Exploring abiotic stress on asynchronous protein metabolism in single kernels of wheat studied by NMR spectroscopy and chemometrics.

Extreme climate events are being recognized as important factors in the effects on crop growth and yield. Increased climatic variability leads to more frequent extreme conditions which may result in crops being exposed to more than one extreme event within a growing season. The aim of this study was to examine the implications of different drought treatments on the protein fractions in grains of winter wheat using (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy followed by chemometric analysis. Triticum aestivum L. cv. Vinjett was studied in a semi-field experiment and subjected to drought episodes either at terminal spikelet, during grain-filling or at both stages. Principal component trajectories of the total protein content and the protein fractions of flour as well as the (1)H NMR spectra of single wheat kernels, wheat flour, and wheat methanol extracts were analysed to elucidate the metabolic development during grain-filling. The results from both the (1)H NMR spectra of methanol extracts and the (1)H HR-MAS NMR of single kernels showed that a single drought event during the generative stage had as strong an influence on protein metabolism as two consecutive events of drought. By contrast, a drought event at the vegetative growth stage had little effect on the parameters investigated. For the first time, (1)H HR-MAS NMR spectra of grains taken during grain-filling were analysed by an advanced multiway model. In addition to the results from the chemical protein analysis and the (1)H HR-MAS NMR spectra of single kernels indicating that protein metabolism is influenced by multiple drought events, the (1)H NMR spectra of the methanol extracts of flour from mature grains revealed that the amount of fumaric acid is particularly sensitive to water deficits.

[Ultrasound imaging of the lower urinary tract in women before and after colposuspension: a 6-month follow-up]. / Introitussonographie des unteren Genitaltraktes vor und nach Kolposuspension: eine sechsmonatige Nachbeobachtung.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the position of the bladder neck before and after open Burch colposuspension, using introital ultrasound. DESIGN: Retrospective longitudinal study using pre- and post-operative sonographic assessment of the position and function of the bladder neck. SETTING: Urogynecology units at the universities of Marburg/Göttingen and Witten/Herdecke and the DRK district hospital in Alzey, Germany. PATIENTS: 310 women undergoing open Burch colposuspension for primary genuine stress incontinence between September 1992 and December 2001. METHOD: Two-dimensional introitus sonography of the bladder neck prior to, one week and six months after surgery. RESULTS: The median age at surgery was 55 years (26 - 85). Open colposuspension lead to a 90.0 % (279/310) cure rate at 6 months with only 3.5 % (11/310) of the patients showing persistent micturation problems. A further 11.6 % (36/310) had symptoms of urgency and in 7 patients (2.3 %) a de novo urge-incontinence occurred. Post-operative bladder neck angles and movements at rest and during valsalva manoeuvre were significantly reduced while the resting bladder neck position was significantly elevated (p < 0.0001). Anatomical elevation of the bladder neck after open colposuspension varied between 2 - 39 with a median of 14.3 mm of neck elevation after one week and 9.9 mm at 6 month, respectively. Incontinence surgery lead to a significant reduction of the urethral funneling (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: In our series, open Burch colposuspension decreased both the bladder neck angle and the linear movement at rest and on valsalva as a result of the surgically stabilized bladder neck. Thus, our results support the hammock hypothesis that even small changes in the position of neck position are sufficient to reverse incontinence. We believe that perioperative introitus sonography is a helpful tool for the clinical assessment and documentation of not only morphological but also functional changes of the female continence organ before and after open Burch colposuspension.