Characterization of the Endophyte Mycobiome in Cowpea (Vigna Unguiculata) Using Illumina Sequencing

Cowpea is an important crop for small-scale farmers in poor areas, but is also being developed for commercial agriculture as a possible substitute for commercial legumes. Endophytic fungi are omnipresent and play crucial but diverse roles in plants. This study characterized the endophyte component of the cowpea mycobiome from leaves, main and crown stems, and roots using Illumina MiSeq of the ITS2 region of the ribosomal operon. Ascomycetes exhibited the highest diversity, with Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) assigned as Macrophomina, Cladosporium, Phoma, Fusarium and Cryptococcus, among the most dominant genera. The highest fungal species richness was found in roots followed by leaves. Certain MOTUS showed preferential colonization patterns for above or below ground tissues. Several MOTU generic groups known to include phytopathogenic species were found, with relative abundances ranging from high to very low. Phylogenetic analyses of reads for some MOTUs showed that a level of identification could be obtained to species level, while the absences of other species, including phytopathogens, could be shown. This is the first study that adopted a holistic metagenomic typing approach to study the fungal endophytes of cowpea, a crop that is so integral for low-income households of the world.

Synoptic Overview of Exotic Acacia, Senegalia and Vachellia (Caesalpinioideae, Mimosoid Clade, Fabaceae) in Egypt

For the first time, an updated checklist of Acacia, Senegalia and Vachellia species in Egypt is provided, focusing on the exotic species. Taking into consideration the retypification of genus Acacia ratified at the Melbourne International Botanical Congress (IBC, 2011), a process of reclassification has taken place worldwide in recent years. The review of Acacia and its segregates in Egypt became necessary in light of the available information cited in classical works during the last century. In Egypt, various taxa formerly placed in Acacia s.l., have been transferred to Acacia s.s., Acaciella, Senegalia, Parasenegalia and Vachellia. The present study is a contribution towards clarifying the nomenclatural status of all recorded species of Acacia and its segregate genera. This study recorded 144 taxa (125 species and 19 infraspecific taxa). Only 14 taxa (four species and 10 infraspecific taxa) are indigenous to Egypt (included now under Senegalia and Vachellia). The other 130 taxa had been introduced to Egypt during the last century. Out of the 130 taxa, 79 taxa have been recorded in literature. The focus of this study is the remaining 51 exotic taxa that have been traced as living species in Egyptian gardens or as herbarium specimens in Egyptian herbaria. The studied exotic taxa are accommodated under Acacia s.s. (24 taxa), Senegalia (14 taxa) and Vachellia (13 taxa). Identification keys for the studied genera, generic groups and species have been provided using different taxonomic criteria. For each taxon, the validated name with the first citation followed by relevant Egyptian citations, typification, synonyms, distinctive features, origin, ecology (when available), utilisation and selected specimens are provided. The study revealed the presence of 22 newly recorded taxa in Egypt. Additionally, a list of excluded, unvalidated and unresolved names is given.

New genera and species of Ptiliini (Coleoptera: Ptiliidae) with a tribal revision and key to genera

The list of genera in the polyphyletic tribe Ptiliini, used as a dumping ground for difficult genera of Ptiliidae by several generations of Coleopterists, is brought up to date with recent additions and omissions, and figures and a key to the genera are provided to aid their determination. 29 new species and 3 new genera are added. It was hoped to be able to determine some generic groups within the tribe but that work must depend on further cladistical and DNA research in the future. The new genera are Cingulum gen.n., Iloptila gen.n. and Numa gen.n. and the new species are Actidium cooteri sp.n., A. minimum sp.n., A. nigrum sp.n., Cingulum orsippus gen.n. sp.n., Dipentium bicolor sp.n., D. punctissimum sp.n., D. spinosum sp.n., Gomyella intricata sp.n., G. nicoya sp.n., G. profunda sp.n., G. tripla sp.n., Greensladella cicra sp.n., G. similata sp.n., Iloptila modica gen.n. sp.n., Micridium circulatum sp.n., M. dembickyi sp.n., M. hirsutum sp.n., M. juara sp.n., M. novum sp.n., Millidium karnatakense sp.n., Numa carmen gen.n. sp.n., Ptiliodes kanchiporam sp.n., Ptiliola bennetti sp.n., P. nigra sp.n., P. peruviensis sp.n., Ptilium lisae sp.n., P. longum sp.n., P. pallidulum sp.n. and P. piceum sp.n.

