In many plant species, FLOWERING LOCUS T and related proteins are the mobile signal that communicates information on photoperiod from the leaves to the shoots, where the transition to flowering is realized. FT expression is tightly controlled at the transcriptional level so that it is restricted to leaves, occurs only in appropriate photoperiods, and integrates ambient temperature and developmental cues, as well as information on biotic and abiotic stress. We previously established that FT transcription in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana requires proximal promoter cis-elements and a distal enhancer, both evolutionary conserved among Brassicacea species. In addition, FT transcription is blocked prior vernalization in biannual accessions and vernalization-dependency of FT is controlled through a CArG-box located in the first intron that binds the transcriptional repressor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). Chromatin-mediated repression by the Polycomb Group (PcG) pathway is required for photoperiod-dependent FT regulation and participates in FT expression level modulation in response to other cues.In this project, I propose to explore the available sequence data from the 1001 genome project in Arabidopsis to evaluate how often changes in regulatory cis-elements at FT have occurred and how these translate into an adaptive value. Allele-specific FT expression pattern will be measured in F1 hybrids of different accessions in response to varying environmental conditions. FT alleles that show cis-regulatory variation will be further analyzed to pinpoint the causal regulatory changes and study their effect in more detail. The allotetrapolyploid species Brassica napus is a hybrid of two Brassiceae species belonging to the A- and C-type genome, which are in turn mesopolyploid due to a genome triplication that occurred ca. 10x106 years ago. We will determine allele-specific expression of FT paralogs from both genomes of a collection of B. napus accessions. The plants will be grown in the field in changing environmental conditions to maximize the chance to detect expression variation of the paralogs. We will compare the contribution of the founder genomes to the regulation of flowering time and asses variation in this contribution. A particular focus will be to study the impact of chromatin-mediated repression on allele selection in B. napus.
This table contains atmospheric CO2-estimates based on stomata retrieved in the Messel fossil pit and published by Grein (2010) and Grein et al. (2011). The data is based on leaves retrieved from the Messel fossil pit (earliest Middle Eocene; 47.66 to 47.22 Ma). The leaves were microscopically analysed for their stomata density and which was then converted into atmospheric CO2 content (cf. Grein 2010, Grein et al., 2011 for details about the algorithm). The plant fossils were listed with their original outcrop depth which was marked down relative to marker beds. We projected the outcrop depth (m) onto the FB2001 drill core depth using the marker beds as reference horizons. The age (Ma) as well as mean, maximum and minimum of the CO2 estimates are reported as well as the respective plant species.
Seagrass meadows play a significant role in the formation of carbonate sediments, serving as a substrate for carbonate-producing epiphyte communities. The magnitude of the epiphyte load depends on plant structural and physiological parameters, related to the time available for epiphyte colonization. Yet, the carbonate accumulation is likely to also depend on the carbonate saturation state of seawater (Omega) that tends to decrease as latitude increases due to decreasing temperature and salinity. A decrease in carbonate accumulation with increasing latitude has already been demonstrated for other carbonate producing communities. The aim of this study was to assess whether there was any correlation between latitude and the epiphyte carbonate load and net carbonate production rate on seagrass leaves. Shoots from 8 different meadows of the Zostera genus distributed across a broad latitudinal range (27 °S to up to 64 °N) were sampled along with measurements of temperature and Omega. The Omega within meadows significantly decreased as latitude increased and temperature decreased. The mean carbonate content and load on seagrass leaves ranged from 17 % DW to 36 % DW and 0.4-2.3 mg CO3/cm**2, respectively, and the associated mean carbonate net production rate varied from 0.007 to 0.9 mg CO3/cm**2/d. Mean carbonate load and net production rates decreased from subtropical and tropical, warmer regions towards subpolar latitudes, consistent with the decrease in Omega. These results point to a latitudinal variation in the contribution of seagrass to the accumulation of carbonates in their sediments which affect important processes occurring in seagrass meadows, such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration and sediment accretion.
