Improving plant drought tolerance and growth under water limitation through combinatorial engineering of signalling networks

Agriculture is by far the biggest water consumer on our planet, accounting for 70 per cent of all freshwater withdrawals. Climate change and a growing world population increase pressure on agriculture to use water more efficiently ('more crop per drop'). Water-use efficiency (WUE) and drought tolerance of crops are complex traits that are determined by many physiological processes whose interplay is not well understood. Here, we describe a combinatorial engineering approach to optimize signalling networks involved in the control of stress tolerance. Screening a large population of combinatorially transformed plant lines, we identified a combination of calcium-dependent protein kinase genes that confers enhanced drought stress tolerance and improved growth under water-limiting conditions. Targeted introduction of this gene combination into plants increased plant survival under drought and enhanced growth under water-limited conditions. Our work provides an efficient strategy for engineering complex signalling networks to improve plant performance under adverse environmental conditions, which does not depend on prior understanding of network function

Tensiometry as a Simple Analytical Method for Quantification of Solubility and Release of Aroma Molecules in Aqueous Media

Dynamic tensiometry is shown to be a high-potential analytical tool in assessing physico-chemical characteristics of fragrance molecules, such as solubility limit, volatility as well as much rarely assessed interfacial activity of these amphiphilic molecules. Surface tension of aqueous solutions of selected essential oils has been measured as a function of time and fragrance concentration using maximum bubble pressure method. The effect of the temperature and saline solution on the rate of dissolution in water was assessed. Dynamic surface tension turned to be sensitive to the composition of fragrances, as demonstrated on examples of natural and synthetic mixtures. Furthermore, presented work reveals the possibility of maximum bubble pressure tensiometry method to quantify the amount of fragrance compositions in flavored salts, including the artificially aged carrier samples. Suggested here analytical approach can be used for the detection of the purity of essential oils, for the optimization of compositions and of the manufacturing processes of fragrances-containing products, as well as for the assessment of the release/evaporation of fragrances from carrier systems

Aroma Molecules as Dynamic Volatile Surfactants: Functionality Beyond the Scent

Understanding of non-equilibrium processes at dynamic interfaces is indispensable for advancing design and fabrication of solid state and soft materials.The research presented here unveils specific interfacial behavior of aroma molecules and justifies their usage as multifunctional volatile surfactants. As non-conventional volatile amphiphiles we study commercially available poorly water-soluble compounds from the classes of synthetic and essential flavor oils. Their distinctive feature is high dynamic interfacial activity, so that they decrease the surface tension of aqueous solutions on a time scale of milliseconds. Another potentially useful property of such amphiphiles is their volatility, so that they notably evaporate from interfaces on a time scale of seconds. This behavior allows for control of wetting and spreading processes. A revealed synergetic interfacial behavior of mixtures of conventional and volatile surfactants is attributed to a decrease of the adsorption barrier as a result of high statistical availability of new sites at the surface upon evaporation of the volatile component. Our results offer promising advantages in manufacturing technologies which involve newly creating interfaces, such as spraying, coating technologies, ink-jet printing, microfluidics, laundry, stabilization of emulsions in cosmetic and food industry, as well as in geosciences for controlling aerosols formation

Geographic structure and host specificity shape the community composition of symbiotic dinoflagellates in corals from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

How host–symbiont assemblages vary over space and time is fundamental to understanding the evolution and persistence of mutualistic symbioses. In this study, the diversity and geographic structure of coral–algal partnerships across the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands archipelago was investigated. The diversity of symbionts in the dinoflagellate genus Symbiodinium was characterised using the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) gene in corals sampled at ten reef locations across the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Symbiodinium diversity was reported using operational taxonomic units and the distribution of Symbiodinium across the island archipelago investigated for evidence of geographic structure using permutational MANOVA. A 97 % sequence similarity of the ITS2 gene for characterising Symbiodinium diversity was supported by phylogenetic and ecological data. Four of the nine Symbiodinium evolutionary lineages (clades A, C, D, and G) were identified from 16 coral species at French Frigate Shoals, and host specificity was a dominant feature in the symbiotic assemblages at this location. Significant structure in the diversity of Symbiodinium was also found across the archipelago in the three coral species investigated. The latitudinal gradient and subsequent variation in abiotic conditions (particularly sea surface temperature dynamics) across the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands encompasses an environmental range that decouples the stability of host–symbiont assemblages across the archipelago. This suggests that local adaptation to prevailing environmental conditions by at least one partner in coral–algal mutualism occurs prior to the selection pressures associated with the maintenance of a symbiotic state

An international bioinformatics infrastructure to underpin the Arabidopsis community

The future bioinformatics needs of the Arabidopsis community as well as those of other scientific communities that depend on Arabidopsis resources were discussed at a pair of recent meetings held by the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee and the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee. There are extensive tools and resources for information storage, curation, and retrieval of Arabidopsis data that have been developed over recent years primarily through the activities of The Arabidopsis Information Resource, the Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre, and the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center, among others. However, the rapid expansion in many data types, the international basis of the Arabidopsis community, and changing priorities of the funding agencies all suggest the need for changes in the way informatics infrastructure is developed and maintained. We propose that there is a need for a single core resource that is integrated into a larger international consortium of investigators. We envision this to consist of a distributed system of data, tools, and resources, accessed via a single information portal and funded by a variety of sources, under shared international management of an International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium (IAIC). This article outlines the proposal for the development, management, operations, and continued funding for the IAIC