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Changing Circumstances and Diets
Published in Christopher Cumo, Ancestral Diets and Nutrition, 2020
In this context, Chapter 2 mentioned the Irish potato famine. In 1845 and 1846, late blight of potato, caused by the mold Phytophthora infestans, destroyed Ireland’s sustenance. Hunger drove people to eat bark, soil, weeds, leather, insects, rodents, and feces.110 Too weak to leave their beds, families perished in their hovels, mothers clutching infants as all expired. 111 Dogs, cats (Felis catus), pigs, and rats (Rattus species) devoured corpses too numerous for burial. The dead awaiting this fate clogged gutters and streets. The disease recrudesced in subsequent years, causing over 1 million Irish to starve and 1.5 million to flee the island.112
Healthy People / Immuno-enhancement
Published in Jonathan Anomaly, Creating Future People, 2020
Indeed, humanity has a history of creating monocultures that devastate entire populations. We’ve never had the power to deliberately reshape the immune systems of an entire population, but we have selected crops for properties we like, and in the process created monocultures that parasites more easily attack. History is replete with examples. Perhaps the most famous is the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s, which led to mass starvation in Ireland, and a new wave of Irish immigrants to the United States. The famine occurred because a single variety of potato was planted, making it easier for the microbe Phytophthora infestans to wipe out the entire population of potatoes.
Medical theory, medical care, and preventive medicine
Published in Lois N. Magner, Oliver J. Kim, A History of Medicine, 2017
The introduction of New World foods, especially potatoes and corn, had a remarkable effect on population growth. The potato became the staple food of the poor in northern Europe, the British Isles, and Ireland. Unfortunately, over-dependence on a single crop has always been one of the riskiest aspects of agricultural societies, as demonstrated by the Irish potato famine of 1845. (In 2001, scientists were able to use historic specimens to identify the specific strain of the pathogen, Phytophthora infestans, that was responsible for the devastating potato blight.) Corn, which was usually called maize, or Turkish wheat, provided much needed calories, but also made pellagra an endemic disease in many areas. Some New World plants, such as tobacco, were simultaneously credited with medicinal virtues and condemned as poisons.
Design, synthesis and antifungal activity of threoninamide carbamate derivatives via pharmacophore model
Published in Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry, 2020
Xiu-Jiang Du, Xing-Jie Peng, Rui-Qi Zhao, Wei-Guang Zhao, Wei-Li Dong, Xing-Hai Liu
Oomycete fungi can cause several destructive diseases in crops, vegetables and fruits, such as Phytophthora infestans, Peronospora hyoscyami, Phytophthora capsici and Pseudoperonospora cubensis1. The cell walls of the Oomycetes are different from other fungi, which contain cellulose, not chitin. So cellulose synthase represents a potential target for discovering new Oomycete inhibitors2, which can inhibit different stages in the life cycle of Oomycetes including mycelial growth, sporangium production, zoospore release and cystospore germination. Since dimethomorph3 was discovered by Shell company, seven carboxylic acid amide (CAA) fungicides4,5 including flumorph6, pyrimorph7, benthiavalicarb8, benthiavalicarb-isopropyl9, iprovalicarb10, valiphenal11, and mandipropamid12 were developed, which were divided as three different sub-classes by FRAC (www.frac.info) due to their common cross resistance pattern for the vast majority of Oomycetes. Since the dimethomorph was discovered as first CAA fungicide in 1988, only seven CAA fungicides are marketed until now.
Highlights of the mini-symposium on extracellular vesicles in inter-organismal communication, held in Munich, Germany, August 2018
Published in Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, 2019
E. Bielska, P.R.J. Birch, A.H. Buck, C. Abreu-Goodger, R.W. Innes, H. Jin, M.W. Pfaffl, S. Robatzek, N. Regev-Rudzki, C. Tisserant, S. Wang, A. Weiberg
Filamentous plant pathogens include the fungi, described above, and oomycetes, which are related to diatoms and brown algae. Oomycetes, such as the infamous late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans [37], cause a wide range of devastating diseases of economic and environmental importance [38]. P. infestans secretes a range of virulence determinants called effectors that can act either outside (apoplastic) or within (cytoplasmic) the plant cell, several of which have been shown to suppress host immunity [39]. Amongst the cytoplasmic effectors are the RXLR class, so-called for the conserved amino acid motif Arg-any amino acid-Leu-Arg, which is required for these effectors to be translocated into plant cells [40]. Recently, delivery of two RXLR effectors has been visualized from finger-like infection structures called haustoria, which form intimate associations with plant cells, to their sites of action in host nuclei [41,42]. The precise means by which RXLR effectors are secreted from Phytophthora species is poorly understood [41].
Concepts and strategies of soybean seed proteomics using the shotgun proteomics approach
Published in Expert Review of Proteomics, 2019
Cheol Woo Min, Ravi Gupta, Ganesh Kumar Agrawal, Randeep Rakwal, Sun Tae Kim
Along with the detection and identification of LAPs, other challenges in soybean seed proteomics include the standardization of quantification and identification methodologies, dissemination of public databases, and cost concerns [1]. Although proteomic approaches have improved considerably during recent years, relatively few studies, particularly shotgun proteomics studies, have applied such approaches to the proteomes of soybean seeds. Currently, many publicly available programs, such as MaxQuant [65,66], Perseus [68], and Skyline [67], have been developed, thereby facilitating high-throughput and cost-effective proteome analysis. Therefore, a transition to shotgun proteomic, data-independent acquisition (DIA), and targeted proteomic approaches could facilitate the discovery of novel information about soybean seed physiology. Targeted proteomic approaches, such as selected reaction monitoring and multiple reaction monitoring, are highly sensitive and cost-effective, and the combination of targeted proteomics and triple quadrupole MS has been reported to successfully quantify hundreds, and even thousands, of selected MS2 fragment ions [75]. These techniques represent highly accurate approaches for the quantification of preselected peptides in complex biological samples. In particular, high-throughput targeted proteomics methods, especially selected reaction monitoring, allow the measurement and monitoring of a single fixed mass for the identification of biomarker candidates. For example, Chawade et al. [76] investigated protein biomarkers related to Phytophthora infestans resistance in potato (Solanum tuberosum) leaves, using targeted proteomics (selected reaction monitoring), and identified 104 marker peptides, eight of which were predicted to provide resistance against P. infestans [76].