#Blades of grass inspire advance in organic solar cellsusing a biomimicking analog of one of nature's most efficient light-harvesting structures blades of grass an international research team led by Alejandro Briseno of the University
#Biodiversity does not always improve resistance of forest ecosystems to droughtscientists from INRA in collaboration with WSL (Switzerland)
It is known however that biodiversity can promote forest ecosystem performance and resistance to insect pests and diseases but whether or not diverse forests are adapted also better to deal with drought stress remains unknown.
To shed more light on the effects of biodiversity on the resistance of European forests to drought scientists from INRA in collaboration with WSL and European colleagues studied 160 forest stands with a variety of tree diversity
Pathogens can include viruses and bacteria that damage the plant itself or bacteria like the Shiga-toxin producing E coli O104:
Genome sequencing revealed that the isolated B. pumilus contained three unique gene clusters for the production of antimicrobial peptide compounds known as bacteriocins.
The above story is provided based on materials by American Society for Microbiology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
The plant houses the bacteria in a structure where the biochemical conditions are conducive for the bacteria to fix nitrogen Subramanian said.
Determining target genesthe expression of specific genes in a particular root cell determine its fate--the zone in which it will function Subramanian explained so he is identifying
which micro-RNAS direct gene expression to achieve this differentiation. We need to know what signal makes a cell contribute to one zone
Micro-RNA regulates the levels of the target gene's activity he explained. This means keeping its activity under a particular threshold confining the activity to specific cell types
In addition a portion of the project will enable Subramanian to reach out to high school biology teachers
When the genome of the black Perigord truffle was mapped in 2010 we thought that the fungus had sufficient genes to create its flavour on its own junior professor Richard Splivallo from the Institute for Molecular Life sciences at the Goethe University explained.
Lead author Liam Crowther from UEA's School of Biological sciences said: This research implies that the Tree Bumblebee's remarkable success is due in part to favouring a suite of resources different to those used by the bumblebee species that are already widespread in the UK.
and CTFS-Forestgeo and ecosystem ecologist based at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Many of the changes occurring in forests worldwide are attributable to human impacts on climate atmospheric chemistry land use
Biomass increased at many tropical sites across the network. It is incredibly rewarding to work with a team of forest scientists from 78 research institutions around the world including four Smithsonian units Anderson-Teixeira said.
what this means for the climate biodiversity conservation and human well-being said Stuart Davies network director.
biology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. The goats are likely to provide an effective sustainable and much more affordable way of mowing down the invasive grass
Treestwo Kansas State university biologists are studying streams to prevent tallgrass prairies from turning into shrublands and forests.
By looking at 25 years of data on the Konza Prairie Biological Station Allison Veach doctoral student in biology Muncie Indiana
and Walter Dodds university distinguished professor of biology are researching grassland streams and the expansion of nearby woody vegetation such as trees and shrubs.
and biogeochemistry said Dodds who has studied streams and watersheds on the Konza prairie for more than 20 years.
In their latest research the biologists studied 25 years of aerial photography on Konza and observed the expansion of trees and shrubs in riparian areas
The biologists plan to continue studying water quality and quantity issues at Konza. Konza is an 8600-acre tallgrass prairie ecological research site jointly owned by the university and The Nature Conservancy.
and Jonathan Gershenzon from the Department of Biochemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena Germany have discovered recently a previously unknown detoxification strategy in these pest insects.
The chemical chirality of the compounds is the key here explains Jonathan Gershenzon director of the Department of Biochemistry.
and the encoding genes that are responsible for the detoxification process in the fall armyworm. They also want to look for equivalent enzymes in related species and compare these.
Over the past 13 years USGS biologists--dressed in costumes to avoid having the birds imprint on people--have raised between five and 20 whooping crane chicks annually that have been released into the Eastern Migratory Flock said John French leader of the USGS whooping crane
In the new study biogeochemists at Rice conducted side-by-side tests of the water-holding ability of three soil types--sand clay and topsoil--both with and without added biochar.
since support from the National Science Foundation the Department of energy Rice's Faculty Initiative Fund Rice's Shell Center for Sustainability and Rice's Institute of Bioscience and Bioengineering.
