Environmental Control in Biology最新文献

{"title":"Sensors and Monitoring for Production and Distribution of a Tropical Fruit","authors":"S. Fukuda, W. Spreer, Marcus Mnagle, E. Yasunaga","doi":"10.2525/ECB.56.23","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.56.23","url":null,"abstract":"able development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (2016). These comprehensive goals cover all possible topics toward sustainable development. Agriculture is a human activity which heavily relies on natural resources for food production, and thus directly and indirectly impacts natural systems. Considering the balance between environment and natural resources management including agriculture, the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus (Flammini et al., 2014) has emerged as a key approach towards SDGs. Self-evidently, human beings depend on WEF, and conserving them under the pressure of population growth and climate change is an important challenge. Worldwide, agricultural water use accounts for 70% of total water use, and more than 90% in the least developed countries (WWAP, 2012). It is expected to increase because of population growth and changing food demands. Water use for agriculture is in competition with domestic and industrial sectors. Climate change may further foster such conflicts, resulting in overexploitation of both surface water and groundwater resources. Therefore, agricultural water use and distribution need to be efficiently managed considering local conditions. Energy is another important factor for agriculture, covering the entire chain from production, harvesting, processing, distribution and consumption. Pressurized irrigation systems (e.g. drip and sprinkler irrigation) are important tools for water saving and increasing production but consumes significant amounts of energy. Fuels are used for processing, storage and transportation of fresh agricultural products to achieve a long shelf life during a supply chain. Advanced storage and transportation allow for supplying quality products to distant markets. A comprehensive research framework, adopting the WEF nexus approach, is needed for research and developed for an improved food system (e.g., from field to fork) from a viewpoint of sustainable development. In 2013, the research consortium established a project aiming at the development of intensive production system with improved distribution systems of fresh mango fruit (Mangifera indica L.) between Thailand and Japan. To this end, various kinds of data have been collected continuously from farm to table using Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) such as advanced sensors and semi-real-time field monitoring devices. In addition, laboratory experiments were conducted to characterize ecophysiological traits (e.g., respiration rates and climacteric ripening process) of fresh mango fruit. We have applied machine learning methods in order to evaluate the effects of production environments including irrigation regimes on the yield and quality of fresh mango fruit (Fukuda et al., 2013) as well as the effects of distribution environments such as storage temperature on the dynamics of the fruit quality during transportation (Fukuda et al., 2014). Process-based fruit quality prediction models are being tested for predicting the","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"18 1","pages":"23-24"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74597140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quality changes in fresh mango fruits (mangifera indica l. ‘nam dok mai’) under actual distribution temperature profile from Thailand to Japan","authors":"E. Yasunaga, S. Fukuda, D. Takata, W. Spreer, V. Sardsud, K. Nakano","doi":"10.2525/ECB.56.45","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.56.45","url":null,"abstract":"studies to evaluate quality not just under unsteady conditions but also during a long supply chain. The present study aimed to obtain data that could be applied to quality control during the distribution. For this purpose, we used immature mango fruits transported immediately after harvest from Thailand by air, and then stored under the actual temperature condition of ocean freight shipping for 3 weeks in the laboratory. The postharvest ripening state of immature mango fruits was investigated by monitoring the changes in fruit hardness, peel color, ascorbic acid and sugar-acid ratio. supply chains. The mango is a climacteric fruit that ripens after harvest. Therefore, it is very important to treat immature fruits appropriately during lengthy distribution period which can takes approximately three weeks from Thailand to Japan by shipping. The present study aimed to determine the effects of postharvest distribution and storage temperature on physiological changes in fresh mango fruits ( Mangifera indica L. ‘Nam Dok Mai’) imported from Thailand to Japan. Immature mango fruits were utilized that were transported immediately after harvest from Thailand by air, and were then stored in the actual distribution temperature conditions of shipping for 3 weeks and also heated to 25°C for 16 (cid:1) 18 d in the laboratory. Postharvest ripening of immature mango fruits was observed as changes in fruit firmness, peel color, and sugar content under the storage conditions. Softening and coloring were induced during postharvest storage, especially in the first 4 d. After the first 4 d of maturation enhancement, the change in maturation level remained small.","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"2 1","pages":"45-49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88803204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of