Correction to: Rectal gas‑induced susceptibility artefacts on prostate diffusion‑weighted MRI with epi read‑out at 3.0 T: does a preparatory micro‑enema improve image quality?

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-021-03157-x

Preconceptual Priming Overrides Susceptibility to Escherichia coli Systemic Infection during Pregnancy

ABSTRACT Maternal sepsis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality during pregnancy. Escherichia coli is a primary cause of bacteremia in women and occurs more frequently during pregnancy. Several key outstanding questions remain regarding how to identify women at highest infection risk and how to boost immunity against E. coli infection during pregnancy. Here, we show that pregnancy-induced susceptibility to E. coli systemic infection extends to rodents as a model of human infection. Mice infected during pregnancy contain >100-fold-more recoverable bacteria in target tissues than nonpregnant controls. Infection leads to near complete fetal wastage that parallels placental plus congenital fetal invasion. Susceptibility in maternal tissues positively correlates with the number of concepti, suggesting important contributions by expanded placental-fetal target tissue. Remarkably, these pregnancy-induced susceptibility phenotypes are also efficiently overturned in mice with resolved sublethal infection prior to pregnancy. Preconceptual infection primes the accumulation of E. coli-specific IgG and IgM antibodies, and adoptive transfer of serum containing these antibodies to naive recipient mice protects against fetal wastage. Together, these results suggest that the lack of E. coli immunity may help discriminate individuals at risk during pregnancy, and that overriding susceptibility to E. coli prenatal infection by preconceptual priming is a potential strategy for boosting immunity in this physiological window of vulnerability. IMPORTANCE Pregnancy makes women especially vulnerable to infection. The most common cause of bloodstream infection during pregnancy is by a bacterium called Escherichia coli. This bacterium is a very common cause of bloodstream infection, not just during pregnancy but in all individuals, from newborn babies to the elderly, probably because it is always present in our intestine and can intermittently invade through this mucosal barrier. We first show that pregnancy in animals also makes them more susceptible to E. coli bloodstream infection. This is important because many of the dominant factors likely to control differences in human infection susceptibility can be property controlled for only in animals. Despite this vulnerability induced by pregnancy, we also show that animals with resolved E. coli infection are protected against reinfection during pregnancy, including having resistance to most infection-induced pregnancy complications. Protection against reinfection is mediated by antibodies that can be measured in the blood. This information may help to explain why most women do not develop E. coli infection during pregnancy, enabling new approaches for identifying those at especially high risk of infection and strategies for preventing infection during pregnancy.

Mechanisms of far-red light-mediated dampening of defense against Botrytis cinerea in tomato leaves

Plants detect neighboring competitors through a decrease in the ratio between red and far-red light (R:FR). This decreased R:FR is perceived by phytochrome photoreceptors and triggers shade avoidance responses such as shoot elongation and upward leaf movement (hyponasty). In addition to promoting elongation growth, low R:FR perception enhances plant susceptibility to pathogens: the growth-defense trade-off. Although increased susceptibility in low R:FR has been studied for over a decade, the associated timing of molecular events is still unknown. Here, we studied the chronology of FR-induced susceptibility events in tomato plants pre-exposed to either white light (WL) or WL supplemented with FR light (WL+FR) prior to inoculation with the necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea (B.c.). We monitored the leaf transcriptional changes over a 30-hr time course upon infection and followed up with functional studies to identify mechanisms. We found that FR-induced susceptibility in tomato is linked to a general dampening of B.c.-responsive gene expression, and a delay in both pathogen recognition and jasmonic acid-mediated defense gene expression. In addition, we found that the supplemental FR-induced ethylene emissions affect plant immune responses under WL+FR conditions. This study increases our understanding of the growth-immunity trade-off, while simultaneously providing leads to improve tomato resistance against pathogens in dense cropping systems.One-sentence summaryLow Red:Far-red ratio enhances tomato susceptibility towards the necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea via delayed early pathogen detection and dampening of jasmonic acid-mediated defense activation.

Characterization of Induced Susceptibility Effects of Soybean Aphid on Soybean

ABSTRACTSoybean aphid (SBA) is one of the major pests of soybean (Glycine max) in the United States of America. The main objective of this research was to characterize interactions between two different biotypes of soybean aphids in susceptible and resistant soybean cultivars. Demographic and transcriptomic responses of susceptible and resistant (Rag1) soybean cultivars to aphid feeding were investigated in soybean plants colonized by aphids (biotype 1) in the presence or absence of inducer population (biotype 2) at day 1 and day 11. Leaves tissues collected at day 1 and day 11 post infestation were used for RNA sequencing, and ten RNA datasets with 266,535,654 sequence reads were analyzed. In the presence of inducer population, we found 746 and 243 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in susceptible and resistant cultivars, respectively at day 1, whereas 981 and 377 DEGs were found in susceptible and resistant cultivars, respectively at day 11. Enrichment analysis showed a response to chitin, lignin catabolic and metabolic process, asparagine metabolic process, response to chemical unique to treatment with no inducer population, whereas, response to reactive oxygen species, photosynthesis, regulation of endopeptidase activity unique to treatment with inducer population. Furthermore, 14 DEGs were observed in Rag QTLs regions, particularly six DEGs in Rag1 containing QTL. The identified DEGs in the experiment in both resistant and susceptible cultivars during the interaction of soybean and SBA are potential candidates for furthering investigation into induced susceptibility.