Issue 8: Summer 2007
Although the exciting nature of the science and the huge leaps in understanding we report in this edition of Advances speak for themselves, it is worth noting that this curiosity-driven science is spawning significant innovation and application to important challenges, often in unanticipated ways. For example, curiosity-driven research exploring anomalies in plant transgene expression and fundamental research on plant-virus interactions were central to the discovery of RNAi, which may provide the basis for major new therapeutic tools in the medical and veterinary fields as well as enhanced crop breeding.
Likewise, fundamental research on the structure of viral proteins and their expression has given us the ability to generate, at low cost, large quantities of deliberately modified versions of these proteins, thereby providing new strategies to combat SARS, a disease that was not known at the commencement of this work, and to develop nanoparticles with a raft of potential applications.
Nurturing and sustaining top rank, curiosity-driven research is key to providing the leaps in understanding needed to address major challenges in health, environment and sustainability. The other key is to develop a strong culture and effective mechanisms for capture and exploitation of the resultant breakthroughs, for technological innovation and delivery to potential end users. More on capturing breakthroughs in future issues.
Chris Lamb
Director, John Innes Centre
Evolutionary wormholes
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| Arum lily flower. The yellow part of the image is the spadix - a type of raceme.
This arrangement is one of only three basic flowering structures
observed in nature, reflecting the way developmental mechanisms and
natural selection interact to constrain biological form. Photo: Karen Lee |
What determines the range of plants and animals we see compared to those that might have evolved theoretically?
To what extent does observed biodiversity reflect the rules of development or the action of Darwinian selection?
To address this problem, scientists at the John Innes Centre and University of Calgary analysed the evolution of flower branching displays, or inflorescences. Flowering plants have three basic types of inflorescence - racemes, cymes and panicles. Theoretically there are many other possible branching arrangements, so why has nature chosen only these three?
The researchers showed how the three types arise quite naturally from a simple mathematical model for how growing tips switch to make flowers. The model was supported by experimental studies on genes in the garden weed Arabidopsis. It appears that the way genes control development plays an important role in determining what sorts of structure evolve. But the researchers, led by Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz in Calgary and Enrico Coen at JIC, also showed that selection plays a key part. Panicles, for example, were shown to have higher fitness when uncertainty is relatively low (tropical climate or perennial lifestyle) while both racemes and cymes have higher fitness when uncertainty is high (temperate climate or annual lifestyle).
The combined effects of development and selection could be summarised with the notion of evolutionary wormholes, routes that evolution may take within the multidimensional space of possibilities. This elegant work means that scientists have a more rigorous mathematical and experimental framework within which to consider evolutionary pathways and biodiversity.
Reference: Prusinkiewicz, P., Lane, B., Harder, L. D., Erasmus, Y. & Coen, E. (2007) Evolution and development of inflorescence architectures. Science 316. no. 5830, pp. 1452 - 1456.
Funding: Primary funding from the Human Frontier Science Program (E.C. and P.P.), with support from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (P.P. and L.H.) and BBSRC (E.C.)
Very short RNAs make unexpected appearance
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| Chlamydomonasto contains very short RNAs |
Very short RNAs, such as small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and micro RNAs (miRNAs), previously found only in multicellular organisms, have been discovered in a unicellular alga. The discovery, reported online in Nature on May 30th 2007, and in print in June, forces a rethink about the evolutionary history of these molecules. siRNAs and miRNAs have been found in a variety of multicellular organisms including fungi, plants, protozoans and metazoans, where they have been implicated in the control of growth and development. They are also a useful tool in the laboratory, where they can be used to silence gene expression (RNA interference).
In their paper, scientists led by David Baulcombe from the Sainsbury Laboratory, show that the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii also contains very short RNAs that direct cleavage of their target RNA - just like their higher-plant counterparts. The authors suggest that miRNAs were probably present in primitive eukaryotic cells and that they evolved before multicellularity. This contrasts with the previous theory that suggested that miRNAs evolved together with multicellularity in separate plant and animal lineages.
