Neural Mechanisms of Binaural Processing in the Auditory Brainstem.

Spatial hearing, and more specifically the ability to localize sounds in space, is one of the most studied and best understood aspects of hearing. Because there is no coding of acoustic space at the receptor organ, physiological sensitivity to spatial aspects of sounds first emerges in the central nervous system. Much progress has been made in the identification and characterization of the circuits in the auditory brainstem that create sensitivity to binaural and monaural cues toward acoustic space. We review the progress over the past third of a century, with a focus on the mammalian brainstem and on the anatomy and cellular physiology underlying the physiological tuning of monaural and binaural circuits to acoustic cues toward spatial hearing. In addition to examining the detailed mechanisms involved in the processing of the three main spatial cues, we also review the integration of these cues and their use toward behavior. © 2019 American Physiological Society. Compr Physiol 9:1503-1575, 2019.

Mutations in wheat exhibiting growth-stage-specific resistance to biotrophic fungal pathogens.

Two mutants were isolated in wheat that showed enhanced resistance towards Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, the fungal causal agent of yellow rust. The altered phenotype of I3-48 is due to a minimum of two mutation events, each showing a partial, additive effect, with one mutation segregating with a deletion on the long arm of chromosome 4D. In the case of I3-54, the enhanced resistance is due to a single, dominant mutation. In both mutants, the expression of the enhanced resistance is growth-stage specific. With I3-54, the full resistance phenotype is apparent from the third seedling leaf onwards, while with I3-48, a full resistance phenotype is only seen on the tenth and subsequent leaves. In addition to the enhanced resistance towards yellow rust, I3-48 also shows enhanced resistance towards brown rust, and I3-54 shows enhanced resistance to powdery mildew.