Bioenergy production and sustainable development: science base for policymaking remains limited

The possibility of using bioenergy as a climate change mitigation measure has sparked a discussion of whether and how bioenergy production contributes to sustainable development. We undertook a systematic review of the scientific literature to illuminate this relationship and found a limited scientific basis for policymaking. Our results indicate that knowledge on the sustainable development impacts of bioenergy production is concentrated in a few well-studied countries, focuses on environmental and economic impacts, and mostly relates to dedicated agricultural biomass plantations. The scope and methodological approaches in studies differ widely and only a small share of the studies sufficiently reports on context and/or baseline conditions, which makes it difficult to get a general understanding of the attribution of impacts. Nevertheless, we identified regional patterns of positive or negative impacts for all categories – environmental, economic, institutional, social and technological. In general, economic and technological impacts were more frequently reported as positive, while social and environmental impacts were more frequently reported as negative (with the exception of impacts on direct substitution of GHG emission from fossil fuel). More focused and transparent research is needed to validate these patterns and develop a strong science underpinning for establishing policies and governance agreements that prevent/mitigate negative and promote positive impacts from bioenergy production

Characterization of New Syncytium-Inhibiting Monoclonal Antibodies Implicates Lipid Rafts in Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 Syncytium Formation

We have previously shown that erythroleukemia cells (K562) transfected with vascular adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) are susceptible to human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1)-induced syncytium formation. Since expression of VCAM-1 alone is not sufficient to render cells susceptible to HTLV-1 fusion, K562 cells appear to express a second molecule critical for HTLV-induced syncytium formation. By immunizing mice with K562 cells, we have isolated four monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), K5.M1, K5.M2, K5.M3, and K5.M4, that inhibit HTLV-induced syncytium formation between infected MT2 cells and susceptible K562/VCAM1 cells. These MAbs recognize distinct proteins on the surface of cells as determined by cell phenotyping, immunoprecipitation, and Western blot analysis. Since three of the proteins recognized by the MAbs appear to be GPI linked, we isolated lipid rafts and determined by immunoblot analysis that all four MAbs recognize proteins that sort entirely or in large part to lipid rafts. Dispersion of lipid rafts on the cells by cholesterol depletion with β-cyclodextrin resulted in inhibition of syncytium formation, and this effect was not seen when the β-cyclodextrin was preloaded with cholesterol before treating the cells. The results of these studies suggest that lipid rafts may play an important role in HTLV-1 syncytium formation