Short Communication. Virulence of barley leaf rust in the South of Russia in 2017-2019

Aim of study: To analyze the structure of Puccinia hordei populations by virulence in southern Russia during 2017-2019. Area of study: South of Russia, the leading Russian region for barley production where barley leaf rust is an important foliar disease. Material and methods: Uredinial samples of P. hordei were collected at the production sites of winter barley in the south of Russia. Single uredinial isolates (total 95) were tested for virulence with 17 differentials with Rph resistance genes. Main results: No isolates found virulent to the host line with the Rph13 gene. There was a decrease in the number of fungal isolates virulent to the host lines with Rph5 and Rph7 genes. In 2017 and 2019, isolates containing a large number of virulence alleles (from 11 to 15) prevailed. In 2018, isolates with low (1-5) and medium (6-10) frequency of virulent alleles prevailed, as well as avirulent isolates. The values of the Nei index via diversity showed high similarity of the pathogen populations in 2017-2018 (N = 0.05) and minor differences in 2017-2019 and 2018-2019 (N = 0.13 and 0.16, respectively). The greatest frequency of virulence alleles in accordance with the Nei (Hs) index was noted for the 2018 population (Hs = 0.36). For the 2017 and 2019 populations, this indicator was average (Hs = 0.29 and 0.20, respectively). Research highlights: Analysis of genetics of the P. hopdei population is important for the strategy of varietal distribution in the region and development of rust-resistant cultivars.

Short Communication: Incidence of insect pest on planted Shorea macrophylla at reforestation sites in Gunung Apeng National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia

Sidi MB, Wasli ME, Polly E, Jaffar ANNM, Kalu M, Sani H, Nahrawi H, Elias H, Omar D. 2021. Short Communication: Incidence of insect pest on planted Shorea macrophylla at reforestation sites in Gunung Apeng National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia. Biodiversitas 22: 5162-5168. Incidence of insect pest in Shorea macrophylla (de Vriese) P.S. Ashton had critical foliage damage in mono planting technique. The main objectives were to assess the foliage damage intensity of planted S. macrophylla by age stands and type of foliage damage. The insect pest attacks the foliage of S. macrophylla was determined. The study site was located at Gunung Apeng National Park (GANP), Sarawak, Malaysia, with planted S. macrophylla in enrichment planting at different years (planted in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 for age stand 6, 5, 4, and 3, respectively). The results showed that the degree of foliage damage decreases with the age stand of S. macrophylla tree. Therefore, foliage damage was suspected to be caused by insect pests. Among the common foliage damages observed was "hole damage" caused by insect order Lepidoptera. Although foliage damage was significant, the severity of the damage will "heal" as the age stand increases. Further investigation on other possible causes of these pest attacks should be initiated to find solutions that may hasten the growth of planted S. macrophylla for forest restoration.

Open Access in Geochemistry from Preprints to Data Sharing: Past, Present, and Future

In this short communication, we discuss the latest advances regarding Open Access in the earth sciences and geochemistry community from preprints to findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable data following the 14f session held at Goldschmidt conference (4–9 July 2021) dedicated to “Open Access in Earth Sciences”.

Short Communication: Mechanism and Prevention of Irreversible Trapping of Atmospheric He During Mineral Crushing

A pervasive challenge in noble gas geochemistry is to ensure that analytical techniques do not modify the composition of the noble gases in the samples. Noble gases are present in the atmosphere and are used in a number of manufacturing procedures and by laboratory equipment. Of particular concern is the introduction of atmospheric or laboratory noble gases to samples during preparation before samples are placed in a vacuum chamber for analysis. Recent work has shown the potential for contamination of crushed samples with air-derived He that is not released by placing the samples under vacuum at low temperature. Using pure He gas as a tracer, we show that the act of crushing samples to a fine powder itself can introduce He contamination, but that this is easily avoided by crushing under liquid or in an inert atmosphere. Because the He is trapped during crushing, the same concern does not extend to samples that are naturally fine-grained when collected. The degree of He contamination even from crushing samples to sizes smaller than typically used for geochronology is insignificant for samples at least 1 Ma and with more than 1 ppm U when the guidelines outlined here are followed.

Orally administered antigen can reduce or exacerbate pathology in an animal model of inflammatory arthritis dependent upon the timing of administration

Currently, treatments for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are focussed on treatment of disease symptoms rather than addressing the cause of disease, which could lead to remission and cure. Central to disease development is the induction of autoimmunity through a breach of self-tolerance. There is considerable research in RA focussed on antigens and approaches to re-establish antigen specific tolerance. A crucial step in this research is to employ appropriate animal models to test prospective antigen specific immunotherapies, preferably in the context of joint inflammation. In this short communication, we use our previously developed model of antigen specific inflammatory arthritis in which OVA-specific TcR tg T cells drive breach of tolerance to endogenous antigens to determine the impact that the timing of therapy administration has upon disease progression. Using antigen feeding to induce tolerance we demonstrate that administration prior to articular challenge results in a reduced disease score as evidenced by pathology and serum antibody responses. By contrast, feeding antigen after articular challenge had the opposite effect and resulted in the exacerbation of pathology. Although preliminary, these data suggest that the timing of antigen administration may be key to the success of tolerogenic immunotherapies. This has important implications for the timing of potential tolerogenic therapies in patients.

Reassessment of Thin-Layer Drying Models for Foods: A Critical Short Communication

Modeling the thin-layer drying of foods is based on describing the moisture ratio versus time data by using a suitable mathematical model or models. Several models were proposed for this purpose and almost all studies were related to the application of these models to the data, a comparison and selecting the best-fitted model. A careful inspection of the existing drying data in literature revealed that there are only a limited number of curves and, therefore, the use of some models, especially the complex ones and the ones that require a transformation of the data, should be avoided. These were listed based on evidence with the use of both synthetic and published drying data. Moreover, the use of some models were encouraged, again based on evidence. Eventually, some suggestions were given to the researchers who plan to use mathematical models for their drying studies. These will help to reduce the time of the analyses and will also avoid the arbitrary usage of the models.