Now the researchers'ideas and discussions have been published in the appreciated Biological Conservation publication series. The researchers discussed the state of forests
For example the prevention of climate change the collection of wood for bioenergy and conflicting financial interests complicate the optimal use of ecological restoration.
or burned wood have disappeared in many areas says researcher Panu Halme from the Department of Biological and Environmental science at the University of Jyvã¤skylã¤.
's most biodiverse protected areas. Fortunately for the scientists more than one camera is often set
and mitigate a variety of threats to biodiversity and wildlife including Andean bears including road construction logging unsustainable natural resource use and agricultural expansion.
#Veterinary Scientists Track the Origin of a Deadly Emerging Pig Virus in the United Statesveterinary researchers at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary medicine at Virginia Tech have helped identify the origin
and possible evolution of an emerging swine virus with high mortality rates that has already spread to at least 17 states.
A team of researchers led by Dr. X. J. Meng University Distinguished Professor of Molecular Virology has used virus strains isolated from the ongoing outbreaks in Minnesota
The virus which causes a high mortality rate in piglets was recognized first in the United states in May of this year.
The virus typically only affects nursery pigs and has many similarities with transmissible gastroenteritis virus of swine said Meng who is a faculty member in the Department of Biomedical sciences and Pathobiology.
There is currently no vaccine against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in the United states . Although some vaccines are in use in Asia we do not know
whether they would work against the U s. strains of the virus. The researchers determined not only that the three U s. strains of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus are most closely related to the Chinese strains of the virus
and Genotyping of Emergent Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus Strains in the United states abstract in the Oct 15 issue of the American Academy of Microbiology's journal mbio.
According to the study the U s. strains of the virus share 99.5 percent of their genetic code with their Chinese counterpart.
and Chinese virus strains coincides with a porcine epidemic diarrhea virus outbreak in China back in December of 2010.
whether the U s. strains of the virus diverged in China or in the United states. The sudden emergence of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus
Researchers have found no evidence that the virus can spread to humans or pose a threat to food safety.
They did however come across additional evidence that the U s. strains share several genetic features with a bat coronavirus--findings which point to an evolutionary origin from bats and the potential for cross-species transmission.
Though commonly accepted that the virus spreads through the fecal-oral route Meng said that scientists have not yet ruled out the possibility of other transmission routes.
and with the lack of a vaccine in the United states practicing strict biosecurity and good sanitation procedures on the farm are important for prevention and control of this deadly disease Meng added.
wild buffalo a problemnew research shows that in Sub-saharan africa the virus responsible for foot and mouth disease (FMD) moves over relatively short distances and the African buffalo are important natural reservoirs for the infection.
The study published in mbio the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology sheds light on how the type of FMD virus called SAT 2 emerged in Sub-saharan africa
but it's a particular problem in Africa where wildlife that harbor the virus are thought to pass it on to their domesticated cousins.
The SAT 2 serotype of the virus is endemic in Sub-saharan africa but it has crossed the Sahara
and his colleagues wanted a better picture of the diversity of SAT 2 viruses in Sub-saharan africa
They used 250 genetic sequences of the VP1 section of the genome from SAT 2 isolates taken from all over Sub-saharan africa
Hall says the patterns in which the topotypes appear in different places gives strong support to the idea that the virus is spread by infected hosts in land movements over relatively short distances.
What's more African buffalo are an important maintenance host meaning they maintain a reservoir of the virus that can re-infect domesticated animals after time
The relationships between the 250 sequences also indicate that it's possible the original source of the SAT 2 viruses that are now found in wild
To Hall these results indicate that genetic tracking of viruses has a lot of potential for making inferences about viral spread and heading off future outbreaks.
We showed that we can demonstrate virus movement using genetic data. It's a tool that can be used for that kind of inference.
Going forward Hall says he plans to apply a similar approach to studying serotype O FMD viruses in Africa Asia
The above story is provided based on materials by American Society for Microbiology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
But changes in grazing pressure and pollination can also affect the genetic composition of natural plant populations according to a new study.
The difference in plant height has a genetic basis and over time differences in reproductive success affect the genetic composition of plant populations.
