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Objectives: To investigate if quantitative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements can predict genetic subtypes of non-gadolinium-enhancing gliomas, comparing whole tumour against single slice analysis.Methods: Volumetric T2-derived masks of 44 gliomas were co-registered to ADC maps with ADC mean (ADCmean) calculated. For the slice analysis, two observers placed regions of interest in the largest tumour cross-section. The ratio (ADCratio) between ADCmean in the tumour and normal appearing white matter was calculated for both methods.Results: Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) wild-type gliomas showed the lowest ADC values throughout (p < 0.001). ADCmean in the IDH-mutant 1p19q intact group was significantly higher than in the IDH-mutant 1p19q co-deleted group (p < 0.01). A volumetric ADCmean threshold of 1201 × 10-6 mm2/s identified IDH wild-type with a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 86%; a volumetric ADCratio cut-off value of 1.65 provided a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 92% (area under the curve (AUC) 0.9-0.94). A slice ADCratio threshold for observer 1 (observer 2) of 1.76 (1.83) provided a sensitivity of 80% (86%), specificity of 91% (100%) and AUC of 0.95 (0.96). The intraclass correlation coefficient was excellent (0.98).Conclusions: ADC measurements can support the distinction of glioma subtypes. Volumetric and two-dimensional measurements yielded similar results in this study.Key Points: • Diffusion-weighted MRI aids the identification of non-gadolinium-enhancing malignant gliomas • ADC measurements may permit non-gadolinium-enhancing glioma molecular subtyping • IDH wild-type gliomas have lower ADC values than IDH-mutant tumours • Single cross-section and volumetric ADC measurements yielded comparable results in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seventeen legume seed varieties belonging to ten types were analyzed for each of total proteins, trypsin inhibitors, vicilins and lectins to study the relationship between the presence of the storage seed proteins in legume seeds and resistance to infestation with the cowpea seeds beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) under no-choice bioassay at constant conditions of 29±1°C and 70 ± 5% RH. The tested types and varieties were cowpea (Fitriat, Forage and Kafr El-Sheikh), fababean (Aquadams, Giza 843 and Sakha 1), pea (Master B and Smooth) common bean (Bronco and Nepraska), lupin (Giza 1 and White lupin), chickpea (Giza 195), soyabean (Giza 111), lentil (Giza 9), guar (Guvar bean) and lablab (Egyptian kidney bean). To clarify the impact of the storage seed proteins in legume seed varieties and types on infestation with C. maculatus, larval period, pupal period, least and mean complete developmental periods, number of emerged adults per female, percentage of adults emergence and sex ratio (as percentage of males) were determined. Moreover, susceptibility index, infested seeds (%), mean number of holes per infested seed, seeds weight loss (%), weight of early emerged adult and number of dead individuals inside seeds per female were assessed as infestation parameters. The obtained results showed that, each of total proteins, trypsin inhibitors, vicilins and lectins of different tested legume seed varieties and types are negatively correlated with all aforesaid resistance parameters with the exception of those respecting larval and pupal durations, least and mean complete developmental periods and number of dead individuals inside seeds per female. As regards total proteins of varieties, larval period, least and mean complete developmental periods, susceptibility index and number of dead individuals inside seeds per female reached high significance degree at 0.01 level of probability, whereas pupal period obviously showed significant correlation coefficient at 0.05 level of probability. But, the other studied resistance parameters did not demonstrate significant correlations. Significancy test of correlation relationships respecting trypsin inhibitors clearly proved to be insignificant for all studied characters, except for those of larval stage period, least and mean developmental periods which cleared highly significant correlations and significant ones with susceptibility index, number of holes per infested seed and number of dead individuals inside seeds per female. All tested seed varieties of guar, lupin and common bean revealed completely linear inverse relationship between trypsin inhibitors and susceptibility to cowpea seeds beetle infestation indicating deterring effects for insect development. Also, vicilins content proved that simple correlation coefficient values regarding the abovementioned resistance parameters reached high significancy degree excepting those concerning larval stage period, percentage of infested seeds, seeds weight loss percentage and weight of emerged adult that showed significant correlation as well as insignificant ones were recorded with sex ratio as percentage of adult males and number of dead individuals inside seeds per female. All tested legume seed varieties of soyabean- Giza111 and lentil- Giza 9 revealed almostly linear inverse relationship