14
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      The Cultivation of Arabidopsis for Experimental Research Using Commercially Available Peat-Based and Peat-Free Growing Media

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Experimental research involving Arabidopsis thaliana often involves the quantification of phenotypic traits during cultivation on compost or other growing media. Many commercially-available growing media contain peat, but peat extraction is not sustainable due to its very slow rate of formation. Moreover, peat extraction reduces peatland biodiversity and releases stored carbon and methane into the atmosphere. Here, we compared the experimental performance of Arabidopsis on peat-based and several types of commercially-available peat-free growing media (variously formed from coir, composted bark, wood-fibre, and domestic compost), to provide guidance for reducing peat use in plant sciences research with Arabidopsis. Arabidopsis biomass accumulation and seed yield were reduced by cultivation on several types of peat-free growing media. Arabidopsis performed extremely poorly on coir alone, presumably because this medium was completely nitrate-free. Some peat-free growing media were more susceptible to fungal contamination. We found that autoclaving of control (peat-based) growing media had no effect upon any physiological parameters that we examined, compared with non-autoclaved control growing media, under our experimental conditions. Overall, we conclude that Arabidopsis performs best when cultivated on peat-based growing media because seed yield was almost always reduced when peat-free media were used. This may be because standard laboratory protocols and growth conditions for Arabidopsis are optimized for peat-based media. However, during the vegetative growth phase several phenotypic traits were comparable between plants cultivated on peat-based and some peat-free media, suggesting that under certain circumstances peat-free media can be suitable for phenotypic analysis of Arabidopsis.

          Related collections

          Most cited references30

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          The CONSTANS gene of Arabidopsis promotes flowering and encodes a protein showing similarities to zinc finger transcription factors.

          The vegetative and reproductive (flowering) phases of Arabidopsis development are clearly separated. The onset of flowering is promoted by long photoperiods, but the constans (co) mutant flowers later than wild type under these conditions. The CO gene was isolated, and two zinc fingers that show a similar spacing of cysteines, but little direct homology, to members of the GATA1 family were identified in the amino acid sequence. co mutations were shown to affect amino acids that are conserved in both fingers. Some transgenic plants containing extra copies of CO flowered earlier than wild type, suggesting that CO activity is limiting on flowering time. Double mutants were constructed containing co and mutations affecting gibberellic acid responses, meristem identity, or phytochrome function, and their phenotypes suggested a model for the role of CO in promoting flowering.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Plant circadian clocks increase photosynthesis, growth, survival, and competitive advantage.

            Circadian clocks are believed to confer an advantage to plants, but the nature of that advantage has been unknown. We show that a substantial photosynthetic advantage is conferred by correct matching of the circadian clock period with that of the external light-dark cycle. In wild type and in long- and short-circadian period mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana, plants with a clock period matched to the environment contain more chlorophyll, fix more carbon, grow faster, and survive better than plants with circadian periods differing from their environment. This explains why plants gain advantage from circadian control.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Peatland hydrology and carbon release: why small-scale process matters.

              Peatlands cover over 400 million hectares of the Earth's surface and store between one-third and one-half of the world's soil carbon pool. The long-term ability of peatlands to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere means that they play a major role in moderating global climate. Peatlands can also either attenuate or accentuate flooding. Changing climate or management can alter peatland hydrological processes and pathways for water movement across and below the peat surface. It is the movement of water in peats that drives carbon storage and flux. These small-scale processes can have global impacts through exacerbated terrestrial carbon release. This paper will describe advances in understanding environmental processes operating in peatlands. Recent (and future) advances in high-resolution topographic data collection and hydrological modelling provide an insight into the spatial impacts of land management and climate change in peatlands. Nevertheless, there are still some major challenges for future research. These include the problem that impacts of disturbance in peat can be irreversible, at least on human time-scales. This has implications for the perceived success and understanding of peatland restoration strategies. In some circumstances, peatland restoration may lead to exacerbated carbon loss. This will also be important if we decide to start to create peatlands in order to counter the threat from enhanced atmospheric carbon.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                18 April 2016
                2016
                : 11
                : 4
                : e0153625
                Affiliations
                [1 ]School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, United Kingdom
                [2 ]Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UJ, United Kingdom
                University of Tsukuba, JAPAN
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Conceived and designed the experiments: TD MK RS TP AND. Performed the experiments: TD MK RS AY. Analyzed the data: TD MK RS AND. Wrote the paper: TD AND.

                [¤]

                Current address: Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Cidade Universitária "Zeferino Vaz", Barão Geraldo, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6859-0105
                Article
                PONE-D-15-48292
                10.1371/journal.pone.0153625
                4835059
                27088495
                952ae395-f2b1-48f4-8378-1fc654394a1c
                © 2016 Drake et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 4 November 2015
                : 2 April 2016
                Page count
                Figures: 8, Tables: 1, Pages: 16
                Funding
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000288, Royal Society;
                Award ID: University Research Fellowship
                Award Recipient :
                This work was supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council ( www.bbsrc.ac.uk, grant BB/I005811/2), The Royal Society ( royalsociety.org; University Research Fellowship, grant UF120033), The University of Bristol's BSc and MSci (Biological Sciences) programmes, no grant number ( www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/), National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq) Brazil ( www.cnpq.br) Science without Borders Program (studentship 249210/2012-6), University of Bristol Santander Scholarship, no grant number ( www.bristol.ac.uk) and the Kyoto University (Joint Usage/Research Program of the Center for Ecological Research). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Plant Science
                Plant Anatomy
                Seeds
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Plants
                Seedlings
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Agriculture
                Agronomy
                Horticulture
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Plants
                Brassica
                Arabidopsis Thaliana
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Model Organisms
                Plant and Algal Models
                Arabidopsis Thaliana
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Plants
                Flowering Plants
                Ecology and Environmental Sciences
                Aquatic Environments
                Freshwater Environments
                Wetlands
                Earth Sciences
                Marine and Aquatic Sciences
                Aquatic Environments
                Freshwater Environments
                Wetlands
                Earth Sciences
                Geomorphology
                Topography
                Landforms
                Wetlands
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Equipment Preparation
                Equipment Sterilization
                Autoclaving
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Plant Science
                Plant Anatomy
                Leaves
                Custom metadata
                All data files are available from the University of Bristol data repository (DOI: 10.5523/bris.50mnf5ey5ep31txaj7krtpuq7).

                Uncategorized
                Uncategorized

                Comments

                Comment on this article