VIB researchers at Ghent University have discovered the substance that governs the formation of root offshoots in plants, and how it works. Root offshoots are vitally important for plants – and for farmers. Plants draw the necessary nutrients from the soil through their roots. Because they do this best with a well-branched root system, plants must form offshoots of their roots at the right moment. The VIB researchers describe how this process is controlled in the prominent professional journal Science. A key player in this process is a protein called ACR4. Depending on the signals that it receives from its environment, this protein triggers the formation of a root offshoot. Now that we know the control mechanism, we can begin to stimulate plant roots to form more, or fewer, offshoots. This can lead to a more ecological agriculture and to the production of better crops at the same time. An efficient network

It is difficult to overstate the importance of plants in our lives − they are responsible for our oxygen and for food, clothing, energy, and countless other things. And in turn, the importance of a plant’s roots is unquestionable: they provide the plant with necessary nutrients and moisture. The more the roots are subdivided, in breadth and depth, the better they can do their work. So, a well-coordinated, controlled formation of root offshoots is crucial to a plant. But, until now, how a plant determines when and where an offshoot should be formed was unknown.

Asymmetric cell division

The presence of stem cells is very important in the development of plants and animals. Stem cells are cells that can transform themselves into various types of cells. In animals, tissues and organs are formed before birth; but in fully-grown plants, stem cells continue to play a major role in the formation of new organs or tissues, such as root offshoots.

These stem cells are found inside the root, and several of them will induce the formation of an offshoot. These ‘root-founder’ cells undergo an asymmetric cell division. In contrast to the usual cell division, which gives rise to two identical cells, asymmetric cell division produces two different cells: a stem cell that is identical to the original cell, and a cell that is ready to become a specialized cell – in this case, a secondary root cell.

The decisive signal

With the aid of the mouse-ear cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), a frequently used model plant, Ive De Smet and Valya Vassileva in Tom Beeckman’s group have been studying how a plant determines which cells will trigger offshoots. To do this, the VIB researchers in Ghent have employed a special technology that makes it possible to make synchronous offshoots develop at different moments. This allowed them to isolate the cells that induce the formation of offshoots. They found out which genes are active in these cells and compared them with the genes that are crucial to normal cell division. In this way, the researchers identified a specific set of genes that control asymmetric cell division and send the signal for the formation of offshoots.

ACR4: control over asymmetric division

The researchers then examined one of these genes more closely. The ACR4 gene contains the DNA code for a receptor, a protein that is often located on the exterior of a cell to pick up signals from the outside and transmit them to the controlling mechanisms within the cell. When the researchers disrupted the function of ACR4 in plant cells, the precisely orchestrated asymmetric cell division was also disturbed. From this finding, De Smet and Vassileva inferred that ACR4 plays a key role in the creation of offshoots. Because the protein has a receptor function, triggering the formation of offshoots depends on its reaction to signals from the environment.

Desired or undesired

With this research, the scientists have discovered a fundamental mechanism − fundamental for the plant, and very important for plant-breeders as well. This new knowledge enables us to promote, or retard, the formation of offshoots − both activities are useful in a large number of applications.

Promoting an extensive root system helps plants absorb nutrients more readily, and thus they need less fertilizer. Such plants can also grow more easily in dry or infertile soils. Furthermore, plants with a well-developed root system are more firmly anchored in the soil and can be used to counteract erosion.

On the other hand, slowing down secondary root formation can be advantageous in tuberous plants, like potatoes or sugar beets. This enables these food crops to invest all their energy in the production of nutrients. Fewer root offshoots also makes it easier for farmers to harvest these crops.

Plant research with medical possibilities?

This plant research sheds light on the control of asymmetric cell division − and this kind of cell division is similar to the cell division of stem cells in animals, too. So, these results can also provide greater insight into how animal stem cells specialize.

For example, irregular cell division plays a role in the development of various types of cancer, and similar control mechanisms might underlie this process as well. This is clearly an important area for future research.

