I am off to Canberra as a keynote/guest speaker to talk with our Politicians

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Next Monday 14 July 2014 PGARD (Parliamentary Group on Asbestos Related Diseases) have organised a luncheon at Parliament House, Canberra for various party politicians to be present. Also ASEA (Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency) are also supporting this important event to raising awareness about the dangers of asbestos. I have been invited to be a keynote/guest speaker. It is an honour to have been asked and I am looking forward to this event.I will be flying up on Sunday afternoon and staying with good friends for the night rather than an early flight on the Monday morning that could leave me feeling exhausted and a bit short of breath.Our winter weather has well and truly set in today. We were lucky to get above 4 degrees celcius. …


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Roots to shoots: Hormone transport in plants deciphered

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/plants_animals/agriculture_and_food/~4/UCQ8d5tRPyo

Plant growth is orchestrated by a spectrum of signals from hormones within a plant. A major group of plant hormones called cytokinins originate in the roots of plants, and their journey to growth areas on the stem and in leaves stimulates plant development. Though these phytohormones have been identified in the past, the molecular mechanism responsible for their transportation within plants was previously poorly understood.Now, a new study from a research team led by biochemist Chang-Jun Liu at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory identifies the protein essential for relocating cytokinins from roots to shoots.The research is reported in the February 11 issue of Nature Communications.Cytokinins stimulate shoot growth and promote branching, expansion and plant height. Regulating these hormones also improves the longevity of flowering plants, tolerance to drought or other environmental stresses, and the efficiency of nitrogen-based fertilizers.Manipulating cytokinin distribution by tailoring the action of the transporter protein could be one way to increase biomass yield and stress tolerance of plants grown for biofuels or agriculture. “This study may open new avenues for modifying various important crops, agriculturally, biotechnologically, and horticulturally, to increase yields and reduce fertilizer requirements, for instance, while improving the exploitation of sustainable bioenergy resources,” Liu said.Using Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant related to mustard and cabbage that serves as a common experimental model, the researchers studied a large family of transport proteins called ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters, which act as a kind of inter- or intra-cellular pump moving substances in or out of a plant’s cells or their organelles. While performing gene expression analysis on a set of these ABC transporters, the research team found that one gene — AtABCG14 – is highly expressed in the vascular tissues of roots.To determine its function, they examined mutant plants harboring a disrupted AtABCG14 gene. They found that knocking out this transporter gene resulted in plants with weaker growth, slenderer stems, and shorter primary roots than their wild-type counterparts. These structural changes in the plants are symptoms of cytokinin deficiencies. Essentially, the long-distance transportation of the growth hormones is impaired, which causes alterations in the development of roots and shoots. …


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New pathway for fear discovered deep within brain

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~4/MY3TnIs683A

Fear is primal. In the wild, it serves as a protective mechanism, allowing animals to avoid predators or other perceived threats. For humans, fear is much more complex. A normal amount keeps us safe from danger. But in extreme cases, like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), too much fear can prevent people from living healthy, productive lives. Researchers are actively working to understand how the brain translates fear into action. Today, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) announce the discovery of a new neural circuit in the brain that directly links the site of fear memory with an area of the brainstem that controls behavior.How does the brain convert an emotion into a behavioral response? For years, researchers have known that fear memories are learned and stored in a small structure in the brain known as the amygdala. Any disturbing event activates neurons in the lateral and then central portions of the amygdala. The signals are then communicated internally, passing from one group of neurons to the next. …


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