A process-based approach to predicting the effect of climate change on the distribution of an invasive allergenic plant in Europe

Ambrosia artemisiifolia is an invasive weed in Europe with highly allergenic pollen. Populations are currently well established and cause significant health problems in the French Rhône valley, Austria, Hungary and Croatia but transient or casual introduced populations are also found in more Northern and Eastern European countries. A process-based model of weed growth, competition and population dynamics was used to predict the future potential for range expansion of A.artemisiifolia under climate change scenarios. The model predicted a northward shift in the available climatic niche for populations to establish and persist, creating a risk of increased health problems in countries including the UK and Denmark. This was accompanied by an increase in relative pollen production at the northern edge of its range. The southern European limit for A.artemisiifolia was not expected to change; populations continued to be limited by drought stress in Spain and Southern Italy. The process-based approach to modelling the impact of climate change on plant populations has the advantage over correlative species distribution models of being able to capture interactions of climate, land use and plant competition at the local scale. However, for this potential to be fully realised, additional empirical data are required on competitive dynamics of A.artemisiifolia in different crops and ruderal plant communities and its capacity to adapt to local conditions

Translation elongation

The synthesis of proteins in eukaryotes is typically divided into four steps, i.e. initiation, elongation, termination and ribosome recycling. This key biological event is tightly regulated by the cell. Under conditions of increased demand or reduced production of cellular energy the cell can downregulate this process. While a tight regulation exists for the rate-limiting initiation step, elongation also appears to be under somewhat strict control. Among key targets of elongation regulation are the eukaryotic elongation factors A1/A2 (eEF1A1/A2) and the eukaryotic elongation factor 2 (eEF2). In addition to being involved in the regulation of protein synthesis, evidence indicates that these factors play a relevant role in the genesis and maintenance of many forms of human cancers. For this reason, elongation factors have been considered as valuable markers for different forms of cancers, as well as attractive candidates for targeted anticancer therapeutic approaches. In this chapter we focus on the description of the factors taking part in the process of elongation, as well as their involvement in cancer. Particular emphasis is put on the description of (1) the physiological role of elongation factors in elongation and in other biological processes; (2) the control of elongation factors by signaling pathways; (3) the involvement of elongation factors in cancer and (4) the anticancer therapeutic approaches based on the targeting of elongation factors