between vicilins and susceptibility to cowpea seeds beetle infestation and showed retarding effects for insect development. As concerns lectins of the infested legume seed varieties, the correlation relationships proved to be highly significant with larval stage period, least and mean complete developmental periods, susceptibility index and number of dead individuals inside seeds per female, while in case of number of emerged adults per female, adults emergence percentage, number of holes per infested seed and seeds weight loss percentage the correlation was significant. The correlation of other resistance parameters did not attain significancy degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The saw-toothed grain beetle, Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.) is an important pest of many stored product foods. The effect of insect infestation on four various of whole food kinds as semi-dry date, dry date fruits, white sesame and reddish yellow sesame seeds as well as four food kinds of crushed seeds (chickpea, corn, rice and groundnut) as compared with standard diet (wheat flour, crushed wheat and dry yeast powder at 5:5:1, respectively) was investigated in the laboratory of Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Egypt. Insect parameters on the tested food kinds as regards to resistance were duration of developmental stages, number of F1 progeny, growth index and weight loss (%) after one month of storage. All tested parameters were significantly affected by food kinds except the duration of pupal stage in whole foods. The shortest mean insect complete developmental period was 19.85 days on standard diet, while the longest one was 29.18 days on whole reddish yellow sesame seeds and 35.05 days on crushed groundnut. Values of the growth index (GI) increased from 3.22 to 3.76 on whole reddish yellow sesame seeds and crushed chickpea, respectively compared to 4.64 on standard diet. The wet weight loss (%) ranged from 0.50 and 0.67% in whole sesame seeds (white and reddish yellow) and crushed groundnut, suscessively compared to11.17% in standard diet. The relative wet weight loss (%) in whole seeds reached its minimum (1.94%) in each of whole white and reddish yellow sesame seeds and reached its maximum (43.23%) in standard diet, while in crushed foods, the lowest value was 3.16% in crushed groundnut as compared with the standard diet which recorded the highest percent 52.76%. All tested foods either whole or crushed were infested with O. surinamensis and no completely immune food was found free from the insect infestation but the insect preferred crushed foods and some foods than another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The saw-toothed grain beetle, Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.) is considered one of the most serious insect pests which attack different stored products in all over the world. This study was carried out in the Laboratory of Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Egypt to study the susceptibility of six dry date, Phoenix dactylifera (L.) varieties (Malkabi, Skooty, Pertomoda, Shamia, Dekina and Gondella) to infestation with the saw-toothed grain beetle under non-choice and free-choice conditions. Parameters of evaluation among the tested varieties as regards resistance were mean complete developmental period, number of F1 emerged adults, susceptibility index and weight loss % after one and three months of storage. Results showed that the shortest mean complete developmental period of the insect was 28.33 days on Skooty variety, while the longest one was 33.67 days on Gondella variety in free--choice bioassay method. Dekina variety was the most preferred variety to the insect since their fruits produced the highest mean insect number of progeny (73.67 adults), whereas Skooty variety recorded the lowest mean (25.67 adults). Values of susceptibility index (SI) ranged between 4.38% for Gondella and 10.69% for Skooty. After one month of storage the percentage of wet weight loss ranged between 1.83 in Pertomoda and 10.83% in Malkabi, while after three months of storage the lowest rate was 5.83 % in Gondella variety and the highest one (25.67%) was detected in Malkabi variety. The relative wet weight loss percent reached the highest value (30.80%) in Malkabi variety and the lowest one was 5.20% in Pertomoda after one month of storage. After three months of storage, Malkabi date variety recorded the maximum value of the relative wet weight loss (28.84%), whereas the minimum value (6.55%) was recorded in Gondella variety. The results clear that all tested dry date varieties were infested with O. surinamensis and no immune variety was found free from the insect infestation with preferable some tested varieties to the insect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici attacks tomato plants and causes wilt disease. Fusarium Pathogenicity is including pectinases enzymes which enable the Fungal penetration into host cell wall. The present study is focused on using Computational tools such as Auto-Dock program for screening of inhibitors of endo and exopolygalacturonase enzymes. It based on Lamarckian Genetic Algorithm (LGA) that estimate the binding energy and inhibition constant as parameters to select the