March 2013 Roundup Ready crops: Lessons learned Since Monsanto first introduced Roundup Ready soybean to the commercial market in 1996, the trait is now marketed in 5 more crops: alfalfa, canola, corn, cotton and sugarbeets. If determined solely on the basis of acreage, the succes has been overwhelming. Already in 2002, Roundup Ready crops were grown world-wide on about 500.000 km2 - an area larger than Sweden. Since then fields planted with genetically modified crops has grown to 1.5 mio km2 in 2010, and most of these are resistant to Monsanto's propriety herbicide Roundup, so the farmer can spray the entire crop with the herbicide, killing only the weeds and leaving the crop alive. Read more.... March 2013 Scandinavian research institute: Plant Molecular Biology, Aarhus University, Denmark More than five years ago we wrote about CARB (Centre for Carbohydrate Recognition and Signalling), a centre of excellence based at University of Aarhus. CARB is still going strong with a total budget of 90 million DKK (12 million €) running till 2017. The centres aim is to understand how polysaccharides exposed on cell surfaces and secreted polysaccharide signal molecules are used in the interaction between cells and organisms. With more than 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals since 2008, CARB is indeed a centre of excellence, but its Head, professor Jens Stougaard, has more to give. He is also heading the Plant Molecular Biology group which is located at Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, at Aarhus University Read more.... December 2012 In memory of Sirkka Kupila-Ahvenniemi The distinguished Finnish plant physiologist, professor emerita Sirkka Kupila-Ahvenniemi died on 4th April 2012 at the age of 85 years. Professor emerita Liisa Kaarina Simola from the University of Helsinki remembers her dear colleague in this obituary. Read more.... December 2012 New web-pages for SPPS The homepages of SPPS have undergone a complete renovation. As you can see by visiting www.spps.fi, the new layout of the pages is lighter and more readable. The content is now grouped differently and there are some new sections like Education and Events for current news from the Society. The SPPS Newsletter has a section of its own and you can find a complete index for the Newsletter archive. Therefore, if you are missing some information that was on the old pages, you can most likely find it from the articles in the archive. Read more.... December 2012 Using plants to solve crimes Mary had gone to bed early that summer night in Whakatane, a small, coastal town in northeastern New Zealand. She had left the back door unlocked, so her boyfriend could get in when he returned from his late night shift. But two strangers showed up before him, sneaked past a big flowering Hypericum bush and in through the open door. Here they grabbed a purse and a wallet, but upon seeing Mary asleep in the bedroom one of them got into her bed and started fondling her breasts. Mary awoke and her scream frightened the two assailants and sent them off into the night. Read more.... December 2012 Scandinavian research institute: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences (IPM) at UMB, Norway As indicated by its name, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) is dedicated to life sciences, but moreover the focus is indeed on plant sciences in particular. The Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences (IPM) is the largest at UMB and it produced no less than 14 PhD doctorates during 2012. The department is organised in seven research groups: Genetics and plant biology Geology Urban horticulture and urban greening Hydrology and limnology Soil Environmental chemistry Plant production In this brief overview we will focus on the first, Genetics and plant biology, which is also the biggest with a scientific staff of approximately 65. The research group is headed by professor Åsmund Bjørnstad who has a personal interest in pathogen resistance genes and marker assisted breeding. In a paper from 2012 she and her colleagues showed that resistance to Fusarium head blight in wheat is associated with two easily distinguishable phenotypic features, namely anther extrusion and plant height. This makes phenotypic selection for anther extrusion a valuable and simple means of resistance breeding in wheat Read more....   Register for the 25th SPPS Congress 2013 You can now register for the next Congress of the SPPS, which will be held this summer 11-15 August 2013 at LO-skolen in Elsinore, Denmark. Read more.... Last call for benefits... If you haven't already renewed your SPPS membership for 2013, please do that right now through a safe connection on our homepage. Read more.... SPPS and Wiley extends sixty years of partnership The Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., has renewed its relationship, a partnership which has endured over sixty years of publishing. Read more.... One more benefit of your membership in SPPS As a member of SPPS you are now entitled to a 25% discount on virtually all print books available from our publishing partner, Wiley. Read more.... Welcome to the Plant Vascular Biology 2013 Conference You are cordially invited to the Third International Conference on Plant Vascular Biology on 26-30 July 2013, in the city of Helsinki, Finland. Read more.... 7th EPSO Conference, 1-4 September 2013, Greece Under the theme "Plants for a Greening Economy", EPSO invites you to their 7th Conference with an interesting and thought provoking programme that will bring together researchers from all areas of plant science. Read more.... Can you apply for an SPPS travel grant? PhD students and post doctoral researchers (up to three years from the PhD defence) can apply for a travel grant to the SPPS Congress 2013 and the PVB2013 congress which is supported by SPPS. Read more.... Don't forget to renew your SPPS membership If you haven't already renewed your SPPS membership for 2013, please do that right now through a safe connection on our homepage. Read more.... Make room for August 11-15 in your calendar Preparations are now underway for the upcoming SPPS Conference that will update you on all the hottest topics within plant biology. Read more.... Have your say at the SPPS General Assembly If you are joining the SPPS Conference this summer in Elsinore, Denmark we will strongly encourage you to participate in the SPPS General Assembly. Read more.... Sponsored links: September 2012 Report from the 7th SPPS PhD Student Conference Read more.... September 2012 Zoë Popper, Ireland wins SPPS photo competition Read more.... September 2012 Medicinal plants heading for new drugs Read more.... September 2012 Scandinavian research institute: Lund University, Sweden Read more.... June 2012 Send us your proposals for the SPPS Awards Read more.... June 2012 Next Year in Denmark: See you at the XXV SPPS Congress Read more.... June 2012 Biological control: let predation, parasitism and herbivory rule Read more.... June 2012 Scandinavian research institute: Copenhagen Plant Science Centre, Denmark Read more.... March 2012 SPPS prizes open for proposals Read more.... March 2012 Overwhelming interest in Fascination of Plants Day Read more.... March 2012 Global Plant Council is off for a good start Read more.... March 2012 Some like it hot: Farming in a changing climate Read more.... March 2012 Scandinavian research institute: MTT Agrifood Research Finland Read more.... Design and technical solution © 2005 Palmgren kommunikation  newSPPS