Tropical forests are less likely to lose biomass--plants and plant material--in response to greenhouse gas emissions over the twenty-first century than may previously have been thought suggests a study published online this week in Nature Geoscience.
and genes human and bee brains function very similarly. Thus we can use the honeybee to investigate how caffeine affects our own brains and behaviours.
and wild flowering species. If declines are allowed to continue there is a risk to our natural biodiversity and on some crop production.
#Scientists improve transgenic Enviropigsa research team at the University of Guelph has developed a new line of transgenic Enviropigs.
and it is known for passing genes on more reliably. The results of this project were published ahead of print in the Journal of Animal Science.
After developing the initial line of Enviropigs researchers found that the line had certain genes that could be unstable during reproduction or impractical in commercial use.
The transgenic pig synthesizes phytase in its salivary glands eliminating the need for additional supplements or enzymes in the feed.
and Cell biology at the University of Guelph and co-author of the study. Though no studies indicate a food safety risk from genetically modified Enviropig pork meat from the Enviropig is not yet available for human consumption.
When transgenic food animals are accepted by consumers the Enviropig perhaps would be one of the first innovations to be introduced into swine production said Forsberg.
We have demonstrated that the gene can be transferred by breeding through many generations in a stable fashion.
#A new cryptic spider species from Africathe species from the genus Copa are very common spiders found in the leaf litter of various habitats.
The spiders from this cryptic ground-dwelling genus in the continental Afrotropical Region are revised in a study published in the open access journal Zookeys.
The root causes of sap exudation before the onset of the growing season which allow trees like maple to be tapped for sap in commercially exploitable quantities have been debated in the biology community for decades explains co-author John Stockie.
#Discovery of genetic mechanism allowing potato cultivation in northern latitudesan international team of scientists headed by Wageningen University part of Wageningen UR has discovered a genetic mechanism
Newly discovered mutations in a single potato gene are likely to have contributed to the widespread success of the potato
The team of scientists headed by Wageningen UR Plant Breeding has published its findings on the gene allowing potato to grow
The authors also describe a variety of mutations in the tuber formation regulator gene which occur in different combinations in modern potato cultivars giving rise to early medium
and late varieties depending on the combination of the gene variants present in the tetraploid crop.
Knowledge of the genes underlying the mechanism of early development will allow plant breeders to tailor new potato varieties to various geographic locations.
In the absence of natural predators populations are continuing to expand--causing a serious threat to biodiversity as well as road traffic accidents and crop damage.
and excitement to the countryside but left unchecked they threaten our woodland biodiversity. Trying to control deer without a robust understanding of their true numbers can be like sleepwalking into disaster.
and elsewhere in Europe Increasing deer populations are a serious threat to biodiversity--particularly impacting on woodland birds such as migrant warblers and the nightingale.
#New solution proposed to ensure biofuel plants dont become noxious weedsraising plants for biofuels is many farmers'dream.
However some plants that are ideal for bioenergy production come with a drawback--they can potentially become invasive weeds that can cause billions of dollars in economic damage.
or bioengineered plants for agricultural or horticultural uses. A Virginia Tech researcher along with another scientist and two attorneys has authored an innovative article in the journal Bioscience that proposes a way to improve
and streamline the regulatory methodology for evaluating the invasive potential of plants especially biofuel feedstock that are under consideration for large-scale cultivation.
We did this analysis to draw attention to state noxious weed lists and to suggest ways to help prevent additional plants from escaping cultivation
Biofuels are of mounting economic and ecological importance with the federal government calling for production of 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022 about 11.3 percent of all liquid fuel consumption.
which biofuel stocks will be incentivized using the renewable fuel standard mandate. According to our analysis current noxious weed laws do not provide adequate protection to prevent invasions in natural areas
and we have shared a responsibility for proper stewardship of these landscapes said Lauren Quinn a research associate at the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of Illinois-Urbana
This will help take the expense of noxious weed control away from taxpayers while protecting conscientious biofuels developers some of
whom have backed away bioenergy farming for fear of lawsuits from the Environmental protection agency. The federal government restricts the movement
but not limited to bioenergy crops. These policies they note should restrict known invaders while allowing flexibility to investigate
and commercialize noninvasive bioenergy feedstock. Listing would be faster and more inclusive if revamped regulatory boards with input from invasive and exotic weed councils evaluated plants based on criteria such as the plant's history ecology reproductive potential and the potential for rapid spreading.
