Biotec Visions 2010, January–February

News: Plastics from E. coli – Looking again (carefully) at thalidomide – Don't kiss the chimps – Imaging microbial interactions – Probiotics prevent intestinal diseases – Drug resistance in cancer stem cell populations – Triple tag technique turns up tight and loose complexes – It pays to have an immune mother – DNA hybridization mechanisms – Chip-based breast tissue analysis – Nutrient support for engineered tissue – Nano-spheres support axon recovery – Bop-a-hepcidin Environmental News: Blueprint for molecular basis of global warming – Environmental biosensors – Predicting the fate of underground carbon Journal Highlights: Focus on Biochips – Neglected tropical diseases – New online portal Opinion: Outwitting evolution: We should pay as much for strategy as technology Most Read Industry News: Life Sciences Industry – Collaboration on forensics – New center for Systems Biology Tips and tricks: Melting your DNA Special Broadcast: Watch 50 years of B&B on YouTube Writing Tips: Get the figures right – Figure or Table? – Figure legend Algae and plants in brief: Plasmid-based methods in mosses – Antibody production in algal chloroplasts – Polysaccharides from foam cultures Test your knowledge: Do you recognize this? WIREs Author Spotlight: Toxicity of Nanomaterials     

BiotecVisions 2010, March–April

News: Attraction of adipose tissue – Swine flu vaccine from insectcells – MicroRNA in multiple sclerosis – Proteomic detection of adenoma – Systematic engineering for arsenic removal – Bacterial cellulose to make blood vessels – The recipe for primordial soup: acid or bitter, hot or warm – Increased O₂ in hollow fiber bioreactors – Eye stem cells to treat immune disease – Super-strong collagen – Designing functional metalloproteins – Higher oil content in tobacco leaves – Alternative metabolic routes – New compass point blot helps find hTERT factors – Extracellular signals – doomed cells in the bacterial community Journal Highlights : Oils and fats for the chemical industry – Molecular Nutrition Reviews New from the Encyclopedia of Life Sciences: EM analysis of protein structure Opinion: Ethics body asks: How green are new biofuels? Most Cited in 2009 Tips and tricks: Storing bacterial strains Award: Garden Award 2010 Funding News: Euro 400.000 for new malaria drug – Cardiovascular biomarker research – Support to cholera surveillance Industry News: Human genome sequencing projects – Fighting Huntington's disease – Multiple sclerosis collaboration Book Highlights: AIDS and tuberculosis – Perinatal stem cells Test your knowledge: Do you recognize this? Meeting Preview: The 9th Annual Biological Production Forum 2010     

Biotec Visions July 2009

News: Mutagenic biodiesel blends – Technicolor cancer imaging – Anticancer nanoparticle – Increased oxygen transfer in baffled microtiter plates – Transgenic barley growing on acid soil – Brain music – Laser light-induced brain waves – First genome sequence of ruminant species Special issues: Cytometry of microbes – Food-borne Mycotoxins Book highlights: Biotech funding trends – Biotechnology in Flavor Production Opinion: Another biofuel blunder? Tips and tricks: Good to know: Gel Electrophoresis Test your knowledge. Do you recognize this? Most read Writing tips Briefs: A hypothetical new model of LDL – Gaden Award – Patenting hES cells in Europe     

BiotecVisions 2010, May–June

News: Ethanol biofuels from orange peels – Targeting leukaemia's gene addiction – Pea-derived solar cells – HIV is a kick in the head – Nano-scale DNA reader – Membrane in black – Cheese improves the immune response of elderly – Synthetic proteins built from standard parts – Therapeutic proteins produced in algae – Biosensor detects 100 mycoplasma cells – Protecting maggots against bacteria – Advanced biofuels from microbes – Fluorescent bacterial uptake – Two disparate stem cell states – Brachypodium genome sequenced Encyclopedia of Life Sciences: Nuclear transfer for cell lines WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology: Nanoparticle detection of respiratory infection Journal Highlights: Biocatalysis – Synthetic Biology In the news: Nanobiotech to detect cancer Most Read Industry News: Biomarker assays for personalized medicine – Bioplastic industry defies economic crisis – SDS-PAGE monitoring of mAB Awards: BTJ Editors elected members of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Meeting highlight Writing tips: Figure preparation made simple – Some useful tutorials on the web Book Highlights: Molecular Biotechnology – Bacterial Signaling – Yeast Test your knowledge: Do you recognize this? WIREs Authors Spotlight: Nanotechnology and orthopedics     