Reference: Molnar, A., Schwach, F., Studholme, D. J., Thuenemann, E. C. & Baulcombe, D. C. (2007) miRNAs control gene expression in the single-cell alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Advance Online Publication (AOP) on www.nature.com/nature -Wednesday 30 May 2007 – digital object identifier (DOI) number: 10.1038/nature05903 Nature 316pp.1452- 1456
Funding: Gatsby Charitable Foundation, with support from EMBO, the BBSRC and a Marie Curie Early Stage Training Fellowship
Flowering signal identified
The
operation of a vital switch for controlling crop productivity has been
identified following a 70
year search.
The ability to produce more food in the same acreage is crucial to feeding an
increasing world
population at the same time as curbing deforestation and dedicating more land
to biofuels.
Scientists at the John Innes Centre have identified how the signal that controls
flowering is delivered to the shoot apex. Flowering is the process that delivers
food from crops.
“Flowering produces fruit, as well as seeds that are the raw ingredient for all cereal based foods”, said Philip Wigge. “Controlling flowering means that we have the fundamental understanding needed to increase the productivity of rice, maize, wheat or any other crop by increasing the number of flowering cycles in a year. We can also switch off the signal to prevent flowering and therefore increase biomass for fuel production”.
In the horticultural industry, the findings could be used to keep gardens in bloom for longer. It has been known for more than 70 years that leaves exposed to light can trigger flowering in a darkened shoot. Research published by John Innes Centre scientists and a Swedish team in 2005 revealed the gene FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) as essential to the process. But how the signal, dubbed “florigen”, travels from leaf to apex has remained a mystery.
The new JIC work, along with a publication in the journal Science from the Max Planck Institute identifies the signal as FT protein, encoded by the FT gene. Japan’s Nara Institute of Science and Technology have shown the same system exists in rice.
But Wigge’s work shows that FT protein is able to move between cells from the leaf to the apex. Experiments with an immobile FT protein showed that the movement of the protein is crucial for flower development.
“Plants may be rooted to the spot”, said Wigge. “But for the first time we have shown that long range communication within plants is essential for their development and reproduction. These findings provide the tools to prolong or change flowering time. The full potential of that discovery can now be realised by the agricultural and horticultural industries.”
Reference: Jaeger, K. E. & Wigge, P. A. (2007) FT protein acts as a long range signal in Arabidopsis. Current Biology 17, 1-5 DOI 10.101 / J. Cub. 2007.05.008
Funding: Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council Core Strategic Grant, and grants C0610C10A and BB/D010047/1
'Plantibodies' - proof of principle
The
use of plants for the production of pharmaceuticals is desirable because
they can simply and cheaply produce large amounts safely and in a form
that can be taken in without much processing. One example would be so-called ‘plantibodies’;
plant-produced antibodies that confer immunity against an infective agent.
JIC’s George Lomonossoff and colleagues in Spain and Italy have succeeded in making a plant produce antibodies which provide piglets with immunity to a transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) when supplied orally. Their study establishes an important proof of principle, that the protection of mammals against virus infection can be afforded by the oral administration of crude plant extracts containing virus neutralizing antibody derivatives.
TGEV can be prevented by feeding neutralising antibodies which provide what is termed ‘passive’ immunisation. Passive immunity, although temporary, is useful when the protection is needed quickly, and there is no time for the organism to develop its own long-lasting immune response. It is the natural route of protection for newborn mammals, the antibodies being supplied in the mothers’ milk. However, such antibodies will only be present if the sow has been previously exposed to TGEV, something which is not desirable. The alternative is to supply the antibodies as a supplement to milk. This approach requires a lot of immunotherapeutic material to be effective, and for any practical application this would have to be produced at a low cost. Lomonossoff and his colleagues have shown that it is possible to achieve this by the use of plant virus-based vectors. They have engineered
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| Two leaves: the one on the left is healthy and the one on the right is expressing the antibody |
Cowpea Mosaic Virus (CPMV) to produce antibody derivatives which can neutralise TGEV. CPMV infects the leaves of the cowpea plant but is non-infectious to animals. On infection with the modified virus, the host plant accumulates high levels of the antibody derivative. Feeding crude plant extract in the piglets’ milk protects them against intestinal TGEV infection. Furthermore, there is also a significant decrease in the amount of virus in the lungs.