Instead of spraying fungicide we're using bees to deliver a biological control agent right to the flowers where it is needed.
The biological control agent contains spores of a parasitic fungus that prevents another fungus that causes the brown rot from colonising the flower.
With increasing availability of suitable biological control agents future application of the'flying doctors'technology is expected to become available for disease control in almonds grapes strawberry raspberry apple pear
Now livestock such as sheep offer an intriguing animal to examine adaptation to climate change with a genetic legacy of centuries of selected breeding and a wealth of livestock genome-wide data available.
In a first-of-its kind study that combined molecular and environmental data professor Meng-Hua Li et al. performed a search for genes under environmental selection from domesticated sheep breeds.
Their results were published in the advanced online edition of the journal Molecular biology and Evolution. The authors used a set of data (the sheep Hapmap project consisting of nearly 50000 unique mutational differences called single nucleotide polymorphisms
These were used to identify 17 genes that are involved in energy metabolism endocrine and autoimmune regulation.
One particular gene candidate TBC1D12 had a pattern of global distribution indicating that variants were deleterious in hot equatorial climates
Their results could have significance for potential applications in functional genomics breeding and adaptation of livestock to climate change.
The above story is provided based on materials by Molecular biology and Evolution (Oxford university Press. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
and those resulting from biological influences such as urban green spaces and adjacent forest and croplands
#Search for better biofuels microbes leads to human gutscientists have scoured cow rumens and termite guts for microbes that can efficiently break down plant cell walls for the production of next-generation biofuels
but some of the best microbial candidates actually may reside in the human lower intestine researchers report.
Their study reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is the first to use biochemical approaches to confirm the hypothesis that microbes in the human gut can digest fiber breaking it down into simple sugars
but also for biofuels production since the same sugars can be fed to yeast to generate ethanol and other liquid fuels.
and Institute for Genomic Biology professor Isaac Cann who led the new analysis with his colleagues animal sciences professor Roderick Mackie and M d./Ph d. student Dylan Dodd.
Cann also is a microbiology professor and a principal investigator at the Energy Biosciences Institute. Dodd is now at Stanford university.
In looking for biofuels microbes in the cow rumen we found that Prevotella bryantii a bacterium that is known to efficiently break down (the plant fiber) hemicellulose gears up production of one gene more than others
When searching a database for similar genes in other organisms the researchers found them in microbes from the human gut.
Working with U. of I. biochemistry professor Satish Nair the researchers also noticed that the CBM put a kink in the fiber
The study points to human microbes as a potentially potent source of microbes that can aid in biofuels production Cann said.
but also promote that regeneration. In the case of chronic liver failure it also potentially could support some patients through the long wait for a liver transplant said Colquhoun.
We have provided genetic evidence that green leafy volatiles have this dual function â#in the plant they activate production of insecticidal compounds
We have found that this gene is required for many many different physiological processes such as drought toleranceâ#he said. â#oewe observed that mutant plants are drought susceptible as well as susceptible to insect feeding.
#Trees that can increase biomass productionthanks to biotechnology researchers at UPM have increased the production of woody species. This result is of great interest to the energy market.
By modifying the gene expressions responsible for the branch growth during the first year of woody species researchers of the Centre for Plant Biotechnology
and Genomics (CBGP UPM-INIA) a joint centre of the Universidad Politã cnica de Madrid (UPM) and the The National Institute for Agricultural Research and Experimentation (INIA) have found a way of increasing
biomass production of a forest plantation without altering its growth composition or the wood anatomy. These results have an important market value for the bioenergy sector
thus this study was protected by patent. Lateral buds of most of the woody species in warm and cold areas do not sprout in the same season that they are born.
On that basis researchers at UPM have used a biotechnological procedure to modify the gene expression levels of RAV1 (Related to ABI3
and Viviparous 1) that increases the development of sylleptic branching of woody species. Thus researchers have found a way of increasing biomass production of a poplar plantation.
This process of genetic modification is potentially applicable to any woody species and using their adaptive features to a particular habitat.
