Digital repository of Slovenian research organisations

Search the repository
A+ | A- | Help | SLO | ENG

Query: search in
search in
search in
search in

Options:
  Reset


Query: "author" (Maja Ravnikar) .

1 - 10 / 38
First pagePrevious page1234Next pageLast page
1.
Draft genome sequences of Dickeya sp. isolates B16 (NIB Z 2098) and S1 (NIB Z 2099) causing soft rot of Phalaenopsis orchids
Špela Alič, Tina Mikuletič, Pablo Llop, Nataša Toplak, Simon Koren, Maja Ravnikar, Tanja Dreo, 2015, other scientific articles

Abstract: The genus Dickeya contains bacteria causing soft rot of economically important crops and ornamental plants. Here, we report the draft genome sequences of two Dickeya sp. isolates from rotted leaves of Phalaenopsis orchids.
Keywords: bacteria, plant diseases
Published in DiRROS: 07.08.2024; Views: 51; Downloads: 34
.pdf Full text (161,12 KB)
This document has many files! More...

2.
Global advances in tomato virome research : current status and the impact of high-throughput sequencing
Mark Paul Selda Rivarez, Ana Vučurović, Nataša Mehle, Maja Ravnikar, Denis Kutnjak, 2021, review article

Abstract: Viruses cause a big fraction of economically important diseases in major crops, including tomato. In the past decade (2011–2020), many emerging or re-emerging tomato-infecting viruses were reported worldwide. In this period, 45 novel viral species were identified in tomato, 14 of which were discovered using high-throughput sequencing (HTS). In this review, we first discuss the role of HTS in these discoveries and its general impact on tomato virome research. We observed that the rate of tomato virus discovery is accelerating in the past few years due to the use of HTS. However, the extent of the post-discovery characterization of viruses is lagging behind and is greater for economically devastating viruses, such as the recently emerged tomato brown rugose fruit virus. Moreover, many known viruses still cause significant economic damages to tomato production. The review of databases and literature revealed at least 312 virus, satellite virus, or viroid species (in 22 families and 39 genera) associated with tomato, which is likely the highest number recorded for any plant. Among those, here, we summarize the current knowledge on the biology, global distribution, and epidemiology of the most important species. Increasing knowledge on tomato virome and employment of HTS to also study viromes of surrounding wild plants and environmental samples are bringing new insights into the understanding of epidemiology and ecology of tomato-infecting viruses and can, in the future, facilitate virus disease forecasting and prevention of virus disease outbreaks in tomato.
Published in DiRROS: 05.08.2024; Views: 73; Downloads: 85
.pdf Full text (1,83 MB)
This document has many files! More...

3.
Reverse transcriptase droplet digital PCR shows high resilience to PCR inhibitors from plant, soil and water samples
Nejc Rački, Tanja Dreo, Ion Gutiérrez-Aguirre, Andrej Blejec, Maja Ravnikar, 2014, original scientific article

Abstract: Background Detection and quantification of plant pathogens in the presence of inhibitory substances can be a challenge especially with plant and environmental samples. Real-time quantitative PCR has enabled high-throughput detection and quantification of pathogens; however, its quantitative use is linked to standardized reference materials, and its sensitivity to inhibitors can lead to lower quantification accuracy. Droplet digital PCR has been proposed as a method to overcome these drawbacks. Its absolute quantification does not rely on standards and its tolerance to inhibitors has been demonstrated mostly in clinical samples. Such features would be of great use in agricultural and environmental fields, therefore our study compared the performance of droplet digital PCR method when challenged with inhibitors common to plant and environmental samples and compared it with quantitative PCR. Results Transfer of an existing Pepper mild mottle virus assay from reverse transcription real-time quantitative PCR to reverse transcription droplet digital PCR was straight forward. When challenged with complex matrices (seeds, plants, soil, wastewater) and selected purified inhibitors droplet digital PCR showed higher resilience to inhibition for the quantification of an RNA virus (Pepper mild mottle virus), compared to reverse transcription real-time quantitative PCR. Conclusions This study confirms the improved detection and quantification of the PMMoV RT-ddPCR in the presence of inhibitors that are commonly found in samples of seeds, plant material, soil, and wastewater. Together with absolute quantification, independent of standard reference materials, this makes droplet digital PCR a valuable tool for detection and quantification of pathogens in inhibition prone samples.
Keywords: PCR amplification, inhibition, qPCR, droplet digital PCR, environmental samples
Published in DiRROS: 02.08.2024; Views: 90; Downloads: 68
.pdf Full text (807,79 KB)
This document has many files! More...

