Academic literature on the topic 'Backyard gardens – Ontario – Hamilton'

ABSTRACT Fifty bacteriophage isolates of Erwinia amylovora, the causal agent of fire blight, were collected from sites in and around the Niagara region of southern Ontario and the Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton, Ontario. Forty-two phages survived the isolation, purification, and storage processes. The majority of the phages in the collection were isolated from the soil surrounding trees exhibiting fire blight symptoms. Only five phages were isolated from infected aerial tissue in pear and apple orchards. To avoid any single-host selection bias, six bacterial host strains were used in the initial isolation and enrichment processes. Molecular characterization of the phages with a combination of PCR and restriction endonuclease digestions showed that six distinct phage types, described as groups 1 to 6, were recovered. Ten phage isolates were related to the previously characterized E. amylovora PEa1, with some divergence of molecular markers between phages isolated from different sites. A study of the host ranges of the phages revealed that certain types were unable to efficiently lyse some E. amylovora strains and that some isolates were able to lyse the epiphytic bacterium Pantoea agglomerans. Representatives from the six molecular groups were studied by electron microscopy to determine their morphology. The phages exhibited distinct morphologies when examined by an electron microscope. Group 1 and 2 phages were tailed and contractile, and phages belonging to groups 3 to 6 had short tails or openings with thin appendages. Based on morphotypes, the bacteriophages of E. amylovora were placed in the order Caudovirales, in the families Myoviridae and Podoviridae.

Rapid advances in artificial intelligence have led to an upsurge in automated image recognition phone apps. This has increased public involvement in the collection, identification (ID) and analysis of biological data. While this is good for the field of biological data monitoring, it is not clear how consistent IDs are from different apps. The goal of this exploratory work is to verify the accuracy and consistency in plant species identification from two widely used and free apps i.e. PlantNet and iNaturalist app. This work was conducted by scanning leaf samples along Bruce trail in the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere reserve and the Royal Botanical Gardens arboretum, in Hamilton Ontario. Results show over 90% consistency in the identification of woody plants at the level of genus. At the species level, PlantNet app demonstrated 79% accuracy (i.e. 79 out of 100 species correctly identified) while the iNaturalist app demonstrated 44% accuracy. Enhancing species representation in the database for southern Ontario might help particularly species in the family Betulaceae, Rosaceae and Pinaceae. Complementary use of the apps is recommended as a cautionary measure to reduce the likelihood of error in species-level woody plant identification as well as using apps in conjunction with field guide.