Genetic Diversity of Cercospora arachidicola Associated with Peanut Early Leaf Spot in Shandong Province of China

Early leaf spot caused by Cercospora arachidicola is the major destructive foliar disease of cultivated peanut in Shandong province of China. Understanding the genetic variability of this pathogen is crucial for evolutionary comprehension and breeding strategies. The genetic diversity of C. arachidicola isolates obtained from different peanut growing regions of Shandong province were assessed using inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers. Thirteen ISSR primers generating polymorphic, clearly discernible and reproducible patterns were screened out for further analysis. A total of 113 distinct bands were amplified, of which 85.8% were polymorphic, suggesting high values of polymorphism among the isolates. Cluster analysis using UPGMA indicated that all the isolates tested were separated into three distinct generic groups. The genetic relatedness of C. arachidicola isolates roughly coincided with geographical origin. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that the observed genetic variation mainly existed within populations, and the variation among populations was weak. This study characterized the genetic diversity of C. arachidicola isolates for the first time, which will provide necessary genetic information for effective management practices. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers © 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers© 2021 Friends Science Publishers©

The Apai-Bori Union in the context of Basmyl-Karluk relations (from the experience of legend analysis)

The historical legend of «The origin of the Apai-Bori Union» which is preserved in the Kazakh oral tradition gives а specific information about the grandiose migrations from the east to the west of Central Asia in the IX-XI centuries. In the context of the image of the man «in a wolfskin coat and on a gray horse», we see the tribal group of Bori (in Chinese texts also known as Fule), one of the militant components of the ancient Turkic khaganates, who retreated to the west after heavy wars on the banks of the Orkhon. Second, through the image of the Apai, and her son who was born from the karakesek, we have already penetrated the Karluk problem. Karakeseks are connected with karluks. Now they are part of the Kazakh and Kyrgyz communities. Third, during the movement to the west, the Karluks began to develop the territories freed from the Huns. Perhaps, they inherited their political values, which later helped them to create the empire of Karakhan. Fourth, it can be assumed that the fact there are generic groups of Siberian shors among the Karakesek is probably revealed through the analysis of name of the native leader of the karakeseks of Bolat Kozha. In fact, Bolat and Karluk (Karaluk) are similar synonymous. Both of these names were applied in the past to steel from which highest quality cutting weapons were prepared. The Siberian Shor people’s sacred attitude to blacksmithing has been preserved to this day. Fifth and last, the story of the Apai-Bori union in the Kazakh genealogy is an excellent source that allows researchers to study problems associated with the migration of the Basmyl-Karluk tribes. All of the above is disclosed in this article.

A Survey of Load Balancing and Implementation of Clustering-Based Approach for Clouds

Background: Generally, it is observed that there is not a single algorithm that classifies the task using Quality of Service (QoS) parameters requested by the task but instead focuses on classifying resources and balancing the task's using the availability of resources. In past literature, authors divided the load balancing solutions in three main parts workload estimation, decision making, task transferring. Workload estimation deals with identifying requirements for the incoming tasks on the system. Decision making is done to analyze that whether or not load balancing should be performed for the given node. If the decision for load balancing has been made then third step deals with transferring task to appropriate node to reach a saturation point where the system will be in the stable state. Objective: To address this issue, our approach is more focused upon on workload estimation and its main objective is to cluster the incoming heterogeneous task into generic groups. Another issue for this approach is that the client demand varies for the number of tasks. Thus, some attributes may be much more critical to a user then the others and this demand changes from user to user. Method: This paper classify the tasks using QoS parameters and focused on work-load estimation. The main objective is to cluster the incoming heterogeneous task into generic groups. For this, K-Medoid based clustering approach for cloud computing is devised and implemented. This approach is then compared with its different iterations to analyses the workload execution more deeply. Results: The analysis of our approach is computed using cloudsim simulator. Results and computations shows that the data is very uneven in initial times, as some clusters have only four elements and others are having much more elements. Whereas after the 20th iteration data observed is more normally balanced, so the clusters formed after 20th iteration were more stable than clusters formed initially i.e. 1st iteration. The number of iterations is also minimized to do unnecessary clustering as after a few steps the changes in medoids are very less. Conclusion: A brief survey of various load balancing techniques in cloud computing is discussed. These approaches are meta-heuristic in nature and have complex behavior and can be implemented in cloud computing. In our paper, K-Medoid based clustering approach for identifying the task into similar groups has also been implemented. Implementation is done on cloudsim simulation package provided by Cloud Labs, which is a java based open source package. The results obtained in our approach are limited to classification of tasks into various clusters. It would also useful where new task arrives and simply assign it to a VM that was created for some other element of that class. In future, this work can be expanded to create an effective clustering based model for load balancing.

