Mock Orange - Poems by Anne Osbourn

Please join us in congratulating OpenPlant PI Prof Anne Osbourn on the publication of her book of poetry entitled Mock Orange:

MOCK ORANGE by ANNE OSBOURN  | SPM Publications, Poetry

Third Prize Winner, Sentinel Poetry Book Competition 2018

“Mock Orange is a collection of poems in which Anne Osbourn attempts to order her life and her origins and to try to understand how and why she became a scientist, specifically a plant biologist. From early childhood she has tried to make sense of the world through plants. In mid-eighteenth century Sweden Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, spent his life trying to understand his Maker through the classification of plants. Osbourn’s poetry encompasses Linnaeus’s adventures and experiences and his fascination with living things. Mock Orange is therefore about journeys from origins, both personal and global, in which negotiations between scientific and non-scientific languages and points of view form a central theme.”

DNA Dave school workshop

The first ever DNA Dave “Build Your Own” School Workshop took place this month!

DNA Dave was first created in 2016 and designed to be used as an interdisciplinary, educational tool to teach the concept of DNA transcription and translation at various science festivals. He was such a hit with audiences and teachers who attended, that a plan to take him into schools was formed.

The workshop welcomed students from schools across Norfolk to learn the biology and coding behind DNA Dave in a bid to create their own educational robot.

Each school taking part received a “DNA Dave Starter Kit” worth £100 that included all the know-how and BBC micro:bit gadgets to build their own robot which they will then present at a celebration event to be held later in the year.

You can find out more about DNA Dave here.

Prof Anne Osbourn has been awarded an Order of the British Empire for services to plant science

We are excited to announce that Professor Anne Osbourn, one of our OpenPlant directors, has been awarded an Order of the British Empire for services to plant science. Earlier this year, Professor Osbourn was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the 30th FRS in the history of the John Innes Centre.

Please join us in congratulating her!

Read more about this topic here.

"Plants can tell time even without a brain"

James Locke and Mark Greenwood (University of Cambridge) recently published their work on the coordination of circadian rhythms between different plant organs in PLOS Biology. This research paper has now been featured in The Conversation.

The article describes how the circadian timing in different plant organs is influenced both by local organ-specific input, as well as by inter-organ communication, allowing the expression of clock proteins to move through the plant in spatial waves.

Read more about the topic using the links above.

Building a CO2-concentrating mechanism

A new blog for the PLOS Synbio Community, written by Steven Burgess (former PDRA in one of the OpenPlant labs), describes the research of Alistair McCormack and colleagues on reconstructing an algal CO2-concentrating mechanism (CCM) into higher plants.

The work is part of an international collaboration that aims to test predictions that increasing the CO2 in plant leaves, with a system adapted from algae, will enhance photosynthetic performance, and water and nutrient use efficiency.

View the blog by Steven Burgess and the paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

New LinkedIn group for synthetic biology centres: The Synbio Network

The Synbio Centres and the Foundries in the UK

In this Linked-In group present and former members of the UK Synthetic Biology Research Centres, the DNA foundries and the Synbio Innovation and Knowledge Centre can connect with each other. Through this group we aim to maintain and build the network of synbio scientists in and outside the UK. This provides us with a forum through which we can stay in touch, make new connections, stay up to date on developments in the sector, exchange ideas, and build new collaborations. Please join our group and spread the word among your colleagues!

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13754621/

Integrated Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis of the Peridinin Dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae Plastid

OpenPlant PI Chris Howe and colleagues published their work on control of plastid gene expression in the dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae:

Integrated Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis of the Peridinin Dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae Plastid

Richard G.Dorrell, R. Ellen R.Nisbet, Adrian C.Barbrook, Stephen J.L.Rowden, and Christopher J.Howe

Protist 170(4), August 2019, Pages 358-373

Abstract:

The plastid genomes of peridinin-containing dinoflagellates are highly unusual, possessing very few genes, which are located on small chromosomal elements termed “minicircles”. These minicircles may contain genes, or no recognisable coding information. Transcripts produced from minicircles may undergo unusual processing events, such as the addition of a 3' poly(U) tail. To date, little is known about the genetic or transcriptional diversity of non-coding sequences in peridinindinoflagellate plastids. These sequences include empty minicircles, and regions of non-coding DNA in coding minicircles. Here, we present an integrated plastid genome and transcriptome for the model peridinin dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae, identifying a previously undescribed minicircle. We also profile transcripts covering non-coding regions of the psbA and petB/atpA minicircles. We present evidence that antisense transcripts are produced within the A. carterae plastid, but show that these transcripts undergo different end cleavage events from sense transcripts, and do not receive 3' poly(U) tails. The difference in processing events between sense and antisense transcripts may enable the removal of non-coding transcripts from peridinin dinoflagellate plastid transcript pools.

