The impact of hybrids between genetically modified crop plants and their related species: introgression and weediness

Assessing the impact of hybrids between transgenic plants and nontarget wild species involves answering several questions such as: (i) what are the hybridization and introgression rates; (ii) what is the behaviour of a transgene in a wild population; and (iii) what will be the consequences of the expression of a transgene in a wild population? These issues are discussed using results from experiments on oilseed rape and wild related Brassiceae. Evidence is given of large variations in the estimates of cross-fertilization probabilities. The first stage of introgression into wild populations is demonstrated to occur spontaneously through back-crossing. Population analysis may also be valuable to detect traces of past introgression. Data from the literature on weed biology, and especially herbicide resistance, are used to illustrate the behaviour of a new gene in weed populations. The need for computer models simulating the introgression process is stressed.     

Test of circular dichroism (CD) methods for crambin and CD-assisted secondary structure prediction of its homologous toxins

Methods that analyze protein circular dichroism (CD) spectra for fractions of secondary structure are evaluated for the plant protein crambin, which has a known high-resolution crystal structure. In addition, a two-step secondary structure prediction scheme is presented and used for the toxins homologous to crambin, shown by others to have secondary structures similar to crambin. The test of CD spectral analysis methods with the protein crambin employed two computer programs and several CD basis sets. Crambin's crystal structure, known to 0.945A resolution (Hendrickson, W.A., Teeter, M.M. Nature 290:107-113, 1981), allows accurate evaluation of results. Analysis with the protein spectra basis sets (Provencher, S.W., Gl?ckner, J. Biochemistry 20:33-37, 1981) as modified (Manavalan, P., Johnson, W.C., Jr. Anal. Biochem. 167:76-85, 1987) agreed most closely with crambin's crystal structure. This method was then applied to the CD spectra of the membrane-active toxins homologous to crambin (alpha 1- and beta-purothionin, phoratoxin A and B, and viscotoxin A3 and B). The new program SEQ (pronounced "seek") was developed to assign the secondary structure along the protein chain in a hierarchical fashion and applied to the plant toxins. The method constrained the secondary structure fractions to those from CD analysis and combined standard statistical methods with amphipathic helix location. Both CD-arrived secondary structure percentages and sequence assignment indicate that the viscotoxins are structurally most similar to crambin. Purothionin's secondary structure was predicted to be fundamentally similar to crambin's with a difference at the start of the first helix. This assignment agreed with Raman and NMR analyses of purothionin and lends validity to the method presented here. Differences from the NMR in the CD secondary structure fraction analysis for phoratoxin suggest interference in the CD from tryptophan residues.     

The emergence of transgenic potatoes as commercial products and tools for basic science

The potato has tremendous potential as a transgenic crop and is a good model system by which to analyse metabolic regulation and gene expression. The potato’s difficult genetics, but ease of genetic transformation and its clonal means of propagation make it ideal for applied agricultural molecular genetics. Thus, the next 4 years promise to put the potato (with a diversity of transgenic constructs expressed) in the limelight as many of the first transgenic agricultural products enter the marketplace.     

Searching behaviour and cereal aphid consumption by Bembidion lampros and Pterostichus cupreus, in relation to temperature and prey density

Maximum consumption rates were determined for two carabids, Bembidion lampros Herbst. and Pterostichus cupreus L., feeding on the cereal aphid Rhopalosiphum padi L. at different temperatures in the laboratory. Mean daily consumption increased with increasing temperature for both species, B. lampros consuming a maximum of 16 1–3 instar nymphs and 9 apterous adult aphids at 25°C. P. cupreus was particularly voracious and consumed 125 apterous adult R. padi per day at 20°C. The behaviour of both species was analysed by video filming starved beetles, maintained at different constant temperatures, in arenas sown with spring barley. The behavioural components (1) still; (2) run/walk; (3) search and (4) confrontation were identified and were common to both species. P. cupreus was more active over the temperature range tested; B. lampros was inactive under 10°C. The proportion of time spent searching, number of plants searched, and velocity increased with increasing temperature for both species. When observed in similar arenas seeded with R. padi colonies, individuals of P. cupreus significantly increased their time spent searching in arenas with increasing aphid density. Following discovery of an aphid colony, individuals climbed and searched the host plant and its nearest neighbours. Plants in aphid free arenas were rarely climbed. B. lampros was not observed climbing in either aphid free arenas or in arenas with increasing aphid densities, and did not significantly increase its time spent searching in response to increased prey density. The few B. lampros that found aphids caught them walking on the soil surface. The relative efficiences of these two carabids as predators of R. padi are discussed, and the results are compared with similar studies elsewhere with predators of Sitobion avenae on winter wheat.

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Résumé Les taux maximum de consommation de R. padi L. à différentes températures ont été déterminés au laboratoire chez deux carabes, B. lampros Herbstet P. cupreus L. La consommation moyenne a augmenté avec la température chez les deux espèces, B. lampros consommant un maximum de 15,9 larves des stades 1 à 3 et 9,1 pucerons adultes aptères, à 25°C. P. cupreus a été particulièrement vorace et a consommé 125,3 adultes aptères par jour à 20°C. Le comportement des deux espèces a été observé en filmant en vidéo des carabes à jeun, maintenus à différentes températures constantes, dans des enceintes semées en orge de printemps. Des éléments du comportement, communs aux deux espèces, ont été définis: 1) immabilité, 2) marche et course, 3) recherche, 4) affrontement. P. cupreus a été plus actif à toutes les températures, B. lamprosa été inactif au-dessous de 10°C. La part de temps consacrée à la recherche, le nombre de plantes prospectées, et la vitesse ont augmenté avec la température chez les deux espèces. Dans des enceintes similaires colonisées par R. padi, P. cupreus a significativement augmenté le temps consacré à la recherche dans les enceintes, parallèlement à l'augmentation de la densité des pucerons. Après la découverte d'une colonie de pucerons, P. cupreus escalade et prospecte la plante et ses voisines immédiates; tandis que les plantes des enceintes sans pucerons sont rarement escaladées. B. lampros n'a pas été observé escaladant des plantes d'enceintes avec ou sans pucerons, et il n'a pas accru son temps de prospection en fonction de la densité de pucerons. Les quelques B. lampros qui ont capturé des pucerons l'ont fait lorsque ceux-ci marchaient sur la surface du sol. La discussion a porté sur l'efficacité relative des deux carabes comme prédateurs de R. padi, et les résultats ont été comparés à ceux d'études du même type, menées ailleurs, avec des prédateurs de Sitobion avenae sur blé d'hiver.

