where forests contain less biomass, says co-author Greg Asner, a scientist with the Carnegie Institution of Science in Stanford, California.
Now people are moving north and west into the higher biomass forests. The results underscore the danger posed by deforestation,
We have to monitor biomass, he says. Driven in large part by agriculture, deforestation in the Amazon averaged about 1. 6 million hectares annually from 2001 to 2007,
who in 2007 produced the most comprehensive biomass maps of the Amazon. We were surprised that nobody had done this before,
Saatchi says that earlier biomass maps had only coarse resolution and were often based on models.
They then extrapolated to build a biomass map of the Amazon basin circa 2000; the results were published in Global Change Biology. 2 It basically provided a benchmark map of the biomass carbon in the Amazon,
Saatchi says. He calls the Carnegie analysis very simple and neat and says his team is conducting a similar analysis on the impacts of fire.
The perils to biodiversity are increasing too, he says.
Forest growth studies begin to turn up the heat: Nature Newsacross the United states, researchers are firing up experiments to determine how rising temperatures could reshape the nation's forests.
In the next few weeks, Mohan and her colleagues, including Jerry Melillo of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole,
Her team will also look at how genetic variation and moisture affect which species fare best in higher temperatures.
although this is also badly needed to biological nitrogen fixation by legumes and organic matter. We need to reconsider how to use Africa's intercropping system with these new high-yielding varieties,
What is the place of biotechnologies in Africa? In today's African agriculture, biotechnologies are not crucial.
The current gap between the one tonne per hectare and the five tonnes that is possible can be bridged with conventional agriculture.
Pandemic flu viruses brew for years before going global: Nature Newsfamily trees for pandemic influenza have revealed that components of deadly flu viruses probably lurk in humans
and other animals for years before they emerge as a worldwide threat to human health.
The work suggests that a more thorough characterization of circulating flu viruses could provide clues to an emerging pandemic before it hits.
According to results published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1, two genes from the 1918 influenza virus,
would have been present in human and swine flu viruses at least 6 years earlier. During the intervening years
swine and human flu viruses would have swapped genes with avian viruses, ultimately giving rise to the dangerous assortment of genes carried by the 1918 virus. This work suggests that the generation of pandemic strains
and the adaptation to humans could be involved much more than was thought previously, says Raul Rabadan, a biomedical informatician at Columbia University college of Physicians and Surgeons in New york,
swine and human flu viruses and created family trees based on DNA sequence information. By estimating the amount of time it would take to accumulate the differences in DNA sequences found in human and swine viruses,
the researchers determined that a precursor to at least one 1918 flu gene was present in mammals before 1911.
Another had been circulating in humans since the 19th century. The results run counter to previous hypotheses that the human 1918 flu strain had evolved directly from a bird flu virus2.
and then swapped genes with mammalian flu viruses before becoming a pandemic. Meanwhile, elements of the 1957 pandemic flu virus also thought to be a mosaic of human
and avian flu genes were introduced probably into human populations two to six years before the pandemic, the researchers found.
These analyses were completed before the current pandemic swine flu strain made its mark, but the researchers argue that their results have implications for future pandemics.
Results from 1918 and 1957 pandemic flu suggest that public-health authorities should track the sequences of all influenza virus genes in emerging strains
rather than focusing largely on the gene that encodes the haemagglutinin'protein, which is critical for vaccine production,
Nevertheless, reliance upon patchy data from historical flu viruses has its limitations. Michael Worobey, who studies pathogen evolution at the University of Arizona in Tucson, says that his own analyses have suggested also that human
But he remains unconvinced by the series of genetic swaps proposed by the paper. Using different assumptions,
the pandemic H1n1 (swine flu virus currently circling the globe bears an uncanny resemblance to an influenza virus that wreaked havoc nearly a century ago,
For months, it has been apparent that swine flu strikes the young more often than the old an unusual pattern that suggests older patients could have been exposed to similar viruses in the past.
In all but the pig, the virus yields an infection in the lungs that is more severe than would be expected from an average seasonal flu, according to Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his colleagues,
are effective against the new pandemic virus in human cells grown in the lab. These drugs are already being used to treat some infected patients.
even though the virus reproduced capably in the swine respiratory system. This, the authors suggest, could explain why farmers have not reported an outbreak of sick pigs.
