MILESTONES ON THE ROAD TO KECK

The article traces the roots of the ECJ’s famous Dassonville formula back to similar concepts under competition law and questions its direct importation into Art 28 EC as done by the Court. From this starting point, the case law to Keck and beyond is analysed with a view to track the attempts to limit the scope of Art 28 and the role of the proportionality principle in this respect. The conclusion is that Keck did at least constitute the right approach, limiting the scope of (rather than adding another justifi cation dimension to) Art 28, even though it still failed to answer the crucial question as to what constitutes a measure of equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions in a general manner. The partial success thus achieved has at least enabled the ECJ to leave the proportionality test of individual measures of the Member States to the proper venue - the referring courts of the Member States

Synthese Sulfoxid-basierter Reagenzien für die Proteomik und deren Anwendung

Während der Doktorarbeit wurden neuartige, Sulfoxid-basierte chemische Reagenzien entwickelt, welche als anreicherbare Crosslinker und als einfach spaltbare Quantifizierungsreagenzien erfolgreich angewandt wurden.Novel sulfoxide-based chemical reagents were developed during the PhD thesis, which were successfully applied as enrichable crosslinkers and as easily cleavable quantification reagents

A Click‐Chemistry‐Based Enrichable Crosslinker for Structural and Protein Interaction Analysis by Mass Spectrometry

Mass spectrometry is the method of choice for the characterisation of proteomes. Most proteins operate in protein complexes, in which their close association modulates their function. However, with standard MS analysis, information on protein–protein interactions is lost and no structural information is retained. To gain structural and interactome data, new crosslinking reagents are needed that freeze inter‐ and intramolecular interactions. Herein, the development of a new reagent, which has several features that enable highly sensitive crosslinking MS, is reported. The reagent enables enrichment of crosslinked peptides from the majority of background peptides to facilitate efficient detection of low‐abundant crosslinked peptides. Due to the special cleavable properties, the reagent can be used for MS2 and potentially for MS3 experiments. Thus, the new crosslinking reagent, in combination with high‐end MS, should enable sensitive analysis of interactomes, which will help researchers to obtain important insights into cellular states in health and diseases

Prebiotic methylations and carbamoylations generate non-canonical RNA nucleosides as molecular fossils of an early Earth

The RNA world hypothesis assumes that life on earth started with small RNA molecules that catalyzed their own formation. Vital to this hypothesis is the need for prebiotic routes towards RNA. Contemporary RNA, however, is not only constructed from the four canonical nucleobases (A, C, G and U), but it contains in addition many chemically modified (non-canonical) bases. A yet open question is if these non-canonical bases were formed in parallel to the canonical bases (chemical origin), or whether they were created later, when life demanded higher functional diversity (biological origin). Here we show that isocyanates in combination with sodium nitrite establish methylating and carbamoylating reactivity compatible with early Earth conditions. This chemistry leads to the formation of methylated and amino acid modified nucleosides that are still extant. Our data provide a plausible scenario for the chemical origin of certain non-canonical bases, which suggests that they are fossils of an early Earth

Genome-wide association study and genomic prediction of resistance to stripe rust in current Central and Northern European winter wheat germplasm

Stripe or yellow rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia striiformis Westend f. sp. tritici, is one of the most destructive wheat diseases. Sustainable management of wheat stripe rust can be achieved through the deployment of rust resistant cultivars. To detect effective resistance loci for use in breeding programs, an association mapping panel of 230 winter wheat cultivars and breeding lines from Northern and Central Europe was employed. Genotyping with the Illumina® iSelect® 25 K Infinium® single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping array yielded 8812 polymorphic markers. Structure analysis revealed two subpopulations with 92 Austrian breeding lines and cultivars, which were separated from the other 138 genotypes from Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, and Switzerland. Genome-wide association study for adult plant stripe rust resistance identified 12 SNP markers on six wheat chromosomes which showed consistent effects over several testing environments. Among these, two marker loci on chromosomes 2BS (RAC875_c1226_652) and 6AL (Tdurum_contig29607_413) were highly predictive in three independent validation populations of 1065, 1001, and 175 breeding lines. Lines with the resistant haplotype at both loci were nearly free of stipe rust symptoms. By using mixed linear models with those markers as fixed effects, we could increase predictive ability in the three populations by 0.13–0.46 compared to a standard genomic best linear unbiased prediction approach. The obtained results facilitate an efficient selection for stripe rust resistance against the current pathogen population in the Northern and Central European winter wheat gene pool.publishedVersio

A roadmap for gene functional characterisation in crops with large genomes: Lessons from polyploid wheat

Understanding the function of genes within staple crops will accelerate crop improvement by allowing targeted breeding approaches. Despite their importance, a lack of genomic information and resources has hindered the functional characterisation of major crop genes. The recent release of high-quality reference sequences for these crops underpins a suite of genetic and genomic resources that support basic research and breeding. For wheat, these include gene model annotations, expression atlases and gene networks that provide information about putative function. Sequenced mutant populations, improved transformation protocols and structured natural populations provide rapid methods to study gene function directly. We highlight a case study exemplifying how to integrate these resources. This review provides a helpful guide for plant scientists, especially those expanding into crop research, to capitalise on the discoveries made in Arabidopsis and other plants. This will accelerate the improvement of crops of vital importance for food and nutrition security

Universität St. Gallen - HSG, Schweiz

Universität St. Gallen - HSG, Schweiz / Ulrike Stadelmeier & Jürgen Euba. - In: Praxisportraits wissenschaftlicher Weiterbildung / Peter Schettgen ... (Hrsg.). - Augsburg : ZIEL, Zentrum für Interdisziplinäres Erfahrungsorientiertes Lernen, 2006. - S. 103-122. - (Hochschulschriften)(ZWW-Schriftenreihe