Seed-based restoration is a promising approach to accelerate the slow natural recolonization of Zostera marina meadows. In this study, seed-based restoration was investigated through the injection of seeds into the sediment using syringes. Parallel laboratory and field experiments were conducted to examine the germination success over time under both simulated and natural field conditions. A laboratory experiment was conducted in the climate chambers of GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Twelve replicate aquaria, each containing 6 boxes of 18 cm*13 cm*18 cm, were set up in a climate chamber. Each plastic box in the aquaria was filled with 6 cm of sandy sediment collected from sandbanks next to seagrass meadows in Falckenstein near Kiel (54°23'39.4N 10°11'23.6E). For sterilization, the sediment was autoclaved at 121°C for 20 minutes before use. Water was changed weekly, with approximately 30% replaced by filtered (50 μm and 5 μm filter cascade) Baltic Sea water with an ambient salinity ranging from 14-16 PSU. The chamber simulated field conditions typical for the season, with 12 hours of light per day and a temperature of 10°C. In each box, a seed amount equivalent to the weight of 100 Zostera marina seeds was sown, based on the average seed weight determined prior to the experiment. Seeds were collected at two sites in Laboe and Falckenstein (Kiel Fjord) in July 2023 by snorkelers and scientific divers (Laboe: 54° 24' 48.53 N, 10° 13' 29.91 E; Falckenstein: 54° 23' 31.36 N, 10° 11' 31.15 E). They were overwintered in climate cabinets in darkness at 4°C and a salinity of 32 PSU, where they rotated every 6 hours for 1 minute. Different treatment combinations were tested, involving the factors Sowing Method (syringe (100 ml) with agar medium or Hand-Sown), Sowing Depth (2 cm or 4 cm), Origin of Seeds (Falckenstein or Laboe), and Fertilization of the Sediment (from the beginning, after germination, or none at all). The Hand-Sown method served as a control. To this end, the box was filled with about 4cm autoclaved sandy sediment. Then the seeds were evenly distributed on the surface and covered with either 2 cm or 4 cm of sediment before being gently lowered into the aquarium. For the syringe treatment, seeds were injected into the sediment embedded in an agar medium prepared by cooking Baltic Sea water with 1.8% agar (Agar-Agar, BioScience Grade, pulv., Carl Roth). Each syringe contained 90 ml crumbly agar, 10 g autoclaved sediment, 100 seeds and depending on the treatment, either 1g charcoal powder, nutrients (P and N) or no further additions. For the nutrients, according to the Redfield ratio N:P = 16:1, 100 μL of nitrogen and 10 μL of phosphorus were used per 90 mL of agar. There were three timing treatments for "Timing of Nutrients in the Sediment". "Nutrients from Beginning", "Nutrients after Germination" and "no Nutrients". The treatment was the same for all boxes within one aquarium to avoid potential influence on the surrounding water. As fertilizer "osmocote Langzeitdünger 6 Monate" (N P 19+9) was used. In the boxes with "Nutrients from Beginning", two pellets were inserted with tweezers into the sediment directly after sowing. In the boxes with "Nutrients after Germination", the same treatment started on April 29, 2024, after many of the seedlings had already developed some green leaves. The seeds were sown on March 4, 2024, and from March 21 to May 25, 2024, emerging seedlings were counted three times per week. Seedlings with only cotyledons and seedlings with developed green leaves were counted together in the beginning and separately from April 24, 2024, onwards.
Urbanization affects ecological communities but urban ecology has mostly focused on large and charismatic species. Water-filled tree holes and other ephemeral small standing waters in cities constitute unique but inconspicuous breeding habitats for a range of insects. Their biodiversity is not well known and how their communities respond to increased urbanization in particular, has rarely been studied. Using a Citizen Science Project, we investigated how urbanization (measured as imperviousness, human population density and altered temperature), additional environmental parameters (pH, electric conductivity) and detritus serving as a food source affected larval insect communities in artificial aquatic microhabitats. We found that these habitats were colonized quickly by a range of insect taxa. Their community abundance, richness and decomposition rates were largely stable across different levels of urbanization. Fine detritus content increased larval abundance. Community composition shifted strongly with urbanization. The most abundant and frequent species in our study, the exotic mosquito species Aedes japonicus, responded negatively to imperviousness. Aquatic microhabitats could be shown to be important habitats for aquatic insects in cities. However, their community composition may change with increased urbanization. As our results showed, exotic species such as mosquitoes may dominate the communities in these habitats. In the case of vector species, high abundances may affect human and animal health via increased pathogen transmission. Therefore, we suggest raising awareness about potential risks of these habitats and possible measures preventing the establishment and spread of harmful species, while still supporting native biodiversity in urban spaces.
