MAES News
November 1, 2009
- Miscounting Bionergy Benefits May Increase Greenhouse Gas Release
- Time in a Bottle: Scientists Watch Evolution Unfold over 40,000 Generations
- Scientists Land $14.4 Million Grant to Improve Fruit Quality
- Mobile Lab Allows MAES Researcher to Study Air Quality, Health Effects
- MSU Licenses Plant Oil Enhancement Technology to BASF Plant Science
- MSU-led Study to Examine Effect of Climate Change on Global Industries
- Climate Change and Technology Focus of Lecture
- MSU Arthropod Research Collection to Benefit from Stimulus Grant
- New Faculty Member
A fixable error in the way carbon is counted in current U.S. climate legislation and in the Kyoto Protocol could undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using biofuels, says a premier group of national environmental and land use scientists.
"The promise of biofuels made from biomass is huge, from both climate mitigation and economic perspectives," said Phil Robertson, MAES crop and soil scientist and one of the authors of the paper "Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error" published in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Science. "But the promise could come up short if we don't pay attention to the details. One of the most important details is how the benefits of carbon capture are tallied. If we miscalculate the carbon benefits, we may find out later that our policies and practices are counterproductive -- that they don't have the positive impact on climate that we want them to have."
Robertson also is a member of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a partnership between Michigan State and the University of Wisconsin-Madison funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct basic research aimed at solving some of the most complex problems in converting natural materials to energy.
The paper authors point out that the greenhouse gas consequences of bioenergy can vary widely, depending on where the plants used to produce the energy are grown. For example, fast-growing biofuel crops grown on abandoned farmland can capture more carbon than existing plants and so reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This would happen because the biofuel crop absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than would otherwise be stored. But if existing forests are cut down and replaced with bioenergy crops, the carbon released from the soil and mature trees, plus the loss of future carbon storage, is greater than the carbon captured by the bioenergy crops.
Current carbon accounting measures mistakenly exempt all the carbon dioxide emitted from bioenergy, regardless of the source. According to a number of studies, including one by the U.S. Department of Energy, applying current carbon accounting measures globally could lead to the loss of most of the world's natural forests.
"The error is serious but readily fixable," said Tim Searchinger, of Princeton University, lead author of the paper. "The solution is to count all the pollution that comes out of tailpipes and smokestacks, whether from coal and oil or bioenergy, and to credit bioenergy only to the extent it really does reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
"To avoid environmental regret later and protect both private and public investments, we need to get the carbon calculations correct from the start," Robertson added. "Michigan is particularly well positioned to benefit from correct carbon accounting practices. As the market grows for cellulosic biofuels, Midwest producers will benefit by growing biofuel crops on land not now being used for food production. Correctly crediting our carbon from the start will help to ensure the long-term market value for these fuels, protecting early investments by farmers and refiners. Just like with financial audits, it's important for carbon audits to be correct. We don't want to find out later that we've built an industry on a false premise. Ultimately, we need to mitigate climate change and we need practices in place that do so."
Time in a Bottle: Scientists Watch Evolution Unfold over 40,000 Generations
A 21-year MSU experiment that distills the essence of evolution in laboratory flasks not only demonstrates natural selection at work but could lead to biotechnology and medical research advances, researchers said.
Charles Darwin's seminal Origin of Species laid out the case for evolution exactly 150 years ago. Now, MAES microbial ecologist Richard Lenski and colleagues document the process in their analysis of 40,000 generations of bacteria, published in the Oct. 19 issue of the international science journal Nature.
Lenski, a John A. Hannah distinguished professor, started growing cultures of fast-reproducing, single-celled E. coli bacteria in 1988. If a genetic mutation gives a cell an advantage in competition for food, he reasoned, it should dominate the entire culture. Though Darwin’s theory of natural selection is supported by other studies, it has never before been studied for so many cycles and in such detail.
"It's extra nice now to be able to show precisely how selection has changed the genomes of these bacteria, step by step over tens of thousands of generations," Lenski said.
Lenski's team periodically froze bacteria for later study, and technology has since developed to allow complete genetic sequencing. By the 20,000-generation midpoint, researchers discovered 45 mutations among surviving cells. Those mutations, according to Darwin’s theory, should have conferred some advantage, and that’s exactly what the researchers found.
The results "beautifully emphasize the succession of mutational events that allowed these organisms to climb toward higher and higher efficiency in their environment," noted Dominique Schneider, a molecular geneticist at the Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France.
Lenski's long-running experiment itself is uniquely suited to answer some critical questions -- such as whether rates of change in a bacterium’s genome move in tandem with its fitness to survive.
"The coupling between genomic and adaptive evolution is complex and can be counterintuitive," Lenski concluded. "The genome was evolving along at a surprisingly constant rate, even as the adaptation of the bacteria slowed down a lot. But then suddenly the mutation rate jumped way up, and a new dynamic relationship was established."
A mutation involved in DNA metabolism arose around generation 26,000, causing the mutation rate everywhere else in the genome to increase dramatically. The number of mutations jumped to 653 by generation 40,000, but researchers surmise that most of the late-evolving mutations were not helpful to the bacterium.
Gene mutations involved in human DNA replication are involved in some cancers. Many of the patterns observed in the experiment also occur in certain microbial infections, "and cancer progression is a fundamentally similar evolutionary process," observed collaborator Jeffrey Barrick, microbiology and molecular genetics postdoctoral researcher. "So what we learn here can help us better understand the course of these diseases."
Barrick developed computational tools to discover and validate often complex mutations.
"We know an astounding amount about the details of evolution in these little Erlenmeyer flasks," he said.
The Nature paper involved collaboration with scientists from South Korea as well as France and MSU. The research, said genomics team leader Jihyun Kim, of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, "is not only useful in understanding the tempo and mode of evolution but can serve as a nice framework for practical applications in biotechnology, such as improving the performance or productivity of an industrial strain."
Thousands of generations later, the MSU experiment continues to evolve.
"Like a lot of science, our study answers some questions but raises many others," Lenski said.
The research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Scientists Land $14.4 Million Grant to Improve Fruit Quality
Hungry to make fruit better for longer, Michigan State University scientists will lead a four-year, $14.4 million grant-funded research project. The grant is the largest awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Research Initiative since its inception in 2007.
MAES horticultural scientist Amy
Iezzoni heads the RosBREED project, aiming to combine emerging DNA sequence and research findings to improve the quality of apples, peaches, cherries and strawberries -- key species in the globally important botanical family Rosaceae.
The project involves scientists from 11 U.S. institutions, including several land-grant universities such as MSU, Washington State University and the University of Minnesota; USDA labs; and six international partners from the Netherlands, South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, France and the United Kingdom.
Selective breeding of most rosaceous species during the past 6,000 years has made today’s varieties bigger and juicier than their wild cousins. Worldwide consumption is increasing, but producers remain under pressure from international competition, costs, pests and disease.
"This is a watershed year for Rosaceae, with the peach, apple and strawberry genomes being sequenced," Iezzoni said. "Yet a huge gap exists because this DNA-based information is rarely applied to improve plant breeding for the development of new fruit cultivars. These crops provide vital contributions to human health and well-being, and the associated production and processing industries collectively make up the economic backbone of many U.S. rural communities."
"Imagine ultra-crisp, tasty apples, sweet peaches that don't get mealy, and aromatic and flavorful strawberries consistently available from your local grocery store," said Cameron Peace, Washington State University horticulturist and RosBREED co-director. "These are the kinds of fruit that consumers want, that industry needs and that we can help develop using new genetics and genomics technologies."
"This is the sort of project we have long dreamed about," added Phil Korson, Cherry Marketing Institute president and RosBREED stakeholder advisory panel member. "It addresses critical needs with enough financial resources to make a real difference. The top researchers in the United States and abroad have come together with industry stakeholders to leverage federal dollars and matching contributions for the benefit of all."
The project is part of the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture program, which funds multiyear, multi-institutional collaborative projects. RosBREED follows earlier genomic, genetic and breeding programs focused on rice, wheat, barley, conifers, potatoes and tomatoes.
"RosBREED is rooted in our vision that the common ancestral origin of this diverse plant family can be harnessed to leverage knowledge and resources across commodity boundaries," Iezzoni said. "This project exploits similarities among the genomes of three fruit-bearing species of Rosaceae -- Malus (apple), Prunus (peach and cherry) and Fragaria (strawberry) -- to develop practical applications. Collectively, these three lineages represent the majority of the fruits produced and consumed in the United States."
