Dynamic conservation and utilization of forest tree genetic resources: indicators for in situ and ex situ genetic conservation and forest reproductive material

This report offers a way to measure the conservation and use of the genetic diversity of forest trees across Europe in a standardized way. This indicator is based on an agreed revision of a commonly adopted framework allowing to measure this diversity and monitor its conservation and utilization over time. The Forest Europe process had adopted a general set of Criteria and Indicators for sustainable forest management as a tool to aid forest policy formulation and decision making, forest monitoring, and communication. Six criteria reflect complementary aspects of sustainable forest management in the pan-European region. These are currently being assessed by a set of 34 quantitative and 11 qualitative indicators. Indicator 4.6 is a quantitative indicator which contributes to Criterion 4 (Maintenance, conservation and appropriate enhancement of biological diversity in forest ecosystems) by focusing on the conservation and use of genetic resources. It is this indicator that has been revised, because it was not very informative on the conservation of genetic diversity nor fully standardised across countries

Loss of prion protein induces a primed state of type I interferon-responsive genes

<div><p>The cellular prion protein (PrP^C) has been extensively studied because of its pivotal role in prion diseases; however, its functions remain incompletely understood. A unique line of goats has been identified that carries a nonsense mutation that abolishes synthesis of PrP^C. In these animals, the PrP-encoding mRNA is rapidly degraded. Goats without PrP^C are valuable in re-addressing loss-of-function phenotypes observed in <i>Prnp</i> knockout mice. As PrP^C has been ascribed various roles in immune cells, we analyzed transcriptomic responses to loss of PrP^C in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from normal goat kids (<i>n</i> = 8, <i>PRNP</i>^+/+) and goat kids without PrP^C (<i>n</i> = 8, <i>PRNP</i>^Ter/Ter) by mRNA sequencing. PBMCs normally express moderate levels of PrP^C. The vast majority of genes were similarly expressed in the two groups. However, a curated list of 86 differentially expressed genes delineated the two genotypes. About 70% of these were classified as interferon-responsive genes. In goats without PrP^C, the majority of type I interferon-responsive genes were in a primed, modestly upregulated state, with fold changes ranging from 1.4 to 3.7. Among these were <i>ISG15</i>, <i>DDX58</i> (RIG-1), <i>MX1</i>, <i>MX2</i>, <i>OAS1</i>, <i>OAS2 and DRAM1</i>, all of which have important roles in pathogen defense, cell proliferation, apoptosis, immunomodulation and DNA damage response. Our data suggest that PrP^C contributes to the fine-tuning of resting state PBMCs expression level of type I interferon-responsive genes. The molecular mechanism by which this is achieved will be an important topic for further research into PrP^C physiology.</p></div

Interferon-responsive genes dominate among the differentially expressed genes in goats lacking PrP^C.

<p>Graphical presentation of (A) the total number and percentage of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the two genotypes, compared to the average total number of genes expressed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from both genotypes, and (B) the total number of upregulated and downregulated annotated DEGs. The fraction of upregulated (red) and downregulated (blue) interferon-responsive genes among the DEGs are also shown. (C) Hierarchical clustering of the interferon-responsive genes among the DEGs and expression data from all individual goats of both genotypes. Hierarchical clustering was performed using the ward algorithm on log2-normalized fold changes.</p