For a period of eight years the researchers documented changes in the proportion of short plants in natural populations and field experiments.
The results show that altered grazing pressure leads to rapid changes in the genetic composition of the primrose populations specifically in the proportion of short plants.
which plants dominate but also the genetic composition of the plant populations. These findings help us understand how differences in environmental conditions influence the evolution of genetic differentiation among plant populations says Professor Jon Ãren at the Evolutionary Biology Centre.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Uppsala University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
It could also disrupt plant and animal communities in one of the regions of highest biodiversity in the world.
and neutralizes the HIV virus potentially protecting exposed infants who might otherwise become infected from repeated exposures to the virus
and less than 60 percent are receiving the prevention drugs particularly in countries with few resources said senior author Sallie Permar M d. Ph d. assistant professor of pediatrics immunology and molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke.
TNC is a component of the extracellular matrix that is integral to how tissues hold themselves together Permar said noting that co-author Harold Erickson Ph d. professor of cell biology at Duke was among the first to identify
Further analysis described how TNC works against HIV by blocking virus entry. The protein is uniquely effective in capturing virus particles
and neutralizes the virus specifically binding to the HIV envelope. These properties provide widespread protection against infection.
It's likely that TNC is acting in concert with other anti-HIV factors in breast milk and further research should explore this Permar said.
because organic fertilizers were applied at about 50%of the normal application rate for zucchini after taking into account biological N fixation attributable to the vetch the scientists noted.
as a result of high aboveground biomass production that when incorporated into soil progressively mineralized and increased the available N content said the study's lead author Francesco Montemurro.
The researchers determined that strawberry biomass nitrogen accumulation showed a consistent pattern across fields with limited N accumulation from fall transplanting through March followed by a consistent rate of crop N uptake through the rest of the production season.
and other keystones of the area's biodiversity but it has had significant costs for people living in the area.
Up until now it has been underutilised as a biomass residue and waste material. These were the conclusions of a study conducted by the TLL (Thueringian regional institute for agriculture) the DBFZ (German biomass research center) and the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ.
According to them from a total of 30 million tons of cereal straw produced annually in Germany between 8 and 13 million tons of it could be used sustainably for energy or fuel production.
when using straw for the generation of heat combined heat and power generation or as second-generation biofuel production.
The different greenhouse gas balances cast a differentiated light on the EU's goal of covering ten percent of transportation sector's energy use by using biofuels.
Once again the study emphasizes how the use of bioenergy needs to take into account various factors. Given the conditions prevalent in Germany the use of straw in combined heat
#Large-scale deep re-sequencing reveals cucumbers evolutionary enigmain a collaborative study published online today in Nature Genetics researchers from the Genome Centre of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) BGI
This work provides new insights for understanding the genetic basis of domestication and diversity of this important crop and provides guidance for breeders to harness genetic variation for crop improvement.
Cucumber is a major vegetable crop consumed worldwide as well as a model system for sex determination and plant vascular biology.
In 2009 cucumber became the seventh plant to have published its genome sequence following the well-studied model plant Arabidopsis thaliana the poplar tree grapevine papaya and the crops rice and sorghum.
More efforts have been put into cucumber genomics research since then. As a part of these efforts researchers from CAAS and BGI re-sequenced 115 cucumber lines sampled from 3342 accessions worldwide
and also conducted de novo sequencing on a wild cucumber. In total they detected more than 3. 3 million SNPS over 0. 33 million small insertion
and genetically quite homogeneous but the Indian group shows clear evidence of substructure and genetic heterogeneity.
Their further analysis also provide evidence on the ancestral status of the Indian group which holds great potential for introducing new alleles into the cultivated gene pool.
In addition they also identified 112 putative domestication sweeps in the cucumber genome. These findings provide additional impetus for the use of wild germplasm in future vegetable breeding.
Two genetic loci Bi and Bt are known to confer bitterness in cucumber. In this study researchers found that the Bt locus was delimited to a 442-kb region on chromosome 5 that harbors 67 predicted genes.
They further investigated the genomic basis of divergence among the cultivated populations for identifying genes controlling important traits.
The most obvious trait is the orange endocarp which distinguishes the Xishuangbanna group from the other groups.