Who owns your body? Legal issues on the ownership of bodily material

Who owns your body and parts removed from it? Can you legally sell your bodily material – or information derived from it? Can you legally prevent other people gaining access to your excised bodily material, including your blood relatives who might need your tissue or genetic information for their own genetic tests? What legal remedies are there if people take or use your bodily material without your consent? And why are the answers to these questions vitally important for scientists?     

BTJ future topical issues

Next issue: Biotech in Korea The May 2008 issue of BTJ is devoted to Biotech in Korea. Featuring articles on: – Recent progress in microbial genome projects of Korea – Bio-Vision 2016: the 2nd Base Plan for biotechnology promotion in Korea – Strategies for systems-level metabolic engineering – Cell engineering strategies for improved therapeutic protein production in CHO cells – Development of bioadhesives from marine mussels – Dynamical analysis of the calcium signaling pathway in cardiac myocytes – Systems biology of heart and calcium signaling networks – Non-labeled detection of waterborne pathogen Cryptosporidium parvum – Injectable and sustained delivery of human growth hormone: A new method – Exploring sequence space: Screening for ω-aminotransferases Many of these exciting articles are already available online under "Early View"! A sneak preview of other content can be found under “News”. http://www.biotechnology-journal.com     

Next issue (December 2007): Energy Production

Edited by Dr. Stefan Nordhoff, Marl, Germany Highlight articles: – Sustainable production of biofuels – Coupled production in biorefineries – Biodegradation of fuel oil hydrocarbons – Biobutanol: an attractive biofuel – Sustainable biobased energy, fuels and materials – Renewable resources in the chemical industry – breaking away from oil? – Using waste from olive oil industry for fuel production – Economic impacts of bio-refinery and resource cascading systems – Agricultural raw materials – energy or food? ... and much more: Read the next issue of BTJ!     

Recovery of the bilberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus L.) from artificial spring and summer frost

Vegetative and sexual recovery of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) was monitored in the field for three growing seasons after artificially applied spring and early summer frost. Bilberry recovered vegetatively (density and biomass) by vigorous production of new ramets and by production of large shoots in the damaged ramets. Recovery did not occur sexually (production of flowers), however. Summer frost was slightly more detrimental than the spring frost, but the difference was significant only in the percentage of flowering ramets. The results showed that bilberry is buffered against moderate frost injury. The rapid vegetative recovery guarantees survival of the plants after frost damage, whereas sexual reproduction may need accumulation of resources for many seasons. Consequently, the ability of bilberry to recover from sporadic frosts increases its potentiality to persist in a changing environment, where increasing temperature leads to earlier snowmelt in the spring, and increases the risk of frost injuries in plants that overwinter under snow.     

Environmental filtering increases in intensity at both ends of climatic gradients,though driven by different factors,across woody vegetation types of the southwest USA

Species distributions are theorized to be more intensively constrained by abiotic factors in severe than in benign environments. A similar concept can be applied to assemblages of species: environmental filtering is expected to increase in intensity in colder and drier environments. To assess the filtering effects of climate on vegetation at a regional scale, climate niche values were estimated for 338 woody species across 93 vegetation types from arid sub‐tropical to alpine ecosystems of the southwest USA. The standardized range and spacing of climatic niche values in each vegetation type – used as estimates of the intensity of climatic and micro‐environmental filtering, respectively – were correlated with the mean niche values of those vegetation types – used as surrogates for climatic gradients – in order to assess how filtering of vegetation composition varies along broad climatic gradients. The range of climatic niche values was narrower than expected in most vegetation types, indicating significant climatic filtering, with frost having the strongest average effect. Niche spacing differed little from null expectations. Variation in the intensity of climatic filtering along gradients of the same climate variable was primarily asymmetrical, and provided support for the hypothesis that abiotic filtering is most intense in cold and growing season dry environments. However, filtering patterns of at least one climatic factor along gradients of other climatic factors ran counter to the trend of increasing filter intensity in cold or dry environments. In other words, climatic factors exhibited interactive effects on vegetation filtering, often in antagonistic ways. The majority of these interactions were compatible with interspecific niche relationships that correspond with anatomical and physiological tradeoffs among drought, frost and heat tolerances. Filtering patterns and interspecific tradeoffs are likely to vary across taxa and biomes, and application of the methods presented here could help to explain such variation.     

