Publications by authors named "Julie Dawson"

Article Synopsis
  • Breeding biennial vegetable crops is complicated due to long cycles and the need to prevent premature flowering, which can make them unmarketable.
  • Gene banks hold vital genetic diversity that could enhance crop resilience, but many of these valuable accessions are underused because their traits, like bolting tendency, remain uncharacterized.
  • This study developed a method to identify and characterize predominantly biennial carrot germplasm, revealing significant untapped genetic diversity and establishing a system for breeders to select truly biennial plants while minimizing risks of incorporating unwanted annual traits.
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Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a significant complication of many systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs), although the clinical presentation, severity and outlook may vary widely between individuals. Despite the prevalence, there are no specific guidelines addressing the issue of screening, diagnosis and management of ILD across this diverse group. Guidelines from the ACR and EULAR are expected, but there is a need for UK-specific guidelines that consider the framework of the UK National Health Service, local licensing and funding strategies.

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Carrot ( L.) is a high value, nutritious, and colorful crop, but delivering carrots from seed to table can be a struggle for carrot growers. Weed competitive ability is a critical trait for crop success that carrot and its apiaceous relatives often lack owing to their characteristic slow shoot growth and erratic seedling emergence, even among genetically uniform lines.

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The native, perennial shrub American hazelnut (Corylus americana) is cultivated in the Midwestern United States for its significant ecological benefits, as well as its high-value nut crop. Implementation of modern breeding methods and quantitative genetic analyses of C. americana requires high-quality reference genomes, a resource that is currently lacking.

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Here an improved carrot reference genome and resequencing of 630 carrot accessions were used to investigate carrot domestication and improvement. The study demonstrated that carrot was domesticated during the Early Middle Ages in the region spanning western Asia to central Asia, and orange carrot was selected during the Renaissance period, probably in western Europe. A progressive reduction of genetic diversity accompanied this process.

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There is an increased demand for food-grade grains grown sustainably. Hard red winter wheat has comparative advantages for organic farm rotations due to fall soil cover, weed competition, and grain yields. However, limitations of currently available cultivars such as poor disease resistance, winter hardiness, and baking quality, challenges its adoption and use.

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The principal phenotypic determinants of market class in carrot-the size and shape of the root-are under primarily additive, but also highly polygenic, genetic control. The size and shape of carrot roots are the primary determinants not only of yield, but also market class. These quantitative phenotypes have historically been challenging to objectively evaluate, and thus subjective visual assessment of market class remains the primary method by which selection for these traits is performed.

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Geosmin, a degraded sesquiterpene molecule with earthy and musty odor, imbues table beet with its characteristic aroma. Geosmin is heritable and endogenously produced in table beet; its earthy aroma is sought by some consumers but deters others. Geosmin biosynthesis is catalyzed by a bifunctional geosmin synthase enzyme in diverse bacteria and fungi, but a mechanism for geosmin biosynthesis in plants has not been reported.

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The Or and CH genes are necessary for the accumulation of high amounts of β-carotene and other carotenoid pigments in carrot roots, in addition to the Y and Y genes. Carrot taproot color results from the accumulation of various carotenoid and anthocyanin pigments. Recently, the Or gene was identified as a candidate gene associated with the accumulation of β-carotene and other provitamin A carotenoids in roots.

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Root shape in carrot ( subsp. ), which ranges from long and tapered to short and blunt, has been used for at least several centuries to classify carrot cultivars. The subjectivity involved in determining market class hinders the establishment of metric-based standards and is ill-suited to dissecting the genetic basis of such quantitative phenotypes.

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The aim is to evaluate the published evidence on whether methotrexate (MTX) use causes progressive fibrotic interstitial lung disease (fILD). This PRISMA-compliant systematic review has been registered electronically with PROSPERO 2018 ID CRD42018087838, Centre of review and dissemination at the University of York. A total of 29 articles met the inclusion criteria.

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Objective: This study explores whether the prognosis of interstitial lung disease in rheumatoid arthritis (RA-ILD) has improved over time and assesses the potential influence of drug therapy in a large multicentre UK network.

Methods: We analysed data from 18 UK centres on patients meeting criteria for both RA and ILD diagnosed over a 25-year period. Data included age, disease duration, outcome and cause of death.

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Motivation: In 2005, researchers from the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement, INRAE) started a collaboration with the French farmers' seed network Réseau Semences Paysannes (RSP) on bread wheat participatory breeding (PPB). The aims were: (1) to study on-farm management of crop diversity, (2) to develop population-varieties adapted to organic and low-inputs agriculture, (3) to co-develop tools and methods adapted to on-farm experiments. In this project, researchers and farmers' organizations needed to map the history and life cycle of the population-varieties using network formalism to represent relationships between seed lots.

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Carrots are among the richest sources of provitamin A carotenes in the human diet, but genetic variation in the carotenoid pathway does not fully explain the high levels of carotenoids in carrot roots. Using a diverse collection of modern and historic domesticated varieties, and wild carrot accessions, an association analysis for orange pigmentation revealed a significant genomic region that contains the gene, advancing it as a candidate for carotenoid presence in carrot. Analysis of sequence variation at the locus revealed a nonsynonymous mutation cosegregating with carotenoid content.

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Increased use of intellectual property rights over plant germplasm has led to a complicated landscape for exchange among plant breeders. Our goal was to examine phenotypic and genotypic diversity present in commercially available carrot (Daucus carota L. var.

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Objectives: The prevalence of interstitial lung disease (ILD) in RA is ∼5%. Previous work identified increasing age, active articular disease and articular damage as risk factors for RA-associated ILD (RA-ILD). The roles of high-resolution CT (HRCT) and lung function testing in defining the nature and extent of pulmonary involvement have recently been explored.

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Since the domestication of crop species, humans have derived specific varieties for particular uses and shaped the genetic diversity of these varieties. Here, using an interdisciplinary approach combining ethnobotany and population genetics, we document the within-variety genetic structure of a population-variety of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in relation to farmers' practices to decipher their contribution to crop species evolution.

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In agricultural systems, biodiversity includes diversity within species and among species and provides many benefits for production, resilience and conservation. This article addresses the effects of a strategy of in situ conservation called dynamic management (DM) on population evolution, adaptation and diversity. Two French DM initiatives are considered, the first one corresponding to an experimental context, the second to an on-farm management.

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The current literature states the prevalence of methotrexate pneumonitis (MTX-P) to be 3.5-7.6%.

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