The animal studies used higher doses of virus than humans would normally encounter a practice that is common for such experiments.
Nevertheless, one alarming feature of the macaque results was the development of severe pneumonia that extended throughout the lungs, notes Earl Brown, a virologist at the University of Ottawa.
and found that those born before 1918 were more likely to produce antibodies capable of neutralizing the swine flu virus. That protection is somewhat counterintuitive:
the two viruses are not strikingly similar. But it is still possible that the immune response elicited by one virus can offer protection against the other (see Old seasonal flu antibodies target swine flu virus). Oddly,
exposure to similar viruses that circulated from the 1920s to 1950s was not enough to elicit these antibodies a result that doesn't mesh with the lower infection rates among those who are over the age of 60
but were not alive in 1918. One possible explanation is that antibodies that are not able to fully neutralize a virus can
nevertheless offer some protection against infection, Brown says. At present, most swine flu infections are mild, and the severity of the present pandemic does not come close to the 1918 flu,
but experts worry that the new virus could become more virulent over time. Meanwhile, the virulence seen in the animal studies is disquieting,
When the environment changes, the very range of responses that previously constituted'adaptability'may become an evolutionary liability instead, notes Donna Holmes, an evolutionary biologist at Washington state University in Pullman,
Interestingly, the level of genetic diversity of a group did not affect the degree to
genetic diversity becomes really important, says Agashe. Some populations died out after about 12-15 weeks on a maize-only diet,
The importance of the genetic diversity to the successful use of corn is really interesting
a geneticist at the University of Valencia in Spain. They are all combining more than one gene to have better control
and to delay resistance. For example, next year, Monsanto, a US agricultural products company based in St louis,
Missouri, intends to launch a line of maize (corn) that contains eight different genes that make the crop resistant to herbicides and to attack by insects.
but they were not able to survive the higher concentrations of Cry2ab found on cotton bolls produced by the pyramided transgenic cotton.
The researchers behind the study say that biomass production for fuel or electricity generation will have the biggest impact on landscape and habitats.
and habitat impacts of various energy mixes from nuclear power to biofuels resulting from an array of policy options.
despite the fact that biofuels are expected to comprise less than 5%of the country's total energy budget. The US Energy Information Administration predicts that ethanol derived from corn alone might reach annual production levels of 39 billion litres by 2030.
For instance, a farmer who grows one type of crop on his land might simply switch to growing corn for biofuels.
Although there is an extensive body of data about the way that climate change could affect habitats and biodiversity,
Martha Groom, a conservation biologist at the University of Washington, Bothell, who was not involved with the study,
Groom is optimistic that policies can be shaped to promote options that have the least impact on land use and habitat change, such as algae for biofuels,
People infected with the H1n1 swine flu virus who are otherwise healthy should not routinely be given antiviral drugs,
who is charged with fraud, embezzlement of state funds and violation of the country's bioethics law.
The week ahead 29 august-1 september The European Molecular biology Organization holds its first annual conference in Amsterdam. http://www. the-embo-meeting. org 30 august-3 september The seventh World
Nature Newsjapanese research teams have pinpointed the genes in hardy varieties of rice that help the plants to outgrow rising paddy-field waters
Having these genes in more vulnerable rice varieties could save billions of dollars and feed millions more people.
and his colleagues found two genes that help plants to keep their leaves above water when partially submerged.
Japan, has found a gene that helps some types of rice fight off fungal infection and successfully isolated it from a linked stretch of DNA responsible for the terrible flavour of the wild varieties.
however, so researchers have sought the genes responsible for flood tolerance in the hope of introducing them into high-yielding rice varieties.
In 2006, a team led by David Mackill at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines discovered similar flood-tolerance genes a genetic cluster called Submergence 1 that allowed plants to survive for more than two weeks
they mapped a pair of genes dubbed SNORKEL1 and SNORKEL2 that together can trigger growth of up to 8 metres in the face of rising water levels (see video).
Julia Bailey-Serres, a molecular geneticist at the University of California, Riverside, says that the Submergence
and Snorkel genes can now be crossed into common rice varieties to protect crops exposed to different flooding scenarios.
