Mixed agroforestry systems offer opportunities to simultaneously meet the water, food, energy and income needs of densely populated rural and peri-urban areas in Indonesia. Water flows out of upland areas provide multiple ecosystem services to downstream areas that can be part of performance-based rewards, payments or co-investment in environmental stewardship. Metrics for measuring performance and negotiating accountability need to cover river (blue), soil + vegetation (green), recycled (gray) and atmospheric (rainbow) water in relation to specific stages in the water cycle and associated services. A typology of services and prototype payment mechanisms were derived from action research in Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia by the Rewarding Upland Poor for Environmental Services (RUPES) project. The ecological metrics of landscape performance can be combined with measures of human capacity to assess and support the resilience of social-ecological systems under climate change.
The effects of starter cultures and additives on the quality of Turkish style sausage (sucuk) were investigated during ripening and storage. Total aerobic plate counts (aerobic bacteria), mould and yeast counts, pH, thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value and biogenic amine formation were followed. Aerobic bacteria increased (P<0.05) during the first 10 days of ripening to 9.26 log CFU/g and they decreased (P<0.05) to 5.70 at the end of the storage. Larger reductions (P<0.05) were observed in sausages made with high levels of potassium sorbate, nitrite and nitrate than in those containing low levels of additives and those without additives at the end of storage. During the first 3 days of ripening, the pH values of all sausages decreased (P<0.05) from 5.98 to about 4.53. Later, the pH values increased slowly, due to decomposition of acids to an approximately constant value of about 5.20. TBA values were higher (P<0.05) in the sausages made without additives than in the others. Sausages prepared using high concentration of additives had lower (P<0.05) concentrations of biogenic amines than the others. Addition of starter culture with high concentration of additives (nitrite, nitrate, α-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, potassium sorbate, potassium pyrophosphate and di-potassium hydrogenphosphate) decreased the formation of biogenic amine.
The concentrations of eight specific mRNAs abundantly present in a fruiting dikaryon but not in the progenitor monokaryons of Schizophyllum commune were measured in various heterokaryons and in homokaryons that carry constitutive mutations in the incompatibility genes. Only a heterokaryon with different alleles for both incompatibility genes and a homokaryon with mutations in both genes, both fruiting dikaryons, produced large amounts of these mRNAs. In dark-grown colonies of the dikaryon these dikaryon-specific mRNAs were virtually absent. After transfer of colonies to light these mRNAs and fruit bodies were concomitantly formed in approximately the same region of the colony. Some of these sequences were also formed in a fruiting monokaryon. These results suggest that these abundant mRNAs that are normally regulated by the concerted activities of the incompatibility genes and by light have no role in vegetative growth but are possibly required for fruiting.
Five local oak species, Quercus boissieri, Q. calliprinus, Q. cerris, Q. ithaburensis and Q. libani were identified as hosts of Tuber melanosporum, the black truffle of Perigord, following inoculation of roots. Q. cerris and Q. libani developed abundant mycorrhizal roots, similar to the amount found in roots of Q. pubescens, the traditional host of this mycorrhizal fungus. Roots of Q. ilex, Q. hartwissiana and Q. pedunculiflora, introduced species in Israel, were also heavily colonized by the mycorrhizal fungus. Mycorrhized hazel (Corylus avellana) roots, were also obtained by the same inoculation procedure. Recovery of T. melanosporum from roots of inoculated oak was improved when chloramphenicol was added to the isolation medium. Recovery varied between 14 and 54% for C. avellana and Q. calliprinus, respectively. Recovery was highest for the two local species, Q. calliprinus (54%) and Q. boissieri (50%), followed by Q. pubescens (44%) and Q. ilex (41%). Identification of the isolated fungi was conducted using arbitrarily-primed PCR. Identical band patterns were observed among AP-PCR-amplified DNA extracted from an authentic culture of the fungus, ascocarps (truffles) and cultures isolated from roots. In addition, AP-PCR was reliable for differentiating between representative isolates of T. melanosporum, T. magnatum, T. borchii, T. maculatum, T. dryophilum, T. macrosporum and T. uncinatum.
Bacterial activity was studied in a growth system containing Pinus contorta seedlings inoculated with different mycorrhizal fungi. Nylon nets enabled separation of soil compartments with extramatrical mycorrhizal hyphae from soil compartments with roots and mycelium. In three separate experiments bacterial activity, estimated as thymidine incorporation, was reduced in soils with Paxillus involutus hyphae compared to controls without mycorrhizal hyphae. This effect was found irrespective of compartments with and without roots were compared. Laccaria bicolor only reduced the activity in one of these three experiments. Thelephora terrestris (tested in two experiments), Laccaria proxima, Suillus variegatus and Hebeloma crustuliniforme (one experiment), also reduced the thymidine and leucine incorporation rates of bacteria. The reduction for these fungi varied between 20% and 50% in all experiments. Numbers of viable bacteria appeared to be reduced by T. terrestris, L. proxima, S. variegatus and H. crustuliniforme in one experiment, while no effect was seen in the other experiments.
Aspergillosis is one of the most common fungal infections. The predominant cause of aspergillosis is the species Aspergillus fumigatus. There have been increasing reports of A. fumigatus isolates that are resistant to azole antifungals. The predominant causes of this resistance are environmentally acquired mutations in the target gene, CYP51A, known as TR34/L98H and TR46/Y121F/T289A. They consist of a tandem repeat in the promoter region (TR) and one or two amino acid changes in the protein sequence, respectively. Unfortunately, the capacity in the United States for mold antifungal susceptibility testing is limited, so the extent of azole resistance in clinical practice is largely unknown. This review discusses the causes and implications of azole-resistant A. fumigatus and the role that antifungal susceptibility testing might play in its identification.
