Reliable DNA Markers for a Previously Unidentified, Yet Broadly Deployed Hessian Fly Resistance Gene on Chromosome 6B in Pacific Northwest Spring Wheat Varieties

Hessian fly [Mayetiola destructor (Say)] is a major pest of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) throughout the United States and in several other countries. A highly effective and economically feasible way to control Hessian fly is with resistant cultivars. To date, over 37 Hessian fly resistance genes have been discovered and their approximate locations mapped. Resistance breeding is still limited, though, by the genes' effectiveness against predominant Hessian fly biotypes in a given production area, genetic markers that are developed for low-throughput marker systems, poorly adapted donor germplasm, and/or the inadequacy of closely linked DNA markers to track effective resistance genes in diverse genetic backgrounds. The purposes of this study were to determine the location of the Hessian fly resistance gene in the cultivar "Kelse" (PI 653842) and to develop and validate Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) markers for the resistance locus. A mapping population was genotyped and screened for Hessian fly resistance. The resulting linkage map created from 2,089 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism SNP markers placed the resistance locus on the chromosome 6B short arm, near where H34 has been reported. Three flanking SNPs near the resistance locus were converted to KASP assays which were then validated by fine-mapping and testing a large panel of breeding lines from hard and soft wheat germplasm adapted to the Pacific Northwest. The KASP markers presented here are tightly linked to the resistance locus and can be used for marker-assisted selection by breeders working on Hessian fly resistance and allow confirmation of this Hessian fly resistance gene in diverse germplasm.

Development of the Wheat Practical Haplotype Graph Database as a Resource for Genotyping Data Storage and Genotype Imputation

To improve the efficiency of high-density genotype data storage and imputation in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), we applied the Practical Haplotype Graph (PHG) tool. The Wheat PHG database was built using whole-exome capture sequencing data from a diverse set of 65 wheat accessions. Population haplotypes were inferred for the reference genome intervals defined by the boundaries of the high-quality gene models. Missing genotypes in the inference panels, composed of wheat cultivars or recombinant inbred lines genotyped by exome capture, genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), or whole-genome skim-seq sequencing approaches, were imputed using the Wheat PHG database. Though imputation accuracy varied depending on the method of sequencing and coverage depth, we found 92% imputation accuracy with 0.01× sequence coverage, which was slightly lower than the accuracy obtained using the 0.5× sequence coverage (96.6%). Compared to Beagle, on average, PHG imputation was ∼3.5% (P-value < 2 × 10⁻¹⁴) more accurate, and showed 27% higher accuracy at imputing a rare haplotype introgressed from a wild relative into wheat. We found reduced accuracy of imputation with independent 2× GBS data (88.6%), which increases to 89.2% with the inclusion of parental haplotypes in the database. The accuracy reduction with GBS is likely associated with the small overlap between GBS markers and the exome capture dataset, which was used for constructing PHG. The highest imputation accuracy was obtained with exome capture for the wheat D genome, which also showed the highest levels of linkage disequilibrium and proportion of identity-by-descent regions among accessions in the PHG database. We demonstrate that genetic mapping based on genotypes imputed using PHG identifies SNPs with a broader range of effect sizes that together explain a higher proportion of genetic variance for heading date and meiotic crossover rate compared to previous studies.

Biological and environmental influences in mental health care

Principles of Preventive Psychiatry offer a logical and economical approach to mental health care delivery. This article describes two perspectives on mental health care, biological and environmental. If mental illness and related distress are perceived as biologically based, the problems are thought to be under the skin. They can then be treated with chemicals and other scientific technologies. On the other hand, if mental illness and related distress are perceived as developing from environmental factors, the problems are thought to be linked to forces external to the individual. Treatment is addressed by a modification in the environment. This approach requires changes to public policy and legislative mandates. Mental health issues including, suicide, runaway youths, homicide, the elderly and other disenfranchised groups prevalent in American society are highlighted. An integration of the biological and environmental perspectives is delineated as an approach to early diagnosis, effective treatment, and rehabilitation. Recommendations are presented that focus on population-specific interventions necessary to effectively address these conditions.

A cohort analysis of pre-menopausal women with dysfunctional uterine bleeding

OBJECTIVE

To examine the clinical and cost outcomes of patients with dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB) who are treated with hysterectomy or not.

DESIGN

A retrospective analysis of DUB patients over 30 months of treatment after initial diagnosis.

SETTING

Patients with DUB from an HMO with over 200,000 enrollees.

PARTICIPANTS

Study patients, all women with an initial diagnosis of DUB, were divided into two cohorts. Cohort 1 was women who had a hysterectomy (not for cancer); Cohort 2 was women who did not have a hysterectomy.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Visit counts and costs, prescription counts and costs, hospital costs, and procedure counts.

RESULTS

Hysterectomy patients in our dataset tend to have more prescriptions, higher prescription costs, more visits overall, higher visit costs, higher hospitalization costs, and higher total costs per member per month (PMPM) than non-hysterectomy patients. After surgery, the hysterectomy patients' costs and utilization PMPM are higher than those for the non-hysterectomy patients.

CONCLUSIONS

There is wide variation in the treatment of patients with DUB. Clinical practice improvement studies are needed to determine the appropriate treatments based on patient characteristics to achieve better outcomes for lower costs.

Viruses as an aid to cancer therapy: regression of solid and ascites tumors in rodents after treatment with bovine enterovirus

Treatment of ascites and solid tumors in mice (Sarcoma-1 and Ehrlich ascites carcinoma) with bovine enterovirus-1 resulted in regression of the tumors without any pathological effect on the animals. Death of mice with lymphatic-leukemia L4946 was delayed after such treatment. The oncolytic specificity of the virus does not appear to involve the production of interferon, but requires specific adsorption of virus to the tumor cells. The specificity of killing extends to cells in culture, since viral-transformed cells and oncogenic cells are susceptible to the virus, in contrast to cells of untransformed lines and cells of primary cultures, which are resistant. The possibility of utilizing the specificity of nonvirulent viruses in therapeutic treatment of human cancers is considered.