Trends and applications in plant volatile sampling and analysis

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released by plants serve as information and defense chemicals in mutualistic and antagonistic interactions and mitigate effects of abiotic stress. Passive and dynamic sampling techniques combined with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis have become routine tools to measure emissions of VOCs and determine their various functions. More recently, knowledge of the roles of plant VOCs in the aboveground environment has led to the exploration of similar functions in the soil and rhizosphere. Moreover, VOC patterns have been recognized as sensitive and time-dependent markers of biotic and abiotic stress. This focused review addresses these developments by presenting recent progress in VOC sampling and analysis. We show advances in the use of small, inexpensive sampling devices and describe methods to monitor plant VOC emissions in the belowground environment. We further address latest trends in real-time measurements of volatilomes in plant phenotyping and most recent developments of small portable devices and VOC sensors for non-invasive VOC fingerprinting of plant disease. These technologies allow for innovative approaches to study plant VOC biology and application in agriculture.     

A window into fungal endophytism in Salicornia europaea: deciphering fungal characteristics as plant growth promoting agents

Plant and Soil - Plant-endophytic associations exist only when equilibrium is maintained between both partners. This study analyses the properties of endophytic fungi inhabiting a halophyte growing...     

Creation of accurate 3D models of harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) using 3D photogrammetry

Creating accurate 3D models of marine mammals is valuable for assessment of body condition, computational fluids dynamics models of locomotion, and for education. However, the methods for creating 3D models are not well-developed. We used photography and video to create 3D photogrammetry models of harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena). We accessed one live adult female (155.5 cm total length), and two dead animals, one juvenile (110 cm total length) and one calf (88 cm total length). We accessed the two dead individuals through a stranding network in Germany, and the live individual through the Fjord and Baelt research center in Denmark. For all porpoises, we used still photographs from hand-held cameras, drone video, and synchronized GoPro videos to create 3D photogrammetric models. We used Blender software, and other 3D reconstruction software, to recreate the 3D body meshes, and confirmed the accuracy of each of the 3D body meshes by comparing digital measures on the 3D models to original measures taken on the specimens. We also provide a colored, animated version of the live harbor porpoise for educational purposes. These open-access 3D models can be used to develop methods to study body morphometrics and condition, and to study bioenergetics and locomotion costs.     

Fantastic databases and where to find them: Web applications for researchers in a rush

Public databases are essential to the development of multi-omics resources. The amount of data created by biological technologies needs a systematic and organized form of storage, that can quickly be accessed, and managed. This is the objective of a biological database. Here, we present an overview of human databases with web applications. The databases and tools allow the search of biological sequences, genes and genomes, gene expression patterns, epigenetic variation, protein-protein interactions, variant frequency, regulatory elements, and comparative analysis between human and model organisms. Our goal is to provide an opportunity for exploring large datasets and analyzing the data for users with little or no programming skills. Public user-friendly web-based databases facilitate data mining and the search for information applicable to healthcare professionals. Besides, biological databases are essential to improve biomedical search sensitivity and efficiency and merge multiple datasets needed to share data and build global initiatives for the diagnosis, prognosis, and discovery of new treatments for genetic diseases. To show the databases at work, we present a a case study using ACE2 as example of a gene to be investigated. The analysis and the complete list of databases is available in the following website <https://kur1sutaru.github.io/fantastic_databases_and_where_to_find_them/>.