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Taking a pause with ABA
News & Comment
TRENDS in Plant Science Vol.6 No.6 June 2001
243
In Brief
Controversy in conservation ‘Almost half of the higher plants on the shortlist for conservation in the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plans are taxonomically controversial – experts disagree on whether they are distinct species,’ says Pete Hollingsworth (Royal Botanic Garden, London, UK) in the latest issue of the bulletin of the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC). The comment follows from the recent discovery that a supposedly rare orchid turned out not to be a distinct species and highlights the difficulty of earmarking species for conservation. Scientists discovered the orchid species in the 1980s, Epipactis youngiana, and gave the orchids full conservation status and legal protection. However, under scrutiny, scientists now consider the orchid to be part of an already known species. [Ahuja, A. (2001) The Times (London) 2 April] TS
trees, with the added attraction that it is harvestable in only 150 days compared with several years for a tree. [http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/uiucapc030101.htm] NC
Cactus curbs craving
Coating enables early planting
GM plants poisoning the soil? In spite of strenuous efforts in some quarters to allay fears concerning the safety of GM foodstuffs, there is still considerable public disquiet about this ‘new technology’. One concern is that the Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) insecticidal toxin, which is widely engineered into maize (Zea mays) to protect it from such pests as European corn borer, might be transferred to non-GM plants. Although the Bt toxin is released into the soil from such plants, where it can persist for >179 days, Deepak Saxena and Guenther Stotzky [Nat. Biotechnol. (2001) 19, 199] report that it was not taken up by neighboring plants. NC
A wooden substitute As natural reserves of resources become threatened, entrepreneurs are always on the look out for alternatives. Poo Chow of the Wood Engineering Laboratory at the University of Illinois (USA) is examining the use of non-wood fiber crops that would reduce the demand for tree-fibers. In addition to promoting the value of stalks of corn (Zea mays) as a fiber-crop, he is encouraging local farmers to grow kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus), a native of EastCentral Africa, on their set-aside land. Kenaf produces fibers that are similar to those of
variation on this theme, Mansour Karimi et al. report [Mol. Plant Pathol. (2000) 1, 383–387] their use of a mixture of nematodes and Agrobacterium to infect Arabidopsis roots. As the nematodes migrated into the plant roots the T-DNA from the Agrobacterium was also delivered into the root cells. Stably transformed plants were regenerated from the infected roots, demonstrating the usefulness of this alternative method of DNA delivery, which has also been used successfully in Solanum tuberosum and Phaseolus vulgaris. NC
During long hunting trips, the now extinct ‘Kung tribe members from southern Africa munched on Hoodia cactus to stave off their hunger. Now the company Phytopharm (Cambridgeshire, UK) has capitalized on this observation and has isolated a compound named P57, which suppresses appetites. The ingredient has already been shown to produce weight loss in obese rats and has just completed safety trials with humans. Tests on obese subjects will start later this year. Normally, the cactus grows sparsely in the desert, but areas of the desert in South Africa have now become Hoodia farms. Obesity is a worldwide problem affecting 100 million people enough to seek medical intervention. [Firn, D. (2001) The Financial Times (London) 11 April, p. 2; Allen, N. (2001) The Press Association, 11 April] TS
Nematode-facilitated Agrobacterium entry into plants Construction of GM crops commonly relies on a bacterium, Agrobacterium sp., penetrating the plant cell and transferring its DNA (including any transgenes added by the investigator) to the host’s genome. In a
A new technology under development might one day help farmers to plant early in the spring season. Landec Ag (Menlo Park, CA, USA) is currently developing a line of hybrid corn, trademarked Early Plant, which contains a polymer seed coating. The coating protects the seeds from cold soils and breaks down when the soil temperature is optimal for germination. The commercially unavailable technology might some day enable farmers to plant their corn up to three weeks earlier than normal and give farmers more time during the planting season. Alan Barbre, of Landec Ag told reporters ‘Even with a range of planting dates, fields planted with coated seed will germinate at the same time – when soil and growing conditions are ideal.’ [Behling, A. (2001) Soybean Digest April] TS
Taking a pause with ABA Imagine a chemical that arrests a plant at an early stage of life but when taken away enables the plant to continue to develop. Luis Lopez-Molina and colleagues recently reported (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 98, 4782) that abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant chemical that does just that. The application of exogenous ABA arrests seedling development if applied within a 60-h window after seeds break open (stratification). With the extra ABA, seedlings did not develop further for up to 30 days, but by removing the ABA, the embryos resumed normal growth and development. This challenges the previous conclusion that the hormone acts as an inhibitor of germination. ABA might also be acting as an early growth inhibitor after germination. TS