best binding. The binding energy and amino acids interactions for the selected inhibitors were compared with that of the enzyme substrate (polygalacturonic acid) Allium species such as onion plant have been used widely as antimicrobial and antifungal plants. It contains ranged between 1 and 5 % of non-protein sulfur amino-acids, including SE- Prop-1-enyl-L-cysteine S-oxide, S-3- Allylsulphinyl-L-alanine and S-Methylcysteine sulfoxide have satisfactory binding interactions and inhibition constant with endo and exopolygalacturonase. In the present study, these compounds were extracted from white onion bulb Giza 20 and detected in the onion extract LC/MS analysis. The Inhibitory effect of these compounds for exopolygalacturonase enzyme was confirmed experimentally by determination of the enzyme activity in the presence and the absence of these compounds. White onion extract 45% inhibition percentage of the exopolygalacturonase activity. The enzyme kinetic study showed increase in the Km value with stable V-max value in presence of 7μg/μL of the onion extract. Also, In-vitro experiment of inhibition of F. oxysporum growth in presence 20% and 40% of onion extract showed inhibition percentages of 47% and 53% respectively. The results concluded that onion extract inhibits Fusarium growth through inhibition of exo and endo polygalacturonase. The inhibitory effect of onion extract could be due to its contents of S-E-Prop-1- enyl-L-cysteine S-oxide, S-3-Allylsulphinyl-Lalanine and S-Methylcysteinesulphoxide, these compounds have excellent binding interactions and inhibition effects on both exo- and endopolygalacturonases enzymes of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Lycopersici. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative sequence analysis is a powerful tool to study homologous gene families, define conserved gene functions between orthologs, and identify lineage- and species-specific genes. Most annotations of newly sequenced genomes are based on similarity with sequences for which functional information is available. Apart from conserved sequences, inter-species differences provide important clues about evolutionary history and species-specific adaptations. In our study, two RNA-sequencing data sets of resistant variety of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.,) after infection with leaf rust fungus, Puccinia triticina and resistant variety of rice (Oryza sativa L.,) after infection with blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae were compared. 31768 up-regulated genes in wheat and 3902 upregulated genes in rice were filtered according to fold change more than 3 and removing variants, 250 upregulated genes of wheat and rice were aligned and phylogenetic tree was generated. The result of phylogenetic tree showed close relationship between ten aligned gene pairs of wheat and rice. Two pairs of aligned gene pairs were selected randomly, super family of these pairs were obtained, the result showed that each aligned pair of proteins shared the same protein family and the same annotation and all pairs participate in plant defense pathways. Then, the gene expression of the two pairs were validated by Real-time PCR after infecting wheat with Puccinia triticina and rice with Magnaporthe grisea. Each aligned pair of the two pairs shared the same manner of expression with few exceptions in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (F.) is a serious economic insect pest of many stored products, spices and dried fruits. This work was carried out in the Laboratory of Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Egypt, to study the effect of eight different botanical foods as insect diets (standard insect rearing diet, wheat germ, oat grains, cumin seeds, corn flakes, chamomile flowers, roselle flowers and fenugreek seeds) on some biological aspects of this insect, population growth after one and three months as well as percentage of weight loss. Also, the effect of the heavy insect infestation on certain chemical constituents of the tested foods as food moisture content, total carbohydrates, total proteins, ash, total fats and total fibers was determined and compared to control after three months of storage. The standard insect rearing diet and wheat germ were the best foods since the insect larval period was very short (14.45 and 15.36 days, respectively), while fenugreek was less preferred food as larval diet (30.55 days). Pupal period ranged from 7.18 to 11.81 days on wheat germ and corn flakes, respectively. The shortest complete developmental period was 30.67 days on wheat germ and the longest one was 53.21 days on fenugreek seeds. Values of the susceptibility index ranged from 3.03 to 8.08% for fenugreek seeds and wheat germ, respectively. The standard insect rearing diet and wheat germ were the best food kinds since they produced the highest mean progeny number after one and three months of storage (204.33, 151.67 and 3151.30, 4313.30 adults, respectively). Mean weight loss percentage ranged from 0.52 to 5.20% on corn flakes and oat grains after one month from insect infestation, respectively. However, it reached its maximum value (31.13%) on the standard insect rearing diet and minimum value on cumin seeds (1.23%) after three months. The