Åter till kompost!

Varje år försvinner enorma mängder odlingsbar mark som direkt följd av erosion, försaltning, kompaktering, försurning och kemisk förorening av jorden. Att tillsätta organiskt material, t.ex. i form av kompost, är ett sätt att motverka denna utveckling. Kompostering är också en viktig metod för att ta tillvara vårt ökande matavfall. I den här uppsatsen beskrivs mekanismerna bakom den biologiska nedbrytningen som sker i en kompost. Syftet med uppsatsen är att öka kunskapen kring möjligheter att sluta det nära kretsloppet från matavfall till odlingssubstrat. Komposteringsmetoderna varmkompost, kallkompost, maskkompost, biodynamisk kompost och bokashi beskrivs och jämförs med avseende på metod, nedbrytningsprocesser och slutprodukt. Med hjälp av en kemisk analys undersöks näringsinnehållet i provtagningar från de fem olika komposterna. Litteraturstudier och intervjuer med kompostexperter ligger till grund för uppsatsens teoretiska genomgång och resulterar i en pedagogisk handbok. Handboken vill erbjuda en lättillgänglig sammanställning över olika komposteringsmetoder och riktar sig till den som vill börja kompostera oavsett förkunskaper.Every year large amounts of arable land disappear as a consequence of erosion, salinization, compaction, acidification and chemical pollution of the soil. Adding organic material, such as compost, is a way to counteract this trend. Composting is also an important method to utilize our increasing food waste. This thesis describes the mechanisms of biodegradation that occurs in compost. Our purpose is to raise awareness about how to turn our food waste into plant substrate. The following composting methods are described and compared according to their implementations, their degradation processes and their final product; hot compost, cold compost, worm compost, biodynamic compost and bokashi fermentation. The nutritional content of the compost samples from the five different methods are investigated through a chemical analysis. The theoretical review is based on literature on this subject and interviews with compost experts which results in an educational guide. This guide provides an accessible summary of the various composting methods and is addressed to those who want to get started with composting regardless of previous experience

Parents' responses to toys representing physical impairment

Sian Jones - ORCID 0000-0002-2399-1017 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2399-1017Clare Uytman - ORCID 0000-0001-6425-7268 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6425-7268This study aimed to look at parents’ perceptions of a number of different toy prototypes that represented physical impairments, and predictors of these perceptions. A correlational survey design was used. Parents of children aged 4-10 years who identified their child as having a disability (n = 160) and not as having a disability (n = 166) took part. They rated a number of prototypes for likelihood that their child would enjoy playing with them, and completed measures of their responses towards children with disabilities, and of their own, and their child’s, direct contact with people with disabilities It was found that, among parents of children who did not declare that their child had a disability, the more open the parents were towards disability, the more contact the children had with other children with disabilities,– and the more likely they were to consider that their child would like to play with a toy prototype representing a physical impairment. This pattern of results was not found among parents who identified their child as having a disability, where instead positive friendship intentions of parents mediated this association. These findings have implications for theories informing the positive benefits of disability representation. These findings indicate different paths through which parents might be moved to purchase toys that represent physical impairments for their children. This is the first study of the responses of parents to toys that represent physical impairments known to the authors.https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-08-2019-021339pubpub

Direct targets of the transcription factors ABA-Insensitive(ABI)4 and ABI5 reveal synergistic action by ABI4 and several bZIP ABA response factors

The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) is a key regulator of seed development. In addition to promoting seed maturation, ABA inhibits seed germination and seedling growth. Many components involved in ABA response have been identified, including the transcription factors ABA insensitive (ABI)4 and ABI5. The genes encoding these factors are expressed predominantly in developing and mature seeds, and are positive regulators of ABA mediated inhibition of seed germination and growth. The direct effects of ABI4 and ABI5 in ABA response remain largely undefined. To address this question, plants over-expressing ABI4 or ABI5 were used to allow identification of direct transcriptional targets. Ectopically expressed ABI4 and ABI5 conferred ABA-dependent induction of slightly over 100 genes in 11 day old plants. In addition to effector genes involved in seed maturation and reserve storage, several signaling proteins and transcription factors were identified as targets of ABI4 and/or ABI5. Although only 12% of the ABA- and ABI-dependent transcriptional targets were induced by both ABI factors in 11 day old plants, 40% of those normally expressed in seeds had reduced transcript levels in both abi4 and abi5 mutants. Surprisingly, many of the ABI4 transcriptional targets do not contain the previously characterized ABI4 binding motifs, the CE1 or S box, in their promoters, but some of these interact with ABI4 in electrophoretic mobility shift assays, suggesting that sequence recognition by ABI4 may be more flexible than known canonical sequences. Yeast one-hybrid assays demonstrated synergistic action of ABI4 with ABI5 or related bZIP factors in regulating these promoters, and mutant analyses showed that ABI4 and these bZIPs share some functions in plants