This dataset contains physiological measurements from a controlled laboratory experiment on juvenile Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas fir) conducted between June and August 2023 at the experimental greenhouse facility of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Campus Alpin, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany. The plant material originated from a commercial nursery in Franconia, Germany, and consisted of three-year-old trees maintained under uniform conditions prior to the experiment. The experiment aimed to assess the physiological responses of P. menziesii to progressive drought and subsequent recovery under controlled environmental conditions. Two drought treatments (mild and severe) were applied over a four-week period, followed by a re-watering phase. Air and soil temperature, relative humidity, vapor pressure deficit, molar flow, transpiration rate, net photosynthesis, conductance to water, and CO₂ exchange were recorded continuously using automated LI-COR gas exchange systems with separate branch (aboveground) and root (belowground) chambers. Each measurement is associated with a unique tree identifier, treatment level, and compartment. All timestamps are reported in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The dataset provides detailed observations suitable for examining drought stress responses and recovery dynamics in juvenile Pseudotsuga menziesii under controlled laboratory conditions.
Cherry leaf roll virus (CLRV) is a plant pathogen of economic and ecologic importance. It is globally distributed in a wide range of forest, fruit, and ornamental trees and shrubs. In several areas of cherry and walnut production CLRV causes severe losses in yield and quality. With current reference to the rapid dissemination and strong symptom expression in Finnish birches and the Germany-wide distribution of CLRV in birches and elderberry, we continuously investigate and gradually reveal CLRV transmission pathways as by pollen, seeds or water. However, modes and interactions responsible for the wide intergeneric host transmission as well as for the exceptional CLRV epidemic in Fennoscandia still remain unknown. In this project systematic studies shall investigate biological vectors as a causal agent to finally derive control mechanisms and strategies to avoid new epidemics in different hosts and geographic regions. Detailed monitoring of the invertebrate fauna of birch stands/forests and elderberry plantations in Germany and Finland shall reveal potential vectors to subsequently study them in detail by approved virus detection methods and transmission experiments. Molecular analyses of the CLRV coat protein shall prove its role as a viral determinant for a virus/vector interaction. Consequently, this project essentially will contribute important answers on the CLRV epidemiology, and this will be a key element within the first network of research on plant viral pathogens in forest trees.
The vegetative propagation of ornamental plants depends on adventitious root formation (ARF) in cuttings, which is related to economic losses in horticulture. Based on the established microarray for transcriptome studies, a biochemical and a transformation platform, Petunia will be used to investigate the molecular physiological regulation behind environmental modulation of ARF in shoot tip cuttings. The concept relies on the fact that ARF depends on establishment of the new sink in the stem base and is restricted by competition with the shoot apex for assimilate and nutrient provision. Leaves are considered as potential source organs and auxin is expected to be a key factor. Project part A follows the hypotheses, that high nitrogen supply to donor plants and dark exposure of cuttings promote ARF by enhanced nitrogen remobilization within the cutting and enhanced translocation and accumulation of the signalling molecules auxin and nitric oxide. In part B it is hypothesized that ARF is restricted by phase specific deficiency of macro- and microelements, which can be met by targeted nutrient supply to the stem base during certain developmental stages. In particular, the role of nitrate and urea in homeostasis of phytohormones is regarded. In both project parts, analysis of auxin and cytokinin levels by GC- and LC-MS/MS will be complemented by histochemical localization of auxin activity via the DR5 auxin reporter. The regulatory role of components will be verified by physiological and pharmacological treatments and in transgenic Petunia with a modified expression of candidate genes.
