TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

The Prospect of Deep Free Trade between the European Union and Ukraine. CEPS Paperbacks. April 2006

This study examines the feasibility, content and likely economic impact of a free trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine. A simple and shallow free trade agreement, adding only the elimination of tariffs on trade in goods to the conditions for WTO accession, is the most easily feasible option, but would yield only modest benefits for Ukraine and less still for the EU. By contrast, a deep free trade agreement (or ‘FTA+’) with the EU, while posing more difficult issues of feasibility, could be a centrepiece of an economic strategy leading Ukraine into rapid growth. An FTA+ with the EU would entail an extensive, yet still selective, alignment of Ukraine’s external and internal market laws and standards with those of the EU. Politically, this step would be consistent with Ukraine’s ‘European choice’. The country has little or no chance of becoming a prosperous economy and society without openness and integration into the European and global economy, alongside compliance with normal standards of advanced economic governance at home. Not being a natural resource-based economy, Ukraine has no choice but to develop a competitive and diversified economy centred primarily on industrial and service sectors. This point is underlined by the increase in the price of imported energy since the start of 2006. Nevertheless, there is evidence suggesting that the combination of economic openness, convergence on modern European and international standards of economic regulation and corporate governance and proximity to EU markets could lead to a sustainable high growth path for Ukraine. The country’s economic paradigm could change drastically, with a re-branding of its reputation and with its industry entering into the European and global supply chain. Such a strategy would also be of value to the EU economy in meeting the challenges of globalisation and Asian competition

Functional detection of botulinum neurotoxin serotypes A to F by monoclonal neoepitope-specific antibodies and suspension array technology

Abstract Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are the most potent toxins known and cause the life threatening disease botulism. Sensitive and broad detection is extremely challenging due to the toxins’ high potency and molecular heterogeneity with several serotypes and more than 40 subtypes. The toxicity of BoNT is mediated by enzymatic cleavage of different synaptic proteins involved in neurotransmitter release at serotype-specific cleavage sites. Hence, active BoNTs can be monitored and distinguished in vitro by detecting their substrate cleavage products. In this work, we developed a comprehensive panel of monoclonal neoepitope antibodies (Neo-mAbs) highly specific for the newly generated N- and/or C-termini of the substrate cleavage products of BoNT serotypes A to F. The Neo-mAbs were implemented in a set of three enzymatic assays for the simultaneous detection of two BoNT serotypes each by monitoring substrate cleavage on colour-coded magnetic Luminex-beads. For the first time, all relevant serotypes could be detected in parallel by a routine in vitro activity assay in spiked serum and food samples yielding excellent detection limits in the range of the mouse bioassay or better (0.3–80 pg/mL). Therefore, this work represents a major step towards the replacement of the mouse bioassay for botulism diagnostics