NEWS FROM
PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM
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Published monthly on behalf of SPPS by Wiley-Blackwell.
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Climate changes might benefit grassland species
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While global warming seems to be an undeniable fact, its consequences are more difficult to predict. Many researchers have found that increased summer temperatures lead to delayed senescence at autumn but this is not always the case and apparently depends on the species and the location. Belgian scientists have studied the effect of a 3 °C rise in temperature on two domestic weeds. Rumex acetosa and Plantago lanceolata are grassland species, an important ecotype that covers 50% of Belgium and 20% of global land surfaces. After 2 seasons in sunlit, climate-controlled growth chambers, the researchers concluded that the elevated temperature might benefit total photosynthetic performance but that increased drought stress might reduce lifespan of the leaves. The effect of climate changes accordingly depends on the species ability to overcome drought.
Read full article free: Gielen et al (September 2005) Physiologia Plantarum 125: 52-63
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NEWS IN BRIEF
FROM OTHER JOURNALS
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Flower-inducing molecule found in Sweden
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Source: Huang et al (9 September 2005) Science 23: 1177-1180
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Antibiotic peptides from fungi
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Source: Mygind et al (13 October 2005) Nature 437: 975-980
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Scandinavian research institute:
Plant Signal Research, University of Helsinki
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Professor Tapio Palva is Head of the Centre of Excellence in Plant Signal Research. Photo by Gorm Palmgren.
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If you want to know anything about Finnish research in plant molecular biology you should definitely talk to Professor Tapio Palva who is heading the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Plant Signal Research.
In addition to being a large, focused research group by itself, Tapio Palva also coordinates the entire Plant Biology Research Program at Helsinki University where a large part of Finnish research in plant molecular biology is going on. And moreover, the Centre of Excellence is a key element in the newly formed graduate school in plant biology.
As the name indicates, research is concentrated in the area of how signal networks allow cells to detect stimuli and respond coordinately. Such stimuli include disease or unfavourable growth conditions, which trigger coordinated responses that activate the plants defence systems or alter their metabolism in order to increase tolerance. Stimuli can also be caused by seasonal variation and lead to developmental responses, e.g. flowering or dormancy, that ensure the plant's life cycle. In all cases, the path from stimulus to respons involves chemical signalling, and the scientists in Helsinki are determined to find out how this is going on.
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Tapio Palva and Karen Sims-Huopaniemi in front of the Viikki Biocenter. Photo by Gorm Palmgren.
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The Centre of Excellence is a centre with 'physical walls', i.e. almost all participating research groups are located within the Viikki Biocenter at the outskirts of Helsinki.
With 26 postdoctoral fellows, 43 graduate students and 11 technicians, the Centre employs a total of 80 people excluding students. In addition, 8 group leaders overlook and coordinate the research:- Faculty of Biosciences
- Tapio Palva, professor, director
Genetics - Pekka Heino, lecturer
Genetics - Hannu Saarilahti, lecturer
Genetics - Jaakko Kangasjärvi, professor
Plant Biology (see former article) - Kurt Fagerstedt, lecturer
Plant Biology - Suvi Taira, lecturer
General microbiology
- Institute of Biotechnology & University of Turku
- Yrjö Helariutta, professor
Plant Science & Biology
- Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry
- Teemu Teeri, professor, deputy director
Applied Biology
The individual research groups cooperate and share their specific knowledge and expertises to pursue common goals. Accordingly, several groups join forces in each of the research projects that include abiotic stress, reactive oxygen species, disease, wood formation, flowering as well as growth and dormancy.
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Metabolomics requires advanced equipment for gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Photo by Gorm Palmgren.
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Innovation and exploitation of advanced experimental methods like metabolomics, transcriptomics and functional genomics are charateristics of the Centre of Excellence as exemplified in recent work by Teemu Teeri and his colleagues.
Studies of flower development in the composite Gerbera are not suited for common model plants like Arabidopsis due to fundamental differences in flower composition. Instead, the researchers constructed from scratch a Gerbera cDNA library containing 16,994 expressed sequences and identified 1656 of these as unique for Gerbera. Subsequent construction of a cDNA microarray let to the discovery of several novel regulators of flower development and differentiation.
A somewhat contrary approach is taken by Yrjö Helariutta in his studies of the formation of wood, i.e. secondary xylem, in trees. Rather than constructing new libraries in woody species they have turned to well characterized weedy species instead. Using Arabidopsis as a model system for vascular tissue development they were able to identify the APL gene as crucial for phloem-xylem patterning. The discovery, that was published in Nature, can be crucial for understanding wood formation in trees.
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Karen Sims-Huopaniemi examines stressed Arabidopsis plants in the growth chamber. Photo by Gorm Palmgren.
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Tapio Palva's own research group is devoted to plant defence and cold acclimation. Studies have indicated that dehydrins, a large class of proteins, are involved in protection against drought and cold. Together with Pekka Heino, Tapio Palva was able to show that transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing two different dehydrin genes were indeed much more freezing tolerant than wild type plants.
To fully understand the plant defence response to pathogens, Tapio Palva has even included bacteria into his portfolio of model organisms. Bacterial pathogens like Erwinia carotovora, that cause soft rot in potatoes and other vegetables, use quorum sensing in order to monitor their density and coordinate regulation of virulence. In this process, the bacteria utilizes acylhomoserine lactones (AHSLs) as a chemical language, but in a recent publication Tapio Palva and his colleagues have shown that different strains communicate in their own dialect by modifying the acyl side chains of the AHSLs. Understanding and manipulating this microbial language might be useful for improving pathogen resistance in crops.
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One sparkling bottle for every publication..... Photo by Gorm Palmgren.
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The Centre of Excellence in Plant Signal Research was established in 2005 by a 6 years grant from the Academy of Finland. However, it is a continuation of a former Centre of Excellence, which was also headed by Tapio Palva.
The first 6 years have generated a strong research environment at the Viikki Biocenter with stronger collaboration between research groups and more modern facilities and equipment. Based on the previous experiences, the new Centre of Excellence is much more focused and is now concentrated only on plant signalling using functional genomics and bioinformatics.
You can find more information about the Centre of Excellence in Plant Signal Research on its official website or by clicking on the relevant departments in the overview above.
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