French validation of the Quality of life in Essential Tremor Questionnaire (QUEST) and the Essential Tremor Embarrassment Assessment (ETEA).

Two scales have been developed and validated in English to evaluate the impact of tremor on daily life, namely Quality of life in Essential Tremor Questionnaire (QUEST) and Essential Tremor Embarrassment Assessment (ETEA). The psychometric properties of the French version of these two scales were assessed for 117 patients with head tremor. Both scales showed excellent acceptability, very good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient>0.8) and reproducibility (Lin concordance coefficient>0.8), satisfactory external validity and satisfactory sensitivity to change. In conclusion, the French versions of QUEST and ETEA are comprehensive, valid and reliable instruments for assessing patients with head tremor.

Psycho-sensory modalities of visual hallucinations and illusions in Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: Visual illusions (VI) in Parkinson's disease (PD) are generally considered part of the prodrome towards fully formed visual hallucinations (VH), and classified as minor hallucinations. However, this sequential relationship has not been clearly demonstrated and very little is known about the specific phenomenology of VI in regards to VH. We aimed to describe and compare psycho-sensory modalities associated with VI and VH in PD patients. METHODS: PD patients with VI (PD-I, n=26) and VH (PD-H, n=28) were included in this case-controlled study. We compared qualitative and quantitative psycho-sensory modalities of VI and VH using the PsychoSensory hAllucinations Scale (PSAS), and demographical and clinical features of each group. RESULTS: PD-I perceptions were more often colored blots (P=0.05) or objects (P=0.005) compared to PD-H. Conversely, PD-H perceptions were more often described as animals (P<0.001), occurring at night (P=0.03) compared to PD-I. The experienced phenomena were more frequent in PD-H (P=0.02), and lasted longer (P=0.02) than for PD-I, but no between-group difference was observed for other repercussion factors including negative aspect, conviction, impact, controllable nature of the perception. Passage hallucinations and sense of presence were observed in both groups with similar frequencies (respectively P=0.60 and P=0.70). Multivariate analysis adjusting for disease severity or duration confirmed these results. CONCLUSION: VI and VH in PD have different qualitative sensory modalities, with similar quantitative repercussion for patients, and similar association with modalities such as "sense of presence and passage hallucinations", in contrast to the generally accepted classification of VI as minor VH. REGISTRATION NUMBER: clinicaltrials.gov number NCT03454269.

Comparative next-generation mapping of the Phytophthora infestans resistance gene Rpi-dlc2 in a European accession of Solanum dulcamara.

Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of late blight, remains the main threat to potato production worldwide. Screening of 19 accessions of Solanum dulcamara with P. infestans isolate Ipo82001 in detached leaf assays revealed strong resistance in an individual belonging to accession A54750069-1. This plant was crossed with a susceptible genotype, and an F(1) population consisting of 63 individuals was obtained. This population segregated for resistance in 1:1 ratio, both in detached leaf assays and in an open-field experiment. Presence of the formerly mapped Rpi-dlc1 gene as the cause of the observed segregating resistance could be excluded. Subsequently, AFLP analyses using 128 primer combinations enabled identification of five markers linked to a novel resistance gene named Rpi-dlc2. AFLP markers did not show sequence similarity to the tomato and potato genomes, hampering comparative genetic positioning of the gene. For this reason we used next-generation mapping (NGM), an approach that exploits direct sequencing of DNA (in our case: cDNA) pools from bulked segregants to calculate the genetic distance between SNPs and the locus of interest. Plotting of these genetic distances on the tomato and potato genetic map and subsequent PCR-based marker analysis positioned the gene on chromosome 10, in a region overlapping with the Rpi-ber/ber1 and -ber2 loci from S. berthaultii. Pyramiding of Rpi-dlc2 and Rpi-dlc1 significantly increased resistance to P. infestans, compared with individuals containing only one of the genes, showing the usefulness of this strategy to enhance resistance against Phytophthora.

Screening hypersexuality in Parkinson's disease in everyday practice.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop a short and reliable measure of hypersexuality that could be used in everyday practice in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). DESIGN: The original questionnaire containing twenty-five-items, the Sexual Addiction Screening Test (SAST), was shortened and tested in a PD population. METHODS: Successive reductions were performed until a final set of items satisfied the model fit requirements. The testing phase consisted of administering the SAST questionnaire to 159 PD patients. It included i) acceptability, ii) dimensionality construct validity, and iii) a complete general correlation structure of data. Finally, criterion validity of the final version of the instrument was assessed. RESULTS: The initial questionnaire was reduced to five items (PD-SAST) with a cut-off score of 2. Psychometric analysis revealed three factors corresponding to "Preoccupation", "Cannot stop" and "Relationship disturbance". The discriminant validity of the PD-SAST was high (ROC area under the curve: 0.96). CONCLUSIONS: The PD-SAST performs well as a screening instrument. It has been found to be acceptable to patients and is ready for use. Moreover, it tests multidimensional aspects of hypersexuality.

