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Key message: A single dominant powdery mildew resistance gene MlNFS10 was identified in wild emmer wheat and mapped within a 0.3cM genetic interval spanning a 2.1Mb physical interval on chromosome arm 4AL. Wheat powdery mildew caused by Blumeria graminis forma specialis tritici (Bgt) is a globally devastating disease. The use of powdery mildew resistance genes from wild relatives of wheat is an effective method of disease management. Our previous research has shown that disruptive ecological selection has driven the discrete adaptations of the wild emmer wheat population on the south facing slope (SFS) and north facing slope (NFS) at the microsite of "Evolution Canyon" at Mount Carmel, Israel and demonstrated that 16 accessions in the NFS population display high resistance to 11 powdery mildew isolates (collected from different wheat fields in China). Here, we constructed bi-parental population by crossing the accession NFS-10 (resistant to 22 Bgt races collected from China in seedling resistance screen) and the susceptible line SFS2-12. Genetic analysis indicated that NFS-10 carries a single dominant gene, temporarily designated MlNFS10. Ultimately, 13 markers were successfully located within the long arm of chromosome 4A, thereby delineating MlNFS10 to a 0.3 cM interval covering 2.1 Mb (729275816-731365462) in the Chinese Spring reference sequence. We identified disease resistance-associated genes based on the RNA-seq analysis of both parents. The tightly linked InDel marker XWsdau73447 and SSR marker XWsdau72928 were developed and used for marker-assisted selection when MlNFS10 was introgressed into a hexaploid wheat background. Therefore, MlNFS10 can be used for improvement of germplasm in breeding programs for powdery mildew resistant cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: “Evolution Canyon” (ECI) at Lower Nahal Oren, Mount Carmel, Israel, is an optimal natural microscale model for unraveling evolution in action highlighting the basic evolutionary processes of adaptation and speciation. A major model organism in ECI is wild emmer, Triticum dicoccoides, the progenitor of cultivated wheat, which displays dramatic interslope adaptive and speciational divergence on the tropical-xeric “African” slope (AS) and the temperate-mesic “European” slope (ES), separated on average by 250 m. Methods: We examined 278 single sequence repeats (SSRs) and the phenotype diversity of the resistance to powdery mildew between the opposite slopes. Furthermore, 18 phenotypes on the AS and 20 phenotypes on the ES, were inoculated by both Bgt E09 and a mixture of powdery mildew races. Results: In the experiment of genetic diversity, very little polymorphism was identified intra-slope in the accessions from both the AS or ES. By contrast, 148 pairs of SSR primers (53.23%) amplified polymorphic products between the phenotypes of AS and ES. There are some differences between the two wild emmer wheat genomes and the inter-slope SSR polymorphic products between genome A and B. Interestingly, all wild emmer types growing on the south-facing slope (SFS=AS) were susceptible to a composite of Blumeria graminis, while the ones growing on the north-facing slope (NFS=ES) were highly resistant to Blumeria graminis at both seedling and adult stages. Conclusion/Significance: Remarkable inter-slope evolutionary divergent processes occur in wild emmer wheat, T. dicoccoides at EC I, despite the shot average distance of 250 meters. The AS, a dry and hot slope, did not develop resistance to powdery mildew, whereas the ES, a cool and humid slope, did develop resistance since the disease stress was strong there. This is a remarkable demonstration in host-pathogen interaction on how resistance develops when stress causes an adaptive result at a micro-scale distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) are susceptible to infectious and inflammatory cutaneous comorbidities., Objective: The aim of the study was to describe the prevalence of cutaneous comorbidities associated with AD, including their relationship with AD severity., Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional analysis was performed using the Israeli Maccabi Healthcare Services database. Prevalent AD cases on December 31, 2017, were diagnosed with AD at any time since 1998 and had 1 or more recent (2013-2017) AD diagnoses. Dispensed AD treatments within 5 or fewer years served as a surrogate for AD severity. Cutaneous comorbidities in AD cases were compared with non-AD controls matched 1:1 on age, sex, and residential area. Among adults, comorbidities were compared across AD severity using multinomial logistic regression., Results: The eligible population included 94,483 patients with mild (57.7%), moderate (36.2%), or severe (6.1%) AD, and 94,483 matched non-AD controls. Skin infections, inflammatory skin conditions, cutaneous manifestations of AD, and sweat gland disorders were more prevalent ( P < 0.001) in patients with AD than in controls. Most cutaneous comorbidities that were more prevalent in adult patients with AD were also significantly ( P < 0.001) associated with AD severity., Conclusions: This study suggests that AD is associated with many infectious and inflammatory cutaneous comorbidities and highlights the relationship between AD severity and comorbidity prevalence., Competing Interests: Y.A.L. has received honoraria or fees as a consultant from AbbVie, Sanofi, and Genentech and as an advisory board member from Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, and Dexcel Pharma and has, without personal compensation, provided investigator services for Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and AbbVie. D.B.A. has received consultant fees from AbbVie. P.B.S. is a former employee of AbbVie and may own AbbVie stock and/or stock options. H.L., H.W., B.C., and A.D. are full-time employees of AbbVie and may own AbbVie stock and/or stock options. The other authors have no funding or conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the American Contact Dermatitis Society.)