The biotechnological procedure used by these researchers can guarantee the biomass sustainable production yields of woody species without affecting food demand.
#Using genetic screening to improve Korean white wheatvisiting scientist Dae Wook Kim hopes to develop a line of Korean wheat that does not sprout
when exposed to wet harvest conditions thanks to genetic screening techniques he learned at South dakota State university.
He is working with molecular biologist Jai Rohila of the biology and microbiology department through a two-year project sponsored by the National Institute of Crop science in Suwaon South korea.
It is part of his country's effort to increase wheat production. Korean farmers raise white winter wheat planting in October and harvesting in June;
Kim compared these lines to determine which genes and proteins account for tolerance. When Kim returned in July for his second three-month stay he brought seeds from two Korean lines--Sukang
Kim will quantify the gene expression levels from Glover's newest lines that are resistant to preharvest sprouting
If the same proteins are expressed differentially in Glover's varieties Kim will validate the genes he identified as important to tolerance in his Korean varieties.
If it is related to tolerance the same gene should be in other tolerant varieties. Kim added.
At that level we know the gene is expressed in the same way. His work at SDSU will decrease the time it takes to improve preharvest sprouting tolerance in Korean white wheat.
The findings are published in the journal Conservation Biology. The research team constructed a new evolutionary tree of a major family of wild plant species taking the distance between species as a proxy for plant trait diversity.
it depends upon your biology ecology and location'said Professor Rich Grenyer of Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment the coordinating author of the study.'
This collaborative study was conducted by researchers from the National Institute for Basic Biology the Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) and the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Japan.
When they compared the tree ring data with these various biological indicators they found poor upwelling years correlated with drops in biological productivity.
It's interesting to see how influential climate is on biology and what a synchronizing force it is especially across marine and terrestrial systems said Black.
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation's Biological Oceanography Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration's Fisheries and Environment Program.
Climate change could postpone fall leaf peeping in some areas of the United states as summer temperatures linger later into the year Princeton university researchers report in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.
Dr Graham Askew from the University's School of Biomedical sciences filmed five Indian peacocks taking off using two high-speed video cameras to try to work out
These results therefore have broader ramifications for evolutionary biology's understanding of sexual selection. Dr Askew also looked at how much drag the train created during take off by mounting a detached train in a wind tunnel.
and the expansion of land use for the production of bioenergy says Zabel Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by PLOS.
#Iberian pig genome remains unchanged after five centuriesa team of Spanish researchers have obtained the first partial genome sequence of an ancient pig.
Researchers from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Pompeu Fabra University) and the National Centre for Genome Analysis (CNAG) also participated in the study.
Although it is fragmented a very sample the gene sequence offers very interesting information Miguel PÃ rez-Enciso says.
because it is missing a duplicated KIT gene which would make it this colour. This coincides with the majority of paintings from that period in
and no great changes have been registered in this genome. Therefore more studies will be needed before we are able to distinguish the modern species from the older ones.
The study also compared the ancient pig sample with the genome of modern pigs of different breeds including'Creole'pigs
but the ecosystem function hasn't come back said ecologist Mark Bertness professor of biology at Brown and senior author of the study in the journal Biological Conservation.
Last summer they also measured the amount of grass both in terms of the density of stalks as well as above-and belowground biomass of samples.
Biomass was also higher in healthy marshes than recovering ones and much higher than in dying ones.
Growers should not rely too heavily on modern genetics to give them the yields they expect without spending a considerable amount of effort on maintaining nutrient availability throughout the growing season.
The results are publishing on September 16 in the open access journal PLOS Biology. Applying biomechanical formulae to a treasure trove of thousands of fossilized leaves of angiosperms--flowering plants excluding conifers--the team was able to reconstruct the ecology of a diverse plant community thriving during a 2. 2 million-year period
spanning the cataclysmic impact event believed to have wiped out more than half of plant species living at the time.
http://www. youris. com/Bioeconomy/BIOECONOMY-TV/Reducing-Pesticides-And-Boosting-Harvests. kl#ixzz3dugjrct2story Source:
That's the conclusion of University of Oregon researchers and colleagues from other institutions who studied the genetic fingerprints of bacteria on 57 species of trees growing on a Panamanian island.
and Evolution who is now a professor of biological sciences at the University of Quebec at Montreal.