Iezzoni will work with MSU colleague Cholani Weebadde, who will lead RosBREED extension and outreach activities. The project team will offer workshops and practical training for plant breeders and create online networking resources for plant breeders, industry professionals and Extension specialists.
"As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I was pleased to lead the effort and secure this important specialty crops funding in the farm bill," said U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. "Now MSU, which has become the expert on agricultural research and innovation, will be able to improve food quality and strengthen our agricultural industry -- Michigan's second largest."
"It is extremely gratifying to see this innovative and important research be acknowledged and supported by the USDA," MAES Director Steve Pueppke said. "Research funding at this level is essential to improving agricultural efficiency and sustainability for specialty crop production. Collaboration and having the necessary state dollars to leverage these types of funding opportunities are critical to the economic future of Michigan and to addressing critical and emerging national priorities and needs."
Mobile Lab Allows MAES Researcher to Study Air Quality, Health Effects
A new mobile air research laboratory will help a team of researchers led by an MAES scientist better understand the damaging health effects of air pollution — particularly, why certain airborne particles emitted from plants and vehicles induce disease and illness.
Jack Harkema, university distinguished professor and MAES pathobiology and diagnostic investigation researcher, will deploy the 53-foot, 36,000-pound lab -- dubbed "AirCARE 2" - throughout southern Michigan, including metropolitan Detroit.
"The mobile laboratory allows us to analyze ‘real-world' pollution in communities that may be at risk," he said. "We can study why certain ailments, such as asthma, cardiovascular disease and even obesity, may be more pronounced after exposure to particulate air pollution."
With about 450 square feet of indoor laboratory space, the $400,000 center helps researchers study fine and ultrafine particles in air pollution. These small particles have been found to increase mortality and morbidity among susceptible people with preexisting health conditions such as heart disease.
Housed in a converted semitrailer, the mobile laboratory pulls air from the surrounding atmosphere through an air-particle concentrator, allowing the scientists to selectively collect the particles and analyze for chemical components that may be responsible for damaging health effects.
Researchers can study the subtle effects of controlled particle exposure on both laboratory animals and human subjects, looking for clues on why and how pollutant particles are so harmful to the heart and lungs. Harkema works closely with environmental and biomedical researchers from the University of Michigan on the projects.
"We know particles in the air can exacerbate preexisting respiratory and cardiovascular disease in people," Harkema said. "We need to understand why. There are many different components to air pollution, and we want to determine which of these are most harmful and where they come from."
The addition of the new mobile laboratory allows Harkema and U-M collaborators Robert Brook, a cardiologist, and Gerald Keeler, an atmospheric scientist, to conduct a new study funded by the Environmental Protection Agency. As part of the project, Harkema, Brook and Keeler will deploy AirCARE 2 in rural southeastern Michigan to study the cardiovascular health effects of transported air pollution originating from distant emission sites in Michigan or adjacent states.
AirCARE 2 was partly funded through the MSU strategic partnership grant, the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies. The new fine particle concentrator in the AirCARE 2 received some funds from the Electric Power Research Institute and the American Petroleum Institute.
The first MSU Mobile Air Research Laboratory, AirCARE 1, currently spends six months of the year in metro Detroit conducting air pollution studies and then six months in Los Angeles as part of a six-university partnership known as the federal Southern California Particle Center in California. The $8 million partnership, funded by the EPA and led by UCLA, is a five-year endeavor to investigate how exposure to airborne particles affects health and how the impact varies with the source, chemical composition and physical size.
MSU Licenses Plant Oil Enhancement Technology to BASF Plant Science
Technology that could enhance plants’ seed oil content for food and animal feed applications has been licensed to BASF Plant Science under an exclusive commercial agreement with Michigan State University.
Following a long-term collaboration, a plant gene that regulates oil accumulation in plant seed was licensed to BASF Plant Science by MSU Technologies, Michigan State’s technology transfer office. The gene is a transcription factor that produces a protein, dubbed Wrinkled1, which was isolated in the laboratory of MAES biochemistry and molecular biology researcher Christoph Benning. It is being licensed by the plant biotechnology company for further development of enhanced soybean and canola varieties.
"The technology can be used in the development of new oil crops that have this transcription factor turned up to produce more oil in their seeds, and farmers can earn a bonus," MSU Technologies technology manager Thomas Herlache said. "This can improve production of vegetable oil in general but also the oil used for biofuels."