Introduction: Real-world data on the epidemiology and economic burden of atopic dermatitis (AD) are limited. Here we describe the epidemiology and economic burden of AD using electronic healthcare data from Israel., Methods: A retrospective study was performed using the Maccabi Healthcare Services database. AD incidence in 2008-2017 and point prevalence (AD prev ) on 31 December 2017 were described using diagnosis codes for overall patients, and sex and age subgroups. For AD prev , severity was defined using recently dispensed treatments for AD. Annual healthcare resource utilization in AD prevalent patients was compared with non-AD matched controls using generalized linear modelling. Direct annual costs were estimated also., Results: AD incidence was 7.0/1000 person-years; overall prevalence was 4.4% (female patients 4.5%, male patients 4.3%; age 0 to less than 6 months, 0.9%; 6 months to less than 12 years, 11.0%; 12 to less than 18 years, 5.8%; 18 years or older, 2.2%). Among AD prev (n = 94,483), mild, moderate, and severe AD comprised 57.7%, 36.2%, and 6.1% (adults 43.8%, 46.3%, 9.9%), respectively. Dermatologist and allergist visits and hospitalization rates (at least one) were 40.7%, 6.6%, and 3.8% in 2017. Compared with controls, overall and moderate-to-severe AD were associated with 36% and 52% increases in annual per-person costs (incremental costs $126 and $190)., Conclusions: AD epidemiology in Israel is comparable with other real-world database studies. AD imposes an economic burden that increases with disease severity., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Healthcare Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

In plants, the mechanism for ecological sympatric speciation (SS) is little known. Here, after ruling out the possibility of secondary contact, we show that wild emmer wheat, at the microclimatically divergent microsite of "Evolution Canyon" (EC), Mt. Carmel, Israel, underwent triple SS. Initially, it split following a bottleneck of an ancestral population, and further diversified to three isolated populations driven by disruptive ecological selection. Remarkably, two postzygotically isolated populations (SFS1 and SFS2) sympatrically branched within an area less than 30 m at the tropical hot and dry savannoid south-facing slope (SFS). A series of homozygous chromosomal rearrangements in the SFS1 population caused hybrid sterility with the SFS2 population. We demonstrate that these two populations developed divergent adaptive mechanisms against severe abiotic stresses on the tropical SFS. The SFS2 population evolved very early flowering, while the SFS1 population alternatively evolved a direct tolerance to irradiance by improved ROS scavenging activity that potentially accounts for its evolutionary fate with unstable chromosome status. Moreover, a third prezygotically isolated sympatric population adapted on the abutting temperate, humid, cool, and forested north-facing slope (NFS), separated by 250 m from the SFS wild emmer wheat populations. The NFS population evolved multiple resistant loci to fungal diseases, including powdery mildew and stripe rust. Our study illustrates how plants sympatrically adapt and speciate under disruptive ecological selection of abiotic and biotic stresses., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest.