Open-source computational simulation of moth-inspired navigation algorithm: A benchmark framework.

Olfactory navigation is defined as a task of a self-propelled navigator with some sensors capabilities to detect odor (or scalar concentration) convected and diffused in a windy environment. Known for their expertise in locating an odor source, male moths feature a bio-inspirational model of olfactory navigation using chemosensory. Many studies have developed moths-inspired algorithms based on proposed strategies of odor-sourcing.

Novel Mutation in the Acetohydroxyacid Synthase (AHAS), Gene Confers Imidazolinone Resistance in Chickpea L. Plants.

Chickpea ( L.) is an important crop in crop-rotation management in Israel. Imidazolinone herbicides have a wide spectrum of weed control, but chickpea plants are sensitive to acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS; also known as acetolactate synthase [ALS]) inhibitors.

A Sustainable Alternative for Postharvest Disease Management and Phytopathogens Biocontrol in Fruit: Antagonistic Yeasts.

Postharvest diseases of fruits caused by phytopathogens cause losses up to 50% of global production. Phytopathogens control is performed with synthetic fungicides, but the application causes environmental contamination problems and human and animal health in addition to generating resistance. Yeasts are antagonist microorganisms that have been used in the last years as biocontrol agents and in sustainable postharvest disease management in fruits.

Characterization of a Chickpea Mutant Resistant to Pers. and Forsk.

Chickpea ( L.) is a major pulse crop in Israel grown on about 3000 ha spread, from the Upper Galilee in the north to the North-Negev desert in the south. In the last few years, there has been a gradual increase in broomrape infestation in chickpea fields in all regions of Israel.

Early-life thermal stress mediates long-term alterations in hypothalamic microglia.

Stressful environmental events in early life have long-lasting consequences on later stress responses. We previously showed that heat conditioning of 3-day-old chicks during the critical period of heat-response development leads to heat vulnerability later in life. Here we assessed the role of early-life heat stress on the inflammatory response in the chick anterior hypothalamus (AH), focusing on hypothalamic microglia.

Outer retinal transduction by AAV2-7m8 following intravitreal injection in a sheep model of CNGA3 achromatopsia.

Sheep carrying a mutated CNGA3 gene exhibit diminished cone function and provide a naturally occurring large animal model of achromatopsia. Subretinal injection of a vector carrying the CNGA3 transgene resulted in long-term recovery of cone function and photopic vision in these sheep. Research is underway to develop efficacious vectors that would enable safer transgene delivery, while avoiding potential drawbacks of subretinal injections.

Top Three Strategies of ss(+)RNA Plant Viruses: Great Opportunists and Ecosystem Tuners with a Small Genome.

ss(+)RNA viruses represent the dominant group of plant viruses. They owe their evolutionary superiority to the large number of mutations that occur during replication, courtesy of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Natural selection rewards successful viral subtypes, whose effective tuning of the ecosystem regulates the interactions between its participants.

Integrated Pest Management for Stored Grain: Potential Natural Biological Control by a Parasitoid Wasp Community.

Insect contamination of stored grain is a major concern for the grain industry. Phosphine is currently the standard fumigant used to control insect pests in stored grain. However, some species and populations of insects that infest stored grain exhibit resistance to this fumigant and consumers are concerned about pesticide residues.

Determination of Leaf Internalization Varies Substantially According to the Method and Conditions Used to Assess Bacterial Localization.

In a previous study, comparing the internalization of serovar Typhimurium in various leaves by confocal microscopy, we have demonstrated that the pathogen failed to internalize tomato leaves. Numerous reasons may account for these findings, yet one such factor might be the methodology employed to quantify leaf internalization. To this end, we have systematically studied leaf localization of a Green-fluorescent protein-labeled strain in tomato, lettuce, and leaves by surface sterilization and enumeration of the surviving bacteria, side by side, with confocal microscopy observations.

