Characterisation of Botrytis species associated with neck rot of onion in Australia
Neck rot of onion has commonly been attributed to two fungal pathogens, Botrytis aclada (syn. B. allii) and B. byssoidea. However, in other countries, a recently developed PCR technique using sequence characterised amplified region (SCAR) primers (BA2f/BA1r) followed by ApoI digestion of the amplification product, has shown the presence of two groups within B. aclada, B. aclada AI and B. aclada AII syn. B. allii. This method was used to characterise Botrytis spp. of the B. aclada/B. allii complex associated with onion seed and bulbs in Australia. A total of 24 Botrytis isolates, including two from seed and ten from bulbs (Tasmania), five from seed (South Australia), and one from seed and six from a culture collection originally isolated from five bulbs and one stipe (New South Wales), were characterised. Of the 24 isolates, one was identified as B. cinerea, one as B. aclada AI, and 22 as B. aclada All syn. B. allii.
Survey for Botrytis species associated with onion bulb rot in northern Tasmania, Australia
Botrytis allii (including B. aclada and B. allii sensu stricto) was detected in latent form in leaf samples in 6 of 16 onion crops sampled early to mid-season in Tasmania, Australia during 1999/2000. Botrytis neck rot was detected in bulb samples from eight of eight crops sampled after harvest at an incidence of 0.4–16.3%, with a mean of 5.3%, and was correlated (r = 0.83, P < 0.05) with leaf infection.
The MR-TOF-MS isobar separator for the TITAN facility at TRIUMF
At TRIUMF’s Ion Trap for Atomic and Nuclear Science (TITAN) a multiple-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MR-TOF-MS) will extend TITAN’s capabilities and facilitate mass measurements and in-trap decay spectroscopy of exotic nuclei that so far have not been possible due to strong isobaric contamination. This MR-TOF-MS will also enable mass measurements of very short-lived nuclides (half-life > 1 ms) that are produced in very low quantities (a few detected ions overall). In order to allow the installation of an MR-TOF-MS in the restricted space on the platform, on which the TITAN facility is located, novel mass spectrometric methods have been developed. Transport, cooling and distribution of the ions inside the device is done using a buffer gas-filled RFQ-based ion beam switchyard. Mass selection is achieved using a dynamic retrapping technique after time-of-flight analysis in an electrostatic isochronous reflector system. Only due to the combination of these novel methods the realization of an MR-TOF-MS based isobar separator at TITAN has become possible. The device has been built, commissioned off-line and is currently under installation at TITAN.