Submergence genes might be best; but when floodwaters climb in a progressive and prolonged fashion,
Snorkel genes will be more effective. It provides two strategies and they both have their importance,
Some wild rice species possess Snorkel genes, whereas only domesticated breeds contain the Submergence genes, he says.
Flooding is not the only threat to the world's largest diet staple. Rice blast disease destroys around 10-30%of global rice crops enough food to feed about 60 million people each year.
Some researchers have speculated that blast-immunity genes might directly confer terrible taste, but Fukuoka and his colleagues have shown that resistance
The team cloned a gene called Pi21, and showed that plants with two rare deletions had around 10 times fewer blast lesions than wild-type rice,
Fukuoka's group crossed the resistance gene into a tastier breed and mapped the foul flavour to a point a few thousand nucleotides downstream of the Pi21 gene,
indicating that Pi21 itself does not harm the rice's taste. Both research teams are breeding more-durable rice varieties.
No genetic engineering is required, says Ashikari, because all of these genes can be transferred by crossing. Once these new cultivars are made,
however, they still need to be tested both in the paddy and on the plate. We need to see how these behave in field situations
So even though the region could lose a lot of biodiversity and a large proportion of its carbon stock,
the team was able to estimate that paddies across China release 5. 1 million tonnes of methane a year nearly a 70%reduction from the 1980 levels previously estimated1 by Changsheng Li, a biogeochemist at the University of New hampshire
But these systems had many negative consequences for the environment, such as water pollution and reduction of biodiversity.
wrinkle-faced bat (Centurio senex) has been an enigma to biologists for a long time. Now, a team led by Elizabeth Dumont at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst has discovered that the oddly-shaped skulls include jaws that are more powerful than not just other fruit bats but also much larger predatory bats,
Nature Newsresearchers have created transgenic maize plants that fight off pests by emitting a chemical to attract insect-killing nematode worms. 1the method,
Many maize varieties already contain a gene to make this compound. But most of the varieties that have emerged from commercial selective breeding particularly in North america have lost the ability to express it.
So the researchers inserted an (E)- Ã Â-caryophyllene synthase gene from the oregano plant a technique for which they have filed a patent.
they interspersed transgenic and normal maize plants, and infested the plots with rootworm before releasing around 600,000 nematode parasites.
Root damage by rootworm larvae was less in the transgenic maize, and 60%fewer adult rootworm beetles emerged from such plants.
the study shows that it is possible to enhance biological pest control. People have been thinking about this method of pest control for a very long time,
And the approach could be combined with other transgenic pest control methods such as using genetically modified crops that carry toxins.
Guy Poppy, a chemical ecologist from the University of Southampton, UK, agrees that the method should allow farmers to reduce crop damage without eradicating the entire population of pests in a field's ecosystem-allowing biodiversity to remain mostly unchanged.
John Pickett, a biological chemist from the Rothamsted Research institute in Harpenden, UK, is pleased also that negative environmental effects of pesticides can be avoided.
because the oregano synthase gene is switched always on. Although this is better than spraying caryophyllene over a field
Nelson says that the biological effects of climate change on crops will work their way through the agricultural market,
But Goulding adds that the models also do not include loss of land to bioenergy crops
and genetically modified crops (see Nature 461,456-457; 2009). ) Merkel is expected also to review the country's plans to phase out its nuclear power stations over the next decade.
made by Regen Biologics of Hackensack, New jersey, but FDA officials approved it last December after lobbying from four New jersey congressmen.
An experimental HIV vaccine has shown moderate success at preventing infection by the virus. A US$119-million study involving more than 16,000 HIV-negative men
Nature News<newline>The business of biofuels</newline>This year was supposed to be a big year for Bluefire Ethanol.
California, had planned to start operating its first commercial cellulosic biofuel plant by the end of the year,
The refinery, located near Lancaster, California, would chew up everything from cardboard to hedge clippings and produce more than 11 million litres of biofuel a year.
