Kristin Powell a graduate student in the lab of Tiffany Knight associate professor of biology and director of the Environmental Studies Program in Arts & Sciences together with consulting ecologist Jon Chase think they've located one
Some studies scrutinize biodiversity in meter-square quadrats and others scan biodiversity in entire islands or regions.
The problem the scientists say in the January 18 issue of Science is that the effect of invasive plants on species richness depends on scale.
The Norwegian scientists with lead authors from the Centre for Conservation Biology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) wanted to know how climate
and particularly extreme weather events may also synchronize entire communities of species says lead author Brage Bremset Hansen from NTNU's Centre for Conservation Biology.
but it is not until now that we understand how they released the calcium to control cell functions said Docampo who is a professor of cellular biology in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
Other authors of the report include Guozhong Hwang assistant research scientist and Silvia N. J. Moreno professor of cellular biology both members of the CTEGD and Paula J
That's based on new evidence published online on January 17 in Current Biology that mother quail know the patterning of their own eggs
#Photovoltaics beat biofuels at converting suns energy to miles drivenin 2005 President George w bush and American corn farmers saw corn ethanol as a promising fossil fuel substitute that would reduce both
and other biofuels or using photovoltaics (PV) to directly power battery electric vehicles (BEV)? The energy source for biofuels is the sun through photosynthesis he says.
The energy source for solar power is also the sun . Which is better? To find out Geyer joined former Brenschool researcher David Stoms
& Technology showed photovoltaics (PV) to be much more efficient than biomass at turning sunlight into energy to fuel a car.
PV is orders of magnitude more efficient than biofuels pathways in terms of land use--30 50 even 200 times more efficient--depending on the specific crop
Even the most efficient biomass-based pathway#requires 29 times more land than the PV-based alternative in the same locations the authors write.
PV conversion also has lower GHG emissions throughout the life cycle than do cellulosic biofuels even in the most optimistic scenario for the latter.
The bottleneck for biofuels is photosynthesis Geyer says. It's at best 1-percent efficient at converting sunlight to crop
What it says to me is that by continuing to throw money into biofuels we're barking up the wrong tree Geyer explains.
And we can't say that right now biofuels aren't so great but they'll be better in five years.
That fundamental problem for biofuels will not go away while solar EVS will just continue to get more efficient and cheaper.
If they're already looking better than biofuels in five years the gap will be even greater.
but using genetic engineering to improve the efficiency of photosynthesis is a pipe dream. If there is a silver bullet in energy
In the current issue of Nature a team of researchers led by Michigan State university shows that marginal lands represent a huge untapped resource to grow mixed species cellulosic biomass plants grown specifically for fuel production
Understanding the environmental impact of widespread biofuel production is unanswered a major question both in the U s
We estimate that using marginal lands for growing cellulosic biomass crops could provide up to 215 gallons of ethanol per acre with substantial greenhouse gas mitigation.
However this is the first study to provide an estimate for the greenhouse gas benefits as well as an assessment of the total potential for these lands to produce significant amounts of biomass he added.
Focusing on 10 Midwest states Great lakes Bioenergy researchers from MSU and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory used 20 years of data from MSU's Kellogg Biological Station
and model biomass production that could grow enough feedstock to support a local biorefinery with a capacity of at least 24 million gallons per year.
The final tally of 5. 5 billion gallons of ethanol represents about 25 percent of Congress'2022 cellulosic biofuels target said Phil Robertson co-author and MSU professor of crop soil and microbial sciences.
With conservation in mind these marginal lands can be made productive for bioenergy production and in so doing contribute to avoid the conflict between food
The research was funded primarily by the Department of energy's Great lakes Bioenergy Research center the National Science Foundation and MSU Agbioresearch.
New genetics research underscores importance of protecting forest corridorsas rapid economic expansion continues to shape the Asian landscape on
Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute have used genetic analysis to find that the natural forest corridors in India are essential to ensuring a future for these species. According to two studies recently published in two papers these corridors are successfully connecting populations of tigers
and leopards to ensure genetic diversity and gene flow. The results of the study that focused on tigers were published in Ecology
and a genetic bottleneck that affects the long-term viability of the Population scientists can determine the scope of such isolation by analyzing the extent to
The authors of the two papers used fecal samples to analyze the genetics of tiger and leopard populations in four reserves in central India:
and leopard populations in the reserves had maintained a high level of genetic diversity. Neither tigers nor leopards were genetically distinct with one exception among the leopards
The corridors appear to allow individuals to move between reserves facilitating genetic exchange. However the proliferation of roads rail lines mining urbanization and other forms of development through the corridors jeopardize these species'ability to move between reserves.
