Salicylic acid-dependent immunity contributes to resistance against Rhizoctonia solani, a necrotrophic fungal agent of sheath blight, in rice and Brachypodium distachyon.

Rhizoctonia solani is a soil-borne fungus causing sheath blight. In consistent with its necrotrophic life style, no rice cultivars fully resistant to R. solani are known, and agrochemical plant defense activators used for rice blast, which upregulate a phytohormonal salicylic acid (SA)-dependent pathway, are ineffective towards this pathogen.

Expression profiling of marker genes responsive to the defence-associated phytohormones salicylic acid, jasmonic acid and ethylene in Brachypodium distachyon.

Background: Brachypodium distachyon is a promising model plants for grasses. Infections of Brachypodium by various pathogens that severely impair crop production have been reported, and the species accordingly provides an alternative platform for investigating molecular mechanisms of pathogen virulence and plant disease resistance. To date, we have a broad picture of plant immunity only in Arabidopsis and rice; therefore, Brachypodium may constitute a counterpart that displays the commonality and uniqueness of defence systems among plant species.

[Development of a pre-dehydration assessment sheet: Research among elderly individuals who regularly visited an elderly-care institution].

Aim: In the present study, we defined the state of pre-dehydration (PD) as the suspected loss of body fluids, not accompanied by subjective symptoms, where the serum osmotic pressure ranges from 292 to 300 mOsm/kg・H2O. The goal of this study was to develop a PD assessment sheet based on the results of sensitivity and specificity testing among elderly individuals.

Methods: We evaluated the serum osmotic pressure in 70 subjects >65 years of age who regularly visited an elderly-care institution.