No abstract

In mice, consumption of AE, CE, or quercetin appears to modulate some of the harmful effects associated with the consumption of an obesogenic HF diet. Furthermore, in a cell culture model, quercetin was shown to reduce intracellular lipid accumulation in a dose-dependent fashion.

Apple genetic resources in Norway are currently conserved within a number of local clonal archives. However, during establishment of these ex situ collections, primary focus was not on capturing as much of the diversity as possible, but instead on preserving cultivars of particular importance to specific fruit-growing areas. To identify redundancies within the collection as well as to assess the genetic diversity and structure of apple germplasm currently being conserved in Norway, eight microsatellites were used in genetic characterization of 181 apple accessions. Overall, 14 cases of synonym or possibly mislabeled accessions were identified, as well as several homonyms and duplicates within and among the analyzed collections. The information obtained should contribute to overall better management of the preserved germplasm. Bayesian analysis of genetic structure revealed two major clusters, one containing most of the foreign cultivars, while the other consisted mainly of traditional Scandinavian cultivars, but also some very winter-hardy genotypes such as ‘Charlamovsky’, ‘Gravenstein’, ‘Transparente Blanche’, and ‘Wealthy’. Analyses of molecular variance (AMOVA) detected a significant genetic differentiation among the clusters (fCT = 0.077; P < 0.01). The results of the Bayesian analyses do not indicate a strong differentiation between the foreign and the Norwegian apple accessions, however, they do suggest that climate adaptation has had a significant influence on the genetic structure of the preserved germplasm. Overall, apple accessions currently maintained ex situ in Norway represent a diverse germplasm which could be very valuable in future breeding programs, especially for the Scandinavian climate.

No abstract

Soluble silicon has been reported to suppress some plant diseases, but in vitro inhibition of phytopathogenic fungi has not been demonstrated. In the current study in-vitro dose-responses towards soluble potassium silicate (20.7% Si0 2 ) were determined for Phytophthora cinnamomi, Sc/erotinia sc/erotiorum, , pythium F-group, Mucor pusi/lus, Drechs/era sp, Fusarium oxysporum, F. so/ani, A/temaria so/ani, Col/etotrichum coccodes, Verticil/ium theobromae, Curvu/aria lunata and Stemphylium herbarum. Inhibition of mycelial growth was doserelated with 100% inhibition at 80 ml (pH 11.7) and 40 ml (pH 11.5) soluble potassium silicate per litre of agar, for all fungi tested with the exception of Drechs/era sp. and F. oxysporum at 40 ml in one experiment. Only Sc/erotinia sc/erotiorum and Phytophthora cinnamomiwere completely inhibited at all soluble potassium silicate concentrations between 5 and 80 ml.r1 agar, while all the other fungi were only partially inhibited at potassium silicate concentrations of 5, 10 and 20 ml.r 1 agar. Percentage inhibition was positively correlated with dosage. Soluble potassium silicate raised the pH of unameliorated agar from 5.6 to 10.3 and 11.7 at potassium silicate concentrations of 5 and 80 ml.r 1 agar respectively. Subsequent investigations into the effect of pH in the absence of potassium silicate showed that fungal growth was only partially inhibited at pH 10.3 and 11.7. Clearly, potassium silicate had an inhibitory effect on fungal growth in vitro and this was mostly fungicidal rather than attributed to a pH effect.