Analysis of the wheat genome sequence data reported by scientists from Britain, Germany and the United States

A group of scientists has reported the sequencing of  large size and polyploid bread wheat genome. They have sequenced a large, 17-gigabase-pair, hexaploid genome using 454 pyrosequencing, and compared this with the sequences of diploid ancestral and progenitor genomes. They have also identified between 94,000 and 96,000 genes, and assigned two-thirds to the three component genomes (A, B and D) of hexaploid wheat. High-resolution synteny maps identified many small disruptions to conserved gene order. They observed that the hexaploid genome is highly dynamic, with significant loss of gene family members on polyploidization and domestication, and an abundance of gene fragments. Several classes of genes involved in energy harvesting, metabolism and growth are among expanded gene families that could be associated with crop productivity. Their analyses, coupled with the identification of extensive genetic variation will provide a resource for accelerating gene discovery and improving this major crop. Here it is important to mention that sequencing wheat genome was a challenge due to its polploidy nature. The bread wheat is the result of gradual and evolved hybridisation of three closely related species making its genome more complex. It is learned that the bread wheat genome is almost five times bigger than the human genome.

The research was published online in the Journal 'Nature' on wednesday 28th November 2012. It was a multi-institute project in which approximately thirty scientists were involved. DNA sequence was generated by The University of Liverpool Centre for Genomic Research (United Kingdom), 454 Life Sciences (United States), The Cold Spring Harbor Woodbury Genome Centre (United States) and The Genome Analysis Centre (United Kingdom).This work was supported by UK Biological and Biotechnological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and others. Scientists from MIPS/IBIS, Helmholtz- Zentrum München, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany was also the part of this project.

The full length research article is available (open access) on the Nature website.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v491/n7426/full/nature11650.html#/abstract

Plant scientists contribute to meet increasing demand for fresh water

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Alistair M. Hetherington, Editor-in-Chief  of 'New Phytologist' has mentioned in the forthcoming issue, (Volume 197, Issue 1, January 2013)  how plant scientists contribute to mitigate the demand of 30% increase (by 2030) for fresh water. Following are some of the fundamental research output in relation to  plant-water biology described by him which can help us to meet the demand for fresh water in future .

• Discovery and exploitation  of drought avoidance, escape startegies, and reduced water tolerance ability adopted by plant species. [Reference Article : Franks SJ. 2011. Plasticity and evolution in drought avoidance and escape in the annual plant Brassica rapa. New Phytologist 190: 249–257 ]
• Understanding the mechanisms capable of detecting and responding to highly localized sources of water by certain plant species. [Reference Article: Salguero-Gómez R, Casper BB. 2011. Introducing short roots in a desert perennial: anatomy and spatiotemporal foraging responses to increased precipitation. New Phytologist 191: 173–183 ]
• Understanding the strategies how stomata balance the potentially conflicting demands to open and permit carbon dioxide uptake while concomitantly restricting water loss. [Reference Article: Vico G, Manzoni S, Palmroth S, Katul G. 2011. Effects of stomatal delays on the economics of leaf gas exchange under intermittent light regimes. New Phytologist 192: 640–652 ]

In his concluding remarks he writes,

 "the introduction of a new trait such as the ‘short root’ into crop species or the manipulation of water usage through modifying stomatal development or function would have looked fanciful".

These are some of the indicative areas which will be further refined by plant scientists to understand the plant-water relationship in a more effective and efficient way and the advancement of the same may be applied to mitigate the increasing demand for fresh water in future.

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Algae may be heterotrophic!

Basic features of  algae - unicellular to multicellular organisms, typically autotrophic (phototrophic). Yes they are typically autotrophic.

But in the recent issue of Nature Communications Vol. 3, Article number: 1214; doi:10.1038/ncomms2210 it has been reoprted that the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii not only engages in photosynthesis, it also has an alternative source of energy. A group of scientists from Department of Biology, Algae Biotechnology and Bioenergy–Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec), Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany has presented another paradigm of adaptation for C. reinhardtii, highlighting its photoheterotrophic ability to utilize cellulose for growth in the absence of other carbon sources. They claim C. reinhardtii may thus serve as biocatalysts for cellulosic biofuel production.