The transcription factor can be used to turn gene expression up or down -- like a tap on a faucet, he said. It was discovered in Benning’s lab as a mutation causing wrinkly seeds of Arabidopsis, a mustard species commonly used for genetic research.
"Photosynthesis produces sugars," said Benning, who is internationally recognized for his research into plant lipid metabolism. "The Wrinkled1 protein controls the conversion of sugars into fatty acids and thereby affects carbon partitioning between carbohydrates and lipids. Enhancing this process is a viable strategy to increase the oil content in seeds."
"The worldwide license applies to development of Wrinked1 in canola and soybean for the life of the patents, approximately 20 years," Herlache said. The license does not cover application of the technology to other widely used oil-producing plants such as sunflower, safflower, peanut and palm.
Genetically engineered oilseed crops including soybean and canola already have been developed to resist insects and the effects of herbicides, but industry analysts say huge potential remains untapped in boosting nutritional value, fuel content and other commercial prospects.
"Beyond the application in seeds as currently licensed by BASF Plant Science, we believe that MSU can use this transcription factor to convert a starch storage organ into an oil storage organ in plants such as rutabaga," Benning said. "Moreover, we are confident that we can use Wrinkled1 to produce oil in straw of different grasses to enhance their energy density. Wrinkled1 is an important tool in the engineering of novel biofuel crops and, in addition, the enhancement of existing seed oil crops."
MSU-led Study to Examine Effect of Climate Change on Global Industries
A team of international researchers, including several MAES scientists, will conduct a first-of-its-kind study to measure the effects of climate change on global industries.
Using the tart cherry industry as an example, researchers will develop a system for conducting climate impact assessments for international market systems, particularly those with long-term investments such as orchards.
The research, supported by a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, could have applications for agriculture, tourism, manufacturing and other industries, said Julie Winkler, principal investigator and MSU professor of geography.
"An outcome of the research will be a unique climate change impact assessment for the international tart cherry industry that industry stakeholders -- including those in Michigan -- can use when making decisions regarding future investments," Winkler said.
Winkler, an expert in climatology, said the study is an extension of the Pileus Project, which she directed with fellow MAES geography scientist Jeff Andresen. With Pileus -- named after a type of cloud -- the researchers created sophisticated models relating climate to production and economic consequences for the tart cherry and tourism industries in Michigan. Online tools allowed stakeholders in the two industries to better manage their businesses.
The Pileus Project and other climate change assessments focus largely on local and regional impacts, but Winkler noted that global industries have production regions distributed worldwide that are affected differently by climate change. Thus, industry stakeholders require detailed information for all production regions and on the interactions between regions through international trade to plan for the future.
"Currently, methods for conducting an assessment for a global industry do not exist," Winkler said. "Our goal is to develop such a framework."
Winkler said the idea for the project was planted in 2002 when the entire Michigan tart cherry crop was essentially wiped out by an unprecedented freeze. Michigan supplies about 70 percent of the nation’s tart cherries, which typically are frozen and used in desserts and beverages.
The lack of tart cherries in 2002 prompted the United States to import the fruit from Poland, a move that opened the door to wider imports of tart cherries, Winkler said. Suddenly, growers in Michigan and elsewhere in the United States had a vested interest in the tart cherry crops of other countries.
Winkler said the growers played a major role in asking researchers to think globally.
"Really, it's the stakeholders who said, 'You’ve got to think bigger here, people.'"
With the study, researchers will create complex growing models of the global tart cherry industry by examining the connection between climate change, plant development and yield, and the human side of the equation. The study will analyze observations and projections for specific locations within the tart cherry growing regions of Michigan and central and eastern Europe, Winkler said. Experts in climatology, agricultural economics, horticulture and computer science from the United States, Poland, Germany, Ukraine and Hungary will take part.
Frank M. Chmielewski, an international collaborator with the study and professor of agricultural climatology at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, said the research could have major implications.
"The Great Lakes region is the most important tart cherry-producing region in the United States. In Europe, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Ukraine are important countries for cherry production," Chmielewski said. "So this project is needed in order to estimate the vulnerability of this sector to climate change, including international trade relationships. It's important to know the sector's vulnerability in order to suggest measures for adaptation."
