De novo sequencing of the Hypericum perforatum L. flower transcriptome to identify potential genes that are related to plant reproduction sensu lato

Background: St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum L.) is a medicinal plant that produces important metabolites with antidepressant and anticancer activities. Recently gained biological information has shown that this species is also an attractive model system for the study of a naturally occurring form of asexual reproduction called apomixis, which allows cloning plants through seeds. In aposporic gametogenesis, one or multiple somatic cells belonging to the ovule nucellus change their fate by dividing mitotically and developing functionally unreduced embryo sacs by mimicking sexual gametogenesis. Although the introduction of apomixis into agronomically important crops could have revolutionary implications for plant breeding, the genetic control of this mechanism of seed formation is still not well understood for most of the model species investigated so far. We used Roche 454 technology to sequence the entire H. perforatum flower transcriptome of whole flower buds and single flower verticils collected from obligately sexual and unrelated highly or facultatively apomictic genotypes, which enabled us to identify RNAs that are likely exclusive to flower organs (i.e., sepals, petals, stamens and carpels) or reproductive strategies (i.e., sexual vs. apomictic). Results: Here we sequenced and annotated the flower transcriptome of H. perforatum with particular reference to reproductive organs and processes. In particular, in our study we characterized approximately 37,000 transcripts found expressed in male and/or female reproductive organs, including tissues or cells of sexual and apomictic flower buds. Ontological annotation was applied to identify major biological processes and molecular functions involved in flower development and plant reproduction. Starting from this dataset, we were able to recover and annotate a large number of transcripts related to meiosis, gametophyte/gamete formation, and embryogenesis, as well as genes that are exclusively or preferentially expressed in sexual or apomictic libraries. Real-Time RT-qPCR assays on pistils and anthers collected at different developmental stages from accessions showing alternative modes of reproduction were used to identify potential genes that are related to plant reproduction sensu lato in H. perforatum. Conclusions: Our approach of sequencing flowers from two fully obligate sexual genotypes and two unrelated highly apomictic genotypes, in addition to different flower parts dissected from a facultatively apomictic accession, enabled us to analyze the complexity of the flower transcriptome according to its main reproductive organs as well as for alternative reproductive behaviors. Both annotation and expression data provided original results supporting the hypothesis that apomixis in H. perforatum relies upon spatial or temporal mis-expression of genes acting during female sexual reproduction. The present analyses aim to pave the way toward a better understanding of the molecular basis of flower development and plant reproduction, by identifying genes or RNAs that may differentiate or regulate the sexual and apomictic reproductive pathways in H. perforatum

Identity Politics and the New Genetics

Racial and ethnic categories have appeared in recent scientific work in novel ways and in relation to a variety of disciplines: medicine, forensics, population genetics and also developments in popular genealogy. Once again, biology is foregrounded in the discussion of human identity. Of particular importance is the preoccupation with origins and personal discovery and the increasing use of racial and ethnic categories in social policy. This new genetic knowledge, expressed in technology and practice, has the potential to disrupt how race and ethnicity are debated, managed and lived. The contributors include medical researchers, anthropologists, historians of science and sociologists of race relations; together, they explore the new and challenging landscape where biology becomes the stuff of identity

Identity Politics and the New Genetics

Racial and ethnic categories have appeared in recent scientific work in novel ways and in relation to a variety of disciplines: medicine, forensics, population genetics and also developments in popular genealogy. Once again, biology is foregrounded in the discussion of human identity. Of particular importance is the preoccupation with origins and personal discovery and the increasing use of racial and ethnic categories in social policy. This new genetic knowledge, expressed in technology and practice, has the potential to disrupt how race and ethnicity are debated, managed and lived. The contributors include medical researchers, anthropologists, historians of science and sociologists of race relations; together, they explore the new and challenging landscape where biology becomes the stuff of identity

De novo sequencing of the Hypericum perforatum L. flower transcriptome to identify potential genes that are related to plant reproduction sensu lato

BACKGROUND: St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum L.) is a medicinal plant that produces important metabolites with antidepressant and anticancer activities. Recently gained biological information has shown that this species is also an attractive model system for the study of a naturally occurring form of asexual reproduction called apomixis, which allows cloning plants through seeds. In aposporic gametogenesis, one or multiple somatic cells belonging to the ovule nucellus change their fate by dividing mitotically and developing functionally unreduced embryo sacs by mimicking sexual gametogenesis. Although the introduction of apomixis into agronomically important crops could have revolutionary implications for plant breeding, the genetic control of this mechanism of seed formation is still not well understood for most of the model species investigated so far. We used Roche 454 technology to sequence the entire H. perforatum flower transcriptome of whole flower buds and single flower verticils collected from obligately sexual and unrelated highly or facultatively apomictic genotypes, which enabled us to identify RNAs that are likely exclusive to flower organs (i.e., sepals, petals, stamens and carpels) or reproductive strategies (i.e., sexual vs. apomictic). RESULTS: Here we sequenced and annotated the flower transcriptome of H. perforatum with particular reference to reproductive organs and processes. In particular, in our study we characterized approximately 37,000 transcripts found expressed in male and/or female reproductive organs, including tissues or cells of sexual and apomictic flower buds. Ontological annotation was applied to identify major biological processes and molecular functions involved in flower development and plant reproduction. Starting from this dataset, we were able to recover and annotate a large number of transcripts related to meiosis, gametophyte/gamete formation, and embryogenesis, as well as genes that are exclusively or preferentially expressed in sexual or apomictic libraries. Real-Time RT-qPCR assays on pistils and anthers collected at different developmental stages from accessions showing alternative modes of reproduction were used to identify potential genes that are related to plant reproduction sensu lato in H. perforatum. CONCLUSIONS: Our approach of sequencing flowers from two fully obligate sexual genotypes and two unrelated highly apomictic genotypes, in addition to different flower parts dissected from a facultatively apomictic accession, enabled us to analyze the complexity of the flower transcriptome according to its main reproductive organs as well as for alternative reproductive behaviors. Both annotation and expression data provided original results supporting the hypothesis that apomixis in H. perforatum relies upon spatial or temporal mis-expression of genes acting during female sexual reproduction. The present analyses aim to pave the way toward a better understanding of the molecular basis of flower development and plant reproduction, by identifying genes or RNAs that may differentiate or regulate the sexual and apomictic reproductive pathways in H. perforatum. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1439-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Contemporary Debates in Bioethics: European Perspectives

