Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2020
Authors
Gunda Thöming Sándor Koczor Ferenc Szentkirályi Hans Ragnar Norli Marco Tasin Geir Kjølberg KnudsenAbstract
In a field-trapping experiment with plant volatiles, we observed notably high attraction of green lacewing (Chrysotropia ciliata) males to the compound p-anisaldehyde. Based on this finding, we initiated the present study to elucidate this phenomenon and to investigate the chemical ecology of C. ciliata. Scanning electron microscopy revealed elliptical glands abundantly distributed on the 2nd to 6th abdominal sternites of C. ciliata males, whereas females of the species completely lacked such glands. No p-anisaldehyde was found in extractions of body parts of C. ciliata. Methyl p-anisate and p-methoxybenzoic acid were identified exclusively in the extract from abdominal segments 2–8 of males. Field-trapping experiments revealed no attraction of C. ciliata to either methyl p-anisate or p-methoxybenzoic acid. In contrast, males showed marked attraction to p-anisaldehyde in the field and antennae showed strong responses to this compound. Headspace collections in the field from living insects in their natural environment and during their main daily activity period indicated that p-anisaldehyde was emitted exclusively by C. ciliata males. Our overall results suggest that p-anisaldehyde might serve as a male-produced pheromone that attracts conspecific C. ciliata males. Here, we discuss hypotheses regarding possible mechanisms involved in regulation of p-anisaldehyde production, including involvement of the compounds methyl p-anisate and p-methoxybenzoic acid, and the potential ecological function of p-anisaldehyde in C. ciliata.
Authors
Elisabet Martínez-Sancho Lenka Slámová Sandro Morganti Claudio Grefen Barbara Carvalho Benjamin Dauphin Christian Rellstab Felix Gugerli Lars Opgenoorth Katrin Heer Florian Knutzen Georg von Arx Fernando Valladares Stephen Cavers Bruno Fady Ricardo Alía Filippos Aravanopoulos Camilla Avanzi Francesca Bagnoli Evangelos Barbas Catherine Bastien Raquel Benavides Frédéric Bernier Guillaume Bodineau Cristina C. Bastias Jean-Paul Charpentier José M. Climent Marianne Corréard Florence Courdier Darius Danusevicius Anna-Maria Farsakoglou José M. García del Barrio Olivier Gilg Santiago C. González-Martínez Alan Gray Christoph Hartleitner Agathe Hurel Arnaud Jouineau Katri Kärkkäinen Sonja T. Kujala Mariaceleste Labriola Martin Lascoux Marlène Lefebvre Vincent Lejeune Grégoire Le-Provost Mirko Liesebach Ermioni Malliarou Nicolas Mariotte Silvia Matesanz Célia Michotey Pascal Milesi Tor Myking Eduardo Notivol Birte Pakull Andrea Piotti Christophe Plomion Mehdi Pringarbe Tanja Pyhäjärvi Annie Raffin José A. Ramírez-Valiente Kurt Ramskogler Juan J. Robledo-Arnuncio Outi Savolainen Silvio Schueler Vladimir Semerikov Ilaria Spanu Jean Thévenet Mari Mette Tollefsrud Norbert Turion Dominique Veisse Giovanni Giuseppe Vendramin Marc Villar Johan Westin Patrick FontiAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
The EU has developed a Directive on Sustainable Use of Chemical Pesticides (2009/128/EC) (SUD) that aims to enhance the use of non-chemical alternatives to pesticides like microbial plant protection products (PPP). The number of authorized microbial PPP for plant protection has increased globally during the last decade. There is, however, variation between different countries. Sweden and Denmark have for example each authorized 20 microbial PPP while Norway has only authorized four microbial PPP. Norway has also received significantly fewer applications for authorization of microbial PPP than the other Scandinavian countries. We explore possible explanations for the observed differences. Our results show that that the regulations in the three countries had similar requirements for the authorisation of microbial PPP. The size of the market is somewhat smaller in Norway than in Sweden and Denmark, and could therefore explain some of the differences. We suggest, however, that the most important explanation is implementation differences in terms of different decisions made in the authorization process. By comparing the authorization process for three microbial PPP in the Scandinavian countries, we found that Norway used more time for the product authorization decisions. Norway assess the same types of microbial PPP more restrictively with respect to environmental aspects and especially human health risks.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Roland Gerhards Michael Späth Markus Sökefeld Gerassimos G. Peteinatos Adnan Nabout Victor Rueda-AyalaAbstract
Precision farming technologies were implemented into a commercial harrow to increase selectivity of weed harrowing in spring cereals. Digital cameras were mounted before and after the harrow measuring crop cover. Crop soil cover (CSC) was computed out of these two images. Eight field experiments were carried out in spring cereals. Mode of harrowing intensity was changed in four experiments by speed, number of passes and tine angle. Each mode was varied in five intensities. In four experiments, only intensity of harrowing was changed. Weed control efficacy (WCE) and CSC were measured immediately after harrowing. Crop recovery was assessed 14 days after harrowing. Modes of intensity were not significantly different. However, intensity had significant effects on WCE and CSC. Cereals recovered from 10% CSC, and selectivity was in the constant range at 10% CSC. Therefore, 10% CSC was the threshold for the decision algorithm. If the actual CSC was below 10% CSC, intensity was increased. If the actual CSC was higher than 10%, intensity was decreased. Image analysis, decision support system and automatic control of harrowing intensity by hydraulic adjustment of tine angle were installed on a controller mounted on the harrow. The new system was tested in an additional field study. Threshold values for CSC were set at 10%, 30% and 60%. Automatic tine angle adjustment precisely realised the three different CSC values with variations of 1.5% to 3%. This development contributes to selective weed control and supports farmers during harrowing.