In Lieu of an Introduction

Nikolai Veresov: Tatiana, in this volume of our journal we publish a selection of your articles. Two of your other articles were published in Soviet Psychology in the 1970s. Introducing you to the readers of that journal, James Wertsch (1978) wrote: "The author … is one of the leading young investigators from the Luria school of neurolinguistics. She has studied and conducted extensive research both with Luria and with A. A. Leontiev, a major figure in Soviet psycholinguistics. Her analysis of inner speech as a mechanism in speech production reveals the strong influence that L. S. Vygotsky has had on Soviet psychology."¹ But first of all, I suppose our readers would be interested in learning more about your life, about events that preceded your scientific achievements. Could you please tell us briefly about your childhood and your family? How did your parents influence your course of life and your occupational choice? What did they do?     

Early emergence increases survival of tree seedlings in Central European temperate forests despite severe late frost

Global warming is expected to result in earlier emergence of tree seedlings that may experience higher damages and mortality due to late frost in spring. We monitored emergence, characteristics, and survival of seedlings across ten tree species in temperate mixed deciduous forests of Central Europe over one and a half year. We tested whether the timing of emergence represents a trade‐off for seedling survival between minimizing frost risk and maximizing the length of the growing period. Almost two‐thirds of the seedlings died during the first growing period. The timing of emergence was decisive for seedling survival. Although seedlings that emerged early faced a severe late frost event, they benefited from a longer growing period resulting in increased overall survival. Larger seedling height and higher number of leaves positively influenced survival. Seedlings growing on moss had higher survival compared to mineral soil, litter, or herbaceous vegetation. Synthesis. Our findings demonstrate the importance of emergence time for survival of tree seedlings, with early‐emerging seedlings more likely surviving the first growing period.     

Next issue (October 2007): Multi-enzyme Systems for the Synthesis of Complex Natural Compounds

Edited by Dr. Stefan Martens, Marburg, Germany Highlight articles: – Flavonoids and other phenylpropanoid-derived natural products – Glucosylation of phenolic compounds using cultured plant cells – Ketocarotenoid biosynthesis in tobacco – Microbial production of natural raspberry ketone – A factorial approach to lactone production in yeast – Fermentative production of methylated stilbens – Biosynthesis of deoxyflavanones ... and much more: Read the next issue of BTJ!     

Hardiness dependent accumulation of phospholipids in leaves of wheat cultivars

Phospholipid content and composition in the leaves of thirteen cultivars of wheat differing in frost hardiness, were compared before and after hardening in order to see whether phospholipids play a role in surviving at low temperatures. The content of phospholipids in the leaves at the end of the hardening could be related to the aquired hardiness, and the relationship between the two phenomena could be described by the regression equation y = (0.174 ± 0.0016) x + 1311. Accumulation of phospholipids represents a hardiness dependent augmentation of membranes. Phosphatidylcholine appeared to be preferentially accumulated in hardy cultivars during the hardening process. As there are no significant differences in phospholipid fatty acid compositions investigated earlier, these results suggest the importance of the polar head group composition of membranes in avoiding frost injury.     