Soybean Trihelix Transcription Factors GmGT-2A and GmGT-2B Improve Plant Tolerance to Abiotic Stresses in Transgenic Arabidopsis

BACKGROUND:Trihelix transcription factors play important roles in light-regulated responses and other developmental processes. However, their functions in abiotic stress response are largely unclear. In this study, we identified two trihelix transcription factor genes GmGT-2A and GmGT-2B from soybean and further characterized their roles in abiotic stress tolerance. FINDINGS:Both genes can be induced by various abiotic stresses, and the encoded proteins were localized in nuclear region. In yeast assay, GmGT-2B but not GmGT-2A exhibits ability of transcriptional activation and dimerization. The N-terminal peptide of 153 residues in GmGT-2B was the minimal activation domain and the middle region between the two trihelices mediated the dimerization of the GmGT-2B. Transactivation activity of the GmGT-2B was also confirmed in plant cells. DNA binding analysis using yeast one-hybrid assay revealed that GmGT-2A could bind to GT-1bx, GT-2bx, mGT-2bx-2 and D1 whereas GmGT-2B could bind to the latter three elements. Overexpression of the GmGT-2A and GmGT-2B improved plant tolerance to salt, freezing and drought stress in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Moreover, GmGT-2B-transgenic plants had more green seedlings compared to Col-0 under ABA treatment. Many stress-responsive genes were altered in GmGT-2A- and GmGT-2B-transgenic plants. CONCLUSION:These results indicate that GmGT-2A and GmGT-2B confer stress tolerance through regulation of a common set of genes and specific sets of genes. GmGT-2B also affects ABA sensitivity

Genes, hormones and signalling pathways implicated in plant defence to Leptosphaeria maculans

Leptosphaeria maculans (anamorph: Phoma lingam) is a hemibiotrophic loculoascomycetous fungus which causes blackleg, a serious disease of Brassica oilseed crops. In order to examine the genetics of resistance to this disease and important signalling pathways, extensive studies on L. maculans interactions with Arabidopsis were carried out. Two resistance loci, RLM1Col and RLM2Ler, have been identified due to transgressive segregation in F2 progenies from the resistant accessions Col-0 and Ler-0. RLM1Col encodes a TIR-NB-LRR resistance gene and confers specific resistance towards L. maculans, while a third R-gene RLM3 confers resistance to L. maculans, Alternaria brassicae, A. brassicicola and Botrytis cinerea. RLM1 is furthermore independent from signalling components, such as SGT1, previously associated to all TIR-NB-LRR resistance genes. In addition to these susceptible genotypes, EMS mutants (lms1 to lms11) susceptible to the pathogen have been assessed in order to facilitate identification of the mechanisms required for resistance. The lms5 mutant has been shown to be specifically susceptible to L. maculans and have altered auxin signalling. During a mapping approach lms5 was found to most likely code for an F-box protein indicating involvement in protein turnover via the ubiquitine proteasome. This result together with mutants involved in protein degradation complexes indicates the importance of protein stability. In contrast to the other pathogens, the defence responses against L. maculans are independent of the phytohormones salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene (ET), while abscisic acid (ABA) and auxin, and the phytoalexin camalexin play more crucial roles. Resistance to L. maculans can furthermore be primed by ABA and β-aminobutyric acid (BABA) treatments. This priming results in increased callose deposition in a resistance gene-dependent manner. The callose deposition is furthermore regulated by PR2. Moreover comparative studies with B. napus have been undertaken, confirming that the Arabidopsis-L. maculans pathosystem can be used as a model for the B. napus - L. maculans interaction. Taken together, this work ontributes to increase our knowledge about the Arabidopsis – L. maculans pathosystem