The role of schools as an opportunity for transmission of local knowledge about useful Restinga plants: experiences in southeastern Brazil.

Background: The study of cultural transmission can help identify processes that influence knowledge systems dynamics and evolution, especially during childhood and youth, which are fundamental phases in acquiring survival skills. In this sense, we use the knowledge about useful restinga plants (Brazilian coastal vegetation) as an analytical model to describe, compare, and analyze cultural transmission during youth, while factoring in origin, in the Cabo Frio region, southeastern Brazil. We tested (1) whether transmission of knowledge is conservative, (2) whether immigration events define the transmission modes, (3) whether teaching is the most important social transmission cognitive process, and (4) which type of stimulus/context is most important for the knowledge transmission process.

Arctic corridors and northern voices project: Methods for community-based participatory mapping for low impact shipping corridors in Arctic Canada.

Documenting Inuit and local knowledge is critical to its consideration within policy discussions around Arctic shipping; especially considering the rapid increase in ship traffic due to reductions in sea ice and climate change. We present our unique community-based research approach which incorporated youth training, participatory mapping, qualitative focus group discussions, and verification exercises to document Inuit communities' perspectives in Arctic Canada about Low Impact Shipping Corridors. These qualitative activities provided appropriate context and understanding around community-created maps, community-identified opportunities, concerns, and recommendations, and the policy relevance and feasibility of recommendations posed.

A clone-based transcriptomics approach for the identification of genes relevant for itaconic acid production in Aspergillus.

Several Aspergillus species are well-known for the production of a variety of organic acids. In this study, a cloned based transcriptomics approach was used to identify genes crucial in the biosynthesis pathway for one of these acids, itaconic acid. From a number of different Aspergillus terreus controlled batch fermentations, those cultures with the largest difference in itaconic acid titer and productivity were selected for mRNA isolation.

Multivariate analysis of microarray data by principal component discriminant analysis: prioritizing relevant transcripts linked to the degradation of different carbohydrates in Pseudomonas putida S12.

The value of the multivariate data analysis tools principal component analysis (PCA) and principal component discriminant analysis (PCDA) for prioritizing leads generated by microarrays was evaluated. To this end, Pseudomonas putida S12 was grown in independent triplicate fermentations on four different carbon sources, i.e.

The solvent-tolerant Pseudomonas putida S12 as host for the production of cinnamic acid from glucose.

A Pseudomonas putida S12 strain was constructed that efficiently produced the fine chemical cinnamic acid from glucose or glycerol via the central metabolite phenylalanine. The gene encoding phenylalanine ammonia lyase from the yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides was introduced. Phenylalanine availability was the main bottleneck in cinnamic acid production, which could not be overcome by the overexpressing enzymes of the phenylalanine biosynthesis pathway.