Go Botany: Integrated Tools to Advance Botanical Learning

Elizabeth Farnsworth, PhD                                                                                                    PDF

Senior Research Ecologist, New England Wild Flower Society,
180 Hemenway Road, Framingham, MA 01701, United States 

Go Botany: Integrated Tools to Advance Botanical Learning is a project to educate people about the plants of New England. New England Wild Flower Society, the oldest organization dedicated to plant conservation in the United States, is developing a multi-faceted, on-line resource designed to: i) improve self-directed scientific education in botany among novice learners, amateur and professional botanists, and citizen-scientists in New England, and ii) train science educators to integrate innovative web tools into lessons on botany and plant identification.    

   This web-based project will result in an online New England flora called Go Botany, which will build upon the Flora Novae Angliae, written by Arthur Haines and published by Yale University Press (2011), the first comprehensive scientific reference on the region's plant species produced in the last 25 years. The educational products and innovations from this project will be nationally distributed to educational organizations and will serve as a model for engaging teenage and adult learners in science.

Audiences

We seek to engage life-long learners in learning about plants in both formal and informal educational settings. The Go Botany Simple Key (released April 2012) has been user-tested with people ages 8 to 80 and is being used in classrooms, teachers participating in the Harvard Forest Schoolyard LTER Program and Project Budburst, professors teaching botany courses at the college level, instructors conducting workshops for adults, Plant Conservation Volunteers and Task Force members of the New England Wild Flower Society, professional botanists of the Natural Heritage Programs throughout New England, Garden Club members, the American Society of Botanical Artists, the Army Corps of Engineers, and many other audiences. Over 35,000 people have visited Go Botany, with the number of visits ever-increasing.

Deliverables
Simple Key ID

•  Beginners or experts can identify over 1,200 of the more common species of plants with ease.
• Users first choose what broad group their “mystery” plant belongs to; Go Botany provides videos, text, and photographs to help categorize the plant. Next, users choose what subgroup the plant is in, using the same helpful tools.
• Third, users answer some easy questions about features of the plant you can see, like bark and buds in mid-winter or flowers and fruits in summer – you choose! The Simple Key ID is smart, giving you questions based on the answers you’ve already made. It’s also friendly, minimizing jargon, and instantly giving illustrated, pop-up definitions of botanical terms. The Simple Key provides images and summary information about possible matches, so users can quickly determine the identity of the plant by the process of elimination.
• Once users have arrived at a species, visit its information page to learn lots more: fun facts and uses, maps of the species’ range, gorgeous photos, information about all its features, look-alike species, and whether it’s native, invasive, or rare in New England.

Advanced ID Tools 

For more experienced or professional botanists, Go Botany will feature (Winter 2012):

• A Full Key that uses the same friendly interface as our Simple ID Key, but allows user to identify all 3,500 species, subspecies, and varieties of plants in the New England flora.
• A Dichotomous Key which is clickable and interactive, allowing users to trace their steps, change their choices, and key out plants to families, genera, species and subspecific taxa.

PlantShare

This online forum (due Spring 2013) will connect users with other plant enthusiasts to create and share checklists and photographs of species they have seen. Users can:

• Collaborate to assemble lists of plants in their schoolyard, neighborhood, or hometown.
• Keep a map of all the plants they have seen, and view other members’ discoveries.
• If users have a question about a plant they are trying to identify, they can consult our online Expert Botanist or the community of PlantShare members and get answers.

Tools for Teachers

Looking for new ways to engage your students? Go Botany provides a forum to share ideas on using Go Botany in the curriculum. Go Botany is designed to help formal educators meet state teaching standards.

• Teachers can use our innovative technology to encourage students to look carefully at plants, build skills to identify them, and search for particular species they’ll want to know more about.
• Students can use Go Botany outdoors with a tablet computer anywhere they have a web connection, or in the lab to key out plant specimens they have collected.
• Use the checklist feature to develop a customized flora of a local schoolyard, backyard, environmental center, or hometown.
• During 2012-2013, we’ll be offering free workshops all over New England specifically for formal and informal science educators. 

William Roxburgh – The Father of Indian Botany

Photo: William Roxburgh (Courtesy: wikipedia)

Much development in Botany took place during British Empire in India. Linnean system of ‘Binomial nomenclature’ was introduced only in 1778 by the natural historian engaged with the British East India Company. During this period, botanical gardens were being founded in every significant city in India to study the natural history of the plants. Many botanists and surveyors were recruited by East India Company to report and record Indian flora. One such botanist of this period and the founding father of Indian botany by his contemporaries was William Roxburgh.

