NEWS FROM
PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM
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Published monthly on behalf of SPPS by Wiley-Blackwell.
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Transcriptome reveals phosphate responses
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Microarrays are increasingly being used for global expression studies and over the last few years this has been used to build up substantial information about the plant transcriptome. Using internet-based data ressources from previous analysis on Arabidopsis thaliana, Danish researchers have dissected the complex regulatory network involved in responses to phosphate deprivation. Tom Hamborg Nielsen and co-workers from University of Copenhagen and Aalborg University evaluated the functional relationship between several transcription factors, microRNAs (miRNAs) and feedback loops that contribute to keep P-homeostasis. The authors propose a model for the complex coordinated responses to phosphate starvation, which affect all parts of the plant and include Pi-signalling miRNAs that are transported via the phloem. However, the model still lacks any sensor of P-status, since the precise role of several recent candidates for this crucial function still needs to be verified.
Read full article free: Nilsson et al (June 2010) Physiologia Plantarum 139: 129-143
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NEWS IN BRIEF
FROM OTHER JOURNALS
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Weed pollute the air
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Source: Hickman et al (1 June 2010) PNAS 107: 10115-10119
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Chromatin Profiling of Individual Cell Types
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Source: Deal & Henikoff (15 June 2010) Developmental Cell 18: 1030-1040
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Scandinavian research institute:
Department of Biology, University of Tromsø
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Plant sciences resides at Department of Botany. From uit.no
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Well above the arctic circle in Norway you can find University of Tromsø and no other university in the world is closer to the Northpole. Historically, it dates back to 1826 where 'Høgskolen i Tromsø' was founded and to 1968 where 'Universitetet i Tromsø' was established. These two institutions eventually merged last year and formed the present university. It has around 9.000 students and 2.500 employees, which means that 17% of the population of Tromsø is directly engaged with the university. The six faculties cover most aspects of science and within the Faculty of Science and Technology is the Department of Biology with its three research groups: - Plant Physiology and Microbiology
- Ecological Botany
- Ecological Zoology
The Plant Physiology and Microbiology group has a scientific staff of around 25 and is headed by Professor Mette Svenning. She is working primarily with symbiotic nitrogen fixating as well as methane oxidizing bacteria native to the arctics. Like many of the other research groups her work take a Nordic approach and studies the adaptations to light, temperature and other climatic characteristics of the far north.
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Six greenhouses are part of the biological climate laboratory. From uit.no
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Among the available facilities the department enjoys a biological climate laboratory that is ideally suited for studies on how climatic factors influence growth and development of higher plants. One part of the climate laboratory is the greenhouse, that consist of six daylight rooms and 4 dark rooms where temperatures are automatically regulated to simulate typical day and night conditions. In addition to light and temperature, the scientists are able to control humidity as well as water, nutrients and soil composition.
An approach with less emphasis on the Nordic climate is taken by Kirsten Krause who focuses on gene expression in choloroplasts and how they cooperate with the nucleus in order to accomplish this task. In a publication from 2010 she used the parasitic plant Cuscuta - which have little or no photosynthetic activity and consequently less gene activity in chloroplasts - to study the contribution of editing and splicing of plastid RNAs.
The research interests of Karsten Fischer are somewhat related and he has worked together with Kirsten Krause on several papers. In 2007, e.g., they published a paper together about transcription factors, that target organelles in Arabidopsis and rice. Some of the organelles he studies are, however, more bizarre. One of them is the apicoplast, a non-photosynthetic algal endosymbiont found in parasites belonging to the phylum Apicomplexa (see his 2009 paper), which includes Toxoplasma and the malaria parasite Plasmodium.
You can get more information about the Department of Biology at the official homepage.
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