Biology 2

Systems Biology

Enhancing our understanding of Plant Gene Regulatory Networks

We expect that PGRN-based technology will be a significant driver for the development of the next round of agricultural biotechnology and agricultural chemistry products being launched during the next decade, conferring enhanced intrinsic yield and yield stability. Next generation biotech trait products, derived from discoveries that we have made over the past decade, are expected to deliver significant gains in yield compared to those achieved through conventional breeding approaches. However, what are the prospects for the longer term future and what will it take to deliver the needed productivity increases in a number of major crops across the planet?

Physiological evidence suggests that there is substantial potential to increase average primary productivity by up to 100% or more in some crop species. Nonetheless, to achieve such a goal, we will need to understand better the major regulatory proteins controlling traits of commercial importance, such as photosynthesis, water use, and nitrogen use and remobilization. Mendel has developed novel screening systems and an engineering approach to define these important regulatory proteins and the related PGRNs. Mendel is actively filing new patent applications on new inventions resulting from these screens.

In addition, achieving increased global yields will require that the intricacies of plant gene regulatory networks are understood at a deeper level. Mendel is deploying state of the art tools and computational approaches to efficiently build PGRNs for the most important traits and regulatory proteins. Our goal is a series of local network models that will, over the next decade, begin to coalesce into a global network view of major functions, such as photosynthesis, water use, stress tolerance, nitrogen use, etc. To do this, we are applying the very latest molecular and biochemical techniques to identify partner proteins for each TF of high interest and the DNA sites to which each TF binds across the many different cell types that exist in a plant. Like a circuit diagram for an electrical appliance or an automobile, these PGRNs will allow us to model how the each gene regulatory network is controlled and how each responds to environmental variables. From such predictions, we will be able to identify how to most effectively combine (stack) our existing technologies as well as select the optimum intervention points within the networks at which to use chemical or genetic approaches to realize maximum increases in yield.

Thus, even while second generation biotech crops are still under development, our new focus towards building PGRN models will provide the discoveries that deliver later generation products for plant improvement, as well as next generation chemical management tools for crop production. We believe these new tools and proprietary knowledge will keep Mendel at the forefront of the innovation curve and provide major competitive advantage for our technology business.

Biology Growth Habit 3

Flower Structure

Control of Flower Structure

In addition to transcription factor regulated gene networks that control when the plant switches to a reproductive phase of its lifecycle, we have also discovered transcription factors that regulate the growth and form of the floral organs themselves. Such technology is of use in enhancing the ornamental value of flowers. We have also identified transcription factors that control the production of male sex organs and pollen; this know-how has important applications in Mendel's internal breeding programs to develop novel elite varieties of perennial grasses as biofuel feedstocks.

Biology Growth Habit 2

Flowering Time

Control of the Floral Transition

An important developmental response, which can have a major impact on crop yield and quality is the timing of flowering. Following germination, most plants go through a period of vegetative growth, in which they produce leaves, photosynthesize, and accumulate biomass and energy reserves before transitioning to reproductive growth in which those stored energy reserves are used for the production of flowers and seeds. The precise timing of flowering is a therefore a major determinant of reproductive success and plants have evolved complex genetic control networks which monitor the prevailing environmental conditions to ensure that flowering is triggered at the most appropriate time. Mendel has identified novel transcription factors which control these networks and has shown that they can be applied to either trigger flowering, or to delay or prevent flowering, depending upon the desired application. In many cases, domesticated plants are not grown under similar conditions to the habitats in which they evolved and their intrinsic floral control mechanisms are not well suited to the intended human use. Thus for example, some types of ornamentals have to be exposed to artificially altered day-lengths and temperatures through very costly greenhouse regimes in order to induce them to flower in time for a special date such as Christmas or Easter. Mendel has identified gene networks involved in triggering these responses and has identified candidate transcription factors than can be used to activate flowering in a similar manner to light and temperature treatments. Conversely, for many forage and biofeedstock applications, it is desirable to inhibit the floral transition and to maintain the plant in a vegetative state where it continues to assimilate carbon dioxide and accumulate biomass rather than dissipating those resources on seed production. As such, a number of Mendel technologies are being deployed in forage species such as alfalfa as well as in biofuel feedstock crops including eucalyptus and perennial grasses.

from:  http://www.mendelbio.com/technology/floweringtime.php

Biology Growth Habit 1

Shoot & Branching Pattern

Control of Plant Shape and Form

One of the hallmarks of biology of plants is the non-uniformity of size and aerial form between different individuals of given species. Unlike animals, which have a fixed body plan and undergo developmental transitions in a relatively invariant manner, plants exhibit a greater degree of plasticity in growth and are able to adjust their growth pattern and the timing of developmental transitions, such as flowering and fruit setting, in response the local environment. Mendel has identified substantial sets of transcription factors which control these growth responses and we are applying them to crop plants to create a more optimal growth pattern. Since plants typically compete for light with nearby vegetation, they have evolved powerful mechanisms for growing towards gaps in the canopy and thereby avoid shading by neighbors. This often takes the form of rapid and spindly extension growth at the expense of formation of productive green biomass. Importantly, in a field situation, such shade avoidance responses often occur before competition for light actually becomes limiting; this reduces the yield in row crops because the individual plants transfer energy reserves into responses such as stem elongation rather than seed production. Mendel has identified a number of gene networks that control these so-called shade avoidance responses and we are applying this knowledge to develop crop strains with a more economical growth habit.

