Archive for the ‘in the news’ Category
Phosphate poor soils increase hairy roots
Plants grown in soils low in phosphates grow hairy roots in the search for nutrients. Now scientists have discovered the gene that turns on hairy roots and hope to use it to develop food crops that will grow in poor soils or with less fertilizer.
When crops such as barley and wheat are grown on soils containing small amounts of phosphate it is known that those plants with long hairs on their roots give higher yields than those with short hairs. Similarly, long-haired beans grown on the nutrient-poor tropical soils of Central America do much better than short haired varieties.
Root hairs burrow into the soil like tiny ‘mining machines’ releasing acids and other scouring chemicals that crack open rocky minerals releasing valuable nutrients, such as iron and phosphate, that are necessary for plant growth.
Now, for the first time, scientists have found the mechanism that controls the growth of these specialised nutrient-excavating cells. They discovered that a master regulatory gene called RSL4 acts like a switch; hair cells grow when the gene is turned on and growth stops when it is off. read more
More information:
A basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor controls cell growth and size in root hairs
Discovery of nutrient mining machine in plants
Plant Patents
Plant patents were first granted in 1930. The plant must be distinctly different than other varieties and can be invented or discovered. No asexual reproduction is allowed ( from cuttings, cloning etc ). You can sell the seeds, plant, plant parts. Patent length is 20 years.
In 1970 Plant Variety patents were granted to sexually reproducing new, distinct, stable plant varieties. Plant seed is now covered by patent. Patent length is 20 years, 25 for trees and vines. You can plant seeds from the plant or sell them if you decide not to use them.
In 1985 Utility patents were extended to plants. Seeds may not be saved, cleaned, planted or sold. Patented varieties must be sold using the variety name.
1994 The Plant Variety Act was amended. Seed can not be sold with out permission of patent holder.
Sounds reasonable. The problem lies with nature not recognizing property lines. If your garden is contaminated with patented pollen or seed, derivatives of those plants are not owned by you but by the patent holder.
If you don’t want to hand over your garden, your neighbor’s garden and your neighbor’s neighbor’s garden to the patent police you might want to avoid purchasing plants with patents.
To protect their patents many patented plants are now genetically modified to commit suicide. These plants will not reproduce. Sounds like a reasonable idea until you consider what might happen when that pollen mixes with wild pollen. How many plant varieties might become extinct?
You might have noticed plants for sale labeled “patented” or “trademarked” at your local nursery or garden center. Why would the nursery industry patent or trademark plant varieties?
“Plant patents or trademarks develop an incentive for creative design and innovation by plant breeders and the horticulture industry,” explained James Altland, nursery crops specialist at Oregon State University’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora.
The nursery and greenhouse industries have long struggled with the issue of appropriate pricing for their products, said Altland. Patenting or trademarking gives plant varieties more value in the consumer marketplace. Consumers will pay more for a product they perceive as premium.
“In the hope of financial payback, plant breeders, ranging from scientists and professional nursery people to the backyard orchardist, try again and again to breed that perfect plant,” he said. “I think patents are one of the cornerstones of capitalism. Without patent protection, there would probably be much less innovation in our economy in general, and certainly many fewer new introductions in horticulture. ( read more What does it mean when nursery plants are patented or trademarked? )
Like so much patent law of late, the problem is not with the concept of patents but with the recent extension of the patent laws that make us all criminals.
Refuse to buy patented plants from your nursery. Tell them, thanks but no thanks, suicidal plants are a crime against nature.
Tell your nursery you don’t want Monsanto suing your neighbors like they’ve been suing farmers.
Buy F1 varieties, no patents allowed, and your local wildlife will thank you.
More information:
Plant Patents
Plant patent
US Plant patent effect on other nations
Monsanto Practices Scrutinized
How flowers create their spots
A recently published paper investigates how daisies get their spots.
Dark petal spots are a prominent and striking feature of some flowers and inflorescences that often function in pollinator attraction. They occur in a phylogenetically broad range of angiosperm families including the eudicots Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Geraniaceae, Ranunculaceae, Papaveraceae, Malvaceae, Scrophulariaceae and the monocots Iridaceae, Liliaceae, and Orchidaceae. Several field observations and manipulation studies provide support for the hypothesis that dark petal spots on flower corollas attract pollinators (Free and Williams, 1978Go; Eisikowitch, 1980Go; Dafni et al., 1990Go; Westmoreland and Muntan, 1996Go; Johnson and Midgley, 1997Go; Goldblatt et al., 1998Go; Van Kleunen et al., 2007Go). However, there are many different mechanisms proposed for petal spot attraction. Dark petal spots can intensify the color and texture of the flower, emit scents, produce nectar, trap heat, reflect UV light, or create a tactile guide for navigating the corolla. There can also be a behavioral element of pollinator attraction when the dark petal spots mimic the pollinator itself, inducing aggregating or even mating behavior (Midgley, 1993Go; Johnson and Midgley, 1997Go). For example, the bombyliid fly Usia biocolour was found to preferentially visit flowers of Linum pubescens that had either an artificial ink spot or another fly on one of their petals (Johnson and Dafni, 1998Go). These preferences were particularly pronounced during the afternoon, when the flies switched from primarily feeding to primarily mating behavior. By attracting pollinators through both physiological and behavioral mechanisms, dark petal spots apparently represent an evolutionarily adaptive trait in many different flowering plant species, yet no study to date has investigated the development and micromorphology of petal spot structure.
More information on flower design
Pollinator preference and the evolution of floral traits in monkey flowers
The Role of Beetle Marks and Flower Colour on Visitation by Monkey Beetles
Study sheds light on microscopic flower petal ridges
Algae protein protects plants from too much sun
Photosynthetic organisms need to cope with a wide range of light intensities, which can change over timescales of seconds to minutes. Too much light can damage the photosynthetic machinery and cause cell death. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution were part of a team that found that specific proteins in algae can act as a safety valve to dissipate excess absorbed light energy before it can wreak havoc in cells.
The research, performed mostly by Graham Peers in the laboratory of Krishna Niyogi from the University of California, Berkeley, included researchers at the University of Münster, Germany, and used a mutant strain of the single-celled green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, originally isolated at the Carnegie Institution, to show that a specific protein of the light harvesting family of proteins plays a critical role in eliminating excess absorbed light energy. A mutant lacking this protein, designated LHCSR, suffered severely when exposed to fluctuating light conditions. “Photosynthetic organisms must be able to manage absorbed light energy,” says study co-author Arthur Grossman of Carnegie’s Department of Plant Biology, “and the LHCSR proteins appear to be critical for algae to eliminate absorbed light energy as heat as light levels in the environment fluctuate, becoming potentially toxic.”
read more . . . Safety valve protects photosynthesis from too much sun
More information
Nature Conversion of Light into Chemical Energy in Photosynthesis ( pdf $)