‘Global change, environment and natural resources management, sustainable development, poverty reduction, and environment and human health, are some of the major scientific research challenges currently being tackled by ICSU.  But these issues cannot be solved without understanding the impact of people on these issues and the impact of these issues on people—that is, social science,’ said Anne Whyte, a member of ICSU’s Committee on Scientific Planning and Review (CSPR) and a former Director General for Environment and Natural Resources of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada.  The report, ‘Enhancing Involvement of Social Sciences in ICSU’, identifies social sciences as being essential for the implementation of the ICSU Strategic Plan 2006-2011.  Recommendations in the report include: that ICSU continue to encourage the participation of social sciences on its committees, task forces and collaborative research initiatives; stimulate more social sciences unions to join ICSU; and to work with the International Social Sciences Council (ISSC) as a key partner in strengthening international social science of relevance for implementing ICSU’s Strategic Plan.  Whyte said, ‘ICSU’s mission is to strengthen international science for the benefit of society.  To do this, the natural and social sciences must be fully involved; working together to provide knowledge to solve global challenges.’ Heide Hackmann, Secretary-General of the International Social Sciences Council (ISSC) agreed, ‘High quality social scientific knowledge is becoming necessary knowledge for policymakers, business and community leaders, and natural scientists alike.  In this environment the ISSC has taken on the challenge of becoming the major global social scientific player alongside, and in collaboration with, ICSU in addressing key global challenges’.  But it’s not all smooth sailing.  There are barriers that must be overcome: natural and social scientists speak different languages; many institutions are not equipped to deal with interdisciplinary research; and there is resistance among some scientists from both sides of the table.  ‘The key to success is that natural and social scientists must work together on research agenda setting.  One field cannot merely provide services for the other—they both must be involved in setting research goals.  And you need to choose the right people,’ said Roberta Balstad of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, at Columbia University in New York, and a member of CSPR.  Over the years, ICSU has actively involved the social sciences, particularly through its global environmental change programmes.  The Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) successfully integrates natural and social sciences in order to investigate how changes in the Earth System affect global and regional sustainability.  And new ICSU programmes, such as ‘Integrated Research on Disaster Risk’ and ‘Ecosystem Change and Human Well-being’, have involved both the natural and social sciences from the earliest planning stages.  ‘Indeed, it could be argued that ICSU is at a point in its history where it is increasingly dependent on social science to fulfil its mission.  Thus, better integration of the social sciences into ICSU is no longer an option, it is a necessity,’ said Balstad.

Children are exposed to a wide range of environmental threats that can affect their health and development early in life, throughout their youth and into adulthood. Writing in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Environmental Health scientists from the World Health Organization and Boston University suggest that it is time for both industrialized and developing countries to assess the environmental burden of childhood diseases with the aim of improving children’s environments.

Maria Neira, Fiona Gore, Marie-Noël Bruné, and Jenny Pronczuk de Garbino of the Department of Public Health and Environment, at the World Health Organization, in Geneva, Switzerland, working with Tom Hudson of Boston University, highlight a recent WHO report that estimated that almost one in four illnesses has an environmental cause. Such high levels of disease kill more than ten million children each year and are, the team says, unacceptable.

They point out that environmental hazards are multiplying and becoming more visible because of environmental change, rapid population growth, overcrowding, and the speedy industrialization uncontrolled pollution of many regions. Those environmental factors that have the greatest disease burden lead to diarrheal diseases, lower respiratory infections and malaria, as well as malnutrition, poisonings, and perinatal conditions.

Work must now be done, they stress, to distinguish the main environmental threats affecting children’s health so that nations can identify the various factors and address them through remediation and education through better-informed policy-making decisions. Factors such as polluted indoor and outdoor air, contaminated water and lack of adequate sanitation, chemical and other toxic hazards, disease vectors, ultraviolet radiation and degraded ecosystems are all important environmental risk factors affecting children around the world.

It is crucial to recognize that children are more vulnerable than adults to environmental risks because they are generally constantly growing and more active and so breathe more air, consume more food and drink more water weight for weight than adults. The child’s developing central nervous, immune, reproductive, and digestive systems, are also more susceptible to irreversible damage from toxins and pollutants.

They also point out that two other important factors affect the environmental risks experienced by children differently from adults. First, children play and crawl on the ground where they are exposed to dust and chemicals that accumulate on floors and soils. Secondly, they have far less control over their environment than adults have and are usually less aware of risks and unable to make choices to protect their health.

The team hopes that taking action to address all such issues will ultimately reduce the burden of disease affecting children globally and so contribute towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Environmental gains derived from the use of nanomaterials may be offset in part by the process used to manufacture them, according to research published in a special issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology.Hatice Şengül and colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago assert that strict material purity requirements, lower tolerances for defects and lower yields of manufacturing processes may lead to greater environmental burdens than those associated with conventional manufacturing. In a separate study of carbon nanofiber production, Vikas Khanna and colleagues at Ohio State University found, for example, that the life-cycle environmental impacts may be as much as 100 times greater per unit of weight than those of traditional materials, potentially offsetting some of the environmental benefits of the small size of nanomaterials.