Similar systems could therefore be used as methods for producing passive immunization against other diseases.
The virus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is similar to TGEV; the viral vector system could be used to quickly generate large amounts of material to provide immediate protection to healthcare workers.
Reference: Monger, W., Alamillo, J. M., Sola, I., Perrin, Y., Bestago, M., Burrone, O. R., Sabella, P., Plana-Duran, J., Enjuanes L., Garcia, J. A. & Lomonossoff, G. P. (2006) An antibody derivative expressed from viral vectors passively immunises pigs against transmissible gastroenteritis virus infection when supplied orally in crude plant extracts. Plant Biotechnology Journal 6 (4) 623-631
Collaborators: Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Campus Universidad Autonóma, Madrid; International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste; Fort Dodge Veterinaria SA, Girona
Funding: EC Framework 5 (QLK2-CT-2000-00739 and QLK2-CT-2002-01050); grant BIO2004-02687 Spanish MEC; Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT), Spain
How plants grow tall and strong
A team led by Dept. of Cell & Developmental Biology scientist Clive Lloyd has discovered previously unseen activity underlying the complex architecture responsible for the growth of green plants.
As the most abundant biopolymer on earth cellulose is a key component of biomass and it is also a major carbon sink, since plants produce it from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Understanding how it is made could be important for unlocking its potential as a source of sustainable energy production via biomass and biofuels.
Cellulose fibres stronger than steel wrap around plant cells as they expand, building up in cross plies, as in plywood. They support the growth of shoots upwards and the growth of roots down into the earth, while restricting expansion sideways. These threads of cellulose are guided into place by microtubules inside plant cells. Lloyd and his colleagues have now discovered that microtubules rotate, explaining how they are able to guide cellulose to align at different angles.
“The cross ply structure of cellulose gives plants their strength, but how it came about was a mystery”, said Clive Lloyd. “We found that microtubules provide a dynamic template. They not only move along tracks, but these tracks also rotate”.
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Sampled over a 6 minute period, microtubules glide over the cell surface, making paths seen as black lines. Over the two hours that separate the first and third images, the paths have rotated clockwise |
Jordi Chan, working with microscopists Grant Calder and Sam Fox, created timelapse movies of fluorescent microtubules in the cells of Arabidopsis seedlings. The movies showed that many microtubules can move along the same path. These paths also rotate, some clockwise and some anticlockwise within the same cell.
“It is as if you were looking at a long exposure of car tail-lights tracing their paths as they travel down the motorway, except the motorway itself is also rotating”, said Lloyd.
Microtubules and cellulose have mostly been studied separately, but by studying them together the JIC team can build a picture of how the plant cell wall is structured and therefore understand plant architecture at a sophisticated level.
Reference: Chan, J., Calder G., Fox, S., Lloyd, C. (2007) Cortical microtubule arrays undergo rotary movements in Arabidopsis hypocotyl epidermal cells. Nature Cell Biology - 9, 171 - 175 (2007)
Funding: The work was funded by a grant-in-aid to the John Innes Centre by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Understanding sulphur in plant nutrition
Dept.
of Metabolic Biology scientist Stan Kopriva and
colleagues are taking a multidisciplinary approach to
understanding the mechanisms of plant nutrition. They are
combining biochemical, genetic and physiological
techniques to understand the pathways of nitrogen and
sulphur use in plants. By looking in depth at regulation of
these pathways they hope to increase the efficiency of
uptake and assimilation of these nutrients. Identifying how
plants might be able to grow well with lower available
nitrogen and sulphur might help reduce their need for
fertilisers.
Over recent decades, environmental measures have reduced sulphurous pollutants in the atmosphere, but as a result half of the UK’s fields have become sulphur deficient. This has increased disease susceptibility in crops, especially in oilseed rape, which uses sulphur containing glucosinolates to counter pests and disease. Brassicas store large amount of sulphate and therefore require ten times more sulphur than any other crop. Kopriva’s group recently contributed their expertise in sulphur metabolism to a project at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), published in Nature Genetics. They revealed how a key enzyme of sulphate reduction controls the accumulation of sulphate in Arabidopsis, the first step in understanding the control of sulphate accumulation and consequently of sulphur use efficiency.