Before he came to Virginia Tech he was at the University of California at Davis where he started researching bioenergy plants primarily switch grass which is not native to that state.
Other coauthors are James S n. Mccubbins and A. Bryan Endres both attorneys with the Energy Biosciences Institute.
The transcriptome provides an extensive genetic tool for studying how invasive species like slender false brome successfully spread into novel ranges.
In addition the genome is available for a closely related species Brachypodium distachyon. Together the transcriptome and genome can be used as a reference for pinpointing differences in slender false brome genes
and gene activity that may contribute to its invasive capabilities. Slender false brome is an invasive grass that is native to Europe Asia and North africa.
It was introduced into the United states about 100 years ago and is listed as a noxious weed along the West Coast of the United states. It is aggressively invasive within its current range--near monocultures of this grass occupy thousands of hectares of mixed coniferous understory
and grassland habitats in Oregon says Mitch Cruzan coauthor and Associate professor of Biology at Portland State university.
Comparing transcriptomes across ranges will reveal new changes in gene expression in the highly successful invasive population.
To allow future studies to identify the functions of slender false brome genes the authors also compared the false brome transcriptome to those of well-studied agricultural species including rice and sorghum.
If false brome possesses a gene that has already been studied in an agricultural species it will be easier to identify the gene's supposed function.
The teams from Jaiswal's and Cruzan's laboratories are exploring these newly developed genetic resources
#Human Y chromosome much older than previously thoughtthe discovery and analysis of an extremely rare African american Y chromosome pushes back the time of the most recent common ancestor for the Y chromosome lineage tree to 338000 years ago.
University of Arizona geneticists have discovered the oldest known genetic branch of the human Y chromosome--the hereditary factor determining male sex.
The new divergent lineage which was found in an individual who submitted his DNA to Family tree DNA a company specializing in DNA analysis to trace family roots branched from the Y chromosome tree before the first appearance of anatomically modern humans in the fossil record.
The results are published in the American Journal of Human genetics. Our analysis indicates this lineage diverged from previously known Y chromosomes about 338000 ago a time
when anatomically modern humans had evolved not yet said Michael Hammer an associate professor in the University of Arizona's department of ecology
and evolutionary biology and a research scientist at the UA's Arizona Research Labs. This pushes back the time the last common Y chromosome ancestor lived by almost 70 percent.
Unlike the other human chromosomes the majority of the Y chromosome does not exchange genetic material with other chromosomes
If two Y chromosomes carry the same mutation it is because they share a common paternal ancestor at some point in the past.
The more mutations that differ between two Y chromosomes the farther back in time the common ancestor lived.
When none of the genetic markers used to assign lineages to known Y chromosome groupings were found the DNA sample was sent to Family tree DNA for sequencing.
Fernando Mendez a postdoctoral researcher in Hammer's lab led the effort to analyze the DNA sequence which included more than 240000 base pairs of the Y chromosome.
Hammer said the most striking feature of this research is that a consumer genetic testing company identified a lineage that didn't fit anywhere on the existing Y chromosome tree
Hammer said the newly discovered Y chromosome variation is extremely rare. Through large database searches his team eventually was able to find a similar chromosome in the Mbo a population living in a tiny area of western Cameroon in Sub-saharan africa.
This was surprising because previously the most diverged branches of the Y chromosome were found in traditional hunter-gatherer populations such as Pygmies
and the click-speaking Khoesan who are considered to be diverged the most human populations living today.
Instead the sample matched the Y chromosome DNA of 11 men who all came from a very small region of western Cameroon Hammer said.
or Y chromosome Adam that suggest all of humankind descended from exactly one pair of humans that lived at a certain point in human evolution.
It is a misconception that the genealogy of a single genetic region reflects population divergence.
whether in Africa or among African-americans in the U s. and that some of these may further increase the age of the Y chromosome tree.
There has been a lot of hype with people trying to trace their Y chromosome to different tribes but this individual from South carolina can say he did it.
Kiang associate professor of physics and astronomy and of bioengineering studies the forces involved in protein folding.