Materials engineered at dimensions of 1 to 100 nanometers¬ (1 to100 billionths of a meter) ¬exhibit novel physical, chemical and biological characteristics, opening possibilities for stunning innovations in medicine, manufacturing and a host of other sectors of the economy. Because small quantities of nanomaterials can accomplish the tasks of much larger amounts of conventional materials, the expectation has been that nanomaterials will lower energy and resource use and the pollution that accompanies them. The possibility of constructing miniature devices atom-by-atom has also given rise to expectations that precision in nanomanufacturing will lead to less waste and cleaner processes.

“Research in this issue reveals the potential of environmental impacts from nanomanufacturing to offset the benefits of using lighter nanomaterials,” says Gus Speth, dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. “To date, most attention has focused on the possible toxic effects of exposure to nanoparticles¬ and appropriately so. But considerations of pollution and energy use arising from the production technologies used to make nanomaterials need attention as well.”

Other topics explored in the special issue include:

• Approaches for identifying and reducing the life cycle hazards of nanomaterials
• Quantified life cycle energy requirements and environmental impacts from nanomaterials
• Tradeoffs between nanomanufacturing costs and occupational exposure to nanoparticles
• Efficiency of techniques for nanomaterials synthesis
• Improvement of the sustainability of bio-based products through nanotechnology
• Industrial frameworks for responsible nanotechnology
• Industrial and public perception about the risks and benefits of nanomaterials
• Governance and regulation of nanotechnology

Industrial ecology is a field that examines the opportunities for sustainable production and consumption, emphasizing the importance of a systems view of environmental threats and remedies. “Through the use of tools such as life cycle assessment, green chemistry and pollution prevention, industrial ecology takes a broad and deliberate view of environmental challenges,” states Reid Lifset, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Industrial Ecology. “This special issue shows the power of this approach.”

The United States lacks the standards to ensure that producing biofuels from cellulose won’t cause environmental harm, says a distinguished group of international scientists.  But because the industry is so young, policymakers have an exceptional opportunity to develop incentive programs to ensure the industry doesn’t harm the environment.

“Environmental standards are needed now, before the industry moves out of its research and development phase,” said Phil Robertson, Michigan State University professor of crop and soil sciences and lead author of the paper “Sustainable Biofuels Redux” published in the Oct. 3 issue of the journal Science.  “With production standards and incentive programs, cellulosic biofuel cropping systems could provide significant environmental benefits.”

Currently, all the commercial ethanol produced in the United States is made from grain, primarily corn.  Robertson said that science has shown that almost all intensive grain-based cropping systems, as currently managed, cause environmental harm.  As director of the MSU Long-Term Ecological Research program at the Kellogg Biological Station, part of Robertson’s research focuses on management practices that can reduce these negative effects.

“We can soften the environmental impacts by using strategies such as no-till farming to minimize erosion and planting cover crops to sequester carbon and reduce nitrogen and phosphorus run-off,” he said.  “But few farmers use all of the best available practices because there are limited incentives –and many disincentives – for them to do so.  As the technology to make biofuels from cellulose is refined and commercialized, we believe it’s crucial that the industry and legislators adopt policies that reward environmentally sustainable production practices for cellulosic biofuels.  It’s equally important for grain-based systems.”

This is one of the first times such a large and diverse group of internationally recognized scientists have spoken with one voice on the issue.  The 23 authors are some of the world’s top ecologists, agronomists, conservation biologists and economists.  The paper is the result of discussions that took place at a spring workshop on the environmental sustainability of biofuels sponsored by the Ecological Society of America.

“This was truly a collaborative effort,” Robertson said.  “There are strong and divergent scientific opinions on the sustainability of biofuel cropping systems.  That this group, with its diverse backgrounds and professional experiences, can come to consensus is remarkable.  Decision-makers should take notice.”

Of all environments, space must be the most hostile: It is freezing cold, close to absolute zero, there is a vacuum, so no oxygen, and the amount of lethal radiation from stars is very high.  This is why humans need to be carefully protected when they enter this environment.  New research by Ingemar Jönsson and colleagues published in the September 9 issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press journal, shows that some animals —the so-called tardigrades or ‘water-bears’— are able to do away with space suits and can survive exposure to open-space vacuum, cold and radiation.

