assessed in control versus exhausted fish. Neither enzyme showed changes in substrate affinities, ion cofactor affinities, or sensitivities to metabolite inhibitors or activators as a result of exercise, giving evidence that these liver enzymes (unlike glycogen phosphorylase) were not modified by reversible protein phosphorylation in response to muscle exercise. Exhaustive exercise also resulted in major changes in the levels of various free amino acids in trout organs. Alanine content rose by 9–11 μmol/g in heart, gill, and brain. Glycine increased by 12 μmol/g in white muscle and by 0.4–2 μmol/g in liver, heart, and gill. Several organs also showed significant changes in glutamate and glutamine contents and free histidine content increased in others, most notably by 2.8 μmol/g in white muscle. Organ-specific patterns of response to the exercise stress are indicated.