NEWS FROM
PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM
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Published monthly on behalf of SPPS by Wiley-Blackwell.
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Female flowers fancy long days - male don't
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Long, bright days and high temperatures do not become the male flowers of the boreal sedge Carex flava. Under such environmental conditions in the spring, male flowers fail to be induced and all flowers in the inflorescence will be female. This is reported in the cover story of the August issue of Physiologia Plantarum by professor Ola Heide from the Agricultural University of Norway. The inflorescence of C. flava normally consits of a terminal spike with male flowers and three lateral spikes with female flowers. In controlled experiments, Heide showed that this floral arrangement requires full primary induction with short days and low temperatures. When primary induction was incomplete or marginal no male flowers developed. Since the arrangement of male and female flowers is the main criteria for taxonomic classification of the Carex genus, the effect of environmental conditions should be kept in mind when comparing Carex material from different regions.
Read full article free: Heide (August 2004) Physiologia Plantarum 121: 691-698
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NEWS IN BRIEF
FROM OTHER JOURNALS
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Herbivores ensure rainforest biodiversity
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Source: Fine et al (30 July 2004) Science 305: 663-665 + 619-621
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Prehistoric breeding of mildew resistance in barley
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Source: Piffanelli et al (19 August 2004) Nature 430: 887-891
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Scandinavian research institute:
PlaCe - Center for Molecular Plant Physiology
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PlaCe had more than 36 peer-reviewed publications in the first six months of 2004. Illustration by Gorm Palmgren.
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From its very beginning, PlaCe was intended to be a center of excellence and this has certainly come true. PlaCe - Center for Molecular Plant Physiology - provides research of the highest international standard and is highly competitive: more than 200 articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals since the launch six years ago.
PlaCe is physically located at KVL - the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University - in Copenhagen and currently engages approximately 70 people, including 11 graduate students and 15 PhD students. It is a joint collaboration between two research groups at KVL, namely Plant Biochemistry Laboratory and Chemistry Department, as well as Biotechnology Group, which is part of Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, DIAS.
PlaCe is taking a whole plant perspective in their work to elucidate complex but fundamental processes of plant biology and this calls for a tight integration of plant molecular biology, plant biochemistry and plant physiology. The research is divided into six areas:- Biosynthesis of Cell Wall Polysaccharides
- Biosynthesis of Glucosinolates
- Biosynthesis of Cyanogenic Glucosides
- Biosynthesis of Starch
- Photosynthetic Electron Transport
- Regulation of Carbohydrate Metabolism
Though the center is dedicated to basic research, all projects deal with processes that are fundamental to mankind's utilization of nature: generation of nutritious sugars and starch through photosynthesis and biosynthesis of natural substances that can be valuable, healthy or even toxic.
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Cassava tubers are rich in starch - and toxic cyanogenic glucosides. They serve as stable food for many poor people in the tropics. Photo by Birger Lindberg Møller.
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Head of PlaCe, Professor Birger Lindberg Møller is studying the toxic cyanogenic glucosides that are produced in tubers of cassava, a widespread tropical crop. He and other PlaCe scientists have elucidated the complex biochemical pathway of their synthesis and have isolated many of the enzymes and genes involved.
The perspectives of this project fall in two categories: Knowledge of the toxic compounds can either be used to eliminate them from cassava and make the crop a safe food source, or they can be used under controlled conditions as natural pesticides in other crops.
The scientists at PlaCe exploit the newest and most advanced technologies in their work. Proteins are expressed from genes inserted into insect cells, Xenopus oocytes or the yeast Pichia, and gene function is investigated in transgenic plants like rice, potato, the legume Lotus japonicus and - of course - Arabidopsis.
Very recently, the cell wall-group used the interdisciplinary field of bioinformatics to isolate the first gene ever in the pectin biosynthesis pathway and determine its biochemical function. This was achieved by scanning the genome of Arabidopsis for sequences believed to encode specific functional properties and subsequently expressing the candidate genes in insect cells to determine their function.
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Metabolomics is used here to analyse differences in the distribution of chemical compounds found in roots and leaves of Lotus japonicus. Illustration courtesy of Søren Bak.
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Another novel technology that has been introduced to PlaCe is metabolomics. This is a high throughput screening technique that combines HPLC and mass spectrometry to allow for simultaneous analysis of 600-800 different chemical compounds from a single sample in less than 30 minutes.
Associate professor Søren Bak uses metabolomics to study eg. how individual plants and their plant parts vary in their content of natural compounds, and how biosynthetic pathways interact in transgenic plants where one pathway has been modified.
PlaCe was founded in 1998 by the Danish National Research Foundation, which has altogether supported 'unique Danish research at international level' by a total of 200 million €. In 2002, PlaCe was evaluated by international scientific experts and based on their enthusiastic recommendations, financial support was prolonged until 2007.
To get more information about PlaCe please visit the Center's homepage or download the information folder.
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