4.
Loop-mediated isothermal amplification of specific endoglucanase gene sequence for detection of the bacterial wilt pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum
Rok Lenarčič, Dany Morisset, Manca Pirc, Pablo Llop, Maja Ravnikar, Tanja Dreo, 2014, original scientific article

Abstract: The increased globalization of crops production and processing industries also promotes the side-effects of more rapid and efficient spread of plant pathogens. To prevent the associated economic losses, and particularly those related to bacterial diseases where their management relies on removal of the infected material from production, simple, easy-to-perform, rapid and cost-effective tests are needed. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays that target 16S rRNA, fliC and egl genes were compared and evaluated as on-site applications. The assay with the best performance was that targeted to the egl gene, which shows high analytical specificity for diverse strains of the betaproteobacterium Ralstonia solanacearum, including its non-European and non-race 3 biovar 2 strains. The additional melting curve analysis provides confirmation of the test results. According to our extensive assessment, the egl LAMP assay requires minimum sample preparation (a few minutes of boiling) for the identification of pure cultures and ooze from symptomatic material, and it can also be used in a high-throughput format in the laboratory. This provides sensitive and reliable detection of R. solanacearum strains of different phylotypes.
Keywords: plant pathogens, bacterial diseases
Published in DiRROS: 02.08.2024; Views: 93; Downloads: 53
.pdf Full text (339,81 KB)
This document has many files! More...

5.
Host range and symptomatology of Pepino mosaic virus strains occurring in Europe
Dag-Ragnar Blystad, René van der Vlugt, Ana Alfaro-Fernández, María del Carmen Córdoba, Gábor Bese, Dimitrinka Hristova, Henryk Pospieszny, Nataša Mehle, Maja Ravnikar, Laura Tomassoli, Christina Varveri, Steen Lykke Nielsen, 2015, original scientific article

Abstract: Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) has caused great concern in the greenhouse tomato industry after it was found causing a new disease in tomato in 1999. The objective of this paper is to investigate alternative hosts and compare important biological characteristics of the three PepMV strains occurring in Europe when tested under different environmental conditions. To this end we compared the infectivity and symptom development of three, well characterized isolates belonging to three different PepMV strains, EU-tom, Ch2 and US1, by inoculating them on tomato, possible alternative host plants in the family Solanaceae and selected test plants. The inoculation experiments were done in 10 countries from south to north in Europe. The importance of alternative hosts among the solanaceous crops and the usefulness of test plants in the biological characterization of PepMV isolates are discussed. Our data for the three strains tested at 10 different European locations with both international and local cultivars showed that eggplant is an alternative host of PepMV. Sweet pepper is not an important host of PepMV, but potato can be infected when the right isolate is matched with a specific cultivar. Nicotiana occidentalis 37B is a useful indicator plant for PepMV studies, since it reacts with a different symptomatology to each one of the PepMV strains.
Keywords: Pepino mosaic virus, potexvirus, strains, host plants, test plants
Published in DiRROS: 26.07.2024; Views: 104; Downloads: 121
.pdf Full text (2,78 MB)
This document has many files! More...

6.
Methacrylate monolith chromatography as a tool for waterborne virus removal
Nejc Rački, Petra Kramberger, Andrej Steyer, Jernej Gašperšič, Aleš Štrancar, Maja Ravnikar, Ion Gutiérrez-Aguirre, 2015, original scientific article

