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Melampsora epitea , the causal agent of leaf rust on willow (Salix spp.) in short-rotation forestry, was sampled over four consecutive years (1993–96) in Sweden. The pathotype patterns of 332 single-spore isolates were examined for virulence characteristics using a defined set of willow hosts. Thirty-seven pathotypes of M. epitea were identified and grouped into three formae speciales . No race or morph subdivision was observed among the isolates, other than the three formae speciales . For monitoring and studying the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of virulence for M. epitea , an internationally useful naming system for pathotypes is proposed, with a three-digit code referring to virulence on a specified set of standard test clones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1980s willows have been planted in Sweden on surplus agricultural land with the purpose of biomass energy production. This short-rotation forestry programme, which is supported by governmental subsidies, includes planting of basket willow, Salix viminalis and, to some extent, S. dasyclados, two species found to give strong growth under Swedish conditions. Although basket willow has already been grown to some extent in Sweden, only now are willows being grown on a large commercial scale. By June 1994, a total of over 11,000 hectares had been planted, and this acreage is expected to increase substantially in years to come.

Selection on partial resistance components, namely latent period, development rate of uredia and number and size of uredia, has been suggested as a means to achieve durable resistance. Three experiments were carried out in growth chambers to assess the impact of environmental and genetic factors on these components in the Salix-Melampsora host-pathogen system. They confirmed the environmental ability of the Melampsora-Salicaceae relationship and provided no definite answer on the possibility of attaining durable resistance through selection on partial resistance components. On the one hand, there is a large amount of heritable variation among clones for most components; on the other hand, all components were extremely sensitive to environmental conditions and isolates, making the development of standard selection methods difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been purported as an imaging technique to assess dopaminergic degeneration in Parkinson's disease., Objective: To test if fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusion (MD) in the basal ganglia as measured by DTI correlates with dopaminergic function as measured by dopamine transporter (DAT) and dopamine D2-receptor (D2R) SPECT., Methods: One-hundred and eleven patients with Parkinson's disease (71±10 years) and thirty-one controls (68±7 years) performed DTI, DAT and D2R SPECT at baseline and four follow-ups (1-year: 89 patients/zero controls; 3-year: 72/11; 5-year: 48/17; and 8-year: 13/13). Four equipment combinations of MRI scanners/SPECT gamma cameras were used during the study. Data from each combination were analyzed separately. Regions-of-interest were outlined in the substantia nigra (three subareas, DTI only) and in the striatum (putamen and caudate). Side differences and bilateral averages were correlated using linear regression. The significance threshold was set at P < 0.001 and 0.001 < P< 0.05 was defined as a trend towards significance., Results: For side differences, no significant correlations were observed, but in patients, there was a trend towards a negative correlation between MD in the middle nigra and putaminal DAT uptake in two combinations (P = 0.04 and P = 0.03). For averages, in patients, striatal MD correlated negatively with striatal DAT uptake in one combination (P = 0.0005) and trended towards negative correlations with striatal D2R uptake (one combination, P = 0.03) and with the sum of striatal DAT and D2R uptake (two combinations P = 0.002 and P = 0.03). FA showed no correlations in patients, and no correlations were found in controls., Conclusions: The poor correlations between MD and dopamine activity -and absent correlations for FA - imply that additional diffusion measures must be developed to reliably assess the dopaminergic degeneration in Parkinson's disease.