Using DNA sequencing technology housed at the UO's Genomics Core Facility scientists sequenced the bacterial 16s RIBOSOMAL RNA gene isolated from the samples.
That gene which biologists call a barcode gene allowed researchers to identify and measure the diversity of bacteria based on millions of DNA fragments produced from bacterial communities collected from the surfaces of leaves said Jessica Green a professor at both the UO and Santa fe Institute.
In the world of microbiology plant leaves are considered to be a habitat known as the phyllosphere.
and conserve biological diversity and ecosystem function Kembel said. Ultimately we hope that understanding the factors that explain variation in bacterial abundances across host species will help us better manage biological diversity in forests and the health and function of forest ecosystems.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Oregon. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Data suggest that trans-palmitoleic acid found in plasma may be used potentially as a biomarker to evaluate dairy consumption.
In an article published today in Peerj Mycologists Bryn Dentinger and Laura Martinez-Suz from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in London set out to ask this question by using DNA-based taxonomy.
Despite the fact that tropical forests are the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems on the planet more is known about bellybutton bacteria than bacteria on trees in the tropics.
Our ability to use molecular techniques like 16s RIBOSOMAL RNA gene sequencing to characterize nearly all of the bacteria on a leaf is going to make it possible to see how very different members of forest communities interact said Wright.
According to Thomas C. Baker distinguished professor of biology Penn State the findings were possible only because of the multidisciplinary makeup of the team.
#Mystery of cereal grain defense explainedcrop scientists at Washington state University have explained how genes in the barley plant turn on defenses against aging and stressors like drought heat and disease.
Professor Diter von Wettstein and assistant research professor Sachin Rustgi showed that specific genes act as a switch that enables barley to live longer
Von Wettstein and Rustgi discovered that two barley genes called JIP60 and JIP60-like play a major role in the protective actions triggered by a key plant defense hormone called jasmonate or JA.
Rustgi said it was a surprise to discover that the JIP60 genes are connected also to boron sensitivity and disease resistance in cereal grains.
The genes lie in close proximity to these other plant traits providing a unique target for future crop breeding programs.
This can be done without genetic engineering. The findings are important for grain farmers around the world.
#Most famous wheat gene discovered, clears way for non-GMO breedingwashington State university researchers have found the most famous wheat gene a reproductive traffic cop of sorts that can be used to transfer valuable genes from other plants
-and pest-resistance traits of other grasses using a legion of genetic tools that can reduce crop losses
The real exciting part of this gene is that it has tremendous potential for application said Kulvinder Gill a WSU professor who reports his findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
For some 35 million years the wild ancestors of wheat routinely traded genes as they accidentally crossbred with each other.
But with the rise of agriculture and cultivated wheat 10000 years ago the plant's genetic structure changed.
Instead of being diploid with two sets of chromosomes like humans and most other living things it became polyploid with in the case of bread wheat seven sets of six related chromosomes.
Starting in 1958 just five years after the discovery of DNA's double-helix structure researchers suspected that a specific gene controls the orderly pairing of wheat chromosomes during reproduction.
If this gene was not present there would be chaos in the nucleus said Gill.
Six chromosomes would pair with each other and sometimes five chromosomes would go to one cell and one to the other resulting in a sterile plant.
Because of this gene wheat can be fertile. Without this gene it would be more like sugar cane where it is a mess in the nucleus
and it can only be propagated vegetatively. But the gene also prevents wheat from breeding with related ancestors that can contain a vast array of traits preferred by growers.
This gene would not allow rye chromosomes to pair with wheat said Gill. We cannot get a single gene transfer into wheat
as long as this gene is present. Interest in the gene called Ph1 has spawned scores of research papers making it
what Gill called the most famous wheat gene. In 2006 British researchers writing in the journal Nature said they identified the gene.
