Chasing organohalide respirers: ecogenomics approaches to assess the bioremediation capacity of soils

Het opsporen van organohalogeen-reducerende bacteriën: ecogenomics benaderingen om de bioremediatie-capaciteit van de bodem te beoordelen. Organohalogeen-reducerende bacteriën (OHRB) zijn efficiënte afbrekers van organische chloorverbindingen, zoals gechloreerde ethenen, chloorfenolen en andere gehalogeneerde alifatische en aromatische koolwaterstoffen. Desondanks, lijken deze organische chloorverbindingen te volharden op verschillende locaties. De reden voor dit gebrek aan afbraak kan worden toegeschreven aan het ontbreken van OHRB in voldoende aantallen of aan verkeerde fysisch-chemische omstandigheden voor hun groei en activiteit. Derhalve is er een dringende behoefte aan snelle, robuuste en gevoelige methoden die het voorspellen van en het toezicht houden op het bioremediatie potentieel en de activiteit van OHRB mogelijk maken. Moleculaire monitoring en modelsimulaties werden toegepast om de in-situ afbraak prestaties van een on-site dechlorerende bioreactor te bepalen en zijn invloed op de vervuilingsspluim. De toepasbaarheid van dit systeem werd getest in verschillende verontreinigde bodems

Significance of sweet sorghum as a multi-purpose crop for sub-Saharan Africa

There is great interest in sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) for promoting resilience in rural livelihoods in Sub- Saharan Africa (SSA). Unlike other crops, sweet sorghum is a multi-purpose crop for grain, feed, fodder, chewing, syrup and biofuel production. The objective of this paper is to analyse information on the diversity within the crop, its adaptation and plant breeding efforts in SSA. We also discuss opportunities that exist in SSA that make the crop an attractive alternative. It is clear from the review that the crop has a wide genetic base, hence significant improvements can be made on a number of preferred traits. The review further outlines four possible production models for the economic development of the sweet sorghum industry in Sub-Saharan Africa; which are (i) production for supply to urban chewing markets, (ii) syrup production, (iii) biofuel production and (iv) fodder production. Although current research focuses on production of ethanol for biofuel, other potential uses such as production for chewing, syrup and fodder cannot be overlooked for most SSA farmers. A lot has to be done on the research front before biofuel production from sweet sorghum can be profitable and technically feasible. Future plant breeding efforts can be tailor made to deliver cultivars with peculiar traits for various end-uses

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT HURDLES IN A PUBLIC HEALTH SECTOR ORGANISATION IN ZIMBABWE

Performance management has become widely recognised and accepted as a basic management tool. It greatly influences the levels of productivity, service delivery and the image of an organisation in general. However the implementation of performance management system and any other system in general can have its own challenges.The main aim of the research was to assess the challenges that the public hospital face in the implementation of their performance management system. The researcher conveniently selected one provincial hospital in Zimbabwe. Purposive and systematic random sampling were used to select participants for the research. A total of 94 respondents participated in the research. Collection of data was done through questionnaires, interviews, and company records. The findings of the study revealed that the organization uses the Results Based Management system as its performance management tool and there are a number challenges being faced in the implementation of the system. The challenges include lack of motivation, lack of knowledge, insufficient human and financial resources, difficulties in identifying performance indicators and that there was no link between performance gaps and training programs. These challenges made it difficult for the hospital to enjoy the benefits, thereby impacting negatively on service delivery. The study recommends further training on how RBM is implemented and that resources be availed for the effective implementation of PM

