NEWS FROM
PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM
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Published monthly on behalf of SPPS by Wiley-Blackwell.
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Shedding light in the canopy
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Since plants get most of their light from above, photosynthetic activity is highest in the upper part of the canopy. Applying light directly into the canopy might, accordingly, contribute to a more uniform photosynthetic profile and could potentially increase overall photosynthesis leading to higher yield of crops. This hypothesis has now been tested by Dutch researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. They supplied cucumber plants grown in the greenhouse with 38% of their light from LEDs within the canopy and compared them with controls that got all the light from above. Light from within the canopy significantly increased photosynthesis in the lower leaf layers, however, this was not followed by a concomitant increase in overall biomass and fruit yield. This was apparently caused by a more stunted growth when less light came from above and because the LEDs seemingly caused the leaves to curl and thus reduced light interception.
Read full article free: Trouwborst et al (March 2010) Physiologia Plantarum 138: 289Ð300
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NEWS IN BRIEF
FROM OTHER JOURNALS
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Male olives have access to more females
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Source: Saumitou-Laprade et al (26 March 2010) Science 327: 1648-1650
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Lowering atmospheric with algae may contaminate ocean
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Source: Trick et al (15 March 2010) PNAS doi:10.1073/pnas.0910579107
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Reprinted from the last edition of SPPS Newsletter: The Global Plant Council - Research to save the planet
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Sixteen signatures signed the establishment of the Global Plant Council. From http://www.smb.org.mx
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The following article was added late to the last years December edition of SPPS Newsletter and was not included in the e-mail version. In case anybody missed out on it, the article is hereby being reprinted in its full form.
Representatives for 16 plant science societies met this summer in Honolulu, Hawaii and established the Global Plant Council, which has the ambitious goal to deliver research to save the planet. Among the plant societies taking this demanding step was SPPS, so we take the liberty to present the new Global Plant Council under our regular section Scandinavian research institute. SPPS was represented by council member Tom Hamborg Nielsen who is associate professor at University of Copenhagen, and SPPS Newsletter had the chance to meet him. You can read the interview below, but first we will give you a brief description of the thoughts that laid the ground for the Global Plant Council.
The founders of Global Plant Council believe that plants are central to solve many of the fundamental problems that the world is currently facing: hunger, energy, climate change, health and well-being, sustainability and environmental protection. FAO projects that we have to double the global food production by 2050 in order to meet demand, and at the same time we have to produce the food on less space as agricultural land is lost to urbanization and soil degradation. This calls for development of new and improved crops with higher yield but also with higher nutritional value, since the most common staple food crops, like rice, are poor sources of essential nutrients such as vitamin A, C, E, iron, zinc.
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Plant science in Hawaii. From www.bio4bio.life.ku.dk
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Furthermore, the new and improved crops must be better suited to tolerate drought and other environmental stresses that is a consequence of the global climate changes in many areas of the world. In order to combat the challenges opposed by global warming, crops must be able to grow with less demand for water and fertilizer, and news crops must be developed that can be used for biofuels without putting food production at risk.
These demanding tasks require a combination of strategies and technologies that can only be achieved in a multidisciplinary collaboration with plant scientists, scientists from other fields, policy makers and the public. The Global Plant Council hopes to meet this goal by creating partnerships and collaborations that can tackle and solve these challenges.
SPPS: What kind of actions will GPC take to achieve its goals?
Tom Hamborg Nielsen: Our first goals are:- Creating a network, awareness and knowledge about each others existence (the organizations in different parts of the world). Up to now such information is missing.
- Making an "official body", that is GPC representing plant biologists. GPC is formed and is being ratified by the participants. But it is still in the process of being established more broadly - many relevant potential partners are not yet informed about GPC, and a final structure of it has yet to be decided.
- Establishment of at homepage to communicate the existence of GPC and the major tasks for GPC.