Far-red Light on Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) Growth and Crocin Yields","authors":"N. Kajikawa, Y. Uno, S. Kuroki, Sachi Miyagawa, Yusuke Yamashita, Y. Hamaguchi, Y. Ueda, Masao Kobayashi, Kenichi Kaji, H. Itoh","doi":"10.2525/ECB.56.51","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.56.51","url":null,"abstract":"The production of plants in plant factories supplies stable and very safe products regardless of the weather conditions, but is also associated with significant costs in terms of both the initial investment and ongoing electricity expenses. Therefore, to compensate for these high production costs, it is necessary to produce crops with a high unit price. This research focussed on production of the medicinal plant saffron (Crocus sativus L.), which is considered an expensive spice globally. This bulbous plant of the genus Crocus (family Iridaceae) is traditionally cultivated in Iran, where 93.7 % of the world’s total production is grown (Ghorbani, 2008). The basic component of commercial saffron is the stigma, which contains the yellow-red carotenoid pigment crocin (C44H64O24). Crocin has a wide variety of applications not only in the food industry and as a colourant, but also in medicine (Gazerani et al., 2013), with several reports demonstrating its pharmacological activity, including anti-tumour properties and improved outcomes for alcoholic memory disorder (Shoyama, 2009). The life cycle of saffron can be divided into four stages: formation of the flower buds, flowering, formation of the daughter corms (FD) and development of the daughter corms (DD) (Miyagawa et al., 2015). Traditionally, saffron corms start to produce flowers in autumn following transplantation into the field in late summer. The plants’ leaves continue to grow from summer to winter, with two daughter corms usually forming and enlarging at the base of the shoot on their mother corm at low temperatures in winter. At the beginning of spring, the leaves begin to wither and the enlarged daughter corms are harvested and stored while dormant, during which time they undergo flower bud formation. It is well known that the bulbous plant stores a large quantity of carbohydrates in the bulb, which support root growth, nutrient absorption and differentiation of the flower buds, stems and leaves during its underground life (Ohyama et al., 1986). Consequently, since these carbohydrates may make a large contribution to flowering energy, saffron corms that contain a large amount of photosynthetic products are expected to have higher stigma yields, as indicated by the extremely strong correlation between flowering rate and corm weight (Pharmaceutical Affairs Bureau, 1995). In recent years, light quality (i.e. the spectral composition of light) has been identified as an important environmental factor for plant growth and quality improvement. Photosynthesis occurs under photoirradiation conditions that span a particular range of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), from approximately 400 nm to 700 nm. Far-red radiation, which is the outside part of the PAR spectrum, is not directly involved in photosynthesis but does induce photomorphogenesis in plants via changes in phytochrome equilibrium. For instance, Lercari (1982) found that far-red light irradiation induced the translocation of carbo","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"3 1","pages":"51-57"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87815909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Preliminary Experiment on the Effects of Leaf Wetting on Gas Exchange in Tomato Leaves","authors":"G. Yokoyama, D. Yasutake, M. Kitano","doi":"10.2525/ECB.56.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.56.13","url":null,"abstract":"To evaluate the effects of leaf wetting on midday depression of photosynthesis in horticultural crops, we analyzed leaf gas exchange (transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, photosynthetic rate) of tomato plants under two different treatments (the Wet treatment and No-wet treatment as control). The gas exchange was measured at 11:00 (the time at which leaf gas exchange was assumed to be active) and 14:00 (the time at which leaf gas exchange was assumed to be inactive due to midday depression) on the clear days of November 2 to 7, 2016. The gas exchange measurements in the Wet treatment were conducted just after droplets on the leaf surface had evaporated. In the No-wet treatment, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, and photosynthetic rate at 14:00 were decreased compared to those at 11:00. This suggests that midday depression occurred due to stomatal closure induced by excessive transpirational water loss. In contrast, in the Wet treatment, there was no such depression of leaf gas exchange, suggesting that leaf wetting might contribute to maintaining stomatal aperture through improving leaf water status. Thus, leaf wetting could avoid midday depression of photosynthesis in tomato plants.","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"44 1","pages":"13-16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90037512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of air temperature during light and dark periods on the iridoid glycoside content of Hedyotis diffusa.","authors":"Chihiro Hanawa, Y. Uno, S. Kuroki, Kazuki Higashiuchi, M. Shibata, Tatsuki Matsui, C. Wong, P. Leung, C. Lau, H. Itoh","doi":"10.2525/ECB.56.73","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.56.73","url":null,"abstract":"Plant factories are year-round