Reference: Natural variation for sulfate content in Arabidopsis is highly controlled by adenosine 5’-phosphosulfate reductase Loudet, O., Saliba-Colombani, V., Camilleri, C., Calenge, F., Gaudon, V., Koprivova, A., North, K.A., Kopriva, S. & Daniel-Vedele, F. (2007) Nature Genetics Vol. 39 pp 896-900
Funding: European Grant ‘Natural’ project no. QLRT–2000–01097, 2002–2005 Research in S.K.’s laboratory at JIC is supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
Compromise is of the essence
Why are some people more resistant to malaria than others?
Why are some wheat varieties more resistant to rust than others?
Analysis of the evolution of disease shows that compromise is
essential for diversity to be maintained in both a parasite and its
host.
Scientists at JIC have developed a mathematical model to examine how organisms can maintain their gene diversity for resistance to disease. The research highlights how a diverse gene pool helps plants and animals to deal with diseases, and how parasites, in return, use genetic diversity to overcome defences. “The more diverse, or polymorphic, the organism is, the more quickly it can adapt to its environment. One of the reasons for this genetic diversity is interaction between parasite and host,” comments Group Leader James Brown.
Despite millions of years of evolution where increasingly improved resistance to disease should be expected, plants and animals including humans are still susceptible to parasites in varying degrees. Aurélien Tellier, a Ph.D. student working with Brown, proposes a general solution to this paradox with their mathematical theory.
Parasites constantly adapt to host organisms, and their hosts constantly evade attack by evolving resistance. But compromise is of the essence, according to Tellier and Brown. They show that when the rate at which the parasite adapts to its host slows down as parasite numbers increase, the genetic diversity in both host and parasite can be maintained. Eventually, the host and parasite arrive at a compromise, where the parasite ceases to become more virulent and the host ceases to become more resistant.
The theory predicts that many biological and ecological factors are likely to contribute to the compromise - for instance when several generations of the parasite survive in the host, or when plant seeds survive several years in the soil without germinating. “Without these challenging factors in our environment we would most likely have lost genetic diversity a long time ago and become less able to cope with diseases,” said Brown.
Reference: Tellier, A. & Brown, J.K.M. (2007) Stability of genetic polymorphism in host-parasite interactions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 274 [Issue 1611] 809-817
Funding: Research on plant pathogen co-evolution at JIC is funded by BBSRC
Silencing RNA's: organisers and coordinators of complexity in eurkaryotic organisms
David Baulcombe from the Sainsbury Laboratory is leading a new,
17 member (including JIC and UEA), 9 country EU-funded
research consortium to study how RNA (ribonucleic acid) silencing
could be used to treat life-threatening diseases. The European
Commission has committed e11.8M to this four-year Integrated
Project funded under the Sixth Framework Programme.
“RNA silencing, also called RNA interference, is the cell’s natural ability to turn off genes”, said Baulcombe. “Only a few years ago it was unknown, but now RNA silencing is one of the most powerful tools available to researchers. We can use it to understand the function of genes and the mechanisms of cellular regulation. We can also use it as a diagnostic tool for cancer and other diseases. In future it may also be possible to use RNA silencing as the basis of novel therapy for diverse diseases ranging from avian influenza to cancer.”
RNA silencing is thought to have evolved as a defence mechanism against viruses. In primitive cells it was a type of immune system that could recognise and then silence viral genes. Later in evolution the silencing mechanism was recruited for switching off genes involved in normal growth of cells and responses to stress. It occurs in all sorts of organisms from yeasts to humans and the recent discoveries have revealed a previously unknown role for RNA. They have shown how, in addition to the previously understood role as a cellular messenger that directs protein synthesis, RNA can also silence expression of genes. By introducing specific silencing RNAs into an organism, the expression of genes can be turned down in a controlled way.
