Polypeptide signaling for plant defensive genes exhibits analogies to defense signaling in animals.

The activation of plant defensive genes in leaves of tomato plants in response to herbivore damage or mechanical wounding is mediated by a mobile 18-amino acid polypeptide signal called systemin. Systemin is derived from a larger, 200-amino acid precursor called prosystemin, similar to polypeptide hormones and soluble growth factors in animals. Systemin activates a lipid-based signaling cascade, also analogous to signaling systems found in animals. In plants, linolenic acid is released from membranes and is converted to the oxylipins phytodienoic acid and jasmonic acid through the octadecanoid pathway. Plant oxylipins are structural analogs of animal prostaglandins which are derived from arachidonic acid in response to various signals, including polypeptide factors. Constitutive overexpression of the prosystemin gene in transgenic tomato plants resulted in the overproduction of prosystemin and the abnormal release of systemin, conferring a constitutive overproduction of several systemic wound-response proteins (SWRPs). The data indicate that systemin is a master signal for defense against attacking herbivores. The same defensive proteins induced by wounding are synthesized in response to oligosaccharide elicitors that are generated in leaf cells in response to pathogen attacks. Inhibitors of the octadecanoid pathway, and a mutation that interrupts this pathway, block the induction of SWRPs by wounding, systemin, and oligosaccharide elicitors, indicating that the octadecanoid pathway is essential for the activation of defense genes by all of these signals. The tomato mutant line that is functionally deficient in the octadecanoid pathway is highly susceptible to attacks by Manduca sexta larvae. The similarities between the defense signaling pathway in tomato leaves and those of the defense signaling pathways of macrophages and mast cells of animals suggests that both the plant and animal pathways may have evolved from a common ancestral origin.

Medicinal plants - prophylactic and therapeutic options for gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases in calves and piglets? A systematic review.

BACKGROUND Gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases in calves and piglets lead to significant economic losses in livestock husbandry. A high morbidity has been reported for diarrhea (calves ≤ 35 %; piglets ≤ 50 %) and for respiratory diseases (calves ≤ 80 %; piglets ≤ 40 %). Despite a highly diverse etiology and pathophysiology of these diseases, treatment with antimicrobials is often the first-line therapy. Multi-antimicrobial resistance in pathogens results in international accordance to strengthen the research in novel treatment options. Medicinal plants bear a potential as alternative or additional treatment. Based on the versatile effects of their plant specific multi-component-compositions, medicinal plants can potentially act as 'multi-target drugs'. Regarding the plurality of medicinal plants, the aim of this systematic review was to identify potential medicinal plant species for prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases and for modulation of the immune system and inflammation in calves and piglets. RESULTS Based on nine initial sources including standard textbooks and European ethnoveterinary studies, a total of 223 medicinal plant species related to the treatment of gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases was identified. A defined search strategy was established using the PRISMA statement to evaluate 30 medicinal plant species starting from 20'000 peer-reviewed articles published in the last 20 years (1994-2014). This strategy led to 418 references (257 in vitro, 84 in vivo and 77 clinical trials, thereof 48 clinical trials in veterinary medicine) to evaluate effects of medicinal plants and their efficacy in detail. The findings indicate that the most promising candidates for gastrointestinal diseases are Allium sativum L., Mentha x piperita L. and Salvia officinalis L.; for diseases of the respiratory tract Echinacea purpurea (L.) MOENCH, Thymus vulgaris L. and Althea officinalis L. were found most promising, and Echinacea purpurea (L.) MOENCH, Camellia sinensis (L.) KUNTZE, Glycyrrhiza glabra L. and Origanum vulgare L. were identified as best candidates for modulation of the immune system and inflammation. CONCLUSIONS Several medicinal plants bear a potential for novel treatment strategies for young livestock. There is a need for further research focused on gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases in calves and piglets, and the findings of this review provide a basis on plant selection for future studies.

Observations on the epidemical diseases in Minorca from the year 1744 to 1749 : to which is prefixed, a short account of the climate, productions, inhabitants, and endemial distempers of the island /

Mode of access: Internet.

Observations on the epidemical diseases in Minorca from the year 1744 to 1749 : to which is prefixed a short account of the climate, productions, inhabitants, and endemial distempers of that island /

Mode of access: Internet.

A practical treatise on the remmitent fever of infants, with remarks on hydrocephalus internus ... and cases and observations, designed to illustrate the influence exerted by a certain disordered state of the chylopöietic viscera, upon local and constitutional diseases ... in two parts /

Mode of access: Internet.

The anatomy of the foetal brain, with a comparative exposition of its structure in animals /

Mode of access: Internet.

Observations on the changes of the air and the concomitant epidemical diseases in the island of Barbadoes : to which is added a treatise on the putrid bilious fever commonly called the yellow fever and such other diseases as are indigenous or endemial in the West India islands or in the torrid zone /

Índice.

Oeconomical and medical observations, in two parts : from the year 1758 to the year 1763, inclusive : tending to the improvement of military hospitals, and to the cure of camp diseases, incident to soldiers : to which is subjoined, an appendix, containing a curious account of the climate and diseases in Africa, upon the great river Senegal, and farther up than the island of Senegal : in a letter form Mr. Boone, practitioner in physic to that Garrison for three years, to Dr. Brocklesby /

Mode of access: Internet.

A treatise of diseases in general : wherein the true causes, natures, and essences of all the principal diseases incident to the human body ... : in two volumes /

Mode of access: Internet.

Observations on the management of the prevailing diseases in Great Britain, particularly in the army and navy; together with a review of that of other countries and arithmetical calculations of the comparative success of different methods of cure /

Mode of access: Internet.