highest relative weight loss per each adult insect was 23.75% on chamomile flowers and the lowest one valued 2.66% on corn flakes after one month of storage. After three months the value increased on corn flakes, standard insect rearing diet, roselle flowers and cumin seeds, while decreased on the other tested food kinds. A positive correlation was found between the heavy insect infestation on some foods and the chemical constituents as moisture content, total carbohydrate, total proteins, total fats, ash and total fibers. In contrast a negative one was recorded on the other foods. Positive correlation coefficients with all tested chemical constituents on sound and infested foods were detected by highly significant for total carbohydrates and total proteins as well as significant for total fats. The heavy insect infestation increased both the progeny number and the incurred weight loss and affected the chemical constituents of the different tested food kinds compared to control. All tested food kinds were infested by the cigarette beetle L. serricorne and no immune food was found free from the insect infestation with preferable some tested food kinds to the insect. Moreover, the heavy insect infestation after three months affected the chemical constituents of the tested food kinds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

USING OXO-PHYTODIENOATE REDUCTASE 7 (OPR7) GENE Although, hundreds of rice genes have been sequenced and there are many genes reported to have a vital role in gaining drought tolerance in rice, there is a clear limitation in the production and development of drought tolerant rice varieties (Todaka et al., 2015). Molecular analysis for the transgenic rice plants • Conventional PCR and Real time PCR analysis To confirm the presence of the TDNA containing the ORP7, PCR reactions were carried out on the putative transformed plantlets. The results of transgenic plantlets analysis showed that OPR7 gene was successfully integrated into some transgenic T0 and T1 plantlets of both rice cultivars. [Extracted from the article]

Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don is a medicinal plant rich in many alkaloids that are used in treatment of many diseases. It is unique in the production of vinblastine and vincristine compounds, which are used in treatment of several cancers. There are many genes in the biosynthesis pathway that produce these anti-cancer compounds, including the gene Crwrky1 which is a regulatory gene that codes for the transcription factor in the monoterpene indole alkaloid (MIA) pathway. In this study, the effect of yeast extract on crwrky1 gene expression levels from treated calli was studied. Quantitative RT-PCR (QRT-PCR) using SYBR Green I/ROX was used to analyze the changes in the expression level of this gene in response to different treatments of yeast extract. Crwrky1 expression increased to 3.6 folds in treated callus obtained under 0.4 mg/l yeast elicitor for 4 hours (YE2) treatment to compare with the control (untreated) callus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the functional genomic profiling of drought responsive Micro-RNA in Wheat. Topics discussed include information on the drought as the major abiotic stresses that affect wheat production; discussions on the post transcription regulation as the most powerful mechanisms of gene regulation; and the information on the study provides a comprehensive analysis of these miRNAs expressed in leaves of bread wheat in response to drought stress.

Introduction: Atrioesophageal fistula is an uncommon but often lethal complication of atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. The purpose of our study was to prospectively investigate the incidence of esophageal ulcerations (ESUL) as well as the impact of energy settings, radiofrequency lesion sets, and direct visualization of the esophagus on esophageal wall injury. Methods and Results: One hundred seventy-five patients, 57.1% paroxysmal AF, 78.5% male, underwent AF ablation and esophagoscopy 24 hours thereafter. We performed a 2:1:1-randomization as follows: Control group: Ablation without visualization of the esophagus using 25 Watt (W) power limit on the posterior wall, n = 70. Visualization and 15 W maximum: Ablation guided by barium visualization of the esophageal course using a limit of 15 W, n = 35. Visualization and 25 W “short burns”: Ablation guided by barium visualization using 25 W and “short burns” (max. 5 sec), n = 35. Patients performed under general anesthesia (n = 35) were separated as a nasogastric tube for visualization of the esophagus was used. In total, we found 2.9% of patients (5/175) presenting ESUL. Parameters discriminating the development of ESUL in a specific patient were type of AF, maximum energy delivered, usage of a nasogastric tube, and additional left atrial lines. Visualization of the esophageal course by barium contrast was not able to prevent ESUL. Conclusion: ESUL is a rare finding when using a reasonable energy maximum of 25 W with open-irrigated tip catheters at the posterior wall. Lower energy settings may increase safety without losing efficacy. Additional linear radiofrequency lesions increase the risk of ESUL development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]