Which One, Generic Vs Original Glivec Is More Effective in Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia?

Introduction:Generic imatinib formulations are increasingly being used as more affordable alternatives worldwide and a few studies have evaluated the safety and efficacy of these formulations prospectively. We have retrospectively analyzed our CML cohort in terms of first line treatment of Glivec versus generic imatinib. This study aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of generic imatinib products in chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia as first line treatment. Methods:We have retrospectively analyzed our CML cohort from January 2000 to December 2018 treated with either Glivec or one of generic imatinib formulations. All of our patients (with 1 exception) were initiated imatinib in chronic phase in less than 56 days from diagnosis. All of our patients were followed in accordance with European Leukemia Net (ELN) 2013 recommendations and national hematology association CML guidelines and response definitions were applied according to ELN 2013 criteria. Event free survival (EFS) was defined as the time between treatment initiation and either loss of hematological response, progression to accelerated phase (AP) or blastic phase (BP), or death from any cause. Progression free survival was defined as the time between treatment initiation and transformation to AP, BP or death while on imatinib. For statistical analyses SPSS version 21.0 was used. All p values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results:A total of 192 patients were analyzed comparing 102 (53.1 %) patients on Glivec with 90 patients on (476.9 %) generic formulations. 99 (51.6 %) were female patients. The median age of our population was median 46 years (14-88 years) for Glivec and median 51 years (19-79 years) for generic group (p=0.01). Risk stratifications according to Sokal, Hasford and ELTS scores were run for both Glivec and generic formulation groups. Most of the patients had low risk according to Sokal (137, 71.4%) and Hasford (116, 60.4 %) but intermediate risk according to ELTS (113, 58.9 %) scoring systems. There was no statistically significant difference in the gender distribution, Sokal, Hasford, ELTS scores and ECOG between the two groups. The median time to initiate imatinib treatment was 23.5 (1- 156) days for Glivec group and 13 (1- 51) days generic group (p< 0.05). But the late onset of the treatment was not associated with treatment failure or death. The median follow up was 119.8 (3.7- 250.5) months for Glivec group and 43.6 (2- 150) months for generic groups, respectively (p< 0.05). This difference might be explained by the fact that Glivec has been on the market for about two decades. Similar rates of grade> 2 hematological and non- hematological toxicity were seen in Glivec (4.9 %) and generic groups (3.3 %), respectively (p> 0.05). The rates of treatment failure at 3 months were significantly higher in generic formulation (6.7 %) group than Glivec (2.9 %) group (p< 0.05). Also, the rates of treatment failure at 6 months were significantly higher in generic formulation (3.3 %) group than Glivec (0.9 %) group (p< 0.05). Optimal molecular response rate at 3 months was 76.5 % (n=78) for Glivec and 32.2 % (n=29) for generic groups (p< 0.001). Also, optimal molecular response rate at 6 months was 69.6 % (n=71) for Glivec and 45.6 % (n=41) for generic groups (p= 0.01). Median EFS was found significantly higher for Glivec group compared to generic group (168 mos (95% CI: 159-177 mos) vs 74.6 mos (95% CI: 56-93); p<0.001) (Figure). Conclusion: We found that complete hematological response rates at 3 and 6 months were similar in both groups, but in early phase of treatment the optimal response rates of Glivec group was statistical significantly higher than generic group. Generic group presented with a lower rate of optimal response at 3 months but 13.4 % improvement in optimal response rates was observed at six months. No significant difference in safety concerns was observed between the groups. We recommend that these results from single center should be clarified in a prospective, randomized study including larger population. Figure Disclosures Özcan: AbbVie: Other: Travel support, Research Funding; MSD: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Amgen: Honoraria, Other: Travel support; BMS: Other: Travel support; Jazz: Other: Travel support; Sanofi: Other: Travel support; Abdi Ibrahim: Other: Travel support; Janssen: Other: Travel support, Research Funding; Bayer: Research Funding; Celgene Corporation: Research Funding, Travel support; Takeda: Honoraria, Other: Travel support, Research Funding; Archigen: Research Funding; Roche: Other: Travel support, Research Funding. Beksac:Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau.