“Although there has been rapid recent progress in understanding RNA silencing there is still much to be done” said Professor Baulcombe. “For example we need to ensure that an RNA targeted against gene ‘X’ will only silence gene ‘X’ and nothing else. When we can do that we will be able to use RNA as a drug without side effects. We also need to understand more about the role of silencing RNAs in normal growth and development. That information will then allow us to use the presence of silencing RNAs to diagnose disease states in a cell.”
The consortium includes researchers working on RNA silencing in model plant and animal systems as well as humans. JIC’s Caroline Dean will be examining the role of RNAi machinery in controlling the Arabidopsis flowering regulator FLC. Tamas Dalmey’s group (UEA BIO) will investigate the role of short RNAs in tomato fruit development and chlorgenesis. The use of the model systems allows experiments to be carried out that would be impossible with humans although the new discoveries may be translatable into new technologies for use in medicine.
Project Manager: aileen.hogan@sainsburylaboratory.ac.uk
TILLING goes East
In 2003 the Sainsbury Laboratory and John Innes Centre launched the first European TILLING platform using the model legume Lotus japonicus (the Lotus Mutation machine). TILLING is a reverse genetics process for gene functional analysis and it exploited the genome sequencing efforts on Lotus by the Kazusa DNA Research Institute in Japan who have continued to collaborate with JIC. The Lotus mutation machine was established primarily for investigating the legume-rhizobium symbiosis.
The symbiosis is important to sustainable agriculture since it allows the plant to obtain nitrogen from the atmosphere and negates the use of nitrogen fertilisers. The technology can be readily transferred to other species and is particularly suited to crops plants. Now the group are transferring their technology to China to develop a rice TILLING platform that will be accessible to UK researchers.
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| The China TILLING partnership. From left, back row: Professor Chunming Liu (C-STM); Dr Mary Byrne, Professor Graham Moore, Professor Liam Dolam and Dr Trevor Wang (all JIC). Front row: Dr Huaqin Gong (C-STM); Jodie Pike, Tracey Welham and Dr Jillian Perry (all JIC). |
Rice was the first cereal genome to be sequenced which makes it a suitable target for TILLING technology. TILLING relies on a population of plants that have been mutagenised using chemical agents and genes for which a function is sought. Developing such a population in the UK for rice would be prohibitively expensive, but it is relatively cost-effective in China. Supported by a BBSRC China Partnering Award, JIC’s Trevor Wang has set up a collaboration with Professor Chunming Liu of the Centre for Signal Transduction and Metabolomics (C-STM) at the Institute of Botany, Beijing that will train Beijing researchers in TILLING technology and then allow an exchange of students to collaborate on TILLING for specific rice genes. The Norwich students will come from the groups of Liam Dolan (Cell & Developmental Biology), and Mary Byrne and Graham Moore (Crop Genetics), who all use rice for comparative studies.
C-STM has already raised the first generation of two rice populations – one from a variety grown in Southern China and one suited to the Beijing area. Dr Huaqin Gong from C-STM visited Norwich last spring to learn the techniques involved and this summer the Norwich team will visit Beijing to start the platform running so that the first students can visit at the end of the year to find mutants for their own genes of choice.
BIONANOTECHNOLOGY IN THE SPOTLIGHT
The experts
Dave Evans recently brought together international experts on bionanotechnology to discuss the science behind this emerging field. The aim was to build an awareness and knowledge of this broad area of research across the Centre, define future directions of research and identify potential collaborations.
The workshop was opened by the University of Oxford’s John Ryan, who is director of the UK Bionanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration. JIC PhD student Nicole Steinmetz highlighted the benefits of using Cowpea mosaic virus particles as nanobuilding blocks. These are ideally sized, safe to work with and very stable in a variety of environments. Modification of the particles’ surfaces with chemical groups can give them new functions, such as the ability to form layers or arrays, or to make the particles electronically active. This may lead to applications such as biosensors or nanocomponents for electronic devices. Mark Young of the University of Montana and Peter Stockley from the University of Leeds provided further insights into the potential uses of viral particles in bionanotechnology, ranging from chemical catalysts to targeted drug delivery systems.