                  William Roxburgh was born on June 29th 1751. Different dates published in various sources disputes his date of birth. Royal Botanic Garden, Kew on its website mentions birth place of Roxburgh in Underwood, Ayrshire. He matriculated at Edinburgh University in 1771-1772 to study surgery under Dr. Alexender Monro. Further he was also the student of Dr. John Hope, professor of botany and materia medica. Roxburgh reached Madras (now Chennai) in 1776 as an assistant surgeon in the East India Company’s Madras General Hospital. For the period 1776-1793 he worked at Coromandel Coast, during this period he also met Johann Gerhard Konig (pupil of Linneaeus, who introduced binomial nomenclature in India). In 1789 he was appointed as natural historian of East Indian India Company. He moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) to be the superintendent of the Botanic Garden, the present Indian Botanical Garden at Sheopur, Howrah, and Kolkata. Working here, he started getting world-wide recognition as a botanist. He was instrumental in introducing many plant and species to India and simultaneously he sent many species to Kew, London. His Voluminous work, ‘Flora Indica’ was published after his death. Roxburgh left for England from Calcutta in 1813 at the age of 62 spending some 37 years in India. He died at Edinburgh in 1815. Interesting to know that William Roxburgh, Botanists had 3 wives having same first name viz.  1. Mary Bonte 2.Mary Huttemann, 3. Mary Boswell and thereby left a large family behind him. 

Dr. Tin Robinson in his PhD thesis mentioned about a short review of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, written in 1971 wherein it was mentioned, “Dr William Roxburgh was one of the greatest botanists of his time, and during his term converted the garden in its character from its original economic purpose to the service of scientific botany”.  He is often referred as “the Linnaeus of India” The tireless work of Roxburgh earned him the sobriquet ‘The Father of Indian Botany’.

Books on William Roxburgh biography
William Roxburgh: The Founding Father of Indian Botany	William Roxburgh. Indian Botanical Garden. East India Company
Author: Tim Robinson Publisher: Phillimore & Company	Authors: Lambert M Surhone, Miriam T Timpledon,  Susan F Marseken Publisher: Betascript Publishing,   (Editor)
Indian Botanists Blog-o-Journal may publish the review of these books in near future.

 

Aim and Scope of 'Indian Botanists Blog-O-Journal'

Indian Botanists intends to share information in most of the areas of basic and advanced plant sciences. The main areas of our interest are: evolutionary biology, phytogeography, phylogeny, taxonomy, genetics, ecology, morphology, physiology, developmental biology, cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics, bioinformatics, systems biology, agricultural & environmental sciences, medicinal plants, herbal-pharmacy  research & teaching aids and other allied disciplines. Indian Botanists is an initiative to provide a platform for sharing information regarding interdisciplinary areas and in newly developing areas of basic plant biology and make this information available in the public domain as all the articles would have open access.

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Welcome to Indian Botanists Blog - O - Journal!

 'Indian Botanists Blog-O-Journal' welcomes you all to share a forum which is something more or, different if not more, than to publish and access research article. As a student, researcher, academician, etc. of plant science we experience about nature, surroundings and learn a lot during excursion or any study tour. Moreover, we feel the relation of plants with human life. In laboratory too many a times we may not get expected result with our designed and scheduled experiment but it teaches a lesson, the discipline and many more for the next experiment. All these we always feel to share with our colleagues. This Blog-cum-Journal (Blog-O-Journal) provides you the opportunity for the same. Nevertheless you are free to submit your experiences in a scientific but more precise way.You may choose your submission in the form of write-up, sketches, drawings, photos, videos or any compatible electronic form. Indian Botanists may assure you that you will cherish the moment when and where you will receive any comment for your post and you can continue to interact with fellow botanists and plant lovers which we always miss in the conventional mode of research publications. Indian Botanists do provides space for  your elaborated research article in pdf version. Interview of both young and experienced botanists and plant scientists regarding their achievements will always be an inspirational column. A regular post on book review both the new arrivals and old texts will be an added features.  Indian Botanist doesnotintends to cuff academic gossipmentary, rather it encourages short, incisive, even well-researched pieces which should simply be thought of as a different genre of writing. Please click here to know more about Indian Botanists. 

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