Transformation of the dinoflagellate chloroplasts to enable studies on coral bleaching

eLife 8:e45292 Figure 5: A chloroplast localization for chloramphenicol acetyl transferase.

Dinoflagellate algae are of enormous ecological importance as they form symbiosis with corals, providing fixed carbon to their hosts. Environmental stresses such as raised temperature lead to breakdown of the symbiosis, expulsion of the dinoflagellates, and coral bleaching. Little is known about why the symbiosis breaks down, although the generation of reactive oxygen species in the chloroplast is probably involved. Dinoflagellates have long been resistant to transformation, which has hampered research into bleaching.

With funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Chris Howe’s lab in the Cambridge Biochemistry Department has succeeded in transforming the chloroplast of a model dinoflagellate, Amphidinium carterae (Nimmo IC et al. (2019) Genetic transformation of the dinoflagellate chloroplast. eLife 8:e45292 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45292). They exploited the highly unusual organisation of the chloroplast genome – fragmented into plasmid-like ‘minicircles’ – to make shuttle vectors for biolistic transformation. This should open the way for studies on how environmental stresses affect dinoflagellate chloroplast function and ultimately lead to coral bleaching. 

Hive BioLab, the first community/DIYBio lab in Ghana, launches @hivebiolab

Hive BioLab is the first community/DIYBio lab in Ghana dedicated to the rapid prototyping of ideas in biology, research, enterprising bio-startups by helping and providing resources to students and graduates to translate science to businesses.

HiveBioLab is now active on twitter: @hivebiolab

A Biomaker team has made it to the final of the BBSRC Innovator of the Year 2019 Awards

A Biomaker team with participants from Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB), the Earlham Institute (EI), the John Innes Centre (JIC) and the University of Oxford, has developed a small scale speed breeding cabinet, which has qualified them for the final of the BBSRC Innovator of the Year 2019 Awards. Read more about this story here:

https://www.jic.ac.uk/news/norwich-research-park-team-in-line-for-early-career-innovator-award/

Postnatural Botany: A creative exploration of botanical diversity, observation and communication skills

“Postnatural Botany” rules booklet, plant discovery cards, and role-playing cars for “Explorer”, “Regulator” and “Artist”. Photo: Karen Ingram

Guest post by Karen Ingram, Creative Director

Postnatural Bestiary/Botany

This past July, participants of the 2018 OpenPlant Forum went on an expedition where they discovered several new species of plants. Ok- they didn’t REALLY discover the plants, but they played a game that enacted the discovery of 18 new plants, from alpine to outback, at the conference dinner held at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (SVCA). The game, “Postnatural Botany” was inspired by Medieval Bestiaries, and the notion that explorers would describe the wildlife from their travels to people who had never seen such wildlife, as a means to share with the community.

Image courtesy of Rutgers University Honors College Instagram and Julia Buntaine.

“Postnatural Botany” has its origin as a workshop I created for 23 students in the Rutgers University Honors College and Douglass Residential College for women. The workshop took place in early 2018 and was part of a course, “Science/Art/Technology in New/York/City" taught by Julia Buntaine of the SciArt Center.

Originally dubbed “Postnatural Bestiary” and depicting a wide array of animals, I worked with Dr. Nicola Patron from the Earlham Institute to tailor the game to be plant focused, specifically for the Open Plant Forum.

The 2018 Open Plant Forum was hosted in Norwich, at the John Innes Centre. Norwich–which enjoyed great prosperity in the Middle ages–was the perfect backdrop for a game based on medieval bestiaries.

Playing the Game

Each person was assigned a role as an “explorer”, “artist”, or “regulator” and worked in teams to produce artworks of each plant according to the rules of play. Patron selected a wide variety of plant life; Venus Flytrap, Rainbow Eucalyptus, Welwitschia, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and Java Moss were all “discovered”, described with limited terminology and depicted with magic markers and imaginative minds.