This trait is caused by the accumulation of large amounts of Î-carotene that was reported to be controlled by a single recessive gene ore.
In this study researchers discovered a key natural variation in a Î-carotene hydroxylase gene that could be used to breed cucumber with enhanced nutritional value.
Xin Liu Project Manager from BGI said This study not only generates valuable genomic resource including additional wild reference genome genome-wide variations for further studies
and breeding applications on cucumber but also gave us a better picture about how the cucumber genome evolved during domestication.
and genome wide analysis can be applied on different economic crops for better understanding their evolutionary process
and the area's biodiversity was not without cost to the people who live around the area.
That's information conservation managers can use to fine tune policy as they work to balance their efforts to protect biodiversity with ways to also allow the people that depend on the forest for survival to thrive.
#Key genes for increasing oil content in plant leaves identifiedscientists at the U s. Department of energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified the key genes required for oil production and accumulation in plant leaves and other vegetative plant tissues.
Enhancing expression of these genes resulted in vastly increased oil content in leaves the most abundant sources of plant biomass-a finding that could have important implications for increasing the energy content of plant-based foods and renewable biofuel feedstocks.
or to feed livestock it would significantly increase their energy content and nutritional values said Brookhaven biochemist Changcheng Xu who led the research.
Conversely if you want to increase the caloric output of your biofuel or feed for livestock you want more oil said Xu.
The idea behind Xu's studies was to find a way to reprogram plants to store oil in their more abundant forms of biomass.
The first step was to identify the genes responsible for oil production in vegetative plant tissues. Though oil isn't stored in these tissues almost all plant cells have the capacity to make oil.
But until these studies the pathway for oil biosynthesis in leaves was unknown. Many people assumed it was similar to
but we tried to look also at different genes and enzymes said Xu. Unraveling the genesthe scientists used a series of genetic tricks to test the effects of overexpressing
or disabling genes that enable cells to make certain enzymes involved in oil production. Pumping up the factors that normally increase oil production in seeds had no effect on oil production in leaves
and one of these when overexpressed in leaves caused growth and developmental problems in the plants.
If you knock out (disable) the gene for an enzyme known as PDAT it doesn't affect oil synthesis in seeds
In contrast overexpressing the gene for PDAT-that is getting cells to make more of this enzyme-resulted in a 60-fold increase in leaf oil production.
if they activated the gene for oleosin along with PDAT? The result: Overexpression of the two genes together resulted in a 130-fold increase in production of leaf oil compared with control plants.
This time the oil accumulated in large clusters of tiny oleosin-coated oil droplets. Identifying the mechanismnext the scientists used radio-labeled carbon (C-14) to decipher the biochemical mechanism by which PDAT increases oil production.
Then the scientists decided to test the effects of overexpressing the newly identified oil-increasing genes (PDAT
and oleosin) in a variant of test plants that already had elevated an rate of fatty acid synthesis. In this case the genetic boost resulted in even greater oil production
and biodiesel production said Xu. Burning plant biomass with such energy density to generate electricity would release 30 to 40 percent more energy
and the nutritional value of feed made from such energy-dense biomass would also be enhanced greatly.
These studies were done in laboratory plants so we still need to see if this strategy would work in bioenergy
or feed crops said Xu. And there are challenges in finding ways to extract oil from leaves
so it can be converted to biofuels. But our research provides a very promising path to improving the use of plants as a source of feed
Xu is now collaborating with Brookhaven biochemist John Shanklin to explore the potential effect of overexpressing these key genes on oil production in dedicated biomass crops such as sugarcane.
and policymaking says Hans ter Steege first author on the study and researcher at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in South Holland Netherlands.
Ecologist Miles Silman of Wake Forest University another co-author of the paper calls the phenomenon dark biodiversity.
Just like physicists'models tell them that dark matter accounts for much of the universe our models tell us that species too rare to find account for much of the planet's biodiversity.
and plant biologist Dr Ben Williams from the University of Cambridge and is published in the journal elife.
whether a new mathematical model of evolution could be used to unpick the evolutionary pathways that led to the advanced photosynthesis. My main interest is in using tools from maths to make some concrete progress in a problem of real biological and social value
Encouragingly for the efforts to design super-efficient crops we found that several different pathways lead to the more efficient photosynthesis--so there are plenty of different recipes biologists could follow to develop to achieve this.
