CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

The International Day for Biological Diversity

The 22nd May 2009 is 'The International Day for Biological Diversity'. For 2009 the theme is Invasive Alien Species (IAS) - a major threat to biodiversity and food production - and a research and knowledge provision area that we here at CABI are are highly skilled in. The majority of our scientists time is spent tackling various IAS and mitigating their impact on agriculture and the wider environment. In addition our publishing team put together a detailed range of products, including the CAB Abstracts database subset on invasives, Major texts on Invasives (print and e-book) and also we are developing with the assistance of a consortia of international donors the Invasive Species Compendium for launch in 2010.

Ask our invasive expert a question today

Arne Witt is the coordinator for Invasive Species at CABI Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya. Arne is responsible for coordinating all CABI activities associated with Invasive Alien Species (IAS) on the African continent. He is also the current International Project Coordinator for the UNEP-GEF project, “Removing Barriers to Invasive Plant Management in Africa”.

You can ask Arne a question about invasive species on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Ask an expert site during the whole of today, May 19th 2009. I encourage you to check the site on a regular basis throughout the day and pose questions to Arne.

Express Yourself Genetically: Say It With Flowers

 

Is it a plant or is it animal? Is it an artwork or is it a science project? Is it a profound statement or just messing about? These are just some of the questions unlikely to be answered by Edunia, a transgenic flower with artist Eduardo Kac's own DNA expressed in the red veins.  It is part of an exhibition "Natural History of the Enigma" at the  Weisman Art Museum, in Minneapolis.

The Edunia has red veins on light pink petals and a gene of the artist is expressed on every cell of its red veins, i.e., Kac's gene produces a protein in the veins only. The gene was isolated and sequenced from Kac's blood. Kac sees the petal pink background, against which the red veins are seen, as evocative of his own pinkish white skin tone. The result of this molecular manipulation is a bloom that creates the living image of human blood rushing through the veins of a flower. The gene Kac selected is responsible for the identification of foreign bodies. In this work, it is precisely that which identifies and rejects the other that the artist integrates into the other, thus creating a new kind of self that is partially flower and partially human. Molecular biologist Neil Olszewski at the University of Minnesota collaborated with Kac on the project.

In 2002 Kac exhibited ‘Alba’, a transgenic albino rabbit: She contains a jellyfish gene that makes her glow green when illuminated with the correct light. Alba was created by French scientists who injected green fluorescent protein (GFP) of a Pacific Northwest jellyfish into the fertilized egg of an albino rabbit. This was not the first transgenic GFP animal, but probably the first to grace an art gallery.

Kac says "Natural History of the Enigma" is a reflection on the "contiguity of life between different species. It uses the redness of blood and the redness of the plant's veins as a marker of our shared heritage in the wider spectrum of life."

In anticipation of a future in which Edunias can be distributed socially and planted everywhere, Kac created a set of "Edunia Seed Packs", which are included in the exhibition. The "Edunia Seed Packs" contain actual Edunia seeds and are part of the permanent collection of the Weisman Art Museum.

George Gessert, another genetic artist, points out that this is the continuation of a trend, with Edward Steichen exhibiting hybrid delphiniums at the Museum of Modern Art in 1936. More recently, Suzanne Ankers made sculptures of chromosomes and Dave Powell has bred  "artcats" specifically for exhibition in galleries.

Those negatively disposed to transgenic organisms are likely to see this as further evidence of scientists fiddling about with things that they shouldn't for no good reason. Others may see it as artists just finding another medium to work with - the DNA of living organisms. So expect to find pipettes and Petri dishes alongside the paintbrushes in your local art shop.

Find out more: http://www.ekac.org/nat.hist.enig.html

CABI caught on camera - natural pesticides and Himalayan balsam

CABI has produced two YouTube videos highlighting the work of our scientists:

Following in Darwin’s footsteps: unearthing Chile’s hidden world
Two crop protection scientists from CABI embark upon a journey to extreme environments in Chile. They are on a mission to find fungi and nematodes that could be used to make natural pesticides.

In search of biological control agents for Himalayan balsam
CABI scientists travel to India searching for biological control agents to combat Britain’s devastatingly invasive weed Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera). The plant is native to the Himalayan range making this the perfect place to study the natural interactions between the plant and its environment.

Find out more about CABI's projects.

Environmental impacts of Bt crops – on target or non-target?

Genetically modified crops containing a toxin gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis have been used by farmers for 11 years now. These Bt crops were designed to give the plants resistance to important pests. But might they also be harming non-target invertebrates?  A study by Steven Naranjo of the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service looks at the evidence and compares it with the impacts of the pesticides that would otherwise have been used.

Bt maize and cotton have been commercially produced on about 42 million hectares in 20 countries. Their potential non-target effects have been considered in over 360 published research papers. Naranjo, in his paper in CAB Reviews, looks across around 200 of these studies to draw conclusions.

