Characterizing phenotype variants of Cercosporidium personatum, causal agent of peanut late leaf spot disease, their morphology, genetics and metabolites.

Cercosporidium personatum (CP) causes peanut late leaf spot (LLS) disease with 70% yield losses unless controlled by fungicides. CP grows slowly in culture, exhibiting variable phenotypes. To explain those variations, we analyzed the morphology, genomes, transcriptomes and chemical composition of three morphotypes, herein called RED, TAN, and BROWN.

Assessing performance of simplified bioassays for soil-borne pathogens in smallholder systems of western Kenya.

Introduction: Soil-borne pathogens cause considerable crop losses and food insecurity in smallholder systems of sub-Saharan Africa. Soil and crop testing is critical for estimating pathogen inoculum levels and potential for disease development, understanding pathogen interactions with soil nutrient and water limitations, as well as for developing informed soil health and disease management decisions. However, formal laboratory analyses and diagnostic services for pathogens are often out of reach for smallholder farmers due to the high cost of testing and a lack of local laboratories.

Making the Case for Criticality: A Novel Approach to Nursing Product Education.

A newly integrated, large multistate healthcare system standardized its approach to nursing product education using a novel criticality process and forging collaborative partnerships with supply chain peers. The criticality assessment drives education interventions that align with expectations of modern learners, provide consistency, and improve stewardship of time and resources. Education is based on a product's complexity, impact to practice or workflows, and risk to the patient or nursing end user.

Point-of-Care Ultrasound of Post-acute COVID-19 Syndrome: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Introduction Acute COVID-19 patients can suffer from chronic symptoms known as post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is established in acute COVID, but its utility in PASC is unclear. We sought to determine the incidence of cardiac and pulmonary abnormalities with POCUS in patients with PASC in a COVID-19 recovery clinic.

Legionella-Induced Hepatitis: A Case Report.

Legionnaires' disease is caused by a potentially life-threatening infection with the opportunistic Gram-negative bacilli species , which is transmitted via inhalation or aspiration of water droplets. Legionnaires' commonly presents as atypical community-acquired pneumonia with accompanying diarrhea. Although hepatic and renal involvement are relatively uncommon, in this report, we present a case of pneumonia with acute hepatitis.

First draft genome and transcriptome of Cercosporidium personatum, causal agent of late leaf spot disease of peanut.

Objective: Two main fungal leaf spot diseases occur in peanut, namely early leaf spot (ELS) and late leaf spot (LLS), these cause a yearly average of $44 million losses. Limited genetic information, 3534 bp of sequencing, exists about the causal agent of LLS, Cercosporidium personatum (syn. Nothopassalora personata, syn.

Fusarioid community diversity associated with conifer seedlings in forest nurseries across the contiguous USA.

Introduction: Fusarioid fungi that cause damping-off and root diseases can result in significant losses to conifer crops produced in forest nurseries across the USA. These nurseries are vital to reforestation and forest restoration efforts. Understanding the diversity of Fusarioid fungi associated with damping-off and root diseases of conifer seedlings can provide an approach for targeted management techniques to limit seedling losses and pathogen spread to novel landscapes.

Regulatory T-cells and GARP expression are decreased in exercise-associated chikungunya viral arthritis flares.

Objective: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) causes persistent arthritis, and our prior study showed that approximately one third of CHIKV arthritis patients had exacerbated arthritis associated with exercise. The underlying mechanism of exercise-associated chikungunya arthritis flare (EACAF) is unknown, and this analysis aimed to examine the regulatory T-cell immune response related to CHIKV arthritis flares.

Methods: In our study, 124 Colombian patients with a history of CHIKV infection four years prior were enrolled and 113 cases with serologically confirmed CHIKV IgG were used in this analysis.

Soil fertility interactions with Sinorhizobium-legume symbiosis in a simulated Martian regolith; effects on nitrogen content and plant health.