This is the first time that any animal has been tested for survival under open-space conditions.  The test subjects were chosen with great care: Tardigrades —also known as water-bears— are tiny invertebrate animals from 0.1 to 1.5mm in size that can be easily found on wet lichens and mosses.  Because their homes often fall dry, tardigrades are very resistant to drying out and can resurrect after years of dryness.  Along with this amazing survival trick comes extreme resistance to heat, cold and radiation —so tardigrades seemed like an ideal animal to test in space.

The dried-up tardigrades were aboard the FOTON-M3 spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in September 2007 and were exposed to open space conditions —i.e. to vacuum, UV radiation from the sun and cosmic radiation— in a low Earth orbit of around 270km altitude.  After their safe return to Earth, it turned out that while most of them survived exposure to vacuum and cosmic rays alone, some had even survived the exposure to the deadly levels of solar UV radiation, which are more than 1000 times higher than on the surface of the Earth.  Even more so, the survivors could reproduce fine after their space trip.

The tardigrades extreme resistance to UV radiation is perhaps most surprising.  UV rays consist of high-energy light particles that cause severe damage to tissue, as is evident when you get a sun-burn.  But more so, they can also damage the cell’s genetic material, causing for instance skin cancers.  For this reason UV is deadly for most organisms —it is even used as a sterilising agent.  As Jönsson and colleagues write: “How these animals were capable of reviving their body after receiving a dose of UV radiation of more than 7000 kJm-2 under space vacuum conditions […] remains a mystery.”  It is conceivable that the same cellular adaptations that let them survive drying out might also account for their overall hardiness.

A new co-ordinated international set of rules to govern commercial and research activities in both of Earth’s polar regions is urgently needed to reflect new environmental realities and to temper pressure building on these highly fragile ecosystems, according to several of the experts convening in Iceland for a UN-affiliated conference marking the International Polar Year.

Due to climate change, the ancient ice lid on the Arctic Ocean is fast disappearing, creating new opportunities for fishers and resource companies, and opening a potential new, far shorter ocean route between Europe and Asia, a prospect already drawing billions of dollars in investment in ice-class ships.

Antarctica, meanwhile, is witnessing a growing parade of tourists (40,000, including tour staff, in 2007), as well as researchers (now about 4,000 in summer occupying 37 permanent stations and numerous field camps) and companies interested in exploiting the biological properties of that continent’s “extremophiles.”

However, “many experts believe this new rush to the polar regions is not manageable within existing international law,” says A.H. Zakri, Director of the United Nations University’s Yokohama-based Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS), co-organizers of the conference with Iceland’s University of Akureyri, in partnership with Tilburg University (Netherlands), and the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland (Finland).

“Pressure on Earth’s unique and highly vulnerable polar areas is mounting quickly and an internationally-agreed set of rules built on new realities appears needed to many observers.  In Iceland, leading scholars will detail fast-emerging issues in international law and policy in the polar regions caused by such developments as the opening up of the Northwest Passage.  They will identify priorities for law-making and research and offer their best advice to decision makers, who clearly need to act even faster than the changing environment.”

Rising Arctic economic activity

Problems forecast for the Arctic as its ice recedes include:

* Overfishing;

* Pollution from ships and offshore extraction of oil and gas;

* Oil spills; and

* Invasion of alien species carried by ships’ ballast water

“Overfishing, the result in part of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, is already occurring in the Okhotsk and Bering Seas,” says conference presenter Dr. Tatiana Saksina of the World Wildlife Fund’s International Arctic Programme

“Agreements are needed now to regulate shared and straddling fish stocks and to protect fish migrating to higher latitudes in search of colder waters,” she says.

“Arctic sea routes are among the world’s most hazardous due to lack of natural light, extreme cold, moving ice floes, high wind and low visibility and the Arctic marine environment is particularly susceptible to the effects of pollution (as demonstrated by the Exxon Valdez oil spill).  The same conditions that contribute to high oil spill risks can also make response operations extremely difficult or totally ineffective,” she adds.  “Yet there are no internationally binding rules to regulate operational pollution from offshore installations.  Strict standards for the transportation of Arctic oil are also urgently needed,”

National marine environmental protection regimes that cover significant portions of Arctic waters constitute a fragmented system of governance, with large gaps in jurisdiction, implementation and effectiveness.  The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), meanwhile, includes environmental rules inadequate to protect the ice oceans, she says.

“Despite the applicability of many global and regional treaties concerned with the protection of the arctic marine environment and effective management of shipping issues by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), there are many problems that require attention.  There is a need for an arctic ship routing system, traffic separation schemes, and use of Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT).  Due to their vulnerability, arctic waters require very strict standards for ballast water exchange, fuel content, discharge and emission.  There should be internationally binding standards for construction, design, equipment and manning of ships,” says Dr. Saksina.

