How to measure,report and verify soil carbon change to realize the potential of soil carbon sequestration for atmospheric greenhouse gas removal

There is growing international interest in better managing soils to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) content to contribute to climate change mitigation, to enhance resilience to climate change and to underpin food security, through initiatives such as international ‘4p1000’ initiative and the FAO's Global assessment of SOC sequestration potential (GSOCseq) programme. Since SOC content of soils cannot be easily measured, a key barrier to implementing programmes to increase SOC at large scale, is the need for credible and reliable measurement/monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) platforms, both for national reporting and for emissions trading. Without such platforms, investments could be considered risky. In this paper, we review methods and challenges of measuring SOC change directly in soils, before examining some recent novel developments that show promise for quantifying SOC. We describe how repeat soil surveys are used to estimate changes in SOC over time, and how long‐term experiments and space‐for‐time substitution sites can serve as sources of knowledge and can be used to test models, and as potential benchmark sites in global frameworks to estimate SOC change. We briefly consider models that can be used to simulate and project change in SOC and examine the MRV platforms for SOC change already in use in various countries/regions. In the final section, we bring together the various components described in this review, to describe a new vision for a global framework for MRV of SOC change, to support national and international initiatives seeking to effect change in the way we manage our soils.     

Melanocortin‐1 receptor (MC1R) genotypes do not correlate with size in two cohorts of medium‐to‐giant congenital melanocytic nevi

Congenital melanocytic nevi (CMN) are cutaneous malformations whose prevalence is inversely correlated with projected adult size. CMN are caused by somatic mutations, but epidemiological studies suggest that germline genetic factors may influence CMN development. In CMN patients from the U.K., genetic variants in MC1R, such as p.V92M and loss‐of‐function variants, have been previously associated with larger CMN. We analyzed the association of MC1R variants with CMN characteristics in two distinct cohorts of medium‐to‐giant CMN patients from Spain (N = 113) and from France, Norway, Canada, and the United States (N = 53), similar at the clinical and phenotypical level except for the number of nevi per patient. We found that the p.V92M or loss‐of‐function MC1R variants either alone or in combination did not correlate with CMN size, in contrast to the U.K. CMN patients. An additional case–control analysis with 259 unaffected Spanish individuals showed a higher frequency of MC1R compound heterozygous or homozygous variant genotypes in Spanish CMN patients compared to the control population (15.9% vs. 9.3%; p = .075). Altogether, this study suggests that MC1R variants are not associated with CMN size in these non‐UK cohorts. Additional studies are required to define the potential role of MC1R as a risk factor in CMN development.     

Diagrammatic scale for severity evaluation of the Eremanthus erythropappus–Puccinia velata pathosystem

Candeia (Eremanthus erythropappus (DC.) MacLeish), a native forest species from South America, has garnered commercial interest due to its production of essential oil that contains alpha-bisabolol. This compound is widely used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry, with approximately 80% of Brazilian production being exported. Since candeia rust (Puccinia velata) has only been reported in Brazil, little is known about its epidemiology and control. There is no methodology to quantify rust severity in candeia, justifying the elaboration and validation of a diagrammatic scale containing eight levels of disease severity based on leaf area coverage (0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 4%, 8%, 16% and 32%). In a natural sampling of disease in the field, 95% of the leaves showed severity below 16%, with the remaining 5% showing severities between 16% and 32% of leaf area. Validation of the proposed diagrammatic scale was performed by assessing the results from 10 inexperienced evaluators, performing evaluations of three leaves with different severity levels. The evaluations were performed at 7-day intervals; in the first instance, severity values were assigned without the diagrammatic scale, and for the second attempt, the scale proposed in this study was used. The accuracy and precision of the severity estimates produced by each evaluator compared to the real severity was analysed by linear regression and by Lin's statistics. The reproducibility of the estimates was evaluated by analysing the coefficient of determination of linear regressions by pairs of evaluators. The scale provided adequate levels of accuracy, precision, repeatability and reproducibility, indicating the proposed scale was a suitable method for quantifying the severity of candeia rust.     

Intrinsic competition between two European egg parasitoids of the brown marmorated stink bug

Following the accidental introduction and spread of the invasive polyphagous agricultural pest Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), the two European egg parasitoids Anastatus bifasciatus (Geoffroy) (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae) and Ooencyrtus telenomicida (Vassiliev) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) have been investigated for inundative biological control. Since the competititve outcome between the two generalist parasitoids is difficult to predict, intrinsic competition was investigated with a time-course development study. Both species readily oviposited in H. halys eggs containing eggs and early instar larvae of the competitor, but oviposition decreased when eggs contained late instar larvae and pupae. Ooencyrtus telenomicida offspring emergence from multiparasitized eggs was significantly lower than that from rearing controls, independent of the order of parasitization. Anastatus bifasciatus offspring emergence was not influenced by the presence of O. telenomicida when it parasitized as the first species, but emergence was decreased after oviposition in eggs containing O. telenomicida larvae and pupae. There was no indication that O. telenomicida can act as a facultative hyperparasitoid of A. bifasciatus. These results suggest that A. bifasciatus is the superior intrinsic competitor and no or minor negative implications for A. bifasciatus are expected if released in combination with O. telenomicida.     

Misannotations of the genes encoding sugar N‐formyltransferases

Tens of thousands of bacterial genome sequences are now known due to the development of rapid and inexpensive sequencing technologies. An important key in utilizing these vast amounts of data in a biologically meaningful way is to infer the function of the proteins encoded in the genomes via bioinformatics techniques. Whereas these approaches are absolutely critical to the annotation of gene function, there are still issues of misidentifications, which must be experimentally corrected. For example, many of the bacterial DNA sequences encoding sugar N‐formyltransferases have been annotated as l ‐methionyl‐tRNA transferases in the databases. These mistakes may be due in part to the fact that until recently the structures and functions of these enzymes were not well known. Herein we describe the misannotation of two genes, WP_088211966.1 and WP_096244125.1, from Shewanella spp. and Pseudomonas congelans, respectively. Although the proteins encoded by these genes were originally suggested to function as l ‐methionyl‐tRNA transferases, we demonstrate that they actually catalyze the conversion of dTDP‐4‐amino‐4,6‐dideoxy‐d ‐glucose to dTDP‐4‐formamido‐4,6‐dideoxy‐d ‐glucose utilizing N¹⁰‐formyltetrahydrofolate as the carbon source. For this analysis, the genes encoding these enzymes were cloned and the corresponding proteins purified. X‐ray structures of the two proteins were determined to high resolution and kinetic analyses were conducted. Both enzymes display classical Michaelis–Menten kinetics and adopt the characteristic three‐dimensional structural fold previously observed for other sugar N‐formyltransferases. The results presented herein will aid in the future annotation of these fascinating enzymes.     

From endosperm to triploid plants: a stepwise characterization of the de novo shoot organogenesis and morpho-agronomic aspects of an ornamental passion fruit (Passiflora foetida L.)

Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) - Somaclonal variation during in vitro culture is often an undesirable phenomenon but may also be a source of genetic variation useful for breeders. The...     

S-adenosylmethionine induces mitochondrial dysfunction,permeability transition pore opening and redox imbalance in subcellular preparations of rat liver

Journal of Bioenergetics and Biomembranes - S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) predominantly accumulates in tissues and biological fluids of patients affected by liver dysmethylating diseases,...