Abstract: Enteric viruses are commonly present in environmental waters and represent the major cause of waterborne infections and outbreaks. Since traditional wastewater treatments fail to remove enteric viruses in the water purification process, they are released daily into environmental waters. Monolithic supports have enabled chromatography to enter the field of virology. They have been successfully used in virus purification and concentration. In this work quaternary amine (QA) methacrylate monoliths were exploited to remove enteric viruses from wastewater treatment plant effluent. Expectedly, chromatographic processing of such a complex medium was troublesome, even for monoliths, characterized by extremely large pore dimensions. This problem was solved by introducing a pre-step chromatography using hydroxyl (OH) methacrylate monoliths. This way, molecules, that would hinder virus binding to the anion-exchanger monolith, were removed. As a result, the OH pre-column reduced backpressure increase on the subsequent anion-exchanger column, and increased both QA column binding capacity and life time. Wastewater effluent samples were successfully purified from five waterborne enteric viruses (rotavirus, norovirus genogroup I and II, astrovirus, sapovirus), below the detection limit of RT-qPCR. The breakthrough of the rotavirus binding capacity was not reached for concentrations that significantly exceeded those expected in effluent waters. The obtained results confirm that methacrylate monoliths can be a valuable tool for simultaneous removal of different waterborne viruses from contaminated water sources.
Keywords: monolith chromatography, waterborne, virus, removal, wastewater, qPCR
Published in DiRROS: 26.07.2024; Views: 114; Downloads: 60
.pdf Full text (1008,58 KB)
This document has many files! More...

7.
LAMP assay and rapid sample preparation method for on-site detection of flavescence dorée phytoplasma in grapevine
Polona Kogovšek, Jennifer Hodgetts, J. Hall, Nina Prezelj, Petra Nikolić, Nataša Mehle, Rok Lenarčič, Ana Rotter, M. Dickinson, Neil Boonham, Marina Dermastia, Maja Ravnikar, 2015, original scientific article

Abstract: In Europe the most devastating phytoplasma associated with grapevine yellows (GY) diseases is a quarantine pest, flavescence dorée (FDp), from the 16SrV taxonomic group. The on-site detection of FDp with an affordable device would contribute to faster and more efficient decisions on the control measures for FDp. Therefore, a real-time isothermal LAMP assay for detection of FDp was validated according to the EPPO standards and MIQE guidelines. The LAMP assay was shown to be specific and extremely sensitive, because it detected FDp in all leaf samples that were determined to be FDp infected using quantitative real-time PCR. The whole procedure of sample preparation and testing was designed and optimized for on-site detection and can be completed in one hour. The homogenization procedure of the grapevine samples (leaf vein, flower or berry) was optimized to allow direct testing of crude homogenates with the LAMP assay, without the need for DNA extraction, and was shown to be extremely sensitive.
Keywords: flavescence dorée, homogenization, loop-mediated isothermal amplification, on-site application, validation
Published in DiRROS: 26.07.2024; Views: 110; Downloads: 93
.pdf Full text (483,90 KB)
This document has many files! More...

8.
Enhanced detection of pathogenic enteric viruses in coastal marine environment by concentration using methacrylate monolithic chromatographic supports paired with quantitative PCR
Mukundh Narayanan Balasubramanian, Nejc Rački, José Gonçalves, Katarina Kovač, Magda Tušek-Žnidarič, Valentina Turk, Maja Ravnikar, Ion Gutiérrez-Aguirre, 2016, original scientific article

Abstract: Currently, around 50% of the world's population lives in towns and cities within 100 km of the coast. Monitoring of viruses that are frequently present in contaminated coastal environments, such as rotavirus (RoV) and norovirus (NoV), which are also the major cause of human viral gastroenteritis, is essential to ensure the safe use of these water bodies. Since exposure to as few as 10–100 particles of RoV or NoV may induce gastrointestinal disease, there is a need to develop a rapid and sensitive diagnostic method for their detection in coastal water samples. In this study, we evaluate the application of methacrylate monolithic chromatographic columns, commercially available as convective interaction media (CIM®), to concentrate pathogenic enteric viruses from saline water samples prior to virus quantification by one-step reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). Using RoV and NoV as model enteric viruses, we present our results on the most effective viral concentration conditions from saline water matrices using butyl (C4) hydrophobic interaction monolithic support (CIM® C4). C4 monolithic columns exhibit a good capacity to bind both RoV and NoV and both viruses can be eluted in a single step. Our protocol using a 1 ml C4 column enables processing of 400 ml saline water samples in less than 60 min and increases the sensitivity of RoV and NoV detection by approximately 50-fold and 10-fold respectively. The protocol was also scaled up using larger capacity 8 ml C4 columns to process 4000 ml of seawater samples with concentration factors of 300-fold for RoV and 40-fold for NoV, without any significant increase in processing time. Furthermore, C4 monolithic columns were adapted for field use in an on-site application of RoV concentration from seawater samples with performance equivalent to that of the reference laboratory setup. Overall, the results from successful deployment of CIM C4 columns for concentration of rotavirus and norovirus in seawater samples reiterate the utility of monolithic supports as efficient, scalable and modular preparative tools for processing environmental water samples to enhance viral detection using molecular methods.
Keywords: rotavirus, norovirus, seawater, fecal contamination, qPCR, sewage
Published in DiRROS: 25.07.2024; Views: 131; Downloads: 63
.pdf Full text (911,64 KB)
This document has many files! More...

