Commentary by Piero Morandini -  Plants resist insect herbivory and other pests by producing a wide variety of toxic and deterrent chemicals. Arabidopsis thaliana and other Crucifers, produce several chemicals among which Glucosinolates (a large family of secondary metabolites derived from aminoacids and glucose) are regarded as important against insect herbivores Recently two transcription factors (MYB28 and MYB29) have been identified to be involved in the regulation of the aliphatic (deriving from the aminoacid methionine) glucosinolate biosynthetic pathway.  The transcription factor promotes the biosynthesis of these compounds by stimulating the expression of the enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway.

Plants lacking MYB28 have reduced level of long chain aliphatic gluciosinolates, while plants lacking MYB29 have reduced level of short chain aliphatic gluciosinolatesas compared to normal plants. The double mutant completely lacks aliphatic glucosinolates and so we could investigate their relevance to herbivory by exposing normal, single and double mutant plants to larvae of the lepidopteran insect Mamestra brassicae. Plant damage correlated inversely to the levels of aliphatic glucosinolates.
To see the effect on larval weight and appearance:

http://www.plosone.org/article/slideshow.action?uri=info:doi/10.1371
/journal.pone.0002068&imageuri=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0002068.g007
WWld type plants were less palatable to larvae and suffer more leaf damage. To see the extent of leaf damage:
http://www.plosone.org/article/slideshow.action?uri=info:doi/10.1371
/journal.pone.0002068&imageuri=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0002068.g008

Europe's Funding of Worldwide Activism

An Inconvinient Truth (Image):
Nature Biotechnology: Volume 25, Number 12, Dec 2007

EMBO Reports: Contents: Volume 9, Number S1

Bioentrepreneur: From Bench to Boardroom
.....for an update on the latest events focusing on life science entrepreneurship around the world.

How the EU can Fund your Company

Alfalfa Benifits from Medicago truncatula:
 The RCT1 Gene M.truncatula Confers Broad-spectrum Resistance to Anthracnose in Alfalfa

Consortium for Functional Glycomics

Charles's Fantasy Farming Won't Feed Africa's Poor

A Conversation with Nina V. Fedroff , Advocate for Science Diplomacy

Scientists Target Super Cassava

Who Will China Feed?

http://www.businessbhaskar.com/article.php?id=2179 ( Language: Hindi )

Vitamin C and Cancer Revisited

Moving Ahead with an International Human Epigenome Project

Shrewd Survival Strategy ( Tuberculosis )

World Bank Biofuels Report Finally Released :
The combination of higher energy prices and related increases in fertilizer prices and transport costs, and dollar weakness caused food prices to rise by about 35-40 percentage points from January 2002 until June 2008.