 

Investigations found that the abundance of all non-target invertebrates was slightly lower for Bt crops than in non-Bt crops, but much higher in Bt crops than in non-Bt crops treated with insecticides. Using meta-analysis, a way of doing a meaningful comparison across different studies, Naranjo found that laboratory studies indicated negative effects of Bt on some non-target invertebrates, though these depended on how the trials were done and which invertebrates were being looked at. However, few harmful effects of Bt crops were shown in field studies. One factor may be that exposure to the Bt toxin is higher in the laboratory experiments than in the field. It was also clear that nontarget effects for insecticides are much greater than for Bt crops.

 

While Bt crops mean that some specialist parasitoids that would otherwise attack pests of maize have less to feed on, the overall levels of predation on pests have not been shown to drop. Naranjo believes Bt crops could enhance the role of biological control in integrated pest management.

 

Naranjo's paper emphasises that a key comparison to make is what would have happened without Bt crops. Bt maize and Bt cotton are believed to have led to a 136.6 million kg reduction in insecticide active ingredient, and rootworm-resistance crops will reduce the levels of insecticide present in the soil.

 

The paper, "Impacts of Bt crops on non-target invertebrates and insecticide use patterns" by Steven E. Naranjo appears in CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources, 2009, 4, No. 011, 23 pp.

Download full CAB Reviews article

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Sri Lankan coconut farmers predict yields for future climates

Millions of people in the tropics depend on coconuts for food, raw materials and livelihood. Coconuts are also a high value commercial crop. But like any crop, coconuts are at risk of drought and other prolonged events. By using climate science and better agricultural forecast models, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) has helped increase the resilience of coconut plantations to climate variability in one of the world's major producers, Sri Lanka.

"Coconut cultivation sustains the livelihood of large numbers in the tropics and is the most important crop for food security after rice in Sri Lanka," says IRI scientist Lareef Zubair.

Hygienic Honeybees to Save Hives

Back in November 2008, avid followers of hand picked........and carefully sorted will remember my blog about how Rowse Honey were investing £100,000 in honeybee (Apis mellifera) health research, to be undertaken by Britain’s only professor of apiculture, Francis Ratnieks. Well, after months of research it seems that significant headway has been made to breed hygienic honeybees and the plan is now to make them available to beekeepers (Lean, 2009).

How can plant scientists change the world?

By identifying the top 100 questions facing plant science and addressing them.

Inspired by a study which identified 100 ecological questions of high policy relevance in the UK, experts at the University of Bristol launched a website to identify the most important and urgent questions in global plant science. Plant science is helping to address many of the big issues facing society today, such as food security, biofuels and the effects of climate change, but what are the key questions that the next generation of plant scientists should be addressing?

The questions submitted so far range from broad to specific, from purely scientific to applied.

How can we combine traditional plant breeding techniques, biotechnology and GMOs to prepare the worlds' crop plants for oncoming climate change? How can we use our knowledge of carbon fixation to address the rising levels of carbon dioxide? How can we move nitrogen fixing systems into non-legume crops? And one that will go down well with my gardening colleagues...Can we improve the resistance of brassica crops to slugs by learning from their wild relatives

You can have your say by submitting your questions via the 100 Plant Science Questions website until the end of March.

In April the panel will select the top 10 and top 100 questions they believe will inform scientific, political and scientific agendas in the coming years.

The UN ask an expert programme - Invasive Species Q&A transcript

I was catching up on my reading of invasive species blogs during my coffee-break this morning, so unfortunately this is now a historical post, but still worth checking out. Jennifer Forman Orth over at the Invasive Species Weblog noticed that it was "Ask an Expert" Invasives Day on the 4th and 5th March over at the UNEP. Dr. Michael Browne, former manager of the Global Invasive Species Database (GISD) was the expert in question. You can still see a transcript of the Q&A session here.  

Hot Potatoes

With advancing climate change have potatoes had their chips?

Looking back over the International Year of the Potato, Marco Bindi (University of Florence) answers the question "What effect will global warming have on the potato?"

"Since potato's tuberization rate declines above a temperature of 17°C, increasing temperatures may lead to reduced yields in potato varieties now cultivated close to the upper climatic limits of the crop that would not be recovered by higher levels of carbon dioxide" says Bindi. Conversely, in northern Europe, simulations have shown that a warmer climate would bring about a longer growing season and increase in potato yields. Increases in temperature may also open up new regions available to potato growing that were previously too cold. However, the global picture for potatoes in a warming climate is poor. "The most vulnerable area is the tropical belts" says Bindi, "where the loss [in yield] could be more than 50 percent". Arid regions currently used for potato production will also see a drop in productivity due to water shortages.

Pests and diseases

Changes in climate also result in mixed consequences for pests and diseases of potato. Bindi predicts that late blight could increase significantly, but that the new zones for production opening up further north will have minimal blight risk. Research also indicates increases in the diffusion of Colorado beetle in Europe and increases in the regions infested by potato cyst nematode are expected.

Adapting to climate change

Bindi has a number of suggestions to aid in the adaptation to a changing climate. These include consideration of planting date, use of different varieties and improving soil water supply. Bindi adds "Another strategy is shifting potato production towards areas of higher productivity or areas where there is currently no potato production".

References

FAO, 2009. International Year of the Potato 2008 - New light on a hidden treasure. An end-of-year review. FAO, Rome, Italy: 136 pp.