from:  http://www.mendelbio.com/technology/shootbranching.php

Biology 1

Core Technology

With the human population set to reach 9 billion by 2050 and the ever increasing environmental pressure on agriculture, there is an urgent need to develop crops with enhanced productivity and yield stability. In short, global agriculture will need to produce nearly twice the current amounts of food, feed, fiber and fuel with less energy and with an improved carbon footprint. For this reason, we especially focus on new technologies for increasing crop intrinsic yield and for improving yield stability under environmental stress conditions such as water limitation, nutrient limitation and pathogen pressure. These two general trait areas offer high value returns on products, and are currently major targets for our transcription factor-based genetic and chemical improvements. In the fifteen years since Mendel was founded, our scientists have developed a world-class technology portfolio based on our detailed understanding of specific gene networks that control important plant traits.

The first generation of plant biotechnology products was launched in the mid-1990s. These products, and almost all subsequent products to-date, have been based on two relatively simple "single gene" traits: herbicide (e.g., RoundUp) and insect resistance (BT) technology. However, with the sequencing of the first plant genome in the late 1990s, the opportunity arose to use genomics approaches to identify genetic networks that regulate all important aspects of plant biology, and thereby to develop a new generation of products targeting complex traits such as improved yield potential and stress tolerance. Mendel chose to focus on a class of genes encoding products termed "transcription factors" (TFs) since these proteins were known to act as master regulators of gene networks. Over a period of approximately five years, Mendel scientists identified essentially all of the transcription factor genes from a model plant species (Arabidopsis thaliana) and systematically analyzed the function of each of the encoded proteins by producing experimental plants that had increased or decreased amounts of the target protein. The resulting plants were subjected to a wide range of assays that included measurements of overall morphology, abiotic stress tolerance, disease resistance, and metabolic composition. These initial efforts have resulted in our making a large number of novel discoveries about the function of key transcription factors, their molecular mode of action, and the local genetic networks that they regulate. Our knowledge of these networks has enabled us to develop both genetic and chemical approaches to deliver valuable traits to target crops.

Many of our early inventions are now being applied by Mendel and our corporate partners in a range of target species including major row crops, ornamentals, forest trees, and biofuel feedstocks; we are confident that a significant number of these second generation biotech products will be commercialized during the forthcoming decade. Nonetheless, although we have an exceptionally rich technology portfolio already, we are committed to remaining a leading innovator of new trait technology into the longer term future. As such, we are making significant investments in applying state-of the art technology towards developing novel systems biology approaches for high resolution global modeling of plant gene networks. Through these efforts, we anticipate that we will identify optimum combinations of technologies and traits which will together enable the challenging gains in crop productivity that are needed to meet the demands of society over the next half century.

from:  http://www.mendelbio.com/technology/index.php 

Albert Einstein

Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics and the most famous scientist of the 20th century.

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm in southwest Germany on 14 March 1879. His family later moved to Italy after his father's electrical equipment business failed. Einstein studied at the Institute of Technology in Zurich and received his doctorate in 1905 from the University of Zurich. In the same year he published four groundbreaking scientific papers. One introduced his special theory of relativity and another his equation 'E = mc²' which related mass and energy.

Within a short time Einstein's work was recognised as original and important. In 1909, he became associate professor of theoretical physics at Zurich, in 1911 professor of theoretical physics at the German University in Prague and then returned to the Institute of Technology in Zurich the following year. In 1914, he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin. He became a German citizen in the same year. In 1916 he published his theory of general relativity.

Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect and his work in the field of theoretical physics.

During the 1920's Einstein lectured in Europe, North and South America and Palestine, where he was involved in the establishment of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Born into a Jewish family and a supporter of pacifism and Zionism, Einstein increasingly became the focus of hostile Nazi propaganda. In 1933, the year the Nazis took power in Germany, Einstein emigrated to America. He accepted a position at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton and took US citizenship.

Einstein retired from the institute in 1945 but worked for the rest of his life towards a unified field theory to establish a merger between quantum theory and his general theory of relativity. He continued to be active in the peace movement and in support of Zionist causes and in 1952 he was offered the presidency of Israel, which he declined.

Einstein died on 18 April 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey.

History of Doraemon

History of Doraemon

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Doraemon was born on 3 September 2112 at the factory robot But then the yellow. One day, the rat bites ear They changed the colors that we see each other today. Doraemon is afraid of rat since then.

Doraemon is a robot from the future. Doraemon name comes from the word “Indo Rama Acne Go” means แamyheongdrong! A daemon is a call on the name of the boy in the past Doraemon is also known that another name for the Dong was born on 3 September 2655 Height 129.3 cm Weight 129.3 kg 129.3 cm high jump. . and still run fast to 129.3 km / h Doraemon shaped like a fat cat round one was sent to assist the Nobita Doraemon’s favorite snack is fried or Doriyaki rat fetal The malignancy of Doraemon. Because the ears of the mice Doraemon Doraemon bite missing four-dimensional pocket on the link between the present and future. In is filled with lots of magic. This really is just a toy for kids only own future. These allow the wonderful life of Nobita better No need to be browbeat Nobita, but often used incorrectly in a way that often It is usually busy and chicanery to Doraemon often with Destabilizing chaos. Nobita’s friends is a friend of Doraemon as well. Everyone loves Doraemon, and often fun to play with. Tools that Doraemon took out hackney

from  http://maewninthawat.wordpress.com/home/