The pathogen–host interaction database (PHI-base) is a web-accessible database that catalogues experimentally verified pathogenicity, virulence and effector genes from bacterial, fungal and Oomycete pathogens, which infect human, animal, plant, insect, fish and fungal hosts. Plant endophytes are also included. PHI-base is therefore an invaluable resource for the discovery of genes in medically and agronomically important pathogens, which may be potential targets for chemical intervention. The database is freely accessible to both academic and non-academic users. This publication describes recent additions to the database and both current and future applications. The number of fields that characterize PHI-base entries has almost doubled. Important additional fields deal with new experimental methods, strain information, pathogenicity islands and external references that link the database to external resources, for example, gene ontology terms and Locus IDs. Another important addition is the inclusion of anti-infectives and their target genes that makes it possible to predict the compounds, that may interact with newly identified virulence factors. In parallel, the curation process has been improved and now involves several external experts. On the technical side, several new search tools have been provided and the database is also now distributed in XML format. PHI-base is available at: http://www.phi-base.org/.
Pressure on agricultural land from a rising global population is necessitating the maximisation of food production per unit area of cultivation. Attention is increasingly turning to Vertical Farming (VF) approaches in an attempt to provide a greater crop yield per square meter of land. However, this term has been used to cover a broad range of approaches, from personal-or community-scale vegetable and herb growing to vast skyscrapers for commercial production of a wide range of crops. This article summarises the main categories of VF in order to help clarify this emerging but sometimes confusing area of agriculture and discusses how scientific investigation of the potential of VF is currently lacking and will be required to help determine its feasibility as a method to assist meaningfully in global food production.
. SEVIOUR. 1993. Five different phenotypic identification systems were used in attempts to place 164 Acinetobacter strains obtained from a biological nutrient removal plant and 16 reference cultures into the genospecies of Bouvet and Grimont, and Tjernberg and Ursing. O f these strains only four, including two of the reference strains, were identified at a Willcox probability level of > 0-95 and a modal likelihood fraction of > 0.0001 by all five systems. These different identification schemes were compared for their usefulness with such non-clinical isolates.
Vertical farming is an emerging area of food production that aims to provide sustainable intensification of agriculture by maximising the obtainable yield per unit area of land. This approach commonly utilises stacked horizontal levels of crop growth in glasshouse or controlled environment (CE) facilities. Vertical farming has, however, received relatively little scientific investigation to date. Consequently, important factors such as economic feasibility, system design and optimisation of production methods are still being evaluated. Vertical farming methods bring additional considerations for the effective management of pests and diseases compared with conventional protected horticulture, such as movement of both pest and beneficial insects between growth levels.This article aims to provide a perspective on the positive and negative issues facing pest and disease control in Vertical farming systems. We highlight important considerations for system optimisation and areas for future investigation.
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