Thermal insulation of the winter cauliflower curd by wrapper-leaves

The role of leaves as insulation for mature curds during exposure to frost has been investigated for winter-harvested cauliflower. The inner, wrapper-leaves and their enclosed air spaces provided significant protection for the curd tissues in mild frost, but under more severe conditions (below – 2.5°C) were ineffective. A relationship between higher wrapper-leaf number and increased insulation was described. The increase in insulation however, was small even with much higher wrapper-leaf numbers. Exposure of the curd surface at maturity was found to prevent the insulating effect of wrapper-leaves, particularly if the diameter of the exposed area was greater than 6 cm. The data also suggested a possible role for the exposed stem of the cauliflower as a site of heat loss that may adversely affect curd temperature. It is postulated that breeding for improved frost resistance by greatly increasing wrapper-leaf number would not be effective, although any reduction in wrapper-leaf number and the presence of tightly wrapped curds should be avoided. Furthermore, exposure of the curd surface at maturity should be kept to a minimum.     

物候模型支持下的杭州市春茶霜冻害时空变化及风险区划

开展春茶霜冻害风险区划对名优茶优化布局具有科学指导意义。基于杭州2015—2020年龙井43品种春茶物候观测资料、1951—2020年杭州国家基准气候站和2010—2020年263个区域自动气象站逐日气象资料,应用有效积温物候模型估算历史缺失年份春茶萌发初日数据,分析春茶生产霜冻害的时空分布特征,构建春茶霜冻害灾损率的加权平均模型,研制春茶霜冻害风险空间分布图。结果表明:过去70年来,春茶萌发初日提前的速度不及终霜日;春茶霜冻害年份减少,轻度霜冻害年份减少,中度霜冻害年份变化趋势不明显且年代际间波动大,重度以上霜冻害年份增加;各等级年霜冻害日数和霜冻害年份的变化趋势基本一致;春茶霜冻害年份轻度、中度、重度和特重出现频率分别为31.4%、18.6%、4.3%和1.4%,年灾损率无明显趋势变化;海拔每上升100 m,春茶萌发初日、终霜日分别推迟约1.3和2.6 d,春茶霜冻灾损率增加约1%,海拔越高,春霜冻害风险越高;杭州春茶生产霜冻害分布地域特征明显,春茶霜冻害基本无风险区(灾损率小于10%)约占杭州市总面积的25.2%,主要分布在杭州南部千岛湖、北部西湖产区、钱塘江河谷和较大水体周边,是发展春茶生产可优先考虑的区域;中度以上风险仅占杭州市总面积的6.3%。杭州市春茶生产霜冻害危害区域小,且灾害等级偏轻,适宜优质名优茶生产。     

The freezing characteristics of cauliflower curd

Cultivar differences in frost resistance and the heritable nature of resistance were demonstrated using seedling cauliflower plants. Such cultivar differences were not however expressed in the curd. Selection for frost resistance in cauliflower should therefore use whole plant screening techniques. Curd material when frozen as isolated florets, supercooled over the range – 1°C to – 12°C and the mean freezing point of all curds tested was -6°C to -7.25°C (overall mean -6.44°C). Curd florets which supercooled but did not freeze were completely undamaged, whereas freezing always led to cell damage and death observed as water-soaking of the floret surface and measured using an electrical conductivity method. The large range of freezing points measured suggests a range of active ice nucleators either on or within the florets. When curds were frozen intact the ability of florets to supercool was severely restricted which was attributed to the seeding of freezing by the internal growth of ice crystals. A crop protection strategy needs to identify and control or modify warm temperature nucleators in cauliflower curd.     