In addition to Sharma and Dutta the papers'other SCBI authors are Jesã s Maldonado a research geneticist at SCBI's Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics and John Seidensticker head of SCBI
The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute plays a key role in the Smithsonian's global efforts to understand
biology including how often they reproduce infant mortality rates and the role wolves may play on population dynamics.
But there is a plausible biological explanation for the link: milk is rich in Vitamin d and this may boost brain power the evidence suggests.
This study shows that at least in some areas it is possible to remove a large part of the tree biomass from a watershed with a very minimal effect on the stream ecosystem he said.
and Gene Likens of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook N y. The severe pine beetle epidemic in Colorado
#Two new studies show why biodiversity is important for pollination services in California almondagricultural demand for pollination is growing more quickly than the supply of honey bees the dominant species managed for crop pollination.
Biological sciences shows that the pollination effectiveness of honey bees in California almond orchards was greater in the presence of other bees.
A second study in the same system published in Global Change Biology found two other mechanisms by which pollinator diversity improved pollination service to almond.
The findings presented in the two articles highlight different ways biodiversity is important for pollination service.
and biodiversity in a'culture landscape of the future'.'Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Universitã¤t Koblenz-Landau.
#Genome of diamondback moth provides new clues for sustainable pest managementan international research consortium led by Fujian Agriculture Forestry University (FAFU)
and BGI has completed the first genome sequence of the diamondback moth (DBM) the most destructive pest of brassica crops.
The latest study was published online January 13 in Nature Genetics. The diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) preferentially feeds on economically important food crops such as rapeseed cauliflower and cabbage.
The completed genome sequencing of DBM will lay a solid foundation for tracking the evolutionary mechanisms of how an insect evolves to become a successful herbivore that can defense many insecticides. said Professor Minsheng You Vice president of FAFU and leader of the research team.
In this study researchers sequenced the genome of DBM by whole genome shotgun (WGS) and fosmid clones technologies yielding 343 Mb draft genome with 18071 predicted protein-coding genes.
Compared with other sequenced insect species they found that the diamondback moth possesses a relatively larger set of genes
and a moderate number of gene families suggesting the expansion of certain gene families. Additionally the genome-based phylogeny demonstrated that DBM was a basal lepidopteran species
which is supported well by its modal karyotype. Based on the genomic data generated from 1000 male pupae researchers identified the genome-wide level of polymorphism within the sequenced DBM strain (Fuzhou-S)
which may lay the genetic bases for DBM in adapting to various environmental challenges. They investigated a set of genes preferentially expressed at the larval stage that contribute to odorant chemoreception food digestion and metabolic detoxification.
Interestingly they found that the co-expression of sulfatase modifying factor 1 (SUMF1) and glucosinolate sulfatase GSS) genes may be crucial for DBM to become a successful cruciferous herbivore.
Insecticide tolerance or resistance may have contribution to the option of detoxification pathway in insect herbivores.
In this study researchers found DBM has a larger set of insecticide resistance-related genes than silkworm (B. mori) that had little exposure to insecticide over 5000 years of domestication.
They identified in DBM obvious gene duplications of four gene families that participated in xenobiotic detoxification in insects including ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter families the P450 monooxygenases (P450s) glutathione
S-transferases (GSTS) and carboxylesterase (COES). Notably the further analysis highlighted the potential role of ABC TRANSPORTERS in detoxification.
The clever evolutionary trick has allowed DBM to become such a serious pest and it may play an important role in the development of its ability to detoxify a wide range of chemicals.
Remarkably it appears that the very genetic adaptations that allow DBM to detoxify the chemicals in its food plants
Professor Jun Wang Executive director of BGI said The availability of a reference genome for a species is extremely important in the deeper understanding of its biology and evolution.
and have the first publicly accessible database of diamondback moth genome. I expect we could translate our achievements into real actions for sustainable pest management in the near future.
