Forest Research Institute

About: Forest Research Institute is a facility organization based out in Dehra Dūn, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Forest management. The organization has 5320 authors who have published 7625 publications receiving 185876 citations.

White-nose syndrome without borders: Pseudogymnoascus destructans infection tolerated in Europe and Palearctic Asia but not in North America

Abstract: A striking feature of white-nose syndrome, a fungal infection of hibernating bats, is the difference in infection outcome between North America and Europe. Here we show high WNS prevalence both in Europe and on the West Siberian Plain in Asia. Palearctic bat communities tolerate similar fungal loads of Pseudogymnoascus destructans infection as their Nearctic counterparts and histopathology indicates equal focal skin tissue invasiveness pathognomonic for WNS lesions. Fungal load positively correlates with disease intensity and it reaches highest values at intermediate latitudes. Prevalence and fungal load dynamics in Palearctic bats remained persistent and high between 2012 and 2014. Dominant haplotypes of five genes are widespread in North America, Europe and Asia, expanding the source region of white-nose syndrome to non-European hibernacula. Our data provides evidence for both endemicity and tolerance to this persistent virulent fungus in the Palearctic, suggesting that host-pathogen interaction equilibrium has been established.

Genetic variation in carbon isotope discrimination in six European populations of Castanea sativa Mill. originating from contrasting localities

Abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate the variability of physiological performances of Castanea sativa Mill. in relation to drought tolerance, among and within European populations coming from contrasting environmental conditions. Forty-eight open-pollinated families from a stratified sample (temperature/precipitation) of six naturalized populations from Spain, Italy and Greece were grown for one growth period under two temperature regimes (25 and 32 °C), in combination with two watering regimes in growth chambers. Complementary to growth traits analysed in a previous study, carbon isotope discrimination (Δ), a complex physiological trait involved in acclimation and adaptive processes, was studied. anova indicated significant Δ variability for C. sativa populations across Europe and, thereby, variation in adaptedness to drought. The European pattern of Δ variability matches the previously reported one for the centre of origin of C. sativa (Ponto-Caucasian region). This suggests that common mechanisms of drought adaptedness, involving both genetic and physiological determinants, give C. sativa the capacity to colonize a wide range of site conditions. The highest Δ values, indicating the lowest water-use efficiency (WUE), were found within each treatment for populations originating from Mediterranean drought-prone sites. These populations also had the highest phenotypic plasticity of Δ. Significant among-family genetic variation in Δ was found. The heritability based on the joint anova was estimated at 0.31 ± 0.07. The estimates of the coefficients for the additive variance varied in the range 2.6–4.0%, suggesting possibilities for selection on WUE and adaptedness to drought. The genetic correlations between Δ and growth traits were generally strong and negative, especially in the two high temperature treatments.