Proteins are the workhorses of biology. Tens of thousands are produced each second in every living cell and each of these folds into a characteristic shape within moments of its creation.
Moake a senior research scientist in bioengineering at Rice and professor of medicine at BCM said the work is vitally important
To study the problem Kiang's lab worked closely with Moake's team at Rice's Bioscience Research Collaborative
#Biomass analysis tool is faster, more precisea screening tool from the U s. Department of energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) eases and greatly quickens one of the thorniest tasks in the biofuels industry:
determining cell wall chemistry to find plants with ideal genes. NREL's new High-Throughput Analytical Pyrolysis tool (HTAP) can thoroughly analyze hundreds of biomass samples a day
and give an early look at the genotypes that are most worth pursuing. Analysis of a sample that previously took two weeks can now be done in two minutes.
That is potentially game changing for tree nurseries and the biomass industry. When it comes to making fuels out of trees crops grasses
or algae it's all about the cell walls of the plants. Will they make it hard
or easy for enzymes to turn the biomass into sugars? Differences in cell walls are enormous
and choosing the right ones can make the difference between a profit and a loss for tree growers or between a fruitful or fruitless feedstock line for biomass companies.
Finding that particular species or that individual tree that has the genetic markers for the optimal biofuel candidate has heretofore been laborious and painstaking.
The Energy Independence and Security Act requires that the United states produce 21 billion gallons of non-corn-based biofuel by 2022.
The market for biofuels is expected to grow steadily between now and then. Market analysts say the successful companies will be those that can steer their enzymes through the cell-wall structures in the easiest and most cost-effective ways including by making changes in the structures themselves.
Tool Can Pinpoint Phenotypesto find out the chemical composition of the cell walls companies have to sample large quantities of biomass
whether it's switchgrass remnants of corn stalks fast-growing trees or algae. The traditional strategy had been a multistep approach involving sample dissolution and chromatographic analysis
Difference in Signal Intensity Identifies Gene Manipulationsthe lignin in a plant is crucial for its development
It's the deconstruction of the raw sugars that produces the sugars the biofuels industry finds valuable.
HTAP integrates a molecular beam mass spectrometer with the pyrolysis unit to quickly determine chemical signatures (phenotypes) on small amounts of biomass samples that can be used for among other things identifying the genes controlling the chemical makeup.
Combining the HTAP chemical phenotypes with information such as genetic markers can signal there is a gene nearby that controls those chemical phenotypes--for better or worse.
which looked at their genetic transformations and the associated cell-wall chemistry changes Davis said. They discerned dozens of changes in transgenic biomass samples each slight genetic tweak corresponding with a slight difference in the amount of lignin in the sample.
NREL was able to tell Arborgen that one sample had say half the lignin of another sample.
and the University of California Davis to demonstrate that the HTAP method could combine with genetic information to identify genetic markers associated with cell wall chemistry traits.
Even with this approach the method that would soon evolve into HTAP identified numerous genetic markers associated with cell wall chemistry
Other partners using NREL's rapid analytical tool for fuel research besides Arborgen are the University of Florida the University of Georgia Greenwood Resources the Bioenergy Science Center
Know the genes associated with the traits and you gain the ability to manipulate the cell wall to your advantage.
HTAP provides the information that combined with other genetic information tells us there's a gene controlling the plant's cell wall chemistry located somewhere on this chromosome--at the same location every time Davis said.
Our partners have genetic markers for 1000 trees and can pinpoint the gene that has an effect on lignin content cellulose content
or some other factor affecting recalcitrance (the plant's resistance to give up its structural sugars).
and find a tree in the natural population with similar genetic traits or use genetic transformation to introduce the desirable traits.
The data from the chemical makeup is averaged and generated in real time. If we know what each of these peaks are related to we can tell what has changed with each sample Davis said.
Glass fiber disks are used to hold the biomass samples in the cups which are sent then back to NREL.
and breeders can determine what genes in the cloned trees are responsible for the advantageous biofuel potential.
And biologists then can graft a desirable cell-wall trait onto a new line of trees. We've phenotyped tens of thousands of samples so far Davis said.
Any biomass feedstock type being used for serious biofuels production--chances are we've tested it.