This is not only an interesting mathematical result it should help biological scientists to develop crops with significantly improved yields to feed the world.
The next step for the biologists is to recreate the natural evolution of the more advanced photosynthesis by mirroring the genetic and physiological changes in simple laboratory plants and eventually in rice.
In a project which has just finished the scientists have focussed on a specific gene in pigs.
The gene SYN1 encodes the protein synapsin which is involved in communication between nerve cells. Synapsin almost exclusively occurs in nerve cells in the brain.
Parts of the gene can thus be used to control an expression of genes connected to hereditary versions of the aforementioned disorders.
The pig The SYN1 gene can with its specific expression in nerve cells be used for generation of pig models of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's.
The reason scientists bring a pig into the equation is that the pig is suited well as a model for investigating human diseases.
Pigs are very like humans in their size genetics anatomy and physiology. There are plenty of them
Before the gene was transferred from humans to pigs the scientists had to ensure that the SYN1 gene was expressed only in nerve cells.
We thus attached the relevant gene SYN1 to a gene from a jellyfish (GFP) and put it into a zebrafish in order to test the specificity of the gene explains Knud Larsen.
This is because jellyfish contain a gene that enables them to light up. This gene was transferred to the zebrafish alongside SYN1
so that the scientists could follow where in the fish activity occurred as a result of the SYN1 gene.
We could clearly see that the transparent zebrafish shone green in its nervous system as a result of the SYN1 gene from humans initiating processes in the nervous system.
We could thus conclude that SYN1 works specifically in nerve cells says Knud Larsen. The results of this investigation pave the way for the SYN1 gene being used in pig models for research into human diseases.
The pig with the human gene SYN1 can presumably also be used for research into the development of the brain and nervous system in the fetus.
I think it is interesting that the nervous system is preserved so well from an evolutionary point of view that you can observe a nerve-cell-specific expression of a pig gene in a zebrafish.
It is impressive that something that works in a pig also works in a fish says Knud Larsen.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Aarhus University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
The study is the most comprehensive look at the historical role of terrestrial ecosystems in controlling atmospheric carbon explained first author Elena Shevliakova a senior climate modeler in Princeton's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Scott Saleska an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona who studies interactions between vegetation
Unless you really understand what the land-use processes are it's very hard to say what the system will do said as a whole Shevliakova who worked with corresponding author Stephen Pacala Princeton's Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology;
Sergey Malyshev a professional specialist in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton; GFDL physical scientists Ronald Stouffer and John Krasting;
and because the total biomass of animals is vastly lower than the plants that they rely upon
And these indirect effects can be quite huge--and disproportionate to the biomass of the species that are instigating the change.
but climate change is rapidly altering the distribution and magnitude of forest pestilence and altering biodiversity and the ecosystem.
In mammals these compounds can cause gene disruption and interfere with hormone function particularly in a developing fetus.
The sensors make use of microfluidic technology--developed by Abraham Stroock associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering--that places a tiny cavity inside the chip.
The result was stunning says Rosen a professor of oncology biochemistry and cell & molecular biology and radiation medicine.
and researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology (mixed centre of the CSIC-Spanish National Research Council Public University of Navarre and the Government of Navarre) has demonstrated for the first time the viability of using specific tobacco proteins (known as
thioredoxins) as biotechnological tools in plants. Specifically she has managed to increase the amount of starch produced in the tobacco leaves by 700%and fermentable sugars by 500%.
%We believe that these genetically modified plants she explained could be a good alternative to food crops for producing biofuels
and m in tobacco as biotechnological tools not only to increase the starch content in the plant
By fusing the genes encoding the Trxs f or m we increased the amount of recombinant protein (the albumin in this case).
Genetically enhanced tobacco could be an alternative source of biomass in areas like Extremadura and Andalusia the traditional tobacco producers.
or wheat As cereals are currently being used as the raw material to produce bioethanol genetically enhanced tobacco could be an alternative source of biomass
and to meet an anticipated demand for biofuels--requiring more and more fertilizer. Even if anthropogenic NOX emissions were globally zero avoiding critical load exceedance at all national parks would require a 55%reduction of anthropogenic NH3 emissions their report states.