SIGNIFICANCE OF SWEET SORGHUM AS A MULTI-PURPOSE CROP FOR SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

There is great interest in sweet sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor L.) for promoting resilience in rural livelihoods in Sub- Saharan Africa (SSA). Unlike other crops, sweet sorghum is a multi-purpose crop for grain, feed, fodder, chewing, syrup and biofuel production. The objective of this paper is to analyse information on the diversity within the crop, its adaptation and plant breeding efforts in SSA. We also discuss opportunities that exist in SSA that make the crop an attractive alternative. It is clear from the review that the crop has a wide genetic base, hence significant improvements can be made on a number of preferred traits. The review further outlines four possible production models for the economic development of the sweet sorghum industry in Sub-Saharan Africa; which are (i) production for supply to urban chewing markets, (ii) syrup production, (iii) biofuel production and (iv) fodder production. Although current research focuses on production of ethanol for biofuel, other potential uses such as production for chewing, syrup and fodder cannot be overlooked for most SSA farmers. A lot has to be done on the research front before biofuel production from sweet sorghum can be profitable and technically feasible. Future plant breeding efforts can be tailor made to deliver cultivars with peculiar traits for various end-uses.Il existe un grand int\ue9r\ueat pour le sorgho doux (Sorghum bicolor L.) pour promouvoir la r\ue9silience des moyens de subsistance ruraux en Afrique subsaharienne (ASS). Contrairement \ue0 d\u2019autres cultures, le sorgho sucr\ue9 est une culture polyvalente pour la production de c\ue9r\ue9ales, d\u2019aliments pour animaux, de fourrage, de mastication, de sirop et de biocarburant. L\u2019objectif de cet article est d\u2019examiner les informations sur la diversit\ue9 au sein de la culture, son adaptation et les efforts de s\ue9lection v\ue9g\ue9tale en ASS. Il traite \ue9galement des opportunit\ue9s qui existent en ASS et qui font de cette culture une alternative attrayante. Les r\ue9sultats de l\u2019examen montrent que la culture a une large base g\ue9n\ue9tique, ce qui permet d\u2019apporter des am\ue9liorations significatives \ue0 un certain nombre de caract\ue8res pr\ue9f\ue9r\ue9s. L\u2019examen d\ue9crit en outre quatre mod\ue8les de production possibles pour le d\ue9veloppement \ue9conomique de l\u2019industrie du sorgho sucr\ue9 en Afrique subsaharienne\ua0; qui sont (i) la production pour l\u2019approvisionnement des march\ue9s urbains de mastication, (ii) la production de sirop, (iii) la production de biocarburants et (iv) la production de fourrage. Les questions cl\ue9s \ue9mergeant de la discussion sont les suivantes\ua0; la recherche actuelle se concentre sur la production d\u2019\ue9thanol pour le biocarburant, bien que ce soit une bonne priorit\ue9 pour la recherche, cela ne devrait pas \ue9clipser d\u2019autres utilisations potentielles de la culture telles que la production pour la mastication, le sirop et le fourrage qui peuvent \ueatre la seule option pour la plupart des agriculteurs d\u2019ASS. Beaucoup reste \ue0 faire sur le front de la recherche avant que la production de biocarburants \ue0 partir de sorgho sucr\ue9 puisse \ueatre rentable et techniquement r\ue9alisable, en particulier pour les petits exploitants agricoles dans la plupart des pays d\u2019ASS. Par cons\ue9quent, les futurs efforts de s\ue9lection v\ue9g\ue9tale peuvent \ueatre adapt\ue9s pour fournir des cultivars avec des traits particuliers pour diverses utilisations finales

Combining field performance with controlled environment plant imaging to identify the genetic control of growth and transpiration underlying yield response to water-deficit stress in wheat

Crop yield in low-rainfall environments is a complex trait under multigenic control that shows significant genotype×environment (G×E) interaction. One way to understand and track this trait is to link physiological studies to genetics by using imaging platforms to phenotype large segregating populations. A wheat population developed from parental lines contrasting in their mechanisms of yield maintenance under water deficit was studied in both an imaging platform and in the field. We combined phenotyping methods in a common analysis pipeline to estimate biomass and leaf area from images and then inferred growth and relative growth rate, transpiration, and water-use efficiency, and applied these to genetic analysis. From the 20 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) found for several traits in the platform, some showed strong effects, accounting for between 26 and 43% of the variation on chromosomes 1A and 1B, indicating that the G×E interaction could be reduced in a controlled environment and by using dynamic variables. Co-location of QTLs identified in the platform and in the field showed a possible common genetic basis at some loci. Co-located QTLs were found for average growth rate, leaf expansion rate, transpiration rate, and water-use efficiency from the platform with yield, spike number, grain weight, grain number, and harvest index in the field. These results demonstrated that imaging platforms are a suitable alternative to field-based screening and may be used to phenotype recombinant lines for positional cloning.Boris Parent, Fahimeh Shahinnia, Lance Maphosa, Bettina Berger, Huwaida Rabie, Ken Chalmers, Alex Kovalchuk, Peter Langridge, and Delphine Fleur