ABA-deficiency results in reduced plant and fruit size in tomato.

Abscisic acid (ABA) deficient mutants, such as notabilis and flacca, have helped elucidating the role of ABA during plant development and stress responses in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). However, these mutants have only moderately decreased ABA levels. Here we report on plant and fruit development in the more strongly ABA-deficient notabilis/flacca (not/flc) double mutant. We observed that plant growth, leaf-surface area, drought-induced wilting and ABA-related gene expression in the different genotypes were strongly correlated with the ABA levels and thus most strongly affected in the not/flc double mutants. These mutants also had reduced fruit size that was caused by an overall smaller cell size. Lower ABA levels in fruits did not correlate with changes in auxin levels, but were accompanied by higher ethylene evolution rates. This suggests that in a wild-type background ABA stimulates cell enlargement during tomato fruit growth via a negative effect on ethylene synthesis.

[The Idiopathic Parkinson's disease: A metabolic disease?]. / La maladie de Parkinson idiopathique : une maladie métabolique ?

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder clinically characterized by motor impairments (tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity and postural instability) associated or not with non-motor complications (cognitive disorders, dysautonomia). Most of patients loose weight during evolution of their disease. Dysregulations of hypothalamus, which is considered as the regulatory center of satiety and energy metabolism, could play a major role in this phenomenon. Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (NST) is an effective method to treat patients with advanced Parkinson's disease providing marked improvement of motor impairments. This chirurgical procedure also induces a rapid and strong body weight gain and sometimes obesity. This post-operative weight gain, which exceeds largely weight lost recorded in non-operated patient, could be responsible of metabolic disorders (such as diabetes) and cardiovascular diseases. This review describes body weight variations generated by Parkinson' disease and deep brain stimulation of the NST, and focuses on metabolic disorders capable to explain them. Finally, this review emphasizes on the importance of an adequate nutritional follow up care for parkinsonian patient.

Expression analysis of five tobacco EIN3 family members in relation to tissue-specific ethylene responses.

Ethylene induces different sets of genes in different tissues and at different stages of development. To investigate whether these differential responses are caused by differential expression of members of the EIN3 family transcription factors, five tobacco family members were isolated. They can be divided into three subgroups, which is probably due to the amphidiploid nature of tobacco. In phylogenetic analysis, each of the subgroups clustered with one of the three tomato EIL proteins and all NtEILs proved to be most homologous to Arabidopsis EIN3 and EIL1. Although organ-specific ethylene responses have been observed before, northern blot analysis showed that all NtEILs were expressed in all organs. To study differential NtEIL expression at the cellular level, in situ hybridization was used on the tobacco ovary. It was found that different ovary tissues displayed variable ethylene-induced expression of two ethylene-responsive marker genes. By contrast, no differences were found in expression level or tissue-specificity for any of the NtEILs in the ovary, before or after ethylene treatment. This indicates that the organ and tissue-specific ethylene responses are not caused by differential expression of NtEIL family members. These results support a model in which the developmental signals that regulate the tissue-specific responses are integrated with the ethylene signal downstream of a common primary ethylene-signalling pathway.

Ethylene regulates the timing of anther dehiscence in tobacco.

We investigated the involvement of ethylene signaling in the development of the reproductive structures in tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum L.) by studying flowers that were insensitive to ethylene. Ethylene-insensitivity was generated either by expression of the mutant etr1-1 ethylene-receptor allele from Arabidopsis thaliana or by treatment with the ethylene-perception inhibitor 1-methylcyclopropene (MCP). Development of ovaries and ovules was unaffected by ethylene-insensitivity. Anther development was also unaffected, but the final event of dehiscence was delayed and was no longer synchronous with flower opening. We showed that in these anthers degeneration of the stomium cells and dehydration were delayed. In addition, we found that MCP-treatment of detached flowers and isolated, almost mature anthers delayed dehiscence whereas ethylene-treatment accelerated dehiscence. This indicated that ethylene has a direct effect on a process that takes place in the anthers just before dehiscence. Because a similar function has been described for jasmonic acid in Arabidopsis, we suggest that ethylene acts similarly to or perhaps even in concurrence with jasmonic acid as a signaling molecule controlling the processes that lead to anther dehiscence in tobacco.