The Everglades at the southern tip of Florida--the remains of what was once a vast ecosystem--is interconnected with a large hydrologic system that really begins in Orlando with the northern Everglades says Patrick Bohlen a professor of biology at University of Central Florida.
Their focus has been on genetic factors and on the interaction between genotypes and the environment as they have tried to breed wheat that is resistant to PHS but with little success so far.
But now findings by a Mcgill team suggest that the solution may lie not with genetics alone but rather with a combination of genetic and epigenetic factors.
The team led by Prof. Jaswinder Singh of Mcgill s Department of Plant science has identified a key gene that acts as a switch to determine how a particular plant will respond to high humidity
and excess rainfall by either germinating early (PHS) or not. This switch is to be found in a key gene ARGONAUTE4 9 in the#oerna dependent DNA Methylation#pathway (Rddm.#
#oethe complex Rddm machinery is composed of several proteins that guide the genome in response to growth developmental and stress signals.
It s a bit like the plant s brain#says Singh.##oealthough in the past scientists have identified it as the pathway that regulates the way a variety of genes are expressed until now no one had made the link with PHS.#
#The Mcgill team made the discovery by using a variety of genomic and molecular tools to identify specific ARGONAUTE4 9 genes
and then compare the way that these genes are expressed in PHS resistant versus PHS susceptible varieties of wheat.#
#oethis discovery is important for other cereals like barley as well as for wheat#said Surinder Singh a Ph d. student
The study#oepolymorphic homoeolog of key gene of Rddm pathway ARGONAUTE4 9 class is associated with Pre-harvest Sprouting in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)#was published just in the journal#oeplos ONE#.
The research published on Journal of Nutrition is the first to evaluate the total dietary polyphenol intake by using a nutritional biomarker and not only a food frequency questionnaire.
The group of the UB analysed the effect of polyphenol-rich diets by means of a nutritional biomarker--the total urinary polyphenol (TUP) concentration--as a proxy measure of intake.
New biomarkers for nutritional studiesprofessor Cristina Andr s Lacueva head of the Biomarkers and Nutritional & Food Metabolomics Research Group of the UB and coordinator of the study explains that the development
and use of nutritional biomarkers enables to make a more precise and particularly more objective estimation of intake as it is not only based on participants'memory when answering questionnaire.
Nutritional biomarkers take into account bioavailabity and individual differences. According to the expert this methodology makes a more reliable and accurate evaluation of the association between food intake and mortality or disease risk.
--if possible--food intake by using nutritional biomarkers not only food frequency questionnaires. The Biomarkers and Nutritional & Food Metabolomics Research Group which participates in the project Fun-C-Food (Consolider Ingenion) collaborates actively with several national and international research groups.
It focuses its activity on the analysis of new more effective and sensitive nutritional biomarkers based on the bioavailabilty of bioactive compounds in food and their activity in order to associate the intake of certain foods (consumption markers) with their potential
effects on people's health. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Universidad de Barcelona.
and health benefits explained Dr. Rick Green Vice president Technology at POS Biosciences in Saskatoon co-author of the study Our results provide evidence that these fruits do in fact possess such nutritional benefits
and further develop these nutritive-rich ingredients is being sought from the recently established (2010) Global Institute for Food security (GIFS) says co-author of the study Dr. Nicholas Low a Professor of Food Chemistry at the Department of Food and Bioproduct Sciences University
In response to the increasing demand for phosphorus in the food biofuels and biobased materials industries global consumption of phosphate has risen significantly
Besides nonrenewable reserves alternative phosphate resources include municipal wastewater and agricultural organic residues such as livestock manure or digestate from biogas plants.
In solid fractions organic phosphorus bound in biochemical molecules such as phospholipids nucleotides and nucleic acids offer a bountiful source of phosphorus. These agricultural residues represent a huge additional reservoir for phosphate recovery:
The project consortium coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB wants to develop a process
The above story is provided based on materials by Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB.
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