http://plants.trends.com 1360-1385/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
TRENDS in Plant Science Vol.6 No.6 June 2001
243
In Brief
Controversy in conservation ‘Almost half of the higher plants on the shortlist for conservation in the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plans are taxonomically controversial – experts disagree on whether they are distinct species,’ says Pete Hollingsworth (Royal Botanic Garden, London, UK) in the latest issue of the bulletin of the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC). The comment follows from the recent discovery that a supposedly rare orchid turned out not to be a distinct species and highlights the difficulty of earmarking species for conservation. Scientists discovered the orchid species in the 1980s, Epipactis youngiana, and gave the orchids full conservation status and legal protection. However, under scrutiny, scientists now consider the orchid to be part of an already known species. [Ahuja, A. (2001) The Times (London) 2 April] TS
trees, with the added attraction that it is harvestable in only 150 days compared with several years for a tree. [http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/uiucapc030101.htm] NC
Cactus curbs craving
Coating enables early planting
GM plants poisoning the soil? In spite of strenuous efforts in some quarters to allay fears concerning the safety of GM foodstuffs, there is still considerable public disquiet about this ‘new technology’. One concern is that the Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) insecticidal toxin, which is widely engineered into maize (Zea mays) to protect it from such pests as European corn borer, might be transferred to non-GM plants. Although the Bt toxin is released into the soil from such plants, where it can persist for >179 days, Deepak Saxena and Guenther Stotzky [Nat. Biotechnol. (2001) 19, 199] report that it was not taken up by neighboring plants. NC
A wooden substitute As natural reserves of resources become threatened, entrepreneurs are always on the look out for alternatives. Poo Chow of the Wood Engineering Laboratory at the University of Illinois (USA) is examining the use of non-wood fiber crops that would reduce the demand for tree-fibers. In addition to promoting the value of stalks of corn (Zea mays) as a fiber-crop, he is encouraging local farmers to grow kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus), a native of EastCentral Africa, on their set-aside land. Kenaf produces fibers that are similar to those of
variation on this theme, Mansour Karimi et al. report [Mol. Plant Pathol. (2000) 1, 383–387] their use of a mixture of nematodes and Agrobacterium to infect Arabidopsis roots. As the nematodes migrated into the plant roots the T-DNA from the Agrobacterium was also delivered into the root cells. Stably transformed plants were regenerated from the infected roots, demonstrating the usefulness of this alternative method of DNA delivery, which has also been used successfully in Solanum tuberosum and Phaseolus vulgaris. NC
During long hunting trips, the now extinct ‘Kung tribe members from southern Africa munched on Hoodia cactus to stave off their hunger. Now the company Phytopharm (Cambridgeshire, UK) has capitalized on this observation and has isolated a compound named P57, which suppresses appetites. The ingredient has already been shown to produce weight loss in obese rats and has just completed safety trials with humans. Tests on obese subjects will start later this year. Normally, the cactus grows sparsely in the desert, but areas of the desert in South Africa have now become Hoodia farms. Obesity is a worldwide problem affecting 100 million people enough to seek medical intervention. [Firn, D. (2001) The Financial Times (London) 11 April, p. 2; Allen, N. (2001) The Press Association, 11 April] TS
Nematode-facilitated Agrobacterium entry into plants Construction of GM crops commonly relies on a bacterium, Agrobacterium sp., penetrating the plant cell and transferring its DNA (including any transgenes added by the investigator) to the host’s genome. In a
A new technology under development might one day help farmers to plant early in the spring season. Landec Ag (Menlo Park, CA, USA) is currently developing a line of hybrid corn, trademarked Early Plant, which contains a polymer seed coating. The coating protects the seeds from cold soils and breaks down when the soil temperature is optimal for germination. The commercially unavailable technology might some day enable farmers to plant their corn up to three weeks earlier than normal and give farmers more time during the planting season. Alan Barbre, of Landec Ag told reporters ‘Even with a range of planting dates, fields planted with coated seed will germinate at the same time – when soil and growing conditions are ideal.’ [Behling, A. (2001) Soybean Digest April] TS
Taking a pause with ABA Imagine a chemical that arrests a plant at an early stage of life but when taken away enables the plant to continue to develop. Luis Lopez-Molina and colleagues recently reported (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 98, 4782) that abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant chemical that does just that. The application of exogenous ABA arrests seedling development if applied within a 60-h window after seeds break open (stratification). With the extra ABA, seedlings did not develop further for up to 30 days, but by removing the ABA, the embryos resumed normal growth and development. This challenges the previous conclusion that the hormone acts as an inhibitor of germination. ABA might also be acting as an early growth inhibitor after germination. TS
http://plants.trends.com 1360-1385/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.