Im Hinblick auf die Ursache der cytoplasmatisch-kerngenischen männlichen Sterilität beim PET2-Plasma konnte sowohl ein neuer offener Leserahmen orf288 identifiziert werden, der für ein 10,6-kDa-Protein mit einer potentiellen Transmembrandomäne kodiert, als auch ein zusätzliches 5'-deletiertes atp9 Gen (orf231). Der orf288 wird in Blättern der männlich sterilen Pflanzen (PET2) und der fertilitätsrestaurierten Hybride exprimiert. Bei der Überexpression des orf288 in E. coli erwies sich dieser als cytotoxisch, ebenso der orf231. Es muss geklärt werden, ob der orf288 für das spezifische 12,4-kDa-Protein im PET2-Plasma kodiert. Außerdem sind für die Wirkungsweise die Lokalisation innerhalb der Mitochondrien und eine mögliche Assoziation mit anderen mitochondrialen Proteinkomplexen von Bedeutung. Zudem muss der Einfluss des Restorergens RfPET2 auf die Transkription und Expression des Genprodukts des orf288 und/oder des orf231 in den Blüten untersucht werden. Über die Transformation von Tabak mit einem Konstrukt zur antherenspezifischen Expression des orf288 und/oder orf231 soll der ursächliche Zusammenhang zwischen der männlichen Sterilität und diesen orfs erbracht werden.
Die fördernde Wirkung von Cytokinin auf die Blühinduktion wurde bereits kurz nach der Entdeckung dieses Pflanzenhormons vor mehr als 50 Jahren beschrieben. Allerdings blieben die molekularen Wirkmechanismen dieser Aktivität weitestgehend unbekannt, obwohl große Fortschritte im Verständnis des Metabolismus und der Signalübertragung des Hormons erreicht wurde. Das Ziel dieses Forschungsprojektes ist es, das Ausmaß und die Wirkmechanismen der Regulation des Blühzeitpunktes durch Cytokinin zu untersuchen. Die meisten Arbeiten werden mit Arabidopsis thaliana durchgeführt, aber die Übertragbarkeit der Ergebnisse auf Raps (Brassica napus L.), in dem das Blühverhalten ein wichtiges Züchtungsziel ist, wird ebenfalls studiert. In einem ersten Projektabschnitt wird das Blühverhalten von Mutanten der meisten der ca.60 Cytokininmetabolismus- und -signalgene analysiert, um die funktionell relevanten Gene zu identifizieren. In Vorarbeiten konnten wir die Cytokininrezeptoren AHK2 und AHK3 sowie die Transkriptionsfaktoren ARR10 und ARR12 als zentral für die Cytokininwirkung ermitteln. Diese Analyse wird ergänzt durch die Untersuchung von Pflanzen mit einem gewebespezifisch veränderten Cytokininstatus, wobei das apikale Sproßmeristem, Blätter, Phloem und die Wurzel im Mittelpunkt stehen. Die Transkriptlevel bekannter Blühgene werden bei verschiedenen Tageslängen und nach einem Shift der Tageslänge zu induzierenden Bedingungen miteinander verglichen. Der Einfluß von Umweltparametern (Licht, Ernährung) auf die Wirkung von Cytokinin wird getestet, um zu verstehen, unter welchen Bedingungen sein Einfluß besonders relevant ist. Die Analyse von Transkriptomdaten hat zu Hypothesen über eine Rolle von Cytokinin als Modulator verschiedener Signalwege geführt, einschließlich der Regulation des Repressorgens ATC, miR156, miR172 und Interaktionen mit den Gibberellin- und Trehalose-6-Phosphatsignalwegen. Diese Hypothesen werden mit Hilfe genetischer und molekularer Ansätze weiter untersucht. Diese Analysen und die Identifizierung von Zielgenen von ARR10 und ARR12 soll die Aktivität von Cytokinin mit bekannten Komponenten der Blühregulation verbinden. Desweiteren wird ein genetischer Ansatz verfolgt, um Zugang zu den Wirkmechanismen von Cytokinin zu erhalten. Die fehlende Blühinduktion cytokinindefizienter Pflanzen kann durch dominante Suppressormutationen revertiert werden. Zusätzliche Mutanten, die spezifisch die Blühinduktion betreffen, sollen identifiziert und die mutierten Gene durch markergestützte Genkartierung kloniert werden. Zudem wird die Rolle von Cytokinin bei der Regulation des Blühzeitpunktes von Rapspflanzen mit einem gentechnisch veränderten Cytokininstatus untersucht. Diese Analyse sollte Aufschluß darüber geben, ob cytokininabhängige Mechanismen der Blühregulation in dieser wichtigen Kulturpflanze konserviert sind und sich als Züchtungsziel zur Modulation des Blühverhaltens eignen.
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