In this paper said Gill we show that their gene is not the Ph1. Knowing their findings would be controversial Gill
and his colleagues spent a year repeating the experiments that led to their conclusion. They are now moving on.
Now that we have the gene we can actually use that gene sequence to temporarily silence the gene
and make rye and other chromosomes pair with wheat and transfer genes by a natural method into wheat without calling it GMO Gill said.
Their first effort involves transferring a gene from jointed goatgrass a wild relative of wheat to confer resistance to stripe rust.
The fungus is considered the world's most economically damaging wheat pathogen costing U s. farmers alone some $500 million in lost productivity in 2012.
While facilitated by technology the actual exchange of genetic material is similar to what has taken long place in nature only faster.
Incorporating the gene transfer into the overall breeding process researchers can develop a new variety in five years said Gill.
If we let wheat evolve for another few millions years in the wild maybe it will develop enough variation
but we don't have that kind of time said Gill. We need to solve this problem today.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Washington state University. The original article was written by Eric Sorensen.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Tigers, pandas and people: Recipe for conservation insightthe first big revelation in conservation sciences was that studying the people on the scene as well as nature conservation was crucial.
and conservation there's an increasing awareness of the need to go beyond biology and ecology to incorporate insights from various other disciplines like social psychology and economics.
Both of these biodiversity hotspots have deep and complex links with the humans that also depend on rich but finite natural resources.
Run by University of Helsinki biologists scientists and archaeologists together with the National Board of Antiquities the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute and the University of Bristol the multidisciplinary research project has studied the role
Pasquali is chair of the Department of chemistry and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering of materials science and nanoengineering and of chemistry.
Martã is an assistant professor of chemistry and bioengineering and of materials science and nanoengineering. The Welch Foundation supported the research.
#Bluetongue disease overwintering mystery solvedthe bluetongue virus which causes a serious disease that costs the cattle
By conducting this epidemiological study on a commercial dairy farm in Northern California we were able to demonstrate that the virus overwinters in female midges that had fed on an infected animal during the previous season said lead author Christie Mayo a veterinarian
In the U s. the virus'greatest economic impact is in the cattle industry because it is bigger than the domestic sheep industry
The virus that causes bluetongue was isolated first and identified in the Western hemisphere in the early 1950s at the UC Davis School of veterinary medicine.
and fall but there has been speculation over how the virus survives through the winter. When temperatures turn cold
but the virus reappears when temperatures warm the following season Findings from California dairythe researchers monitored cows and midges on a Northern California dairy farm for more than a year.
They documented for the first time the presence of genetic material for the bluetongue virus in female midges that were collected during two consecutive winter seasons.
The bluetongue virus was widespread in both the dairy cows and the midges from August to November.
Surprisingly however the researchers discovered that the virus was also present in female midges captured in February of both 2013 and 2014.
The researchers concluded that those long-lived female midges had been infected with the bluetongue virus during the previous warm-weather season.
They were carrying the virus through the winter months and would later in the season once again transmit it to cows on the dairy.
The research team notes that the bluetongue virus may also have additional yet-to-be discovered modes of overwintering in temperate regions.
Study finds important genes in defense responsewhen corn plants come under attack from a pathogen they sometimes respond by killing their own cells near the site of the attack committing cell suicide to thwart further damage from the attacker.
Researchers at North carolina State university have identified a number of candidate genes and cellular processes that appear to control this so-called hypersensitive defense response (HR) in corn.
The findings which appear in PLOS Genetics could help researchers build better defense responses in corn and other plants;
The 44 candidate genes appear to be involved in defense response programmed cell death cell wall modification
because one particular resistance gene Rp1-D21 doesn't turn off. It's similar to a human having an autoimmune response that never stops Balint-Kurti says.
The researchers examined the entire corn gene blueprint--some 26.5 million points in the 2 to 3 billion base pair genome--to find the genes most closely associated with HR.
All of the processes associated with the top candidate genes have been associated previously with HR Balint-Kurti said.
USDA plant geneticist and breeder Jim Holland co-authored the paper along with first authors Bode Olukolu
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