production systems that produce a high-quality, safe and steady supply of vegetables in a technologically controlled and automated environment. These systems are costly and consume considerable energy, which lowers their profitability. However, this weakness can be improved by cultivating medicinal plants which are one example of value-added crops. Since medicinal plants are used for medicinal purposes, high quality and safety are required. However, Higashiuchi et al. (2016) previously stated that medicinal plants are imported from foreign countries and quality and cost of the medicinal plants are not stable. Therefore, there is a real demand to promote the domestic cultivation of these plants by an improvement of cultivation technique. Hedyotis diffusa (family Rubiaceae) is used in Chinese herbal medicine to treat cancer, urinary infections, appendicitis and bronchitis (Takagi et al., 1982). This species is naturally distributed in the subtropical and tropical zones of East Asia, and its availability depends on the harvesting of wild crops. However, H. diffusa is cultivated with other similar cultivars (Lin et al., 1987; Wee and Keng, 1990), which can result in contamination and thus a lower-quality product. Therefore, it is considered that the cultivation of this crop in a plant factory would be beneficial in order to prevent from the contamination. However, to allow the year-round cultivation of high-quality H. diffusa in plant factories, it is first necessary to analyse the effects of environmental factors on its growth and the biosynthesis of its medicinal properties. The main medicinal properties of H. diffusa is the iridoids, which exist in the form of iridoid glycosides. It is considered that iridoid glycosides exist in the vacuole or cytoplasm of plant cell (Kamata, 2009). It has been reported that H. diffusa contains various types of iridoid glycosides and each of them has a unique medicinal effect (Rui et al., 2016). The Iridoid glycosides begins with glucose (Shioi et al., 2009; Takaishi et al., 2010). Therefore, it is expected that an increase in glucose output through the promotion of photosynthesis will improve the synthesis of iridoid glycosides. Photosynthesis is affected by several environmental factors, such as light intensity, humidity, CO2 concentration and temperature. Higashiuchi et al. (2016) previously showed that a high light intensity and long light period promotes the production of asperuloside, which is one kind of iridoid glycoside. However, Martz et al. (2009) found that high temperatures had a negative effect on the synthesis of iridoid glycosides in Menyanthes trifoliate L. leaves, indicating that a high production of glucose at high temperatures is not directly correlated with high levels of iridoid glycoside synthesis. In a preliminary study, Mori et al. (2015) analyzed the effects of three different air temperatures on plant growth","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"55 1","pages":"73-79"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89916397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Isobutyl Isothiocyanate is a Potent Heat Tolerance Enhancer for Arabidopsis","authors":"M. Hara, Takumi Matsubara, I. Takahashi, Hiroki Murano","doi":"10.2525/ECB.56.121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.56.121","url":null,"abstract":"Heat tolerance enhancers are chemicals which prevent the physiological damages of plants by heat. Phenethyl isothiocyanate (ITC), which is known as the heat tolerance enhancer, induced the expression of heat shock protein genes in Arabidopsis . Here we measured the heat shock response (HSR)-inducing activities of ITCs to find more active ITCs than phenethyl ITC. We prepared transgenic Arabidopsis possessing the b - glucuronidase reporter gene driven by the promoter of a small heat shock protein ( HSP17.6C-CI ) gene which was induced by heat tolerance enhancers. We tested 16 naturally occurring ITCs for their HSR-inducing activities: 5 aromatic ITCs, 7 aliphatic ITCs, and 4 sulfur-containing aliphatic ITCs. The results showed that the short-chain aliphatic ITCs, especially isobutyl ITC, promoted the HSR more strongly than the aromatic and sulfur-containing aliphatic ITCs. Isobutyl ITC induced the HSR in the whole Arabidopsis seedlings. The isobutyl ITC-treated plants showed higher heat tolerance than the phenethyl ITC-treated plants. These results suggest that isobutyl ITC is a more potent heat tolerance enhancer than phenethyl ITC.","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"25 1","pages":"121-126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87193600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influence of Cultivation Temperature on Oligosaccharides and Isoflavones in Soybean Sprouts","authors":"D. Syukri, M. Thammawong, Hushna Ara Naznin, K. Nakano","doi":"10.2525/ECB.56.59","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.56.59","url":null,"abstract":"Soybean is one of the small sized food legumes that contains high amount of nutritional compounds such as isoflavones, amino acids, vitamins, soyasaponin (Kim et al., 2013). As a food source, soybean can be consumed as it is or processed into other products such as tofu, soy sauce, soy paste and soybean sprouts. The variety of soybased food is produced to enhance the flavour and digestibility for increasing customer acceptance (Liu, 2008). Soybean sprout is one of the soy-based foods that produced by cultivating soybean seedlings for certain period to get certain length. It has been reported that most of the nutritional compounds such as amino acids, myo-inositol