Photosynthesis in frost-hardened and frost-stressed leaves of Hedera helix L.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the respective extents to which winter reduction of photosynthetic capacity in ivy (Hedera helix L.) is caused by direct frost injury to the photosynthetic apparatus and by preceding protoplasmic changes connected with the acquisition of frost tolerance. Potted juvenile ivy plants were placed in the open under natural weather conditions whilst others were hardened under controlled conditions and subjected to the desired frost stress. Low non-freezing temperatures induced frost tolerance in ivy leaves down to about – 12°C (50% injury = TL₅₀) without impairing net photosynthetic rate as measured under standard conditions (20°C, light saturation, natural CO₂ level; = Standard-F_n. Only if the leaves froze (below ? 3°C to ?4°C) was a reversible inhibition of Standard-F_n observed. As long as the temperatures did not fall below approximately ?8°C the inhibition was small and Standard-F_n reached about 80–90% of the control. In this case the stomatal opening narrowed, giving a poorer supply of CO₂ to the mesophyll cells. Maximal frost tolerance (TL_5O?20°C to ?24°C) developed only with severe frosts below about ? 10°C. After such frosts, Standard-F_n was reduced to less than 20% of the control. The dependence of the rate of net photosynthesis on the internal CO₂ concentration showed a lower initial slope, thus indicating disturbances of chloroplast functions. However, neither in outdoor plants nor in those artificially frosted at – 20°C could there be found an appreciable inhibition of the electron transport capacity from H₂O to dichlorophenol indophenol or of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase. If intact, severely frosted ivy plants were then held at higher temperatures (20/15°C), Standard-F_n recovered completely in approximately 10 d. Furthermore, following a frost period with temperatures down to ?12°C, mild weather caused a distinct improvement in Standard-F_n in outdoor plants, and there was no loss of maximum frost tolerance. Thus it can be concluded that the inhibition of Standard-F_n after severe frosts is not due to the development of maximal frost tolerance, but rather may be attributed to frost damage to the photosynthetic apparatus.     

Genetic association with high‐resolution climate data reveals selection footprints in the genomes of barley landraces across the Iberian Peninsula

Landraces are local populations of crop plants adapted to a particular environment. Extant landraces are surviving genetic archives, keeping signatures of the selection processes experienced by them until settling in their current niches. This study intends to establish relationships between genetic diversity of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) landraces collected in Spain and the climate of their collection sites. A high‐resolution climatic data set (5 × 5 km spatial, 1‐day temporal grid) was computed from over 2,000 temperature and 7,000 precipitation stations across peninsular Spain. This data set, spanning the period 1981–2010, was used to derive agroclimatic variables meaningful for cereal production at the collection sites of 135 barley landraces. Variables summarize temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration, potential vernalization and frost probability at different times of the year and time scales (season and month). SNP genotyping of the landraces was carried out combining Illumina Infinium assays and genotyping‐by‐sequencing, yielding 9,920 biallelic markers (7,479 with position on the barley reference genome). The association of these SNPs with agroclimatic variables was analysed at two levels of genetic diversity, with and without taking into account population structure. The whole data sets and analysis pipelines are documented and available at https://eead-csic-compbio.github.io/barley-agroclimatic-association . We found differential adaptation of the germplasm groups identified to be dominated by reactions to cold temperature and late‐season frost occurrence, as well as to water availability. Several significant associations pointing at specific adaptations to agroclimatic features related to temperature and water availability were observed, and candidate genes underlying some of the main regions are proposed.     

QTL analysis of frost damage in pea suggests different mechanisms involved in frost tolerance

Key message

Avoidance mechanisms and intrinsic resistance are complementary strategies to improve winter frost tolerance and yield potential in field pea.

Abstract

The development of the winter pea crop represents a major challenge to expand plant protein production in temperate areas. Breeding winter cultivars requires the combination of freezing tolerance as well as high seed productivity and quality. In this context, we investigated the genetic determinism of winter frost tolerance and assessed its genetic relationship with yield and developmental traits. Using a newly identified source of frost resistance, we developed a population of recombinant inbred lines and evaluated it in six environments in Dijon and Clermont-Ferrand between 2005 and 2010. We developed a genetic map comprising 679 markers distributed over seven linkage groups and covering 947.1 cM. One hundred sixty-one quantitative trait loci (QTL) explaining 9–71 % of the phenotypic variation were detected across the six environments for all traits measured. Two clusters of QTL mapped on the linkage groups III and one cluster on LGVI reveal the genetic links between phenology, morphology, yield-related traits and frost tolerance in winter pea. QTL clusters on LGIII highlighted major developmental gene loci (Hr and Le) and the QTL cluster on LGVI explained up to 71 % of the winter frost damage variation. This suggests that a specific architecture and flowering ideotype defines frost tolerance in winter pea. However, two consistent frost tolerance QTL on LGV were independent of phenology and morphology traits, showing that different protective mechanisms are involved in frost tolerance. Finally, these results suggest that frost tolerance can be bred independently to seed productivity and quality.