Interfering with regular meiotic behaviour in Avena sativa as a method of incorporating the gene for mildew resistance from A. barbata

Summary The regular meiotic behaviour of the cultivated oat Avena sativa (2n=6x=42) is genetically controlled. The factors which control the diploid-like meiotic behaviour also restrict the amount of pairing that occurs between alien chromosomes and their homoeologues in A.sativa, and hence increases the difficulties of introducing desirable variation from wild species into the cultivated oat. A genotype of the diploid species A.longiglumis which interferes with the regular meiotic behaviour of A. sativa can be used to induce pairing between alien chromosomes and their corresponding chromosomes in A. sativa. Using this procedure the dominant gene conferring mildew resistance has been transferred from the tetraploid weed species A. barbata into the cultivated oat.     

Badger hair in shaving brushes comes from protected Eurasian badgers

The Eurasian badger (Meles meles) is included in Appendix III of the Bern Convention and protected by national laws in many European countries. Badger hair is used to manufacture luxury shaving brushes, although it is frequently argued that the hog badger (Arctonyx collaris), which in Europe is an introduced and unprotected species, is the origin of the hair used. We applied an extraction protocol to recover DNA from the unrooted hair of shaving brushes obtained from commercial companies in The Netherlands and Spain. The tested brushes originated from The Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom where the Eurasian badger is a protected species. We sequenced 191 bp of the mitochondrial DNA control region and 170 bp of the cytochrome b gene and compared the sequences obtained with Eurasian badger and hog badger reference sequences of the same mitochondrial DNA regions obtained in our laboratory and from GenBank. Sequences obtained from four shaving brushes were clearly hog badger sequences, whereas four sequences clustered with Eurasian badger sequences of both European and Asian origins. One of the shaving brushes made of Eurasian badger was produced in France, where it is legal to capture or trade the species under certain conditions. The remaining three brushes originated from The Netherlands, where it is illegal to possess, sell, transport or use for commercial purposes dead Eurasian badgers or products derived from them.     

Otter Lutra lutra L. mortality and marine oil pollution

Following an oil spill at Sullom Voe Oil Terminal, Shetland, at least 13 otters died. Post-mortems on five corpses showed that they had died of haemorrhagic gastroenteropathy, associated with ingested oil. The primary cause of oil ingestion seems to have been grooming of the fur. A survey of the polluted coasts revealed that otters were still present throughout most of the area.     

Environmental beliefs and farm practices of New Zealand farmers Contrasting pathways to sustainability

Sustainable farming, and waysto achieve it, are important issues foragricultural policy. New Zealand provides aninteresting case for examining sustainableagriculture options because gene technologieshave not been commercially released and thereis a small but rapidly expanding organicsector. There is no strong governmentsubsidization of agriculture, so while policiesseem to favor both options to some degree,neither has been directly supported. Resultsfrom a survey of 656 farmers are used to revealthe intentions, environmental values, andfarming practices for organic, conventional,and GE intending farmers. The results show thatorganic and conventional farmers are relativelysimilar but contrast to GE intending farmers,especially with respect to perceivedconsequences of each technology. While 75%of farmers have not yet made a commitmentto either technology, one fifth were GEintending and one quarter may become organic.Organic farmers have different attitudes tonature, matched in part by conventionalfarmers. In terms of policy for sustainableagriculture, the results suggest that organicand conventional farmers are incrementallymoving towards agroecological sustainabilitywhile GE intending farmers are committed tointensive production methods of which GEproducts are potentially important. GEintending farmers reject incrementalism infavor of a revolutionary technological fix forsustainability concerns in agriculture.Overall, the results show that there areclearly two different paradigms ofsustainability among farmers. Policies that areseeking to achieve sustainable agriculture needto address the tensions that span the differentparadigms.     

Prehistoric rock avalanches in the olympic mountains, washington

Rock avalanches blocked streams in the Olympic Mountains southwest of Puget Sound during the past few thousand years. Limiting radiocarbon ages indicated that three or four of six avalanches occurred from 1000 to 1300 years ago or shortly thereafter. Most of the dates were from the outer preserved rings of trees drowned behind avalanche dams. These three or four avalanches may be coeval not only with one another but also with abrupt tectonic deformation in western Washington. No rock avalanches in the Olympic Mountains are known to have resulted from storms or earthquakes during the past century. The avalanches strengthen the case that a large prehistoric earthquake occurred in the Puget Sound region.