- Making awareness of plant biology as an important part of the solution to some of the major problems the world is facing. This can be done by writing papers, among these the official mission statement. Additionally, overview papers are planned about the major topics and they will be prepared for publication in scientific journals.
SPPS: Will GPC engage directly in specific science projects by financial support or man-power?
Tom Hamborg Nielsen: Firstly no. GPC has presently no money of its own and is entirely run on basis of good will from the participating societies. On a longer term it is the hope/plan to raise money through major international funds - like e.g. the Bill Gates Foundation. My anticipation is that GPC will seek to be a brand or supporting voice to help raising such money for specific project areas - rather than seeking to act as a "research council" which can be very problematic. GPC will also need to raise money to run the communication activities and administration of GPC, and to run a homepage, but this does not include science projects. Presently, GPC is asking for seed money from the more wealthy societies of participating societies. On a longer term GPC is aiming to get separate funding to run the society but the sources have not been specified.
SPPS: By what means will GPS try to influence politicians and policy makers around the globe?
Tom Hamborg Nielsen: We will act mainly by direct communication, through our homepage, papers, and any available means of communication. Regarding approaching the politicians directly, EPSO - who is part of GPC - is already active in connection with EU. I am sure, however, that the communication will depend much on the country and political body to be approached. Also, I anticipate GPC will support activities run by individual societies.
SPPS: What do you as member of the GPC board see as the most challenging 'plant related problem' the world is facing?
Tom Hamborg Nielsen: Strictly speaking, I am not a member of GPC board. I represented SPPS, and most likely next time Jaakko Kangasjärvi will represent SPPS as president of our society. There are many challenges, seen from my perspective. Long term food security - getting both sufficient and healthy foods - is one of our major problems. It requires much research and development to keep plant production high and even increase it to meet the increase in world population, which we know will be significant. We already had a green revolution, which was a tremendous achievement - I think we are going to need one more! New improved plant lines and cultivation practices will be needed as agriculture is facing new problems, which can be foreseen due to many factors (e.g. exhaustion of resources, use marginal soils, new dominating plant diseases, climate change etc).
Personally, I work on molecular aspects of phosphate nutrition in plants. Phosphate is tremendously important to plant growth, being one of the major nutrient and - on a global scale - often a limitation to productivity. But the serious perspective is that phosphate, unlike nitrogen, is a limited resource. Fertilizer is based on rock-phosphate coming from mining, and scientists estimate that this resource will be depleted within 40-50 years. This will lead to increasing prices or even shortcomings of fertilizer which is truly a very serious perspective for global plant productivity. We will need plants lines that are better at using the available phosphate and cultivation practices that ensures recycling of phosphate.
SPPS: In what areas do you expect plant research to deliver the fastest and most significant contribution to solve the worlds agricultural problems?
Tom Hamborg Nielsen: Tough question, because these are complicated matters. First, I don't think that "fastest" and "most significant" necessarily will be the same - since the "most significant" solution probably will be a long term solution. But my anticipation is that there will be significant progress in achieving stress tolerance, such as drought stress, heat stress, salt stress, cold stress and nutrient stress. And these aspects will also be very important in long term solutions.
SPPS: Do you think politicians and policy makers around the globe are ready to accept transgenic plants as a solution to the problem?
Tom Hamborg Nielsen: Yes, I believe so. That is, however, if plant scientists provide good solutions to serious problems. But it depends much on which part of the world we are talking about. In some areas they are already accepting transgenic plants. Europe is still the area that is most restrictive, and it is still problematic. But I think that even here politicians are ready, and they will accept solutions, that people will accept. People will also accept if they recognize the problem to be solved. And this, I think, is the basis of the problem: that many people have not yet realized these problems. But we are getting there fast; awareness of global aspects is increasing in general. I certainly believe that GMO is part of the solution, but we have to remember that agriculture is so much more complex. Transgenic plants can be a part of the solution.
You can get more information about the Global Plant Council by reading the press release here.
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