NEWS FROM
PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM
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Published monthly on behalf of SPPS by Wiley-Blackwell.
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Don't loose your (cotton) head in the heat
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Global warming might challenge cotton growers in the near future according to American researchers. They examined cotton grown under controlled temperature and UV-B light and tested the effect on abscission of bolls and squares, which is an early step in the cotton fruiting cycle. Elevated temperatures (day 36 °C and night 28 °C) increased young boll abscission, whereas enhanced UV-B radiation (14 kJ m-2 resulted in square abscission. In combination, the two physiological parameters had an additive effect leading to further yield losses. Fruit abscission was accompanied by lowered and altered carbohydrate composition in the developing flowering organs.
Read full article free: Zhao et al (June 2005) Physiologia Plantarum 124: 189-199
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NEWS IN BRIEF
FROM OTHER JOURNALS
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Resolving auxin action
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Source: Kepinski & Leyser + Dharmasiri et al (26 May 2005) Nature 435: 446-451 + 441-445
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Photosynthesis without sunlight
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Source: Beatty et al (28 June 2005) PNAS 102: 9306-9310
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Scandinavian research institute:
Plant Biotech Denmark, Copenhagen
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Plant Biotech Denmark unites all Danish plant biotechnology research. Logo courtesy of PDB.
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Plant Biotech Denmark (PBD) is not a typical research institute. In fact, it has only two employees and you will have a hard time finding just a single Petri dish or Eppedorf tube.
Instead of actively doing plant biotechnology research, PBD is an umbrella organization that unites all Danish research in plant biotechnology and includes both universities and governmental research institutions.
The consortium is supported by the Government and its mission is to strengthen the high international ranking of Danish plant biotechnology research in order to support knowledge based value creation in the Danish society.
PDB was formally established in June 2004 by the signing of the Agreement of Collaboration between the four consortium partners:- KVL (Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University)
- DIAS (Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences)
- Risø National Laboratories
- The Faculty network, which comprises:
- AU (University of Aarhus)
- AAU (Aalborg University)
- DTU (Technical University of Denmark)
- KU (University of Copenhagen)
- SDU (University of Southern Denmark)
Claus H. Andersen is Consortium Manager and runs the business together with Scientific Secretary Solveig Krogh Christiansen from the office at KVL in Copenhagen.
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PBD will ensure optimal utilization of the infrastructure within the member institutions. Photo by Henny Rasmussen.
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PBD will advise on and monitor the use of funds allocated to research activities within plant biotechnology at the member institutions. Furthermore, funds allocated to PBD will be administered and distributed between the member institutions. This will secure increased coordination, knowledge-sharing and exploitation of technological facilities and instruments in order to optimize utilization of new and existing resources.
It is the ambition of PBD to stand out as an internationally recognized organization in the field of plant biotechnology. This will benefit researchers from the member institutions by facilitating their participation in European research collaborations and in EU education and mobility programmes to increase and exchange competencies.
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Research within PBD relates to both food and non-food applications. Photo by Henny Rasmussen.
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The research activities of Plant Biotech Denmark are performed within the disciplines of basic research, strategic research, applied research and counselling and utilizes state-of-the-art methodologies including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, bioimaging and molecular genetics.
Focus is on areas where Danish plant biotechnology already has or will be able to obtain significant international impact. It is the goal that research within PBD will address relevant issues that can contribute to:- improve the health of the public
- solve major environmental problems
- generate news jobs by sustaining innovative industries
- benefit education and advice to the society
Molecular breeding using genetic markers or induced mutations will be the primary tool for improvement of food and feed, and the crops of choice includes barley, wheat, maize, rice, potato, legumes and forage crops. For non-food applications like production of pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, genetic engineering will be used to establish efficient expression systems in plants, cell cultures or microbes.
You can find more information about PBD on its official website.
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