The complete genome sequence of diamondback moth is publicly available via visit http://www. iae. fafu. edu. cn/DBM.
#Bugs reveal the richness of species on Earthan international team of researchers has carried out a survey of the biological diversity in a tropical rainforest.
The list of ecological political and ethical arguments for why we should safeguard biodiversity is long and all the arguments are sound.
Previous examples include the collaborative efforts to map the human genome and understand the nucleus of the atom at CERN.
This will inevitably lead to species loss in this richly biodiverse part of the world if nothing is done to stop it.
#Schmallenberg virus genome engineered to understand how to reduce disease caused by the virusscientists engineer the Schmallenberg virus genome to understand how to reduce disease caused by the virus. Researchers from the MRC Centre for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow in Scotland have developed methods to synthesize
and change the genome of Schmallenberg virus (SBV). SBV is discovered a recently pathogen of livestock such as cattle sheep and goats.
The researchers have laid bare important ways by which this virus causes disease. The full report about the study publishes on January 10 in the Open Access journal PLOS Pathogens.
The new study describes researchers'use of molecular biological methods to design and assemble the viral genome completely in a test tube in a form that can be introduced easily
and replicated in cultured cells. From these cells the researchers recovered virus with identical infection properties to the natural SBV.
This approach known as'reverse genetics'allowed them to control the viral genome and identify a gene (called NSS) involved in protecting the virus against the immune response of infected animals.
The researchers made viruses missing the NSS gene and found they made mice in the laboratory less sick than viruses containing the NSS gene.
The researchers also discovered that SBV rapidly grows in the brain and spinal cord of aborted lambs and calves.
The virus prefers to infect cells called neurons which explains why it infects and damages the brain.
This also results in muscular defects such as abnormally flexed legs often seen in stillborn animals
when virus is transmitted from an SBV infected mother to the calves or lambs in the uterus during pregnancy.
Scottish researchers led by Massimo Palmarini and Alain Kohl suggest that the ability to engineer and control the SBV genome will allow the future development of new vaccines for this virus that is of great concern to European farmers.
This work was conducted in collaboration with scientists in Italy at the Istituto G. Caporale and Germany (University of Veterinary medicine in Hannover and the Friedrich Loeffler Institut.
and may be a promising biomarker for metabolic syndrome said Jialal. As it's also an indicator of inflammation
and insulin resistance it could also emerge as part of a biomarker panel to define high-risk obesity states.
Future large epidemiological studies should focus on evaluating the role of chemerin as a biomarker for the development of diabetes
We finally have a nanotube fiber with properties that don't exist in any other material said lead researcher Matteo Pasquali professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and chemistry at Rice.
#Lower nitrogen losses with perennial biofuel cropsperennial biofuel crops such as miscanthus whose high yields have led them to be considered an eventual alternative to corn in producing ethanol are shown now to have another beneficial characteristic--the ability
Our results clearly demonstrate that environmental nitrogen fluxes from row-crop agriculture can be reduced greatly after the establishment of perennial biofuel crops said U of I postdoctoral research associate Candice Smith.
added Mark David U of I biogeochemist. Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas and nitrate can contaminate drinking water supplies
The hypoxic zone that forms each summer in the Gulf of mexico is a result of nitrate leaching from the tile-drained Corn belt of the midwestern United states--a likely location for biofuel production he said.
In the study funded by the Energy Biosciences Institute miscanthus switchgrass and mixed prairie species were compared against a typical corn-corn-soybean rotation.
Harvested biomass and nitrogen nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate leaching in the mid-soil profile and through tile drainage lines were measured all.
Prairie and miscanthus levels were lower due to harvest of the plant biomass (and nitrogen) each winter with no fertilizer nitrogen additions to replace it as occurred in corn
although more research is needed to fully understand the nitrogen cycle in these new and exciting biofuel crops such as miscanthus results from this study clearly show these crops have the potential to quickly
and greatly reduce nitrogen losses that have important environmental effects while providing a large biomass harvest.
Reduced Nitrogen Losses after Conversion of Row Crop Agriculture to Perennial Biofuel Crops was published in an issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality.
Now researchers have located a genetic switch which can keep the plants young for years and
In short an ideal source of biomass. The life of tobacco plants is short. They grow for around three to four months followed by flowering and then die.