Karen Ingram introducing the game to attendees of the Open Plant Forum. Photo: Nicola Patron

The “explorer” in each group was given an envelope that contained a card with the plant they had “discovered.” The card displayed a limited amount of information, including an image of the plant, the name, habitat, size, characteristics of its flower (if there was one), and information about a specific “outstanding feature” for each plant.

The “explorer” had to describe the plant they had discovered to an”artist” for visual interpretation. A “regulator” was also part of the game play, in order to ensure all parties followed the rules, of which there were many! Neither the artist nor the regulator were allowed to guess what the plant might be. The artist was not allowed to talk at all, primarily to keep them from guessing what the plant was.

Explorer Jenny Molloy gesticulates as she describes a Baobab tree to her team’s artists, Joanne Kamens and Dave Rejeski. Photo: Karen Ingram

Clockwise from bottom left: Francoise Kepes, Claudia Vickers, Steve Evans, Richard Sever, Anne Osbourn, Jim Haseloff, Peter Murray-Rust, Christina Smolke. Photo: Karen Ingram

Fun with Rules

I created a fictitious human-centric “public” that has no access to robust image catalogues and information we have via the internet, and no knowledge of the sciences. Because of these limitations, “explorers” had to use simplified terminology; leaning on familiar household objects and tools used by humans (purses, for example) and referencing the human body as a measurement unit. Professor George Lomonosoff from the John Innes Center remarked that it was a joy to describe a Rainbow Eucalyptus tree to his team’s “artists” as being “...as tall as twenty men!”

Jim Haseloff puts the final touches on his drawing. Photo: Nicola Patron

Simple explanations, gestures, analogies referencing common household objects, an abbreviated list of plant traits (stems, leaves, flowers, roots), as well as a few select domesticated plants were used in favor of scientific terminology.

The key objectives of the game were not so much to depict the plant correctly, but to work as a team: to communicate carefully on the part of the explorers, and to listen and interpret on the part of artists and regulators, and for everyone to have fun with plants.

An amazingly accurate rendering of a Sturt’s Desert Pea by Jan Lyczakowski, who exclaimed “I’ve never seen this plant before, but apparently I did a pretty well!” Photo: Nicola Patron

Open Plant Forum attendees marvel over a gallery of colorful creations. Photo: Nicola Patron

Colette Matthewman–whose winning drawings of a Jack-in-the-pulpit underwent several iterations before she was satisfied–shared her thoughts: “The OpenPlant Forum attracts a mutidisciplinary crowd, and this was a great game for breaking down barriers of language as we were all restricted to using very every-day words together with gestures to describe and understand the look of the plant – and the plants chosen looked really fantastical! As ‘an artist’ it was fascinating to see how I started to relate the explorer’s description to plants that I knew. This helped me to draw a reasonable likeness, but also limited my ability to take on board specific instructions from the explorer as they didn’t match the image in my head.”

A Note about the Postnatural

The term “Postnatural” is defined as any organism altered by humans via selective breeding or genetic engineering. In the fable of this game, the plants and organisms are newly “discovered” by humans. Through the ages, plant collectors took their findings to new places for breeding and growth in new environments, altering the genetics and epigenetics of the plants forever. This calls to question, at what point of human intervention do organisms become “postnatural”? Once an organism is known and it is integrated into our lexicon; in a Bestiary as it was in the Middle Ages, domesticated to produce products for humans, or its genome sequenced, it is part of our human narrative. Fewer and fewer botanists get to experience the thrill of discovering a new plant species. And yet, through the discoveries of modern biology, humans are experiencing a new kinship with other organisms as we learn more about common biological processes and origins of life on earth. The gameplay of “Postnatural Botany” relies on observation, communication, listening, and interpretation; tools that we can all use to examine the potential impact of this kinship.

Markers down. Randy Rettberg, Roger Castells, and Ian Small survey the final pieces as people finish their pieces. Photo: Karen Ingram

Sketches show depictions of Venus Flytrap, Corpse flower, Java moss, Jack-in-the-pulpit (the winner), and Vegetable Sheep. Photos: Nicola Patron