CLAVATA3 is a specific regulator of shoot and floral meristem development affecting the same processes as CLAVATA1

We have previously described the phenotype of Arabidopsis thaliana plants with mutations at the CLAVATA1 (CLV1) locus (Clark, S. E., Running, M. P. and Meyerowitz, E. M. (1993) Development 119, 397-418). Our investigations demonstrated that clv1 plants develop enlarged vegetative and inflorescence apical meristems, and enlarged and indeterminate floral meristems. Here, we present an analysis of mutations at a separate locus, CLAVATA3(CLV3), that disrupt meristem development in a manner similar to clv1mutations. clv3 plants develop enlarged apical meristems as early as the mature embryo stage. clv3 floral meristems are also enlarged compared with wild type, and maintain a proliferating meristem throughout flower development. clv3 root meristems are unaffected, indicating that CLV3 is a specific regulator of shoot and floral meristem development. We demonstrate that the strong clv3-2 mutant is largely epistatic to clv1 mutants, and that the semi-dominance of clv1 alleles is enhanced by double heterozygosity with clv3 alleles, suggesting that these genes work in the same pathway to control meristem development. We propose that CLV1 and CLV3 are required to promote the differentiation of cells at the shoot and floral meristem

Disruption of an RNA helicase/RNAse III gene in Arabidopsis causes unregulated cell division in floral meristems

Arabidopsis thaliana floral meristems are determinate structures that produce a defined number of organs, after which cell division ceases. A new recessive mutant, carpel factory (caf), converts the floral meristems to an indeterminate state. They produce extra whorls of stamens, and an indefinite number of carpels. Thus, CAF appears to suppress cell division in floral meristems. The function of CAF is partially redundant with the function of the CLAVATA (CLV) and SUPERMAN (SUP) genes, as caf clv and caf sup double mutants show dramatically enhanced floral meristem over-proliferation. caf mutant plants also show other defects, including absence of axillary inflorescence meristems, and abnormally shaped leaves and floral organs. The CAF gene was cloned and found to encode a putative protein of 1909 amino acids containing an N-terminal DExH/DEAD-box type RNA helicase domain attached to a C-terminal RNaseIII-like domain. A very similar protein of unknown function is encoded by a fungal and an animal genome. Helicase proteins are involved in a number of processes, including specific mRNA localization and mRNA splicing. RNase III proteins are involved in the processing of rRNA and some mRNA molecules. Thus CAF may act through some type of RNA processing event(s). CAF gives rise to two major transcripts of 2.5 and 6.2 kb. In situ hybridization experiments show that CAF RNA is expressed throughout all shoot tissues

CLAVATA1, a regulator of meristem and flower development in Arabidopsis

We have investigated the effects on plant development of mutations in the Arabidopsis thaliana CLAVATA1 gene. In clavata1 plants, vegetative, inflorescence and floral meristems are all enlarged relative to wild type. The apical meristem can fasciate in the more severe mutant alleles, and this fasciation can occur prior to the transition to flowering. Flowers of clavata1 plants can have increased numbers of organs in all four whorls, and can also have additional whorls not present in wild-type flowers. Double mutant combinations of clavata1 with agamous, apetala2, apetala3 and pistillata indicate that CLAVATA1 controls the underlying floral meristem structure upon which these homeotic genes act. Double mutant combinations of clavata1 with apetala1 and leafy indicate CLAVATA1 plays a role in establishing and maintaining floral meristem identity, in addition to its role in controlling meristem size. In support of this, RNA expression patterns of AGAMOUS and APETALA1 are altered in clavata1 flowers

Meeting Report: Long Term Monitoring of Global Vegetation using Moderate Resolution Satellites

The international community has long recognized the need to coordinate observations of Earth from space. In 1984, this situation provided the impetus for creating the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), an international coordinating mechanism charged with coordinating international civil spaceborne missions designed to observe and study planet Earth. Within CEOS, its Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV) is tasked with coordinating satellite-based global observations of vegetation. Currently, several international organizations are focusing on the requirements for Earth observation from space to address key science questions and societal benefits related to our terrestrial environment. The Global Vegetation Workshop, sponsored by the WGCV and held in Missoula, Montana, 7-10 August, 2006, was organized to establish a framework to understand the inter-relationships among multiple, global vegetation products and identify opportunities for: 1) Increasing knowledge through combined products, 2) Realizing efficiency by avoiding redundancy, and 3) Developing near- and long-term plans to avoid gaps in our understanding of critical global vegetation information. The Global Vegetation Workshop brought together 135 researchers from 25 states and 14 countries to advance these themes and formulate recommendations for CEOS members and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The eighteen oral presentations and most of the 74 posters presented at the meeting can be downloaded from the meeting website (www.ntsg.umt.edu/VEGMTG/). Meeting attendees were given a copy of the July 2006 IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing Special Issue on Global Land Product Validation, coordinated by the CEOS Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV). This issue contains 29 articles focusing on validation products from several of the sensors discussed during the workshop

The 5 Stages of Climate Grief

The global warming topic seems to now be saturating the media. Newspapers, television, weekly magazines and endless Internet sites all have summaries of the science, and wide ranging discussions of what society should do next. The global warming trends and projections are sobering, even frightening, eliciting puzzling responses from the public

A Blueprint for Improved Global Change Monitoring of the Terrestrial Biosphere

The Kyoto Earth Summit recently ended, amid substantial disagreement over current and future global change, and their significance to humankind. The core of the problem is that many global leaders are unconvinced that significant global change is now occurring. Further, there is insufficient confidence in the accuracy of global-scale computer models that project future changes to initiate the political and economic re-directions that would be required to alleviate the problem. As was first said years ago, we are conducting the first global-scale biogeochemistry experiment, the outcome of which is not known, and which could severely impact the habitability of the planet. Conversely, any meaningful reduction in fossil fuel consumption will require the redirection of trillions of dollars of the world economy. The decision to embark on a serious redirection of world energy consumption is, along with population control, possibly the most fundamental global policy of the next century

A regional look at HANPP: human consumption is increasing, NPP is not

Abdi et al (2014 Environ. Res. Lett. 9 094003), have adapted the concept of comparing supply and demand of annual plant production known as human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) to a region of the Sahel with rapid population growth. They found that HANPP more than doubled over the study period of 2000–2010, from 19% to 41%, suggesting increasing vulnerability of these populations to food insecurity

Why the earth observing system matters to all of us

Whether the collective impacts of humans on the Earth are benign, or on a trajectory to future disaster is an ethical question we must now confront. However, studying the entire Spaceship Earth as a functioning Earth System had never been tried before, until now