University of Udine

About: University of Udine is a education organization based out in Udine, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 6745 authors who have published 20530 publications receiving 669088 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli Studi di Udine & Universita degli Studi di Udine.

AC/GT and AG/CT microsatellite repeats in peach [Prunus persica (L) Batsch]: isolation, characterisation and cross-species amplification in Prunus.

Abstract: We report the sequences of 17 primer pairs of microsatellite loci, which we have cloned and sequenced from two genomic libraries of peach [Prunus persica (L) Batsch] ‘Redhaven’, enriched for AC/GT and AG/CT repeats respectively. For ten of these microsatellite loci we were able to demonstrate Mendelian inheritance in a segregating back-cross population; the remainder did not segregate. The polymorphism of the microsatellites was evaluated in a panel of ten peach genotypes, including true-to-type peaches, nectarines and one canning-peach. Fifteen microsatellites (88%) were polymorphic showing 2–4 alleles each. The mean heterozygosity, averaged over all loci, was 0.32 and significantly higher than that reported in the literature for isozymes and molecular markers, such as RFLPs and RAPDs. We have also assayed the cross-species transportability and found that ten microsatellite (59%) gave apparently correct amplification in all Prunus species surveyed, namely P. domestica (European plum), P. salicina (Japanese plum), P. armeniaca (apricot), P. dulcis (almond), P. persica var. vulgaris (peach), P. persica var. laevis (nectarine), P. avium (sweet cherry) and P. cerasus (sour cherry), with three of them also being amplified in Malus (apple). The remaining microsatellites gave less-extensive amplification. Because of their appreciable polymorphism and wide cross-species transportability, most of these new markers can be integrated into the linkage maps which are currently being constructed in peach, as well as in other stone fruit crops, such as almond, apricot, cherry and plum.

Soil microbial biomass is triggered into activity by trace amounts of substrate

Abstract: The microbial biomass in moist aerobic soils has an adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) concentration of around 8–12 μmol ATP g−1 biomass C and an adenylate energy charge (AEC) of between about 0.8–0.95, both typical of micro-organisms undergoing exponential growth in vitro. In fact, only a very small fraction of the biomass can be in this condition at any time due to substrate limitations. Our hypothesis is that the microbial biomass expends energy to maintain a large ATP concentration and high AEC despite the expenditure of valuable energy reserves because this strategy offers an evolutionary advantage over one based on resting spores. Thus, by the time a spore becomes active in response to the presence of a suitable substrate, a more speculative organism may have captured it. We found that trace concentrations (i.e. μg g−1 quantities) of appropriate ‘trigger solutions’ of glucose, amino acids and root exudates can cause the biomass to evolve about 2- to 5-times more C as CO2 than was contained in the original ‘trigger solution’. The effect (essentially a “priming effect”) was mainly over with a single addition after 200 h, but the biomass could be reactivated with further additions. Addition of ‘trigger solutions’ to soils recently amended with cellulose produced an accelerated rate of mineralization of the cellulose until the experiment was terminated. We consider that our results describe a previously unreported response of the microbial biomass which equips it for survival in the generally substrate-poor soil environment.