The workshop featured a wide range of different topics related to nanoscience, including creating nanowires and nanoparticle-based circuitry, the functioning of molecular motors and probing the mechanisms of cellular adhesion. Vic Morris from the Institute of Food Research demonstrated the impact of nanoscience in the study of food materials, and how the structural properties of food ingredients such as emulsifiers and starch are determined at the nanoscale level. Thomas Nann of UEA described his work on stabilising nanoparticles for applications in bioimaging and labelling. The final discussion was led by Jack Johnson, of the Scripps Research Institute, and centred on the distinction between bionanoscience, which seeks to understand how systems work, and bionanotechnology, which relies on this knowledge and seeks ways of applying it practically. The workshop highlighted the excitement of working in this multidisciplinary area at the interface of biology, chemistry, physics and materials science and provided indicators for further research opportunities.
The public
JIC PhD student Nicole Steinmetz and her PhD supervisor Dave Evans played to a full-house when they presented a public lecture entitled “From black-eyed peas to nanotechnology” at a Royal Institution-sponsored event on the Research Park, followed by an enthusiastic question and answer session. The event, part of a series that highlights the work of up-and-coming young scientific talent, provided an opportunity for Dave to introduce the topic of nanotechnology and for Nicole to describe her research on the use of plant viruses as building blocks, scaffolds or templates in bionanoscience/technology.
Influential appointments on campus
Originally from Australia, Philip Poole comes to JIC as a Senior Project Leader in the Department of Molecular Microbiology via Oxford, and the Professorship of Microbial Physiology at Reading. He works on regulation of nutrient exchange between the bacterial and plant symbionts in legume nodules. This process drives nitrogen fixation by legumes and is responsible for a substantial fraction of the available nitrogen in the biosphere. He is also studying the genetic and biochemical determinants of rhizosphere colonisation by bacteria and what determines competitive success. These interactions have a substantial impact on plant productivity.
Martin Howard is joining the newly established Department of Computational and Systems Biology as a Project Leader. Martin is a Royal Society University Research Fellow, and a leading young researcher in systems biology from Imperial College London.His appointment should significantly strengthen JIC’s profile in the rapidly expanding systems biology field. Martin originally trained in Oxford as a theoretical physicist; however in recent years his research has focused exclusively on the application of ideas from physics to the modelling of biological systems. He has worked on a wide variety of topics, including cell division positioning, signal transduction, developmental biology, and the effects of stochasticity in cell biology. A particular interest of Martin’s is understanding how biological patterns form, an area that greatly benefits from a modelling approach.
Cyril
Zipfel has been appointed as a Group leader at the Sainsbury Laboratory
and also as an
Associate Faculty Member in JIC, linked to the
Department of Disease and Stress Biology. Cyril
undertook a PhD with Thomas Boller’s Group at the
University of Basel and his first appointment in Norwich
was as an EMBO post-doctoral fellow in the Sainsbury
laboratory. His research focuses on plant immunity
triggered by the perception of conserved microbial
molecules, referred to as Pathogen-Associated Molecular
Patterns (PAMPs). In plants, as well as in animals, the
understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying
this innate immune recognition and signalling system
represents one of the most exciting challenges in the field
of host-microbe interactions.
Brassica genome sequencing
Despite the importance of Brassica crops in the UK, efforts to develop their potential further are hampered by the complexity of their genetic composition. Fortunately, all of the cultivated Brassica species are closely related and genome structure is very highly conserved between them so detailed knowledge of genome structure and composition in any one species can be readily exploited in the others, providing the necessary data interpretation and information-sharing resources are put in place.
A worldwide consortium has initiated the Brassica rapa Genome Sequencing Project. All 10 chromosomes of the homozygous genotype to be sequenced, (Chiifu-401, a Chinese cabbage) will be sequenced by members of the consortium.