Now researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular biology and Applied Ecology IME in MÃ nster have located the tobacco plant's very own fountain of youth
The MÃ nster-based researchers discovered a genetic switch which can prevent the plants from change blooming to flowering.
and growing says Professor Dirk Prã fer head of the Department of Functional and Applied Genomics at the IME.
We modify the expression of a certain gene --or rather the information contained within it
Researchers then insert the modified gene back into the plant using a bacterium. The role of the bacterium is to act as a sort of shuttle service for the modified gene.
Producing more biomassthe principle is transferable and could be used on other kinds of plants; at the moment the scientists are working also on potato plants on behalf of a Japanese chemical company.
They use their knowledge to get crops to yield a far greater amount of biomass.
and plant-based raw materials the yield per hectare will have to double by 2050 claims the German Bioeconomy Council.
This process involves using chemical additives to bring about changes in a seed's DNA sequence.
But in order to be able to do that we first need to gain a better understanding of the deregulation of genes says Prã fer who hopes cultivation experiments might begin next year.
The Meduni Vienna-team investigated immune responses in mice fed several varieties of beans non-transgenic peas
and the transgenic peas expressing the bean or the transgenic versions of the Î-amylase inhibitor.
or from peas genetically modified to express the inhibitor and even in non-transgenic peas.
These results demonstrate that Î AI transgenic peas are no more allergenic than beans or non-transgenic peas in mice Dr. Epstein added.
It is also vital that investigators are aware of potential unexpected crossreactive allergic responses upon the consumption of plant products as we found in the non-transgenic peas.
Dr. Epstein questions the utility of rodents for evaluating biotech crops and points out that the MUV results highlight the importance of a careful case-by-case evaluation of GM CROPS
and the role science can play in decision-making around the introduction of GMOS into the food system.
#A history lesson from genes: Using DNA to tell us how populations changewhen Charles darwin first sketched how species evolved by natural selection he drew
Jonathan Pritchard Phd professor in the department of human genetics studies the nature of these human genetic variations by combining methods from evolutionary biology and statistics.
Intrigued by recent research on the Neanderthal genome that suggests more interbreeding with Homo sapiens than previously thought Pritchard wanted to develop a general method for estimating gene flow between different groups within the same species over time.
In a recent paper published in PLOS Genetics he and Joseph Pickrell a former University of Chicago researcher now at Harvard described a software model they developed that can infer the history of population splits and mixtures within a species based on modern DNA.
If you try to make a tree of population histories within a species there's always the possibility that you've got genes flowing from one branch to another Pritchard said.
'Pritchard and Pickrell developed software called Treemix that compares how often variants of a particular gene from different populations appear in the same species. It then calculates how closely groups are related
Much like DNA evidence has revolutionized criminal investigations often negating assumptions based on physical evidence advanced genetic analysis like Pritchard's can change
#Tree seeds offer potential for sustainable biofuelstree seeds rather than biomass or fuel crop plants could represent an abundant source of renewable energy according to research published in the International Journal of Automotive technology and Management.
and sal trees have almost as good a thermal efficiency as biodiesel but would produce lower emissions of carbon monoxide waste hydrocarbons and NOX (nitrogen oxides).
biomass resource for the production of automotive fuels in India. The use of tree seed oils as a source could have several additional benefits over vegetable seed oils including lower viscosity and greater volatility both
of which would reduce injector fouling carbon deposits and piston ring sticking common issues with some biodiesel formulations.
The oil is converted chemically to biodiesel using the process of transesterification which reacts the oily triglyceride content with alcohol using a catalyst.
Biodiesel production from tree seeds in India will not only reduce the dependence on crude oil imports
Understanding how petals produce iridescence to attract pollinators is a major goal in plant biology. An estimated 35 per cent of global crop production depends on petal-mediated animal pollination
Rea Antoniou Kourounioti a Phd student in the School of Biosciences said: We provide a first analysis of how petal surface patterns might be produced.
Our team of researchers combined experimental data with mathematical modelling to develop a biomechanical model of the outer layers of a petal or leaf.
and also for other types of patterning in biology. The research was undertaken by The University of Nottingham University of Cambridge university of Manchester
The study was initiated by the Mathematics in the Plant Sciences Study Group an annual UK-based workshop organised by The University of Nottingham's Centre for Plant Integrative Biology which kick-starts collaborations between plant scientists and mathematicians.
