Characterization of Endophytic Microorganisms of Rice(Oryza sativa L.)Potentials for Blast Disease Biocontrol and Plant Growth Promoting Agents

One hundred twenty-five endophytic microorganisms were isolated from the roots,stems,and leaves of four prominent rice cultivars growing in temperate regions.Their potential to combat rice blast disease and promote plant growth was investigated.The dual culture tests highlighted the strong antagonistic activity of five fungal(ranging from 89%–70%)and five bacterial(72%–61%)endophytes.Subsequent examination focused on volatile compounds produced by selected isolates to counter the blast pathogen.Among these,the highest chitinase(13.76μg mL−1)and siderophore(56.64%),was exhibited by Aspergillus flavus,and the highest HCN production was shown by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia(36.15μM mL−1).In terms of growth promotion traits,Aspergillus flavus and Enterobacter cloacae excelled in activities viz,phosphorous solubilization,ammonia production,auxin and gibberellic acid production,and nitrogen fixation.The Identity of these endophytes was confirmed through molecular analysis as Trichoderma afroharzianum,Trichoderma harzianum,Penicillium rubens,Aspergillus flavus,Stenotrophomonas rhizophila,Stenotrophomonas maltophilia,Bacillus cereus,Enterobacter cloacae,and Bacillus licheniformis.Under greenhouse conditions,the highest disease control was shown by isolate Bacillus licheniformis and A.flavus with an inhibition of 79%,followed by S.rhizophila(77%)and T.afroharzianum(73%).The overall results of this study showed that Bacillus licheniformis and Stenotrophomonas rhizophila have great potential to be used as bio-stimulant and biocontrol agents to manage rice blast disease.

Effects of Placental Transfusion by Delayed Cord Clamping or Umbilical Cord Milking versus Immediate Cord Clamping on Neonatal Outcomes in Very Low Birth Weight Neonates

Background: Delayed cord clamping (DCC) and umbilical cord milking (UCM) are two recently advocated interventions to enhance placental transfusion at birth. DCC and MCM might increase blood volume and help neonates to transition from fetal to neonatal circulation. Objective: To evaluate the effects of delayed cord clamping (DCC), umbilical cord milking (UCM), and immediate cord clamping (ICC) on very low birth weight (VLBW) neonates. Methods: At our institution, ICC was routinely done until December, 2012 when it was replaced by DCC. UCM was implemented in March, 2015. Neonatal outcomes were compared among ICC, DCC, and UCM. Results: A total of 94 neonates met inclusion criteria. Comparing with ICC neonates, DCC and UCM neonates had higher hematocrits, fewer blood transfusions, and lower incidence of chronic lung disease at 36 completed weeks of gestation. All groups were similar in APGAR scores, vasopressor use, intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Conclusion: Compared to ICC, DCC and UCM appear to be more beneficial to VLBW neonates without apparent adverse risks.

A Genome Wide Association Study for Longevity in Cattle

Longevity is regarded as the most important functional trait in cattle breeding with high economic value yet low heritability. In order to identify genomic regions associated with longevity, a genome wise association study was performed using data from 4887 Fleckvieh bulls and 33,556 SNPs after quality control. Single SNP regression was used for identification of important SNPs including eigenvectors as a means of correction for population structure. SNPs selected with a false discovery rate threshold of 0.05 and with local false discovery rate identified genomic regions associated with longevity which were subsequently cross checked with the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database. This, to identify interesting genes in cattle and their homologue forms in other species. The most notable genes were SYT10 located on chromosome 5, ADAMTS3 on chromosome 6, NTRK2 on chromosome 8 and SNTG1 on chromosome 14 of the cattle genome. Several of the genes found have previously been associated with cattle fertility. Poor fertility is an important culling reason and thereby affects longevity in cattle. Several signals were located in regions sparse with described genes, which suggest that there might be several other non-identified genetic pathways for this important trait.

Loss expression of active fragile sites genes associated with the severity of breast epithelial abnormalities

Background WWOX and FHIT are two candidate tumor suppressor genes located in active fragile sites, the damage of which has been associated with the development of breast cancer. The association of the expression of these genes and the development of breast cancer has not been fully explored. We evaluated mRNA and protein expression of WWOX and FHIT in breast tissue with normal histological appearances, atypical ductal hyperplasia, ductal carcinoma in situ, and invasive cancer to see if a progressive decline in expression was present. Methods Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting were used to evaluate the specimens for mRNA and protein expression, including 28 specimens with normal tissue, 28 specimens with atypical ductal hyperplasia, 33 specimens with ductal carcinoma in situ, and 51 specimens with invasive ductal carcinoma. Results Compared with in situ and invasive cancer specimens, both normal and atypical hyperplasia specimens had greater rates of detectable mRNA （WWOX rate ratio=2.95, 95% CI 1.24-7.08; FHIT rate ratio=4.58, 95% CI 1.82-11.81） and Western blotting detectable protein （WWOX rate ratio=4.12, 95% CI 1.63-10.73; FHIT rate ratio=3.76, 95% CI 1.44-10.06）. For both proteins, differences between normal and atypical hyperplasia specimens and between in situ and invasive carcinoma specimens were explainable by chance （P 〉0.05 for each analysis）. Within each histological category, differences among fractions of specimens showed that FHIT and WWOX mRNA and protein expression were explainable by chance （P 〉0.05 for each analysis）. Conclusion Expression of FHIT and WWOX decreases along with breast tissue progress from a normal histological appearance to atypical ductal hyperplasia, in situ cancer, and the final invasive cancer.

On the non-local priors for sparsity selection in high-dimensional Gaussian DAG models

We consider sparsity selection for the Cholesky factor L of the inverse covariance matrix in high-dimensional Gaussian DAG models.The sparsity is induced over the space of L via non-local priors,namely the product moment(pMOM)prior[Johnson,V.,&Rossell,D.(2012).Bayesian model selection in high-dimensional settings.Journal of the American Statistical Asso-ciation,107(498),649-660.https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.2012.682536]and the hierarchi-cal hyper-pMOM prior[Cao,X.,Khare,K.,&Ghosh,M.(2020).High-dimensional posterior consistency for hierarchical non-local priors in regression.Bayesian Analysis,15(1),241-262.https://doi.org/10.1214/19-BA1154].We establish model selection consistency for Cholesky fac-tor under more relaxed conditions compared to those in the literature and implement an efficient MCMC algorithm for parallel selecting the sparsity pattern for each column of L.We demonstrate the validity of our theoretical results via numerical simulations,and also use further simulations to demonstrate that our sparsity selection approach is competitive with existing methods.