Ag-Biotech: It’s Not Just What’s for Dinner Anymore, but the Future Contents of our Medicine Cabinets

Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Public Preferences to CCS:How does it Change Across Countries?

AbstractThe aim of this research was to extend an Australian developed large group process which proved effective in engaging the general public on issues related to climate change, energy technologies, and the overall shift towards a low carbon society. The results from Australia, the Netherlands, Canada and Scotland found that in each of the geographic locations the context varied, and participants reported different experiences and understanding of each topic. This paper explores how context may have impacted on the results, the differences that arise and discusses the implications for policy makers and research developers

Determinants of Human African Trypanosomiasis Elimination via Paratransgenesis

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), transmitted by tsetse flies, has historically infected hundreds of thousands of individuals annually in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the last decade, concerted control efforts have reduced reported cases to below 10,000 annually, bringing complete elimination within reach. A potential technology to eliminate HAT involves rendering the flies resistant to trypanosome infection. This approach can be achieved through the introduction of transgenic Sodalis symbiotic bacteria that have been modified to produce a trypanocide, and propagated via Wolbachia symbionts, which confer a reproductive advantage to the paratransgenic tsetse. However, the population dynamics of these symbionts within tsetse flies have not yet been evaluated. Specifically, the key factors that determine the effectiveness of paratransgenesis have yet to be quantified. To identify the impact of these determinants on T.b. gambiense and T.b. rhodesiense transmission, we developed a mathematical model of trypanosome transmission that incorporates tsetse and symbiont population dynamics. We found that fecundity and mortality penalties associated with Wolbachia or recombinant Sodalis colonization, probabilities of vertical transmission, and tsetse migration rates are fundamental to the feasibility of HAT elimination. For example, we determined that HAT elimination could be sustained over 25 years when Wolbachia colonization minimally impacted fecundity or mortality, and when the probability of recombinant Sodalis vertical transmission exceeded 99.9%. We also found that for a narrow range of recombinant Sodalis vertical transmission probability (99.9–90.6% for T.b. gambiense and 99.9–85.8% for T.b. rhodesiense), cumulative HAT incidence was reduced between 30% and 1% for T.b. gambiense and between 21% and 3% for T.b. rhodesiense, although elimination was not predicted. Our findings indicate that fitness and mortality penalties associated with paratransgenic symbionts, as well as tsetse migration rates, are instrumental to HAT elimination, and should be a key focus in the development of paratransgenic symbionts

Mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system (MICOS) machinery supports heme biosynthesis by enabling optimal performance of ferrochelatase

Heme is an essential cofactor required for a plethora of cellular processes in eukaryotes. In metazoans the heme biosynthetic pathway is typically partitioned between the cytosol and mitochondria, with the first and final steps taking place in the mitochondrion. The pathway has been extensively studied and its biosynthetic enzymes structurally characterized to varying extents. Nevertheless, understanding of the regulation of heme synthesis and factors that influence this process in metazoans remains incomplete. Therefore, we investigated the molecular organization as well as the physical and genetic interactions of the terminal pathway enzyme, ferrochelatase (Hem15), in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biochemical and genetic analyses revealed dynamic association of Hem15 with Mic60, a core component of the mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system (MICOS). Loss of MICOS negatively impacts Hem15 activity, affects the size of the Hem15 high-mass complex, and results in accumulation of reactive and potentially toxic tetrapyrrole precursors that may cause oxidative damage. Restoring intermembrane connectivity in MICOS-deficient cells mitigates these cytotoxic effects. These data provide new insights into how heme biosynthetic machinery is organized and regulated, linking mitochondrial architecture-organizing factors to heme homeostasis

Publisher Correction: MEMOTE for standardized genome-scale metabolic model testing

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MEMOTE for standardized genome-scale metabolic model testing