The volume aims to capture a European gist of theoretical sensibilities, conceptual resources, and research interests, but not in an adversarial way, as opposed to American bioethics. The volume gathers contributions from European scholars as they collaborate and form a research network, drawing on a diversity of philosophical traditions and local knowledge, with the aim of debating universal bioethical problems

‘Putting the flesh on the bones’: Evidencing and imagining genealogical connections with family historians in Northumberland, County Durham, and Tyne and Wear.

This thesis is concerned with the exploration of genealogical connections by family historians in Northumberland, County Durham, and Tyne and Wear, and what this tells us about contemporary reckonings of kinship and relatedness. After situating my research within the wider context of kinship studies in anthropology I demonstrate that the digital and genetic technologies play a pivotal role in the ways that genealogical connections are both evidenced and imagined. Ethnographic engagement with online historic census records and commercial genetic ancestry tracing products reveals the integration of hard fact on the one hand and narrative elaboration on the other as part of family history research. It is then shown that in order to facilitate and add depth to their genealogical explorations family historians rely heavily upon personal reminiscences that are entwined within folk idioms of inheritance. Key to this is the convergence of biological and social explanations of connectedness that manifest as part of the analysis of surnames and in the application and use of selected genetic kin terms. It is demonstrated that the establishment and maintenance of contemporary social interaction constitutes a key feature of genealogical research. Moreover, by focusing on the transmission of genealogical knowledge it is also shown that imaginings of the future remain significant to the thoughts and actions of the contemporary family historian. The fundamental findings of this thesis thus demonstrate that through the active evidencing and imagining of genealogical connections family historians are developing novel ways of understanding how it is that they are connected to one another, the past, and the future

Tracking Queer Kinships: Assisted Reproduction, Family Law and the Infertility Trap

The global advent of assisted human reproduction has brought with it an upheaval in social, cultural and legal norms of the family. The centrality of biological reproduction to the traditional heterosexual family has been challenged by reproductive intervention, further destabilizing nuclear family norms already unmoored by same-sex marriage, single mothers, unwed fathers, and increased access to divorce, contraceptives and abortion. As these challenges have shifted EuroAmerican social norms of family, the law has increasingly been called upon to preside over the re-organization of intimate life, operating as a central vehicle to reframe the relationship of the family to the state. This relationship remains critical, as the family remains the preeminent social institution and the conduit through which both biological and social reproduction are performed. The traditional family has thus become the site of considerable anxiety, and perhaps nowhere more so than in regard to assisted human reproduction (AHR). This dissertation argues that the complex outcomes of blood, genetics, sociality and affiliation created through reproductive technology, and the legal struggles they engender, cannot be understood as mere deviations from the heterosexually reproductive family. Instead, it invites exploration of the sociality and legal bonds created by the inherently non-reproductive family as a locus to understand the decoupling of sex from reproduction that is being produced through AHR. It draws from more than 1200 pages of interview transcripts with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, two-spirit and queer [LGBTQ] Canadians who have used or considered using reproductive assistance, and reflects upon this data to examine the assumptions of law, nature, technology and kinship that drive the conceptual vocabularies of AHR. Its central contention is for the utility of a queer perspective on reproductive law and technology, as a way to pry open cognate issues around kinship, biology, sociality and the order of family. By placing LGBTQ participant voices at the fore, this dissertation offers a fresh analysis on complex questions of parentage, child-rearing and the legal regulation of intimacy

Assisted reproductive technologies : the discourses of motherhood and childlessness in Bangladesh

By employing Foucauldian and post-structural feminist theories and the method of discourse analysis, this research examines Bangladeshi media and fertility centres’ truth construction process in regards to motherhood, childlessness, and ARTs. My research shows that the examined texts construct ARTs as desirable in Bangladeshi couples’ lives in four ways. First, they produce the ‘truths’ that motherhood is a necessity for Bangladeshi women’s lives, and childlessness is a ‘defect’ that causes grief. Second, they construct the ‘truths’ that ARTs are a significant sign of the progress of medical science, and modern treatments are available in Bangladesh in order to fulfill childless Bangladeshi couples’ need. Third, they suggest that IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) children are as ‘normal’ as children conceived without medical interventions. Finally, they produce the ‘truth’ that Bangladeshi fertility clinics reconcile Islamic principles in providing fertility treatments, making them acceptable for childless couples to pursue