Biofortification of soybean meal: immunological properties of the 27 kDa γ-zein

Legumes, including soybeans ( Glycine max ), are deficient in sulfur-containing amino acids, which are required for the optimal growth of monogastric animals. This deficiency can be overcome by expressing heterologous proteins rich in sulfur-containing amino acids in soybean seeds. A maize 27 kDa γ-zein, a cysteine-rich protein, has been successfully expressed in several crops including soybean, barley, and alfalfa with the intent to biofortify these crops for animal feed. Previous work has shown that the maize 27 kDa zein can withstand digestion by pepsin and elicit an immunogenic response in young pigs. By use of sera from patients who tested positive by ImmunoCAP assay for elevated IgE to maize proteins, specific IgE binding to the 27 kDa γ-zein is demonstrated. Bioinformatic analysis using the full-length and 80 amino acid sliding window FASTA searches identified significant sequence homology of the 27 kDa γ-zein with several known allergens. Immunoblot analysis using human serum that cross-reacts with maize seed proteins also revealed specific IgE-binding to the 27 kDa γ-zein in soybean seed protein extracts containing the 27 kDa zein. This study demonstrates for the first time the allergenicity potential of the 27 kDa γ-zein and the potential that this protein has to limit livestock performance when used in soybeans that serve as a biofortified feed supplement.     

The impact of earthworms on the abundance of Collembola: improvement of food resources or of habitat?

I assessed the direct influence of earthworm excretions, and the impact of earthworms through their action on the soil structure (increased macroporosity), on the population dynamics of the collembolan species Heteromurus nitidus. The intestinal content of Collembola arising from cultures on different soil types was observed, and two experimental cultures of H. nitidus were run: (1) a culture performed on an inert substrate supplied either with earthworm casts or with soil as food resource, (2) an experiment using microcosms with cores of two humus forms (moder and calcic mull), in the presence or absence of earthworms. The observation of gut contents revealed that H. nitidus feeds on excrements, the composition of which (ratio organic matter/mineral matter) varies according to the humus form where it lived. Slightly aged (10–15 days) organo-mineral casts of earthworms appeared to be a better food than calcic mull aggregates or organic material from moder. Densities of H. nitidus cultured in cores of calcic mull were higher than in moder, except when cores of moder were inhabited by an anecic earthworm for 2 months. The humus form strongly influenced populations of H. nitidus, firstly because densities of predators were higher in moder than in calcic mull, and probably also because of soil macroporosity. It was concluded that earthworms would affect predation on H. nitidus by creating a network of interconnected macropores in which Collembola can move and find shelter.     

Soils оf Oligomesotrophic аnd Mesotrophic Bogs in the Boreal Zone of West Siberia: Possibilities of Botanical Diagnostics within the Framework of the Type of Mesotrophic Peat Soils

Eurasian Soil Science - Despite the widespread use of the taxon “mesotrophic (transitional) peat soils” in the present-day Russian and foreign pedology, including some fundamental...     

On the 'temperature sensitivity' of soil respiration: Can we use the immeasurable to predict the unknown?

The temperature dependence of soil respiration (R_S) is widely used as a key characteristic of soils or organic matter fractions within soils, and in the context of global climatic change is often applied to infer likely responses of R_S to warmer future conditions. However, the way in which these temperature dependencies are calculated, interpreted and implemented in ecosystem models requires careful consideration of possible artefacts and assumptions. We argue that more conceptual clarity in the reported relationships is needed to obtain meaningful meta-analyses and better constrained parameters informing ecosystem models. Our critical assessment of common methodologies shows that it is impossible to measure actual temperature response of R_S, and that a range of confounding effects creates the observed apparent temperature relations reported in the literature. Thus, any measureable temperature response function will likely fail to predict effects of climate change on R_s. For improving our understanding of R_S in changing environments we need a better integration of the relationships between substrate supply and the soil biota, and of their long-term responses to changes in abiotic soil conditions. This is best achieved by experiments combining isotopic techniques and ecosystem manipulations, which allow a disentangling of abiotic and biotic factors underlying the temperature response of soil CO₂ efflux.     

The Lazarus effect: can the dynamics of extinct species lists tell us anything about the status of biodiversity?

Lists of extinct Australian plants created over the last 20 years were examined and were shown to have high levels of turnover. In general, the lists are contracting in length and their composition changes substantially, a phenomenon we term the ‘Lazarus effect’. There is little explanation for these changes in the cryptic nature of species habits, or their distribution in remote locations. Most of the turnover is due to changes in knowledge about the species' status, and changes in taxonomy. Lists maintained in some other countries are more stable, but at the potential cost of underestimating the extent of extinction. Comparisons between jurisdictions and between lists are difficult because of different attitudes taken towards uncertainty and variation in research effort among different taxa. For any assessment that uses lists of extinct or threatened species as indicators of environmental change, we recommend that sources of bias are reduced and that uncertainties in lists are made more transparent. An important step in this process is to distinguish listing changes due to a change in status from those due to a change in knowledge about distribution, abundance and taxonomy. Assessments of environmental change based on species lists should be standardised to exclude these latter sources of variation, and take into account new assessments of previously unevaluated taxa.     