9.
Use of hydrodynamic cavitation in (waste)water treatment
Matevž Dular, Tjaša Griessler Bulc, Ion Gutiérrez-Aguirre, Ester Heath, Tina Kosjek, Aleksandra Krivograd-Klemenčič, Martina Oder, Martin Petkovšek, Nejc Rački, Maja Ravnikar, Andrej Šarc, Brane Širok, Mojca Zupanc, Miha Žitnik, Boris Kompare, 2016, original scientific article

Abstract: The use of acoustic cavitation for water and wastewater treatment (cleaning) is a well known procedure. Yet, the use of hydrodynamic cavitation as a sole technique or in combination with other techniques such as ultrasound has only recently been suggested and employed. In the first part of this paper a general overview of techniques that employ hydrodynamic cavitation for cleaning of water and wastewater is presented. In the second part of the paper the focus is on our own most recent work using hydrodynamic cavitation for removal of pharmaceuticals (clofibric acid, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen, diclofenac, carbamazepine), toxic cyanobacteria (Microcystis aeruginosa), green microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris), bacteria (Legionella pneumophila) and viruses (Rotavirus) from water and wastewater. As will be shown, hydrodynamic cavitation, like acoustic, can manifest itself in many different forms each having its own distinctive properties and mechanisms. This was until now neglected, which eventually led to poor performance of the technique. We will show that a different type of hydrodynamic cavitation (different removal mechanism) is required for successful removal of different pollutants. The path to use hydrodynamic cavitation as a routine water cleaning method is still long, but recent results have already shown great potential for optimisation, which could lead to a low energy tool for water and wastewater cleaning.
Keywords: wastewater, cleaning, hydrodynamic cavitation, pharmaceuticals, cyanobacteria, microalgae, viruses, Legionella bacteria
Published in DiRROS: 25.07.2024; Views: 110; Downloads: 54
.pdf Full text (878,89 KB)
This document has many files! More...

10.
A framework for the evaluation of biosecurity, commercial, regulatory, and scientific impacts of plant viruses and viroids identified by NGS technologies
Sébastien Massart, Thierry Candresse, José Gil, Christophe Lacomme, Lukas Predajna, Maja Ravnikar, Jean-Sébastien Reynard, Artemis Rumbou, Pasquale Saldarelli, Dijana Škorić, Eeva J. Vainio, Jari P. T. Valkonen, Hervé Vanderschuren, Christina Varveri, Thierry Wetzel, 2017, original scientific article

Abstract: Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have generated huge new opportunities for discovering and diagnosing plant viruses and viroids. Plant virology has undoubtedly benefited from these new methodologies, but at the same time, faces now substantial bottlenecks, namely the biological characterization of the newly discovered viruses and the analysis of their impact at the biosecurity, commercial, regulatory, and scientific levels. This paper proposes a scaled and progressive scientific framework for efficient biological characterization and risk assessment when a previously known or a new plant virus is detected by next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Four case studies are also presented to illustrate the need for such a framework, and to discuss the scenarios.
Keywords: NGS, pest risk analysis, virus diseases, biological characterization, plant health, regulatory agencies
Published in DiRROS: 25.07.2024; Views: 103; Downloads: 61
.pdf Full text (760,13 KB)
This document has many files! More...

Search done in 0.77 sec.
Back to top