Peatland geoengineering: an alternative approach to terrestrial carbon sequestration.

Terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems contribute almost equally to the sequestration of ca 50 per cent of anthropogenic CO(2) emissions, and already play a role in minimizing our impact on Earth's climate. On land, the majority of the sequestered carbon enters soil carbon stores. Almost one-third of that soil carbon can be found in peatlands, an area covering just 2-3% of the Earth's landmass.

Extensin over-expression in Arabidopsis limits pathogen invasiveness.

SUMMARY The function of the cell wall protein extensin has been the subject of much speculation since it was first isolated over 40 years ago. In order to investigate the role of extensins in plant defence, we used the gain-of-function strategy to generate transgenic Arabidopsis plants over-expressing the EXT1 extensin gene. These were infected with the virulent bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae DC3000 and symptom development was monitored.

The unusual Arabidopsis extensin gene atExt1 is expressed throughout plant development and is induced by a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses.

We detail the expression of the Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. atExt1 extensin gene.