Besides Winkler and Andresen, other MSU researchers participating in the project are co-principal investigators Suzanne Thornsbury, J. Roy Black, Scott Loveridge and Jinhua Zhao, all MAES agricultural, food and resource economics scientists; Pang-Ning Tan from Computer Science and Engineering; MAES geography scientist Sharon Zhong; MAES horticultural scientist Amy Iezzoni; and Nikki Rothwell, coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station.
Climate Change and Technology Focus of Lecture
An expert on science and technology policy visits MSU Nov. 12 as part of the yearlong Bioeconomy
and Climate Change Distinguished Lecture Series, sponsored by the MAES.
Aimed at all people working on climate change, both at MSU and outside the university, the lecture series presents Edward Parson, Joseph L. Sax collegiate professor of law and professor of natural resources and environment at the University of Michigan. Parson will discuss the necessity of technological innovation to address climate change and the policy tools that can support such innovation.
"Technological innovation is the biggest factor determining how easy it will be to achieve steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions," Parson said.
Parson's most recent books are The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change (with Andrew Dessler) and Protecting the Ozone Layer: Science and Strategy. Parson has chaired and served on several senior advisory committees for the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Government Global Change Research Program, including the synthesis team for the U.S. National Assessment of Climate Impacts.
Parson's talk will run from 1 to 2 p.m. Nov. 12 in Parlor C of the MSU Union. A reception follows.
The lecture series is organized by Thomas Dietz, assistant vice president for environmental research, and Jinhua Zhao, MAES economics and agricultural economics researcher.
There is no charge to attend the lecture, but attendees are asked to preregister. For more information or to RSVP, visit: www.environment.msu.edu/climatechange/lecture.php.
MSU Arthropod Research Collection to Benefit from Stimulus Grant
The MSU Department of Entomology will use a federal stimulus grant to upgrade its arthropod research collection. This is good news for students, scientists and others who depend on the 1.5 million-specimen collection for their work.
The grant, $187,632 from the National Science Foundation, will be used for physical renovation and electronic expansion of the collection.
"We have very outdated storage areas," said Anthony Cognato, MAES entomology scientist and director of the A.J. Cook Arthropod Research Collection. "Some of the drawers and trays were built in the 1950s and do not meet modern museum standards."
In addition, many of the cabinets have seen better days. Many of them, he said, have doors that don't close properly.
"Not having tight cabinets and drawers means pests can get in and eat your specimens right off the pins," Cognato said.
The funding also will be used to create an online database for the collection and to hire several students to assist in updating the collection.
"Our goal is to get about 35,000 species names into the database," Cognato said. "This will allow immediate access to all our users -- students, other researchers, anyone."
The collection is very strong in specimens from the Great Lakes region, with a thorough representation of the world's diversity. In particular, the collection recently received a donation of more than 100,000 bark beetle specimens. Bark beetles are small yet voracious insects that have been known to wipe out millions of acres of trees in Colorado and Alaska.
"They are of the genus Dendroctonus, which literally means 'tree killer,'" Cognato said. "Fortunately they are not yet a huge problem in Michigan."
An arthropod is anything with an exoskeleton -- a hard, outer structure that provides protection and support for an organism. Arthropods include crustaceans and, of course, insects. With more than 1 million species identified, insects are the most common creatures on our planet.
"Insects affect our lives in so many ways," Cognato said. "Our collection is like a big library. We store information on where insects occur, what they eat and data on other life history traits -- just a wealth of information."
New Faculty Member
The MAES is pleased to welcome a new faculty member.
Jean Tsao, assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife and large animal clinical sciences, became affiliated with the MAES in August. Her research focuses on disease management and ecology, specializing in vector-borne disease ecology.
Working with colleagues at MSU and abroad, Tsao is studying the Lyme disease pathogen and the ticks that transmit the disease in the Upper Midwest and is leading a four-year National Science Foundation-funded project to study why the Lyme disease pathogen is unevenly distributed in the eastern United States. Tsao also helped found the university's graduate specialization in fish and wildlife disease ecology and conservation medicine.
Before coming to MSU as a visiting assistant professor in 2003, Tsao spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Public Health. She received both her doctorate and master’s degrees in ecology and evolution from the University of Chicago in 2000 and 1997, respectively, and her bachelor’s degree in biology from Swarthmore College in 1994.