Supplementary information is available for this paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-020-0446-yReconstructing metabolic reaction networks enables the development of testable hypotheses of an organisms metabolism under different conditions1. State-of-the-art genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) can include thousands of metabolites and reactions that are assigned to subcellular locations. Geneproteinreaction (GPR) rules and annotations using database information can add meta-information to GEMs. GEMs with metadata can be built using standard reconstruction protocols2, and guidelines have been put in place for tracking provenance and enabling interoperability, but a standardized means of quality control for GEMs is lacking3. Here we report a community effort to develop a test suite named MEMOTE (for metabolic model tests) to assess GEM quality.We acknowledge D. Dannaher and A. Lopez for their supporting work on the Angular parts of MEMOTE; resources and support from the DTU Computing Center; J. Cardoso, S. Gudmundsson, K. Jensen and D. Lappa for their feedback on conceptual details; and P. D. Karp and I. Thiele for critically reviewing the manuscript. We thank J. Daniel, T. Kristjánsdóttir, J. Saez-Saez, S. Sulheim, and P. Tubergen for being early adopters of MEMOTE and for providing written testimonials. J.O.V. received the Research Council of Norway grants 244164 (GenoSysFat), 248792 (DigiSal) and 248810 (Digital Life Norway); M.Z. received the Research Council of Norway grant 244164 (GenoSysFat); C.L. received funding from the Innovation Fund Denmark (project “Environmentally Friendly Protein Production (EFPro2)”); C.L., A.K., N. S., M.B., M.A., D.M., P.M, B.J.S., P.V., K.R.P. and M.H. received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 686070 (DD-DeCaF); B.G.O., F.T.B. and A.D. acknowledge funding from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH, grant number 2R01GM070923-13); A.D. was supported by infrastructural funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), Cluster of Excellence EXC 2124 Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections; N.E.L. received funding from NIGMS R35 GM119850, Novo Nordisk Foundation NNF10CC1016517 and the Keck Foundation; A.R. received a Lilly Innovation Fellowship Award; B.G.-J. and J. Nogales received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 686585 for the project LIAR, and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity through the RobDcode grant (BIO2014-59528-JIN); L.M.B. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 633962 for project P4SB; R.F. received funding from the US Department of Energy, Offices of Advanced Scientific Computing Research and the Biological and Environmental Research as part of the Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing program, grant DE-SC0010429; A.M., C.Z., S.L. and J. Nielsen received funding from The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Advanced Computing program, grant #DE-SC0010429; S.K.’s work was in part supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (de.NBI partner project “ModSim” (FKZ: 031L104B)); E.K. and J.A.H.W. were supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (project “SysToxChip”, FKZ 031A303A); M.K. is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, Germany) within the research network Systems Medicine of the Liver (LiSyM, grant number 031L0054); J.A.P. and G.L.M. acknowledge funding from US National Institutes of Health (T32-LM012416, R01-AT010253, R01-GM108501) and the Wagner Foundation; G.L.M. acknowledges funding from a Grand Challenges Exploration Phase I grant (OPP1211869) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; H.H. and R.S.M.S. received funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council MultiMod (BB/N019482/1); H.U.K. and S.Y.L. received funding from the Technology Development Program to Solve Climate Changes on Systems Metabolic Engineering for Biorefineries (grants NRF-2012M1A2A2026556 and NRF-2012M1A2A2026557) from the Ministry of Science and ICT through the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea; H.U.K. received funding from the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the NRF, the Ministry of Science and ICT (NRF-2018M3A9H3020459); P.B., B.J.S., Z.K., B.O.P., C.L., M.B., N.S., M.H. and A.F. received funding through Novo Nordisk Foundation through the Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark (NNF10CC1016517); D.-Y.L. received funding from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (SSAC, PJ01334605), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea; G.F. was supported by the RobustYeast within ERA net project via SystemsX.ch; V.H. received funding from the ETH Domain and Swiss National Science Foundation; M.P. acknowledges Oxford Brookes University; J.C.X. received support via European Research Council (666053) to W.F. Martin; B.E.E. acknowledges funding through the CSIRO-UQ Synthetic Biology Alliance; C.D. is supported by a Washington Research Foundation Distinguished Investigator Award. I.N. received funding from National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) (grant P20GM125503).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Public Consultation on Plant Molecular Farming

Plant molecular farming (PMF) is another phase in the ongoing research and development of transgenic plants, offering possibilities of producing therapeutic and industrial proteins. However, this technology poses important social and policy challenges. A public consultation was held in four regions in Canada using a modified focus group approach. Respondents received a background document on the technology prior to discussions. Five specific applications were discussed to investigate views on food versus nonfood crops, medical versus industrial applications, and containment approaches. Public assessments were on a case-by-case basis but were also clearly based on balancing benefits and risks as well as considerations of environmental impacts and regulatory oversight.Includes bibliographical reference

What's the verdict? evaluating a citizens' jury on xenotransplantation

Bibliography: p. 147-152

Fostering environmental citizenship through public deliberation: Investigating Canadian participant perspectives from the World Wide Views on Global Warming initiative

Drawing on the deliberative turn in environmental governance, green political theorists have put forward public participation, particularly events involving dialogue and deliberation, as a way to foster “environmental citizenship”. They argue, for example, that through participation individuals acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to reflect on environmental problems; gain more appreciation for “nature” and humans’ interconnectedness with the natural world; become more attuned to the collective good over individual interests in coming up with policy solutions; and, become more motivated to take future action on environmental issues. However, very little empirical research has examined this contention in practice and it remains an open question as to whether and how deliberation fosters environmental citizenship, and in what forms. This thesis aims to close that gap through an empirical case study of the Canadian arm of a global public consultation process called “World Wide Views on Global Warming” (WWViews) that involved more than 4000 citizens across 38 countries. Positioning participatory initiatives as “experiments in citizenship” (Luque, 2005), it explores how Canadian participants understood themselves, and others, as environmental citizens, and how these perceptions shifted as a result of participating in WWViews. Through a set of 28 semi-structured interviews six to seven months post-WWViews and survey responses before and immediately after the event, the analysis identifies a range of environmental citizenships among participants, contingent on different notions of climate governance, the citizen’s expected relation to the state, and interpretations of the issue of climate change itself. Predominant within the analysis is the influence of dominant climate discourses, both within and beyond the consultation setting (e.g. the science-focused discourse prevalent at UN-level negotiations or the climate skeptic discourse seen in mass media coverage), on how participants understood themselves to be environmental citizens. In particular, ambivalence and/or scepticism over the nature of climate change was far-reaching among WWViews Canada participants, influencing how they perceived interactions with fellow participants, how they assessed the success of the consultation event itself, and what actions they deemed most appropriate for environmental citizens to take moving forward