     

Crop uptake and leaching losses of15N labelled fertilizer nitrogen in relation to waterlogging of clay and sandy loam soils

Summary Ammonium nitrate fertilizer, labelled with¹⁵N, was applied in spring to winter wheat growing in undisturbed monoliths of clay and sandy loam soil in lysimeters; the rates of application were respectively 95 and 102 kg N ha⁻¹ in the spring of 1976 and 1975. Crops of winter wheat, oilseed rape, peas and barley grown in the following 5 or 6 years were treated with unlabelled nitrogen fertilizer at rates recommended for maximum yields. During each year of the experiments the lysimeters were divided into treatments which were either freelydrained or subjected to periods of waterlogging. Another labelled nitrogen application was made in 1980 to a separate group of lysimeters with a clay soil and a winter wheat crop to study further the uptake of nitrogen fertilizer in relation to waterlogging. In the first growing season, shoots of the winter wheat at harvest contained 46 and 58% of the fertilizer nitrogen applied to the clay and sandy loam soils respectively. In the following year the crops contained a further 1–2% of the labelled fertilizer, and after 5 and 6 years the total recoveries of labelled fertilizer in the crops were 49 and 62% on the clay and sandy loam soils respectively. In the first winter after the labelled fertilizer was applied, less than 1% of the fertilizer was lost in the drainage water, and only about 2% of the total nitrogen (mainly nitrate) in the drainage water from both soils was derived from the fertilizer. Maximum annual loss occurred the following year but the proportion of tracer nitrogen in drainage was nevertheless smaller. Leaching losses over the 5 and 6 years from the clay and sandy loam soil were respectively 1.3 and 3.9% of the original application. On both soils the percentage of labelled nitrogen to the total crop nitrogen content was greater after a period of winter waterlogging than for freely-drained treatments. This was most marked on the clay soil; evidence points to winter waterlogging promoting denitrification and the consequent loss of soil nitrogen making the crop more dependent on spring fertilizer applications.     

Habitat choice of some field-inhabiting carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) studied by recapture of marked individuals

ABSTRACT.

• 1 Habitat choice of some field-inhabiting carabid beetles was studied in the field, and included the adult-overwintering Bembidion lampros Herbst, Pterostichus cupreus L. and Agonum dorsale Pontoppidan, and the larval-overwintering Trechus secalis Paykull, Pterostichus melanarius Illiger, P.niger Schaller and Harpalus rufipes De Geer. These were compared to the forest-inhabiting and adult-overwintering species, Carabus nemoralis Müller.
• 2 Marked beetles were released in the centre of a circular enclosure which was placed on the edge between a cereal field and a wood. The direction of movement in this circle was compared with that in a control circle placed entirely in the cereal field.
• 3 In the field/wood circle, adult-overwinterers and the larval-overwin-terer H.rufipes choose to move into the cereal field. The majority of T.secalis. P.melanarius and C.nemoralis, however, moved into the wood, while P.niger exhibited no preference.
• 4 In the field circle, adult-overwinterers moved towards the more sun-exposed parts of the circle, whereas the movements of larval-overwin-terers were random.
• 5 Some species-specific characteristics considered important for habitat choice by these carabid beetles, and the relevance of these characteristics for their dispersal behaviour are discussed.

     

In vitro culture selection increases glyphosate tolerance in barley

In vitro culture of barley calluses has been used to produce plants with increased glyphosate tolerance. Calluses from immature embryos of barleyHordeum vulgare L. (Jeff) were cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium with 10^-6, 10^-5, 10^-4, 5×10^-4, 10^-3, or 10^-2M glyphosate for one, four or thirty months. Plants were regenerated from calluses maintained in glyphosate medium at 10^-6, 10^-5 or 10^-4M for four months, at 10^-5 or 5×10^-4M for one month and at 10^-5M for thirty months. The progeny of each regenerated plant was analyzed for response to glyphosate. Some progenies showed increased tolerance to glyphosate.     

Interactions between migratory endoparasitic nematodes and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in perennial crops: A review

The root-lesion nematodes are important pests attacking stone and pome fruit crops throughout the world. They play an important role in the development of orchard replant problems. Host resistance toPratylenchus vulnus, the nematode of concern in mediterranean environments, has been difficult to find, and even more, to transmit into commercial rootstocks. Alternative management measures using early mycorrhizal infection that would confer protection against the nematode at a stage when plants are most vulnerable are currently being explored. These measures are considered important, taking into account a widespread change towards production systems that use in vitro material propagated in treated substrates free of mycorrhizal and other beneficial microorganisms. The prophylactic effect against root-lesion nematodes would be linked to mycorrhizal dependency of the host plant. Increase in tolerance would seem to be related to mycorrhiza assisted nutrition rather than to a direct suppressive effect of AM over the root-lesion nematode. InCitrus, Prunus, Malus andCydonia rootstocks, the nematode has shown to have a negative effect over AM colonization in the root.