Meta-omics approaches to understand and improve wastewater treatment systems

Biological treatment of wastewaters depends on microbial processes, usually carried out by mixed microbial communities. Environmental and operational factors can affect microorganisms and/or impact microbial community function, and this has repercussion in bioreactor performance. Novel high-throughput molecular methods (metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, metabolomics) are providing detailed knowledge on the microorganisms governing wastewater treatment systems and on their metabolic capabilities. The genomes of uncultured microbes with key roles in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), such as the polyphosphate-accumulating microorganism Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis, the nitrite oxidizer Candidatus Nitrospira defluvii or the anammox bacterium Candidatus Kuenenia stuttgartiensis are now available through metagenomic studies. Metagenomics allows to genetically characterize full-scale WWTP and provides information on the lifestyles and physiology of key microorganisms for wastewater treatment. Integrating metagenomic data of microorganisms with metatranscriptomic, metaproteomic and metabolomic information provides a better understanding of the microbial responses to perturbations or environmental variations. Data integration may allow the creation of predictive behavior models of wastewater ecosystems, which could help in an improved exploitation of microbial processes. This review discusses the impact of meta-omic approaches on the understanding of wastewater treatment processes, and the implications of these methods for the optimization and design of wastewater treatment bioreactors.Research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (Contract Project CTQ2007-64324 and CONSOLIDER-CSD 2007-00055) and the Regional Government of Castilla y Leon (Ref. VA038A07). Research of AJMS is supported by the European Research Council (Grant 323009

Paleogene Radiation of a Plant Pathogenic Mushroom

Background: The global movement and speciation of fungal plant pathogens is important, especially because of the economic losses they cause and the ease with which they are able to spread across large areas. Understanding the biogeography and origin of these plant pathogens can provide insights regarding their dispersal and current day distribution. We tested the hypothesis of a Gondwanan origin of the plant pathogenic mushroom genus Armillaria and the currently accepted premise that vicariance accounts for the extant distribution of the species. Methods: The phylogeny of a selection of Armillaria species was reconstructed based on Maximum Parsimony (MP), Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Inference (BI). A timeline was then placed on the divergence of lineages using a Bayesian relaxed molecular clock approach. Results: Phylogenetic analyses of sequenced data for three combined nuclear regions provided strong support for three major geographically defined clades: Holarctic, South American-Australasian and African. Molecular dating placed the initial radiation of the genus at 54 million years ago within the Early Paleogene, postdating the tectonic break-up of Gondwana. Conclusions: The distribution of extant Armillaria species is the result of ancient long-distance dispersal rather than vicariance due to continental drift. As these finding are contrary to most prior vicariance hypotheses for fungi, our result

Genetic dissection of the relationships between grain yield components by genome-wide association mapping in a collection of tetraploid wheats

Increasing grain yield potential in wheat has been a major target of most breeding programs. Genetic advance has been frequently hindered by negative correlations among yield components that have been often observed in segregant populations and germplasm collections. A tetraploid wheat collection was evaluated in seven environments and genotyped with a 90K SNP assay to identify major and stable quantitative trait loci (QTL) for grain yield per spike (GYS), kernel number per spike (KNS) and thousand-kernel weight (TKW), and to analyse the genetic relationships between the yield components at QTL level. The genome-wide association analysis detected eight, eleven and ten QTL for KNS, TKW and GYS, respectively, significant in at least three environments or two environments and the mean across environments. Most of the QTL for TKW and KNS were found located in different marker intervals, indicating that they are genetically controlled independently by each other. Out of eight KNS QTL, three were associated to significant increases of GYS, while the increased grain number of five additional QTL was completely or partially compensated by decreases in grain weight, thus producing no or reduced effects on GYS. Similarly, four consistent and five suggestive TKW QTL resulted in visible increase of GYS, while seven additional QTL were associated to reduced effects in grain number and no effects on GYS. Our results showed that QTL analysis for detecting TKW or KNS alleles useful for improving grain yield potential should consider the pleiotropic effects of the QTL or the association to other QTLs