First Report of Fire Blight Caused by Erwinia amylovora on Crabapple (Malus floribunda) in Turkey.

Fire blight is a destructive and sporadic disease of crabapple (Malus floribunda) and other plants in the Rosaceae in many areas of the world. From 2007 to 2010, sudden wilting, shriveling of flowers, leaf and shoot blight, and cankers with brown discoloration on twigs of crabapple were observed in residential landscapes of Konya Province, Turkey. Disease incidence ranged from 20 to 40% in different areas of this province, and surveys showed that ~163 ha were infested. Isolations were made from sections of symptomatic leaves, shoots, and cankers using 70% ethanol for 1 s to surface-sterilize the tissue sections, followed by rinsing three times in sterilized distilled water (SDW). Then, a 1 g subsample of each tissue section was homogenized in 10 ml phosphate buffered saline (PBS), and a 10-fold serial dilution of each homogenate prepared for six dilutions. From each homogenate, an aliquot of each dilution was plated onto 5% nutrient sucrose agar and King's B agar media, and the plates incubated for 2 to 3 days at 27°C (3). Bacterial strains were identified on the basis of biochemical, physiological (2), and molecular tests (1). Twenty-seven representative bacterial strains were each gram negative, rod-shaped, mucoid, fermentative, yellow-orange on Miller and Scroth agar medium, positive for levan formation and acetoin production, and showed no growth at 36°C. The strains were also positive for gelatin hydrolysis and negative for esculin hydrolysis, indole, urease, catalase, oxidase, arginine dihydrolase, reduction of nitrate, and acid production from lactose and inositol (2). Two reference strains of Erwinia amylovora (EaP28 and NCPPB 2791) from a culture collection at Selcuk University were used as positive control strains. All strains induced a hypersensitive response in tobacco (Nicotiana tabaccum cv. White Burley) plants within 24 h after inoculation with a 108 CFU/ml bacterial suspension in SDW (~50 µl), and the strains produced ooze on inoculated immature pear fruit slices cv. Ankara. All strains were identified as E. amylovora using the species-specific primers A/B (1), which amplified a 1 kb DNA fragment by PCR assay. Pathogenicity was confirmed by inserting a suspension (108 CFU/ml SDW) of each of the 27 bacterial strains and two reference strains, EaP28 and NCPPB 2791, into actively growing shoot tips of 3-year-old plants of M. floribunda cv. Hilleri, using a 0.46 mm-diameter hypodermic needle. Leaf and shoot blight symptoms typical of fire blight were observed within 2 weeks. SDW was injected similarly as a negative control treatment, and no symptoms were observed. All tests were repeated three times with the same results. Re-isolations were done from the control plants as well as shoots and leaves inoculated with the two reference strains and the 27 bacteria identified as E. amylovora. Bacteria isolated from inoculated plants were identified as E. amylovora using the biochemical, physiological, and molecular tests described above, but this bacterium was not isolated from the control plants. To our knowledge, this is the first report of E. amylovora on crabapple in Turkey. References: (1) S. Bereswill et al. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 58:3522, 1992. (2) A. L. Jones and K. Geider. Laboratory Guide for Identification of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria, pp. 40-55, American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, MN, 2001. (3) R. A. Lelliott and D. E. Stead. Methods for Diagnosis of Bacterial Diseases of Plants (Methods in Plant Pathology). Oxford, UK, 1987.

Myoclonic seizures subside in the fourth decade in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy.

OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to assess the long-term follow-up of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), with an emphasis on the course of the myoclonic seizures. METHODS: We enrolled 48 patients with JME (29 F, 19 M; aged 39.9 +/- 9.5 years) followed up for a mean of 19.6 +/- 5.7 years. The remission for 5 years and relapses were evaluated for all seizure types and the changes in severity/frequency of myoclonia were systematically questioned. The clinical and EEG features, antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment regimen, and systemic and psychiatric comorbid diseases were evaluated. RESULTS: We found a benign course in 66.6% whereas 16.7% had pseudo-resistance due to problems in treatment or lifestyle. The true-resistant course observed in the remaining 16.7% was significantly associated with psychiatric disorders and the presence of thyroid diseases. In 54.2% of the patients, myoclonia were in remission for a mean duration of 8.4 +/- 7.7 years, after an average age of 32.9 +/- 9.6. Of these patients, 6 were on a lower dose of AED in comparison to the dosage needed to control the seizures in the beginning, and 5 patients had stopped AED treatment. None of the latter 11 patients except one relapsed during the follow-up. Furthermore, 21 other patients (43.8%) described substantial alleviation after age 31.3 +/- 8.4 in the severity of myoclonia. CONCLUSION: Although a great majority of the patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy had continuing seizures after a follow-up of 20 years, almost all had either 5-year remission or a substantial alleviation of the myoclonic seizures.

Determination of optimum planning target volume margins for various tumor sites using electronic portal imaging.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of electronic portal imaging (EPI) to measure the set-up errors for four different sites of irradiation caused by patient positioning. METHODS: A total number of 95 portal images of 11 patients (3 pelvic, 1 total cranium, 3 mantle and 4 tangential fields for breast) were collected during the course of study. The first portal images after a correction of set-up errors according to the simulation films were accepted as the reference images for the subsequent sessions. By matching each portal image with the reference image, the deviations in lateral (x) and superior-inferior (y) axis for all and additionally in antero-posterior (z) axis for pelvis, and standard deviations were calculated. RESULTS: The set-up errors caused by patient's positioning are completely abolished in 15 mm planning target volume (PTV) margins for all studied cases. CONCLUSION: Standard PTV margins usually completely cover the set-up errors caused by patient's positioning.