Gene as a New Sex-Identification Marker in Fig ( L.) Is More Efficient Than .

Fig is an ancient gynodioecious fruit tree with females for commercial fruit production and hermaphrodites (males) sometimes used as pollen providers. An early sex-identification method would improve breeding efficiency. Three () genes were recruited from the genome using sequences from and .

Newly characterized bovine mammary stromal region with epithelial properties supports representative epithelial outgrowth development from transplanted stem cells.

Limited outgrowth development of bovine mammary epithelial stem cells transplanted into de-epithelialized mouse fat pads restricts advanced studies on this productive organ's development and renewal. We challenged the mouse-bovine incompatibility by implanting parenchymal adjacent or distant bovine stromal layers (close and far stroma, respectively) into the mouse fat pad to serve as an endogenous niche for transplanted stem cells. The close stroma better supported stem cell take rate and outgrowth development.

Low-Resolution Raman Spectroscopy for the detection of contaminant species in algal bioreactors.

Fouling of aquatic systems by harmful microalgal and cyanobacterial species is an environmental and public health concern. Microalgal bioreactors are engineered ecosystems for the cultivation of algal biomass to meet the increasing demand for alternative protein sources and algae-derived products. Such bioreactors are often open or semi-open ponds or raceways that are prone to contamination by contaminant photosynthetic microorganisms, including harmful cyanobacterial species (HCBs).

Nutrient Status of Cucumber Plants Affects Powdery Mildew ().

We examined the effects of applications of N, P, K, Mg, and Ca through an irrigation solution and spraying K, Ca, and Mg salts on cucumber powdery mildew (CPM, ) in potted plants and under commercial-like conditions. Spraying CaCl and MgCl, or KCl and KSO, decreased CPM. There were significant negative correlations between the anion-related molar concentrations of the salts and disease severity.

Age-Specific Modulation of Prefrontal Cortex LTP by Glucocorticoid Receptors Following Brief Exposure to HFD.

The corticolimbic circuits in general and the medial prefrontal cortex in particular, undergo maturation during juvenility. It is thus expected that environmental challenges in forms of obesogenic diet can exert different effects in juvenile animals compared to adults. Further, the relationship between glucocorticoids and obesity has also been demonstrated in several studies.

Occurrence of in Israel: Challenges for Disease Management and Crop Germplasm Enhancement.

is a soil-borne fungal pathogen infecting many important crop plants. The fungus, which can survive on crop debris for a long period of time, causes charcoal rot disease by secreting a diverse array of cell-wall degrading enzymes and toxins. thrives during periods of high temperatures and arid conditions, as typically occur in Israel and other countries with a Mediterranean climate.

Dynamic changes in tRNA modifications and abundance during T cell activation.

The tRNA pool determines the efficiency, throughput, and accuracy of translation. Previous studies have identified dynamic changes in the tRNA (transfer RNA) supply and mRNA (messenger RNA) demand during cancerous proliferation. Yet dynamic changes may also occur during physiologically normal proliferation, and these are less well characterized.

Optimization of T-DNA configuration with UBIQUITIN10 promoters and tRNA-sgRNA complexes promotes highly efficient genome editing in allotetraploid tobacco.

Combination of UBIQUITIN10 promoter-directed CAS9 and tRNA-gRNA complexes in gene-editing assay induces 80% mutant phenotype with a knockout of the four allelic copies in the T0 generation of allotetraploid tobaccos. While gene-editing methodologies, such as CRISPR-Cas9, have been developed and successfully used in many plant species, their use remains challenging, because they most often rely on stable or transient transgene expression. Regrettably, in all plant species, transformation causes epigenetic effects such as gene silencing and variable transgene expression.

Electrostatic adsorption and removal mechanism of ochratoxin A in wine via a positively charged nano-MgO microporous ceramic membrane.