#Selfish gene may undermine genome policefor a bunch of inanimate chemical compounds the nucleic and amino acids caught up in the infamous selfish segregation distorter (SD) saga have put on quite a soap opera for biologists
since the phenomenon was discovered in fruit flies 50 years ago. A new study a highlight in the March issue of the journal Genetics provides the latest plot twist.
In TV listings the series would be described this way: A gene exploits a rival gene's excesses sabotaging any sperm that bear a rival's chromosome.
The listing is not an exaggeration except for ascribing malicious intent to strings of biochemicals.
When male flies make their sperm the SD gene (call it A) manages to rig meiosis--the specialized cell division that makes sex cells
--so that maturing sperm that bear chromosomes with the susceptible allele (call that one a) end up defective and discarded.
They never even leave the testes. It is murder of a sort. Similar selfish systems occur in mammals including humans.
In the Genetics study conducted at Brown University scientists uncover new clues about how the SD gene might be gaming the system against a. It's a plot
so fiendish only an aggregation of genetic bases could evolve it. It also deepens biologists'understanding of an instance in
which life violates a fundamental balance predicted by the father of genetics Gregor Mendel. Mendel's first law is that different alleles of a gene will segregate said Robert Reeenan professor of biology and the study's senior author.
If we have two alleles--big A and little a--then Mendel says 50 percent of the sperm at random will get the big A
and 50 percent of the sperm will get the little a . But some SD (A) alleles are so strong they pretty much kill off all the non-SD (a) chromosomes.
This is a real cheater a real stinker Reenan said. Most genes like most people are good upstanding citizens
but some genes want to hog all the resources hog all the benefit. The SD backstorywhat makes the a allele susceptible to SD's subterfuge is the number of copies it harbors of a runaway snippet of genetic code called Responder.
A few copies of Responder are no problem but hundreds of copies make a susceptible. Some alleles have thousands of copies
and only one in a thousand survives. Genomes try to root out parasites like Responder by creating
and dispatching proteins into the nucleus and the cytoplasm. These police proteins are armed with police sketches of the parasites in the form of small RNA transcripts.
The new plot twistit struck Reenan and lead author Selena Gell that this policing system
--because it targets self-copiers like Responder--might somehow have a role in the SD saga.
In the experiments described in Genetics Reenan and Gell show that engineered mutations in the police gene named Aubergine (others on the force in the experiments are called Piwi Squash
and Zucchini) amplify SD chromosomes'success in eliminating Responder-laden sperm compared to that of SD chromosomes without Aubergine's help.
The results show that this police system suppresses Responder and therefore SD. It also means that
We used homologous recombination to knock in a mutation specifically on the SD chromosome to compromise Aubergine
the chromosome became more selfish. Reenan and Gell did not go so far as to determine
whether known SD-promoting genes called Enhancer of SD Stabilizer of SD and Modifier of SD act by interfering with Aubergine or its buddies on the force but Reenan said that is among the next things his group will look into.
In the meantime he reflects it may not be entirely fair for biologists to label SD as selfish
and not Responder As well as an out-of-control self-repeater in the genome Responder is surely no prize
Humans flies all of us have been attacked for millennia by selfish genetic elements that want to make as many copies as possible Reenan said.
but when the selfish genes come in the form of viruses or other kinds of transposons there can be trouble.
So investigating the tactics of selfish genes is not merely the stuff of biological soap operas.
and gingers according to Caroline Strã mberg UW assistant professor of biology and lead author of an article in Nature Communications.
and is considered by many to be a separate species. They play a vital role in maintaining the biodiversity of one of Earth's critical carbon sequestering tropical forests.
Operation Loango Prince Bernhard Wildlife Fund RAPAC The Arcus Foundation The Aspinall Foundation The Born Free Foundation The Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics at The University of Amsterdam
Data capture was supported by a National Science Foundation Biological Infrastructure grant#0956388. Additional support for this work was provided by Robert G. Goelet Chairman Emeritus of the Museum's Board of trustees.