“There is an urgent need for a comprehensive international environmental regime specially tailored for the unique arctic conditions.  This regime is needed before natural resource development expands widely.  The earliest date of summer Arctic Ocean without ice may be 2013.  The longer the delay in developing international environmental rules, the more likely it is that unplanned and unregulated development will damage the very resources most necessary for a sustainable future in the Arctic.  There is no time to waste and no reason to wait.”

Antarctic Tourists and Researchers

Conference chairman Dr. David Leary of UNU-IAS notes that the Madrid Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty commits signatories to avoid changing distribution, abundance or productivity of Antarctica’s fauna and flora, to jeopardize endangered or threatened species or to degrade or create substantial risk to areas of biological, scientific, historic, aesthetic or wilderness significance.

It also commits signatories to guard against importation of non-sterile soil and the introduction of non-native species and micro-organisms (e.g., viruses, bacteria, parasites, yeasts, fungi).

In the Antarctic, however, tourist activities can compromise the region due to seeds, invertebrates and soil in their clothing and footwear, and in their provisions and equipment, says Dr. Leary.  As well, visitors may introduce and spread infectious disease-causing agents through, for example, interactions with wildlife and leaving behind organic wastes.

According to a 2005 UNEP report: “Governments may be reluctant to impose thorough quarantine controls on tourists for fear of damaging the industry … [and] tourists are likely to be moving between similar sites (for example, wildlife viewing areas), increasing the risk of spreading invasive alien species.”

It also notes that “researchers may pose a particular risk to biodiversity because they have access to sites of high conservation value that may be closed to the general public, and may carry equipment or organisms to those sites.”

Law professor Tullio Scovazzi of the University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, says States should make full use of existing provisions under maritime law to establish measures to protect polar regions from harm, including shipping traffic separation schemes, recommended routes, deepwater routes, areas to be avoided, compulsory pilotage and other vessel traffic services.

He notes a UNCLOS provision devoted to “ice-covered areas” which refers to the right of coastal states to adopt and enforce laws and regulations within their exclusive economic zones, “where particularly severe climatic conditions and the presence of ice covering such areas for most of the year creates obstructions or exceptional hazards to navigation and pollution of the marine environment could cause major harm or irreversible disturbance of the ecological balance.”

Given changing environmental circumstances, however, he anticipates potential new questions arising, such as:

* At what temperature are climatic conditions considered particularly severe?

* Do laws and regulations adopted by the coastal States for ice-covered areas apply also in the part of the year when the areas are not covered by ice?  And

* What happens if in certain years the waters are ice-covered for most of the year, but in other years they are not, also considering that the precise calculation of the duration of ice-coverage can only be made at the end of the year?

Bioprospecting is also emerging as an issue in both polar regions, says Dr. Leary of UNU-IAS.

“Bioprospecting in Antarctica in particular raises new questions about its impact on freedom of scientific research and the unique framework of international co-operation and governance in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean which is built upon the ideals of Antarctica as a region devoted to science and peace.

“Similar questions arise in the Arctic as well.  It is quite suprising but it looks like bioprospecting is already a well established commercial activity in the Arctic, perhaps exceeding the level of activity in Antarctica.  Both biotechnology companies and government funded research projects alike see the potential of the Arctic’s unique biodiversity for new developments in biotechnology.

“The neural stem cells of Arctic squirrels for example offer interesting new possibilities for the treatment of strokes in humans, while some Arctic fish species have already yielded new interesting enzymes useful in industrial and manufacturing processes.”

“But can these new commercial activities, often occurring on the high seas, be sustainably managed?  That is but one new challenge for international law we are considering at this conference”, says Dr. Leary.

Thorsteinn Gunnarsson, rector of the University of Akureyri says: “As the impact of climate change is increasing, it is highly important to discuss leadership and governance in the Arctic regions.  The academic community should provide a platform to explore and openly debate these issues.  University of Akureyri is very proud to offer this platform by holding this conference in international law and policy in the polar regions in cooperation with UN institutions and other partners.”

Says Konrad Ostrerwalder, UN Under Secretary-General and Rector of UNU: “As the ecosystems of the Arctic are affected by climate change, so too will the inhabitants be affected, because of their heavy reliance on the natural resources of the Arctic.

“It is important that voices of the indigenous and other peoples of the Arctic be heard in the course of the development of government policies at all levels.”