Due to increasing population growth and declining arable land on Earth, astroagriculture will be vital to terraform Martian regolith for settlement. Nodulating plants and their N-fixing symbionts may play a role in increasing Martian soil fertility. On Earth, clover (Melilotus officinalis) forms a symbiotic relationship with the N-fixing bacteria Sinorhizobium meliloti; clover has been previously grown in simulated regolith yet without bacterial inoculation.

Whole genome analysis of the koa wilt pathogen (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. koae) and the development of molecular tools for early detection and monitoring.

Background: Development and application of DNA-based methods to distinguish highly virulent isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. koae [Fo koae; cause of koa wilt disease on Acacia koa (koa)] will help disease management through early detection, enhanced monitoring, and improved disease resistance-breeding programs.

and Sf9 Contaminant Databases to Increase Efficiency of Tandem Mass Spectrometry Peptide Identification in Structural Mass Spectrometry Experiments.

Filtering of nonspecifically binding contaminant proteins from affinity purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS) data is a well-established strategy to improve statistical confidence in identified proteins. The CRAPome (contaminant repository for affinity purification) describes the contaminating background content present in many purification strategies. However, full contaminant lists for nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid (NiNTA) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) affinity matrices are lacking.

Combination of Nucleic Acid and Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles: Optimization and Therapeutic Performance In Vitro.

Programmable nucleic acid nanoparticles (NANPs) with precisely controlled functional compositions can regulate the conditional activation of various biological pathways and responses in human cells. However, the intracellular delivery of NANPs alone is hindered by their susceptibility to nuclease activity and inefficient crossing of biological membranes. In this work, we optimized the internalization and therapeutic performance of several representative NANPs delivered with mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) tailored for efficient electrostatic association with NANPs.

Histone Chaperone Paralogs Have Redundant, Cooperative, and Divergent Functions in Yeast.

Gene duplications increase organismal robustness by providing freedom for gene divergence or by increasing gene dosage. The yeast histone chaperones Fpr3 and Fpr4 are paralogs that can assemble nucleosomes ; however, the genomic locations they target and their functional relationship is poorly understood. We refined the yeast synthetic genetic array approach to enable the functional dissection of gene paralogs.

A novel isolation protocol and probe-based RT-PCR for diagnosis of gastric infections with the zoonotic pathogen Helicobacter suis.

Background: Helicobacter suis is a very fastidious microorganism associated with gastritis, gastric ulcers, and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma in humans. In vitro isolation of this agent from human patients has so far been unsuccessful.

Materials And Methods: A probe-based real-time PCR (RT-PCR) for the rapid detection of H.

Confocal fluorescence microscopy to evaluate changes in adipocytes in the tumor microenvironment associated with invasive ductal carcinoma and ductal carcinoma in situ.

Adipose tissue is a dynamic organ that provides endocrine, inflammatory and angiogenic factors, which can assist breast carcinoma cells with invasion and metastasis. Previous studies have shown that adipocytes adjacent to carcinoma, known as cancer-associated adipocytes, undergo extensive changes that correspond to an "activated phenotype," such as reduced size relative to adipocytes in non-neoplastic breast tissue. Optical imaging provides a tool that can be used to characterize adipocyte morphology and other features of the tumor microenvironment.

Team-Based Development of Medical Devices: An Engineering-Business Collaborative.

There is a global shift in the teaching methodology of science and engineering toward multidisciplinary, team-based processes. To meet the demands of an evolving technical industry and lead the way in engineering education, innovative curricula are essential. This paper describes the development of multidisciplinary, team-based learning environments in undergraduate and graduate engineering curricula focused on medical device design.

Src Inhibition Blocks c-Myc Translation and Glucose Metabolism to Prevent the Development of Breast Cancer.

Preventing breast cancer will require the development of targeted strategies that can effectively block disease progression. Tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors are effective in addressing estrogen receptor-positive (ER(+)) breast cancer development, but estrogen receptor-negative (ER(-)) breast cancer remains an unmet challenge due to gaps in pathobiologic understanding. In this study, we used reverse-phase protein array to identify activation of Src kinase as an early signaling alteration in premalignant breast lesions of women who did not respond to tamoxifen, a widely used ER antagonist for hormonal therapy of breast cancer.