Historically we've seen symptoms similar to IBDS associated with viruses spread by large-scale infestations of parasitic mites says Dr. David Tarpy an associate professor of entomology at North carolina State university
DNA barcodes can be used to identify even very closely related species finds an article published in Biomed Central's open access journal Investigative Genetics.
and cholesterol and perceived to be lower in additives. Using mitochondrial COI DNA barcoding and cytb sequencing researchers analysed samples of game meat from supermarkets wholesalers
and mangrove swamps as current--and possibly future--wildlife refuges Katarzyna Nowak a former postdoctoral researcher of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton compiled a list of 60 primates
Which is why biologist Tiffany Knight and her then postdoctoral research associate Laura Burkle were delighted to discover meticulous data on a plant-pollinator network recorded by Illinois naturalist Charles Robertson between 1887 and 1916.
Recollecting 26 spring-blooming flowers from Robertson's network Knight Phd professor of biology at Washington University
Robertson's astonishing legacya professor of biology and Greek at Blackburn College in Carlinville Illinois Charles Robertson collected flower-visiting insects near Carlinville between 1887 and 1916.
The 50 international researchers including Lawrence Harder professor in the Department of Biological sciences in the Faculty of science at the University of Calgary analysed data from 41 crop systems around the world including fruits seeds nuts
most biodiverse country in the world. James Deutsch WCS Executive director for Africa Programs said: We salute our partners at ICCN for their dedication
Funding for the three censuses came from the United states Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) the Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) a US Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative for biodiversity
which suggests the use of GSSE as a preventive nutriceutical for high-risk patients said co-author Kamel Charradi a researcher with the Laboratory of Bioactive Substance at the Center of Biotechnology of Borj-Cedria (CBBC) in Tunisia.
The research findings are reported online in the FASEB Journal (the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) by senior researcher Graca Almeida-Porada M D. Ph d. professor
Previous studies in animals have shown that the transplantation of bone-marrow-derived cells can contribute to the regeneration of the gastrointestinal tract in IBD said Almeida-Porada.
and Blood Institute under award number NHL097623 and HL073737 and grant P20 RR-016464 from the Idea Network of Biological Research Excellence Program of the National Center for Research Resources.
#Estimates reduce amount of additional land available for biofuel production by almost 80%Amid efforts to expand production of biofuels scientists are reporting new estimates that downgrade the amount of additional land available for growing fuel
. and the European union on how production of biofuels will impact food security. This has led to a realization that increased production of biofuels must take place on so-called marginal land acreage not suitable for growing food crops but capable of growing switch grass Indian beech trees and Barbados nut trees.
Concerned that previous estimates were targeting some areas where land is not marginal the scientists did the calculations using data obtained through crowdsourcing
The revised estimates show that 140 million-2. 6 billion acres of additional land could be cultivated for biofuel production.
Scientists have sequenced the active parts of the genome --or transcriptome--of primitively eusocial wasps to identify the part of the genome that makes you a queen or a worker.
Their work published in Biomed Central's open access journal Genome Biology shows that workers have a more active transcriptome than queens.
This suggests that in these simple societies workers may be the'jack-of-all-trades'in the colony--transcriptionally speaking--leaving the queen with a somewhat restricted repertoire.
It shows that workers retain a highly active transcriptome possibly expressing many of the ancestral genes that are required for our solitary wasp to be successful on her own.
Conversely queens appear to shut down a lot of their genes presumably in order to be really good reproducers. Longstanding analyses based on the fossil record holds ants and wasps in a clade known as Vespoidea with bees as a sister group.
and bees though further genome sequences and comparative data will help to resolve this controversy The dataset offers a first chance to analyse subfamily relationships across large numbers of genes
'Their work suggests that novel genes play a much more important role in social behaviour than we previously thought.
While breeding bird communities were used to measure the impacts of exurban development in the study the authors note that birds can serve as valuable indicators of overall biodiversity.
The tree tomatoa researcher at the UPM is collaborating in the characterization of genetic resource of the tree tomato to enhance its cultivation and commercialization in Andean and Mediterranean countries.
and the Universidad T cnica Particular de Loja (Ecuador) have detailed the morphology and genetic diversity of tree tomato.
As a result of this work and apart from publishing papers about morphological and genetic diversity of this fruit researchers detailed a list of over 80 descriptors (morphology characters) to describe
The 78 polymorphic DNA fragments found reveal that the presence of a wide genetic diversity giving researchers strong hopes for developing new varieties.
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