Brassicas include oil crops such as oilseed rape (B. napus) and vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli (B. oleracea), and Chinese cabbage and turnip (B. rapa). The UK provides 5% of worldwide production of rapeseed; the oil has important nutritional properties and potential as a biofuel or a renewable resource for industrial applications. Brassica vegetables are rich sources of vitamins, minerals and compounds that help protect against cancer |
Research groups at JIC, Rothamsted Research and Warwick-HRI have established an alliance with scientists in China and the USA to sequence two chromosomes (R1 and R8). In addition, resources will be developed to facilitate the exploitation of the entire B. rapa genome sequence, which we expect to be available at the end of 2010. These include systematic annotation of the genome sequence, obtaining sequences from oilseed rape to enable the identification of corresponding regions of its genome, and a database system with displays tailored to enhance the ability of the various user communities to exploit the sequence data for research and the improvement of the Brassica crops of importance in the UK.
Funding: Sequencing and exploitation of the BrassicaAgenome - BBSRC Responsive Mode award of £900,000 to Ian Bancroft and Martin Trick
Wheat workout
JIC Crop scientists recently showcased cutting edge research to improve the fitness of wheat for 21st century demands at a meeting for plant breeders.
“Research done today will determine the availability of fitter, more environmentally friendly varieties tomorrow”, said James Brown, who introduced the meeting. “To reduce fungicide use, control disease, produce novel varieties and fit crop production to the available growing conditions major advances in our genetic understanding of wheat are needed.
These advances will be pioneered at JIC in close collaboration with breeders”. The meeting also featured emerging problems for other cereals, such as Ramularia, which has become a major pathogen of barley. Ramularia can cause yield losses of up to 35 per cent.
The wheat genome is five times the size of the human genome and the challenge of understanding gene function is immense. But ultimately it will facilitate breeding for specific traits and improvements, and even allow predictive models to be developed to search for optimal combinations.
Richard Summers, head of cereal breeding at RAGT Seeds led a session at the meeting. “Although we have been cultivating wheat for around 12,000 years, there are still large gaps in our understanding. The research being carried out at JIC can fill some of those gaps and answer current problems to help us breed better varieties.”
Recent publications by JIC in the field:
Arraiano, L. S., Chartrain, L., Bossolini, E., Slatter, H. N., Keller, B. & Brown, J. K. M. (2007) Agene in European wheat cultivars for resistance to an African isolate of Mycosphaerella graminicola. Plant Pathology 56 (1) 73-
Brennan, J. M., Leonard, G., Fagan, B., Cooke, B. M., Ritieni, A., Ferracane, R., Nicholson, P., Simpson, D., Thomsett, M. & Doohan, F. M. (2007) Comparison of resistance of commercial European wheat cultivars to Fusarium infection of head and seedling tissue. Plant Pathology 56 (1) 55-
Gosman, N., Bayles, R., Jennings, P., Kirby, J. & Nicholson, P. (2007) Evaluation and characterization of resistance to fusarium head blight caused by Fusarium culmorum in UK winter wheat cultivars. Plant Pathology 56 (2) 264-
ON THE PARK
A
new website has been launched for the
‘Norwich Centre for Preventive
Medicine’. The initiative formalises the
active links between researchers and
clinicians from UEA’s Faculty of Health
and Faculty of Science, the John Innes
Centre, Institute of Food Research and
the Norfolk and Norwich University
Hospital.
The Centre underpins the strengths of current NRP research, and emphasises our position as a world leader in this field, with a unique capability for translational research from fundamental science through to patient care.
Website: www.preventivemedicine.nrp.org.uk
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The upper surface of the petal of a common daisy flower from the lawn at JIC. It was imaged on the Zeiss SEM. |
Highlighting Microscopy
Newly launched webpages, to address the science and answer FAQs, are at www.jic.ac.uk/microscopy
The
book describes how the actinomycetes shot
to prominence with the discovery of
streptomycin, the first effective treatment for
tuberculosis. The ground-breaking work by
many JIC scientists is highlighted in the
context of the rise of microbial genetics in
the mid-20th century, leading to determination of the complete DNA
sequence of a model member of the group at the turn of the
millennium. 
Big consequences of small-talk 