However a forest contributes more ecosystem services than timber production such as biological diversity carbon storage and berries.
and biological diversity) the study demonstrates that all six services were positively related to the number of tree species. Different trees contribute to different services.
On the other hand food for wildlife was associated positively with both berry production and biological diversity in ground vegetation.
The native Carolina Willow is also starting to strangle portions of the St johns river. Biologists at the University of Central Florida recently completed a study that shows this slender tree once used by Native americans for medicinal purposes may be thriving because of water-management projects initiated in the 1950s.
The biologists confirmed the importance of water fluctuation using experimental ponds on UCF's main campus. Willow seedlings
when the biologists raised the water level and flooded the plants for several months. At the same time control plants just above the waterline grew over 3 feet tall.
Based on the conclusions of the study the UCF biologists are helping scientists at the water district develop new ways to reduce willow cover
former UCF biology student Luz M. Castro Morales and Ken Snyder of the St johns river Water Management District.
which accelerate plant biomass conversion into sugars and further into products such as bioethanol. The project's results include lignin-tolerant enzymes and enzyme cocktails for processing spruce straw corn cob and wheat bran.
Plant biomass was chosen as the raw material for the project since it contains lignocellulosic biomass which is an abundant raw material.
The commercialisation process of the second-generation bioethanol industry which uses lignocellulosic biomass instead of starch has reached critical momentum:
there are a total of 15 plants being constructed in Europe The americas and Asia. Lignocellulosic biomass use will substantially expand the market for industrial enzymes.
The total industrial enzyme market is currently worth approximately 2. 7 million euros per annum. The raw materials studied in the project were spruce straw corn cob
and wheat bran used as animal Feed in Finland the proportion of forest biomass and conifer biomass in particular is significant.
Lignocellulosic biomass consists of cellulose hemicellulose and lignin. Agricultural harvest waste contains large amounts of lignocellulosic biomass
which can be converted industrially into fermentable sugars with the help of enzymes. Microbes can then be used to produce various chemicals such as bioethanol from the sugars.
Lignocellulosic biomass contains substantial amounts of lignin which interferes with enzyme activity. The DISCO project produced new knowledge on the inactivating property of lignin
which helped scientists develop enzymes that tolerate lignin better. New information on enzymes and activities that break down hemicellulose vital for the efficient exploitation of plant biomass was obtained also during the project.
British scientists participating in the project determined the structural characteristics of various raw materials. This information can be used to select appropriate enzyme cocktails for raw materials
when upgrading plant biomass. The Dutch company Dyadic is currently commercialising the enzymes developed in the project.
Also assisting with funding was the N c. Biotechnology Center through a Collaborative Funding Grant. The goal of the startup company known as HCEC LLC (Human Cultured Endothelial Cells) is to advance the technology to the next level
The technique of bioengineering replacement tissues using cells and scaffolds can theoretically be applied to almost any tissue in the body said Anthony Atala M d. director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
In the research published online in Global Change Biology researchers analyzed 190 datasets to determine the relative impacts of climate
#Genetic history of tomatoes revealed by new sequencingthis week an international team of researchers led by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing is publishing in the journal Nature Genetics a brief genomic history
The C. M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center here at UC Davis played an important role in this study by providing seed of both cultivated tomato varieties and related wild
which builds on the first tomato genome sequence completed just two years ago shows in great detail how the processes of early domestication
and modern breeding influenced the genetic makeup of cultivated tomatoes. UC Davis researchers also led an effort to sequence the genome of a wild relative of the cultivated tomato.
Analysis of the genome sequences of these 360 varieties and wild strains shows which regions of the genome were under selection during domestication and breeding.
The study identified two independent sets of genes responsible for making the fruit of modern commercial tomatoes 100 times larger than their wild ancestors.
An important finding is that specific regions of the tomato genome were depleted unintentionally in genetic variation:
for example in DNA around genes conferring larger fruit size or genes for resistance to diseases afflicting tomato plants.
These stretches of genetic uniformity illustrate the need to increase overall genetic diversity in modern varieties
and highlight the important role that the Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center and similar collections play in housing much of the genetic variability that will be critical for future breeding and research on tomato.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Davis. The original article was written by Roger Chetelat.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011