Cellulosic ethanol a biofuel that can be produced from agricultural residue, grasses and municipal waste was touted as superior to maize (corn) ethanol
And later that year, Congress issued a federal mandate to produce 61 billion litres of cellulosic biofuels annually for transportation by 2022.
and it will almost certainly fail to meet the US Environmental protection agency's (EPA) projection of 381 million litres of cellulosic biofuels in 2010.
says Sean O'Hanlon, executive director of the American Biofuels Council in Miami, Florida. Part of the trouble began when last year's high maize prices and falling ethanol prices led to several bankruptcies in the industry.
says global biomass business development manager Cynthia Bryant. The company has partnered with the agricultural products supplier COFCO
relies on gasification to turn biomass into hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Proprietary bacteria then ingest the gases and produce ethanol
whether the EPA will put annual targets for cellulosic-biofuel production into effect on 1 january 2010 as originally proposed.
Attention has begun already to turn from ethanol to other cellulosic biofuels. A Perspective published in Science in August noted that biomass-derived hydrocarbon fuels,
such as petrol and diesel replacements, could be more attractive because they offer higher mileage and do not require new distribution infrastructure (J. R. Regalbuto Science 325,822-824;
or biomass-derived petrol, says Alexander. And the plant delays are giving alternative technologies a chance to catch up.
BIOMASS TO LIQUIDS
US agriculture research gets priority plan: Nature Newsus agricultural research is getting a makeover. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) opens its doors on 1 Â October, with plant biotechnologist Roger Beachy at its helm.
including climate change, biofuels, nutrition, and food safety and security. Yet Beachy's arrival also underscores the often-close ties between US agribusiness and federal research.
Beachy worked on virus resistance in plants, and later collaborated closely with Monsanto, the leading producer of genetically engineered seed, on transgenic crops.
The Danforth Center was founded with grants from Monsanto's philanthropic arm among others, and the president and chief executive of Monsanto is on the centre's board of trustees.
Fungus genome boosts fight to save North american forests: Nature Newscanadian researchers have decoded the DNA of the tree-killing fungus found in the mouths of mountain pine beetles,
Further genome sequencing of the beetle and pine tree species should help forest managers design better pest-control tactics,
who is leading the Can$11. 9m (US$11. 1m) multi-species genome initiative. What really happens in nature is confined not to one species
Bohlmann and his colleagues assembled the fungus's 32.5-million-base-pair genome which is around a hundredth the size of the human genome,
using a combination of next-generation and traditional sequencing technologies the first time that a complex eukaryotic organism has been sequenced from scratch using such a hybrid approach
The genome was reported online this month in the journal Genome Biology1. They've done a very careful analysis of
says Steve Rounsley, a genome researcher at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who was involved not in the study.
For the other two species the beetle and the tree the researchers are concentrating mainly on expressed gene sequences, fragments of the complete DNA sequence, rather than the genomes in their entirety.
They've already amassed one of the largest insect libraries of gene transcripts for the bark beetle from more than a dozen beetle life stages and body parts.
We should be able to look at particular genes and say which population of trees is interacting with which population of fungus and which population of beetles,
Already, the University of British columbia researchers, led by mycologist Colette Breuil, have taken the fungus genome, pinpointed the gene responsible for staining the pine wood blue
and created a knockout strain that does not produce any pigment. The blue staining reduces the commercial value of affected timber
but it is not clear what role the colouring plays in driving infestation. The researchers are now testing this strain to tease that apart.
But the full utility of the fungus genome might only be realized after other related species are sequenced also,
You need more than one genome to do that. Using genomics to stop the bark beetles is a bit of a long shot
for sure, admits Chris Keeling, a research associate in Bohlmann's lab. But it might offer the best strategy for containing the forest pests,
Nature News The business of biofuels The promise of green gold is fading from Jatropha curcas,
And of 140 investments made in biofuels so far this year, says analyst Harry Boyle of London-based New Energy Finance,
which a team led by Arjen Hoekstra at the University of Twente in The netherlands suggested that jatropha needs more water than other bioenergy crops, such as maize (corn),
Another company concentrating on basic science is based SG Biofuels in Encinitas, California. It has collected samples from jatropha plants growing wild in different environments
and is creating a library of genetic material from which it intends to develop enhanced seed strains to test,
Biodiesel from his institute's jatropha project (see Nature 449,652-655; 2007) has been used in test cars belonging to the project
and in collaboration with General motors. Ghosh's team has been working to improve the genetic stock of their jatropha,
and is about to embark on a life-cycle analysis of how much biodiesel jatropha can generate from a 50-hectare plot.
which in August announced a memorandum of understanding with the European biofuel producer PT Waterland.