Efficacy and Safety of Generic Imatinib Compared to Glivec in Chronic Phase - Chronic Myeloid Leukemia-Single Center Retrospective Analysis

Introduction: Glivec, Imatinib (IM), first tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) has proven its efficacy and safety in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia - Chronic Phase (CML CP) in a large number of trials. In developing country like India Generic Imatinib formulations have been used recently as a more cost effective treatment, data on efficacy and safety of these drugs is sparse. Aim: To analyse and compare safety profile, the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) data of CML-CP patients receiving Glivec/Generic IM as first line therapy Method: A single centre retrospective analysis done on CML-CP patients who initiated treatment with either Glivec or Generic IM between July 2012 and July 2019 at Hemato-oncology Care Centre (HOCC) Vadodara India. Total 109 newly diagnosed CML-CP received IM as 400mg daily dose, dose was adjusted if significant cytopenia observed or in paediatric patients. Response assessment was made as per NCCN CML Version 1 2019 guidelines.Molecular monitoring of patients was done through BCR-ABL1 RQPCR, reported on international scale. Major Molecular Response (MMR) was considered when the ratio on international scale was less than 0.1% level or ≥ 3-log reduction in BCR-ABL1 mRNA from the standardized baseline, while Deep Molecular Response-MR4 was considered when the ratio on international scale was less than 0.01%.OS was measured from starting date of IM until to the date of death from any cause while on therapy or last seen.PFS was measured from starting date of IM to transformation to AP or BC or deaths while on therapy. Survival curves were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared with the log-rank test. Cox regression with Backward Wald Method, Chi-square test and t-test is applied using SPSS software version 21.0. A p-value <0.05 is considered to be statistically significant. Results: A Total 109 patients were analysed, received Glivec (47)43% or Generic IM (62)56%. The mean (SD) age was 42.2 years (13.3 years) in Glivec and 47.5 years (14.9 years) in the Generic IM group (P=0.06). There was male preponderance in both groups (Glivec 55%, Generic IM 62 %). Sokal score stratification in Glivec and Generic groups, was respectively: low risk 43%/40%; intermediate risk 36%/48% and high risk 21%/11% (P=0.08). The median follow‐up period was 36 months (range, 9-84). MMR was 61% and 38% in Glivec and Generic IM respectively(p=0.02), MMR was achieved in 40%,04%,11%,06% of Glivec and 29%,2%,5%,2% of Generic IM group patients, at 1st,2nd,3rd,4th year of treatment respectively(P=0.15).Deep Molecular Response-MR4 was significantly higher 40% in Glivec vs 23% in Generic IM group (P=0.01). Nearly 35% of patients were lost to follow up, 28% and 40% in Glivec and Generic IM group respectively(p=0.27). Reasons for drop out were - cost constraints, noncompliance, lack of understanding, lack of transport. Dose limiting cytopenia was observed in initial 3 months of treatment in 12% and 23 % in Glivec and Generic IM group respectively(P=0.28).The most common non haematological side effects in Glivec and Generic groups were skin hyperpigmentation 19%,17%, abdominal discomfort 16 %,11% ,Facial Puffiness 9%,5%, respectively(P =0.73). In each group 4% patients progressed to AP, managed with second generation TKI in Generic IM group and with increasing dose of Glivec to 600mg daily in Glivec group. Total 5% patients progressed to BC and died, 3% in Glivec vs 2% in Generic IM group. The risk factors for progression to AP or BC were high Sokal score, poor molecular response and dose limiting cytopenia. OS and PFS at 36 months were similar in Glivec and Generic IM (93.6% vs. 96.8% P=0.834) and (89.4% vs. 91.9%, P=0.839) respectively. Conclusion: Both the groups have shown similar OS and PFS at 36 months of median follow up, there was also no difference in the safety profile, meeting Generic IM unmet needs in developing country. However in view of higher MMR and Deep molecular response-MR4 in Glivec group, need long term follow up to determine its impact on outcome especially in reference to treatment free remission. Figure Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.