Molecular modeling of soil organic matter: Squaring the circle?

The structure of soil organic matter (SOM) and humic substances (HS) has been discussed from different viewpoints including molecular conformation, molecular aggregation, macromolecularity, supramolecular characteristics, domain mobility, and many others. Until now, the individual models appear partly contradictory, although each viewpoint provides important information on the structural and functional properties of SOM. This is most probably due to the huge heterogeneity of SOM. Therefore, the question: “How can molecular modeling help to further understand structure and functioning of soil organic matter?” needs to be addressed with care. This contribution reviews and discusses the potential of important molecular modeling approaches currently applied in soil organic matter science.Computer models are useful in giving a visualization of the general structure and of the possible effects on soil chemistry and soil physics. Computational chemistry in this context aims to estimate a lowest energy conformation for a molecule or an assembly of molecules specified by the programmer. On the basis of the calculated conformation, physicochemical characteristics like surface area, polarity and other can be estimated and information on the stability of molecular assemblies can be derived. The significance of the obtained conformation and physicochemical information strongly depends on the initial hypothesis of the molecular structure of each involved molecule. Recent computer models have been developed on the base of computer assisted structure elucidation (CASE). In this procedure, all possible isomers or a statistically representative set of isomers consistent with the experimental input data are processed.Further interesting fields of computational chemistry in soil research follow a different conception, where specific processes of interest are elucidated with the help of computational models which simplify the humic molecules with respect to the individual modeling problem. This way helps to understand the relevance of principal processes expected to occur in soil. In this context, complexes of Al with organic acids, clay mineral sorption sites, interactions of pesticides with organic functional groups or organic soil constituents as well as cross-linking of molecule segments by water molecules were modeled in targeted process-orientated models. The act of simplification is the crucial process in these kinds of models, and if the models are based on good conceptions, they allow to learn about potential SOM functioning. The transfer to more complex situations, however, needs special care and the predictive character of these models needs to be judged with care. Still, any computer model is only as good as its initial hypothesis.     

Mapping the Literature of Food Science Revisited: 2003–2005

ABSTRACT

After reviewing previously published literature in citation analysis and literature mapping, this study mapped the literature of food science and explored the relationships found within it. Using articles published in the Journal of Food Science from 2003 through 2005, a stratified random sample of citations was studied to yield a ranked list of the thirteen most frequently cited journals, which formed a core set for further analysis. Using the Science Citation Index and a standard statistical package (SPSS₁₃), a two-dimensional map was created, relationships between the journals were studied, and the discipline of food science was explored. The study is an extension of previously published research covering the years 2000–2002 and attempts to analyze and compare the results across time frames.     

Sulphur nutrition of clover: Effects of plant age on the composition‐yield relationship

Abstract

Five levels of S (as gypsum) were topdressed on to a pasture containing subterranean clover. Yield responses by the clover fraction of the pasture were measured, together with the total S concentration, the sulphate S concentration and the N:S ratio in young clover plants collected in autumn prior to the fertilizer application, and in plants from the control plots collected in winter and in spring.

As there were irregular changes in analytical values from autumn through winter to spring, a more detailed series of samples was taken in the second year. Therein, values for total S and sulphate S in clover plants from each treatment rose during the winter and fell during the spring, so that the critical concentration of sulphur or sulphate varied during the growing period. However, the critical N:S ratio was relatively stable, and in view of previously demonstrated correlations with response to added S, appears to be the more useful index for both diagnosis and prognosis.     

Problems of using digitized thematic maps on the territory of the former soviet union upon the creation of the “Soils of Russia” geographic information system

Soviet and Russian pedologists, ecologists, geobotanists, geographers, and other specialists created a large set of maps on the territory of the former Soviet Union. In most cases, these maps were published; at present, they are available as hardcopies. Their digitization clearly shows various merits and demerits of thematic maps on the territory of the Soviet Union and Russia.     