And China, one of the world's leading biofuel manufacturers, is also taking an interest in jatropha,
transforming vast quantities of desert land into biofuel-producing moneymakers, it is likely to find its niche as a local alternative in certain developing countries.
Potato blight's gene weaponry revealed: Nature Newsthe blight that caused the infamous Irish potato famine of the 1840s has yielded its genetic secrets.
An international team has sequenced the DNA of the microorganism that was to blame. Phytophthora infestans, the water mould that causes late blight in potatoes,
Now Chad Nusbaum, co-director of the Broad Institute's genome sequencing and analysis programme in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
In doing so, they've identified a number of genes that might be responsible for the blight's destructive powers and keys to its undoing.
When comparing P. infestans with similar organisms in the same genus, stretches of the genome stood out as being highly variable,
and jump around in the genome. The researchers believe that the transposons, which make up about 74%of this unusually unwieldy genome,
code for the blight's'weapons'against potatoes. That is an insane number. For microbes 25%is a lot,
will provide a comprehensive list of these weapons genes. Researchers can now give them the individual treatment that they deserve to figure out what they are doing.
The breeders have been working in the genetic dark, however, not knowing exactly what genes they are promoting or
what genetic changes keep the blight nimbly adapting to their new varieties. At the moment, the breeding strategy has been based on screening the wild relatives from the highlands of Mexico
and parts of the Andes such as Bolivia that have resistance, says potato breeder John Bradshaw of the Scottish Crop Research Institute in Dundee, UK.
With all this knowledge about how the pathogen attacks the host on the biochemical level,
2008) mean corruption of traditional genomes is inevitable. Events Hwang convicted Disgraced South korean cloning scientist Woo Suk Hwang left Seoul Central District court on 26 october knowing that his sentence,
He was found guilty of embezzling government funds and buying human eggs in violation of the country's bioethics law,
Biotechnology continues to be funded the top sector, receiving $905 million in the third quarter a 4%decrease from the second quarter.
Transgenic aubergines put on ice: Nature Newsstiff opposition from activists has persuaded the Indian government to put off commercial release of the country's first genetically modified (GM) food crop,
despite clearance from the nation's top biotechnology regulator. The 14 october ruling by the Genetic engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) granted permission for Indian farmers to grow a transgenic version of aubergine,
or brinjal, that is insect-resistant. But barely 24 hours later, Jairam Ramesh, India's minister of environment and forests, said that permission for its cultivation will be given only after consulting all stakeholders.
The GM brinjal variety was developed by Mahyco Monsanto Biotech, a joint venture between Jalna-based Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company and US seed giant Monsanto.
says Chavali Kameswara Rao, secretary of the Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education in Bangalore.
The biosafety issue of Bt brinjal has been studied by more than 150 scientists and nothing new will come from fresh consultations.
and Molecular biology in Hyderabad, says Ramesh has made the right choice. The government need not accept every recommendation made by the GEAC,
The only other study, by French scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini of the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic engineering, branded Bt brinjal potentially unsafe for human consumption.
saying that the crop has been tested extensively for its biosafety, and no additional studies/review are necessary.
Abraham announced the new numbers on biodiversity threats compiled over 20 years of laboratory and field studies last month,
Biosecurity: The US government should grade microorganisms and toxins according to their risk as potential biothreat agents,
That was the recommendation of a National Research Council report released last week, entitled Responsible Research with Biological Select Agents and Toxins.
Sequenom, a biotechnology firm in San diego, California, has cleared out its top executives after an internal investigation found lax oversight of faulty research.
for their discoveries of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. The physics prize went to Charles Kao,
provide the first direct link between dirty living, immune health and genetic expression. They also indicate that manipulating gut bacteria early in life might reduce allergies
The team also found that the differences in gut microbial communities affected the expression of genes associated with the piglets'immune system.
Animals raised in the isolated environment expressed more genes involved in inflammatory immune responses and cholesterol synthesis,
whereas genes associated with T cells were expressed in the outdoor-reared pigs. Kelly says that until now,
a food microbiologist at the University of Reading, UK, agrees that previous studies have shown by implication that immune responses are linked to organisms in the gut.
This study takes a step forwards by tallying the gene expression response into this, he says. However, he adds that
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