Authors
Håvard Steinshamn Inga Marie Aasen Sokratis Ptochos Caroline Chylinski Berit Marie Blomstrand Kristin SørheimAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Carlos Sacristan Carlos G Das Neves Faisal Suhel Irene Sacristán Torstein Tengs Inger Sofie Hamnes Knut Ivar Engesæter MadslienAbstract
Bartonella spp. are fastidious, Gram‐negative, aerobic, facultative intracellular bacteria that infect humans, domestic and wild animals. In Norway, Bartonella spp. have been detected in cervids, mainly within the distribution area of the arthropod vector deer ked (Lipoptena cervi ). We used PCR to survey the prevalence of Bartonella spp. in blood samples from 141 cervids living outside the deer ked distribution area (moose [Alces alces , n = 65], red deer [Cervus elaphus , n = 41], and reindeer [Rangifer tarandus , n = 35]), in 44 pool samples of sheep tick (Ixodes ricinus , 27 pools collected from 74 red deer and 17 from 45 moose) and in biting midges of the genus Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae, 120 pools of 6710 specimens). Bartonella DNA was amplified in moose (75.4 %, 49/65) and in red deer (4.9 %, 2/41) blood samples. All reindeer were negative. There were significant differences in Bartonella prevalence among the cervid species. Additionally, Bartonella was amplified in two of 17 tick pools collected from moose and in 3 of 120 biting midge pool samples. The Bartonella sequences amplified in moose, red deer and ticks were highly similar to B. bovis , previously identified in cervids. The sequence obtained from biting midges was only 81.7 % similar to the closest Bartonella spp. We demonstrate that Bartonella is present in moose across Norway and present the first data on northern Norway specimens. The high prevalence of Bartonella infection suggests that moose could be the reservoir for this bacterium. This is the first report of bacteria from the Bartonella genus in ticks from Fennoscandia, and in Culicoides biting midges worldwide.
Authors
Yongjie Kuang Shaofang Li Bin Ren Fang Yan Carl Jonas Jorge Spetz Xiangju Li Xueping Zhou Huanbin ZhouAbstract
Recently developed CRISPR-mediated base editors, which enable the generation of numerous nucleotide changes in target genomic regions, have been widely adopted for gene correction and generation of crop germplasms containing important gain-of-function genetic variations. However, to engineer target genes with unknown functional SNPs remains challenging. To address this issue, we present here a base-editing-mediated gene evolution (BEMGE) method, employing both Cas9n-based cytosine and adenine base editors as well as a single-guide RNA (sgRNA) library tiling the full-length coding region, for developing novel rice germplasms with mutations in any endogenous gene. To this end, OsALS1 was artificially evolved in rice cells using BEMGE through both Agrobacterium-mediated and particle-bombardment-mediated transformation. Four different types of amino acid substitutions in the evolved OsALS1, derived from two sites that have never been targeted by natural or human selection during rice domestication, were identified, conferring varying levels of tolerance to the herbicide bispyribac-sodium. Furthermore, the P171F substitution identified in a strong OsALS1 allele was quickly introduced into the commercial rice cultivar Nangeng 46 through precise base editing with the corresponding base editor and sgRNA. Collectively, these data indicate great potential of BEMGE in creating important genetic variants of target genes for crop improvement.
Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to present the new model BASGRA_N, to show how it was parameterized for grass swards in Scandinavia, and to evaluate its performance in predicting above-ground biomass, crude protein, cell wall content and dry matter digestibility. The model was developed to allow simulation of: (1) the impact of N-supply on the plants and their environment, (2) the dynamics of greenhouse gas emissions from grasslands, (3) the dynamics of cell-wall content and digestibility of leaves and stems, which could not be simulated with its predecessor, the BASGRA-model. To calibrate and test the model, we used field experimental data. One dataset included observations of biomass (DM) and crude protein content (CP) under different N fertilizer regimes from five sites in central and southern Sweden. The other dataset included observations of DM, and sward components as well as CP, cell wall content (NDF) and DM digestibility as affected by harvesting regime from one site in southwestern Norway. The total number of experiments was nine, of which three were used for model testing. When BASGRA_N was run with the maximum a-posteriori (MAP) parameter vector from the Bayesian calibration for the Swedish test sites, DM and CP were both simulated to an overall Pearson correlation coefficient (Rb) of minimum 0.58, Willmott's index of agreement (d) of minimum 0.69 and normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE) of maximum 0.30. Corresponding metrics for Norwegian test sites were 0.93, 0.96 and 0.27 for DM and > 0.73, > 0.61, < 0.18 for DM digestibility, NDF and CP content, respectively. We conclude that BASGRA_N can be used to simulate yield and CP responses to N with satisfactory precision, while maintaining key features from its predecessor. The results also suggest that DM digestibility and NDF can be simulated satisfactorily, which is supported by results from a recent model comparison study. Further testing of the model is needed for a few variables for which we currently do not have enough data, notably leaching and emission of N-containing compounds. Further work will include application of the model to investigate greenhouse gas mitigation options, and evaluation against independent data for the conditions for which it will be applied.