Reconstruction of Climate,Soils, and Vegetation in the Turan–Uyuk Basin of South Siberia at the Beginning of the Subatlantic Period of the Holocene

Four Scythian kurgans of the burial site Beloe Lake-3 were studied in the Turan–Uyuk Depression in the Republic of Tyva. They were constructed about 2565–2390 calendar years ago (calibrated with deviation 1 σ). Soil formation after 2500 yrs of the construction of the kurgans was examined in the interkurgan area. The properties of the background surface and ancient buried soils have much in common, and the difference between the soils of the four kurgans is small. This attests to the fact that the paleoclimatic conditions in the period of the necropolis construction remained stable and were similar to the modern climatic conditions. According to palynological data, the climate at the stage of the construction of the first two kurgans was a little more humid in comparison with the modern climate; it became somewhat drier after 95 years, during the construction of the third kurgan (2425 cal. BP) and again tended to humidification at the final stage of the necropolis creation. These changes in the paleoclimatic conditions are indicated by variations in the structure and composition of associations of xerophytes, mesophytes, hydrophytes, and ruderal plants. At the Uyuk stage, the area was mainly occupied by steppe phytocenoses with a predominance of xerophytes over mesophytes, and hydrophilous vegetation was allocated to moistened habitats near water reservoirs. Larch forests grew near water bodies. The variable anthropogenic impact on the landscape was stronger at the initial and final stages of the construction of the Uyuk culture necropolis.     

A check-list of the cultivated plants of the Ghāt oases

Summary The Ght oases are rich in plant genetic resources. During a mission in 1983 cultivated plants of this area have been studied and altogether 57 accessions of land-races collected. Compiling the results from the collections, from observations all over the Fezzan and from literature studies a check list of the cultivated plants of the Ght oases is presented. Close relationships can be demonstrated especially to land-races from Ethiopia but also from other parts of Africa. The plant genetic resources of the Ght oases may be useful in breeding programmes.

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Eine Liste der Kulturpflanzen der Ght-Oasen

Zusammenfassung Die Ght-Oasen sind reich an pflanzlichen genetischen Ressourcen. Während einer Reise im Jahre 1983 wurden die Kulturpflanzen dieses Gebietes studiert und insgesamt 57 Muster gesammelt. Aus den Ergebnissen der Sammlungen, der Beobachtungen aus dem gesamten Fezzan-Gebiet und der Literaturstudien wird eine Liste der Kulturpflanzen der Ght-Oasen zusammengestellt. Enge Beziehungen können besonders zu den Landsorten Äthiopiens aber auch anderer Teile Afrikas postuliert werden. Die pflanzlichen genetischen Ressourcen der Ght-Oasen stellen ein wertvolles Ausgangsmaterial für die Pflanzenzüchtung dar.

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Physical properties of soils and the simulation of the hydrothermal regime for the complex soil cover of the Vladimir Opol’e region

A methodological approach to the physically sound mathematical simulation of the hydrothermal regime for a complex soil cover on an agricultural field scale was proposed. To realize the approach, it is necessary (1) to restore the hydrothermal regime of two contrasting soils using a physically sound mathematical model on the basis of the experimental thermophysical and hydrophysical characteristics, (2) to adapt and optimize the model using the available experimental regime data, (3) to determine the hydrophysical and thermophysical properties for the entire plot under study using pedotransfer functions, and (4) to restore the hydrothermal regime of the entire soil plot using a mathematical model and the meteorological data for a specific time period. The proposed procedure allows simulating the hydrothermal regime of an agrogray soil complex in the Vladimir Opol??e region with a normalized standard error of about 8%. The analysis of the hydrothermal regime for the soil cover of the studied plot calculated from the meteorological data for the period from May to August of 2009 showed that the lower temperature values were confined to the areas of the agrogray soils with the second humus horizon: their average temperature was lower than the temperature of the agrogray soils by 0.44, 0.93, and 1.32°C at depths of 20, 40, and 70 cm, respectively, and the differences between their sums of the active temperatures for the considered period of 2009 reached 89 and 74°C at depths of 20 and 40 cm, respectively.     

Methods to Estimate Aggregate Protected Soil Organic Carbon, 2: Does the Grinding of the Plant Residues Affect the Estimations of the Aggregate Protected Soil Organic Carbon?

A method to estimate the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) physically protected within macroaggregates (>200 μm) consists of crushing soil samples and measuring the following SOC mineralization increase. This study investigated the effect of grinding the plant residues during soil crushing on the calculated amount of the protected SOC on two tropical soils (Arenosol and Ferralsol). Incubations of crushed and uncrushed soil samples amended with ground or unground plant residues were conducted. Our results showed that soil crushing increased SOC mineralization and that the presence of plant residues enhanced soil respiration also. The plant residues of the two soils had different decomposition rates, but grinding plant residues did not increase the amounts of cumulative carbon (C) mineralized after the 28 days of the experiment. We propose that the extra C mineralized after soil crushing is due to the breakdown of the soil structure and not to the grinding of plant residues.