Tea plant (Camellia sinensis) lipid metabolism pathway modulated by tea field microbe (Colletotrichum camelliae) to promote disease.

Tea is one of the most popular healthy and non-alcoholic beverages worldwide. Tea anthracnose is a disease in tea mature leaves and ultimately affects yield and quality. Colletotrichum camelliae is a dominant fungal pathogen in the tea field that infects tea plants in China. The pathogenic factors of fungus and the susceptible factors in the tea plant are not known. In this work, we performed molecular and genetic studies to observe a cerato-platanin protein CcCp1 from C. camelliae, which played a key role in fungal pathogenicity. △CcCp1 mutants lost fungal virulence and reduced the ability to produce conidia. Transcriptome and metabolome were then performed and analysed in tea-susceptible and tea-resistant cultivars, Longjing 43 and Zhongcha 108, upon C. camelliae wild-type CCA and △CcCp1 infection, respectively. The differentially expressed genes and the differentially accumulated metabolites in tea plants were clearly overrepresented such as linolenic acid and linoleic acid metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism, phenylalanine biosynthesis and metabolism, biosynthesis of flavonoid, flavone and flavonol etc. In particular, the accumulation of jasmonic acid was significantly increased in the susceptible cultivar Longjing 43 upon CCA infection, in the fungal CcCp1 protein dependent manner, suggesting the compound involved in regulating fungal infection. In addition, other metabolites in the glycerophospholipid and phenylalanine pathway were observed in the resistant cultivar Zhongcha 108 upon fungal treatment, suggesting their potential role in defense response. Taken together, this work indicated C. camelliae CcCp1 affected the tea plant lipid metabolism pathway to promote disease while the lost function of CcCp1 mutants altered the fungal virulence and plant response.

Diagnostic performance of CO-RADS for COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the diagnostic performance of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Reporting and Data System (CO-RADS) for detecting COVID-19. METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Scopus database until September 21, 2021. Statistical analysis included data pooling, forest plot construction, heterogeneity testing, meta-regression, and subgroup analyses. RESULTS: We included 24 studies with 8382 patients. The pooled sensitivity and specificity and the area under the curve (AUC) of CO-RADS ≥ 3 for detecting COVID-19 were 0.89 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.85-0.93), 0.68 (95% CI 0.60-0.75), and 0.87 (95% CI 0.84-0.90), respectively. The pooled sensitivity and specificity and AUC of CO-RADS ≥ 4 were 0.83 (95% CI 0.79-0.87), 0.84 (95% CI 0.78-0.88), and 0.90 (95% CI 0.87-0.92), respectively. Cochran's Q test (p < 0.01) and Higgins I2 heterogeneity index revealed considerable heterogeneity. Studies with both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients had higher specificity than those with only symptomatic patients using CO-RADS ≥ 3 and CO-RADS ≥ 4. Using CO-RADS ≥ 4, studies with participants aged < 60 years had higher sensitivity (0.88 vs. 0.80, p = 0.02) and lower specificity (0.77 vs. 0.87, p = 0.01) than studies with participants aged > 60 years. CONCLUSIONS: CO-RADS has favorable performance in detecting COVID-19. CO-RADS ≥ 3/4 might be applied as cutoff values given their high sensitivity and specificity. However, there is a need for more well-designed studies on CO-RADS. KEY POINTS: • CO-RADS shows a favorable performance in detecting COVID-19. • CO-RADS ≥ 3 had a high sensitivity 0.89 (95% CI 0.85-0.93), and it may prove advantageous in screening the potentially infected people to prevent the spread of COVID-19. • CO-RADS ≥ 4 had high specificity 0.84 (95% CI 0.78-0.88) and may be more suitable for definite diagnosis of COVID-19.

Teleradiology applications with DICOM-e-mail.

For the connection of several partners to a Dicom-e-mail based teleradiology network concepts were developed to allow the integration of different teleradiology applications. The organisational and technical needs for such an integration were analysed. More than 60 institutions including 23 hospitals in the Rhein-Neckar-Region, Germany were connected. The needed functionality was grouped in six teleradiology applications (emergency consultation, tele-guided examinations, expert consultations, cooperative work, scientific cooperations and homework with on call services) and their technical and organisational needs according to availability, speed of transfer, workflow definitions and data security needs was analysed. For the local integration of teleradiology services the setup and workflow is presented for a standalone teleradiology workstation and a server based teleradiology gateway. The line type needed for different groups of applications and users is defined. The security concept and fallback strategies are laid out, potential security problems and sources of errors are discussed. The specialties for the emergency teleradiology application are presented. The DICOM-e-mail protocol is a flexible and powerful protocol that can be used for a variety of teleradiology applications. It can meet the conditions for emergency applications but is limited if synchronous applications like teleconferences are needed.

Standardization of teleradiology using Dicom e-mail: recommendations of the German Radiology Society.

Until recently there has been no standard for an interoperable and manufacturer-independent protocol for secure teleradiology connections. This was one of the main reasons for the limited use of teleradiology in Germany. Various teleradiology solutions have been developed in the past, but the vast majority have not been interoperable. Therefore an ad hoc teleradiology connection was impossible even between partners who were already equipped with teleradiology workstations. Based on the evaluation of vendor-independent protocols in recent years the IT Working Group (AGIT) of the German Radiology Society set up an initiative to standardize basic teleradiology. An e-mail based solution using the Dicom standard for e-mail attachments with additional encryption according to the OpenPGP standard was found to be the common denominator. This protocol is easy to implement and safe for personalized patient data and fulfills the legal requirements for teleradiology in Germany and other countries. The first version of the recommendation was presented at the 85th German Radiology Convention in 2004. Eight commercial and three open-source implementations of the protocol are currently available; the protocol is in daily use in over 50 hospitals and institutions.

[Teleradiology with DICOM e-mail: recommendations of @GIT]. / Teleradiologie mit DICOM E-mail: Empfehlungen der @GIT.

E-mail is ideal for ad-hoc connections in teleradiology. The DICOM standard offers the possibility to append DICOM data types as a MIME attachment to any e-mail, thus ensuring the transmission of the original DICOM data. Nevertheless, there are additional requirements (e.g. protection of data privacy) which must be obeyed. Because of the lack of given standards which would grant interoperability as well as manufacturer independence, teleradiology has not been established in Germany until today. Therefore, the IT-Team (Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Informationstechnologie, @GIT) of the Radiological Society of Germany (Deutsche Rontgengesellschaft, DRG) set up an initiative to standardise telemedicine by using e-mail. Its members agreed that an e-mail-based variant would be the most practicable way to a communication solution -- as easy to implement as to use. In their opinion, e-mail represents the smallest common denominator for a safe data interchange that would fulfill the legal advantages for telemedicine in Germany.