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a very important mycotoxin. However, there are few studies on the removal of OTA in wine because of the great influence on product quality and difficulty in practical application. A nano-MgO-modified diatomite ceramic membrane (MCM) with a high positive charge was prepared and applied to remove OTA in wine.

Biotechnology of virus eradication and plant vaccination in phytobiome context.

A plant's associated biota plays an integral role in its metabolism, nutrient uptake, stress tolerance, pathogen resistance and other physiological processes. Although a virome is an integral part of the phytobiome, a major contradiction exists between the holobiont approach and the practical need to eradicate pathogens from agricultural crops. In this review, we discuss grapevine virus control, but the issue is also relevant for numerous other crops, including potato, cassava, citrus, cacao and other species.

New early phenotypic markers for cucumber green mottle mosaic virus disease in cucumbers exposed to fluctuating extreme temperatures.

Studies of early stages of cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) disease have been recently focused on plant molecular responses. However, extreme diurnal environmental temperatures, characteristic of global climate changes, could affect plant susceptibility and disease phenotype progression. Our studies of CGMMV disease progression, under simulated extreme temperature waves, have revealed two new disease initiation phenotypes that developed gradually, preceding severe symptom manifestations of post-recovery CGMMV systemic infections.

Nanodissection of Selected Viral Particles by Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy/Focused Ion Beam for Genetic Identification.

This study presents the development of a new correlative workflow to bridge the gap between electron microscopy imaging and genetic analysis of viruses. The workflow enables the assignment of genetic information to a specific biological entity by harnessing the nanodissection capability of focused ion beam (FIB). This correlative workflow is based on scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and FIB followed by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Detection of necrotrophic DNA marker of anthracnose causing Colletotrichum gloeosporioides fungi in harvested produce using surface plasmon resonance.

Agriculture and food crops monitoring is extremely important for securing the food supply chain to human society. Here, we developed a highly specific detection method for monitoring pathogenic fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides using necrotrophic DNA biomarker as the recognition element and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) as transducing mechanism in the prism coupling configuration. The sensor shows its response for a wide range of concentrations from pM to μM of target DNA sequence using a complementary DNA probe immobilized on the sensor surface, which could detect concentrations as low as 7 pM.

Tomato Divinyl Ether-Biosynthesis Pathway Is Implicated in Modulating of Root-Knot Nematode 's Parasitic Ability.

The role of the 9-lipoxygenase (9-LOX)-derived oxylipins in plant defense is mainly known in solanaceous plants. In this work, we identify the functional role of the tomato divinyl ether synthase (LeDES) branch, which exclusively converts 9-hydroperoxides to the 9-divinyl ethers (DVEs) colneleic acid (CA) and colnelenic acid (CnA), during infection by the root-knot nematode . Analysis of expression in roots indicated a concurrent response to nematode infection, demonstrating a sharp increase in expression during the molting of third/fourth-stage juveniles, 15 days after inoculation.

In Situ Grafting of Silica Nanoparticle Precursors with Covalently Attached Bioactive Agents to Form PVA-Based Materials for Sustainable Active Packaging.

Sustainable antibacterial-antioxidant films were prepared using in situ graftings of silica nanoparticle (SNP) precursors with covalently attached bioactive agents benzoic acid (ba) or curcumin (cur) on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The modified PVA-SNP, PVA-SNP-ba and PVA-SNP-cur films were characterized using spectroscopic, physicochemical and microscopic methods. The prepared films showed excellent antibacterial and antioxidant activity, and increased hydrophobicity providing protection from undesired moisture.

Development and Characterization of Integrated Nano-Sensors for Organic Residues and pH Field Detection.

Meeting global water quality standards is a real challenge to ensure that food crops and livestock are fit for consumption, as well as for human health in general. A major hurdle affecting the detection of pollutants in water reservoirs is the lapse of time between the sampling moment and the availability of the laboratory-based results. Here, we report the preparation, characterization, and performance assessment of an innovative sensor for the rapid detection of organic residue levels and pH in water samples.