metabolites, isoflavone glycosides, soyasaponins, phytosterol (Gu et al., 2017), tocopherol (Vasantharuba et al., 2007) and dietary fibre (Tiansawang et al., 2016) increase during cultivation process of soybean sprouts, while some compounds such as phytic acid, trypsin inhibitors, compounds with lipoxygenase activity and oligosaccharides decrease (Labaneiah and Luh, 1981; Mostafa et al., 1987; Bau et al., 1997). Previously, it has been reported that the soy oligosaccharides, which is classified as raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs), causes flatulence and is recognized as one of the undesirable substances for human diet (Rackis, 1981). However, the recent research reported that RFOs could provide good impact to human health especially in the absorption process of isoflavones into the body (Tamura et al., 2003). Soybean sprout contains higher amount of isoflavones compared to soybean seed as raw material. Twelve distinct forms of isoflavone are found in soybean sprout; aglycones (daidzein, genistein and glycitein), -glycosides (daidzin, genistin and glycitin), malonyl glycosides (6 -Omalonyldaidzin, 6 -O-malonylgenistin and 6 -Omalonylglycitin) and acetylglycosides (6 -O-acetyldaidzin, 6 -O-acetylgenistin and 6 -O-acetylglycitin). Among them, malonyl glycosides are considered as main isoflavone form in soybean sprouts, especially 6 -Omalonylgenistin is the major compound (Quinhone Júnior and Ida, 2015). Isoflavones glycosides have a poor absorbance in human body (Izumi et al., 2000; Setchell et al., 2002) and poor bioactivity compared to their aglycones due to the presence of sugar moiety by -glycosidic linkage. In human digestion process, the beneficial isoflavone aglycones can be produced by hydrolysing -glycosidic bond of isoflavone glycosides including malonyl glycosides and acetyl glycosides. Moreover, the production of equol, which has much higher bioactivity than isoflavone glycoside is also related to the hydrolysis of daidzin (Setchell et al., 2002; Zubik and Meydani, 2003). Enteric bacteria in human intestine play main role on the hydrolysing process of -glycosidic bond by producing -glycosidase (Ki Suk et al., 2002). RFOs are the staple food for the growth of human enteric bacteria population (Saito et al., 1992). The abundance of enteric bacteria in human intestine will e","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"38 1","pages":"59-65"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81428291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Differential Anthocyanin Concentrations and Expression of Anthocyanin Biosynthesis Genes in Strawberry ‘Sachinoka’ during Fruit Ripening under High-temperature Stress","authors":"Keisuke Okutsu, K. Matsushita, T. Ikeda","doi":"10.2525/ECB.56.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.56.1","url":null,"abstract":"Fruit color is an important factor in fruit quality. Anthocyanins are common pigments that accumulate in many fruits, including grape, apple, and strawberry. The regulation of their biosynthesis has been studied widely and frequently (review in Jaakola, 2013). In particular, UFGT (UDP-glucose: flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase) plays an important role in anthocyanin biosynthesis in grape (Boss et al., 1996; Kobayashi, 2009), and FaMYB10 regulates the expression of FaUFGT in strawberry (Medina-Puche et al., 2014; Kadomura-Ishikawa et al., 2015a). It is well known that anthocyanin accumulation in fruits is affected by temperature, and is decreased when fruits are grown at high temperature (Saure, 1990; Ikeda et al., 2011). Recently, we demonstrated that the anthocyanin concentration and the expression of genes related to anthocyanin biosynthesis decreased in strawberry ‘Sachinoka’ fruits grown at high temperature (Matsushita et al., 2016). In grape, high temperature inhibits anthocyanin accumulation by reducing the activity of UFGT (Mori et al., 2004). In apple, rapidly reduces the expression of the R2R3MYB transcription factor (TF) gene (MYB10), which regulates the coordination of red skin coloration (Lin-Wang et al., 2011). Although high temperature stress could occur at any time during fruit coloring, published studies of the effect on anthocyanin biosynthesis applied high temperature throughout the coloring period (Mori et al., 2004; Matsushita et al., 2016), but not at different ripening stages. There are two studies examined the effect of temperature on coloring in grapes and rose: Yamane et al. (2006) investigated the temperature-sensitive stages for coloration and the mechanisms that underlie the effect of temperature on anthocyanin accumulation using 2-week treatments at 20 and 30°C. Then, they elucidated that stage3 (from one to three weeks after the onset of coloring) is the most sensitive for anthocyanin accumulation in the berry skins of ‘Aki Queen’. Dela et al. (2003) described the effect of transient high temperature on the concentration and composition of anthocyanins in ‘Jaguar’ rose flowers, and showed that although a 1-d high temperature treatment (39/18°C day/ night) had no effect on pigmentation, a 3-d treatment had a substantial effect on pigmentation due to decreasing anthocyanin accumulation. However, we cannot find any report of the effect of applying high temperature at different coloring stages or of the relationship between anthocyanin concentration and the expression of genes related to anthocyanin biosynthesis in strawberry. Therefore, we designed two experiments to explore this. Experiment 1 investigated the influence of high air temperature (30/15°C) on anthocyanin biosynthesis at different coloring stages. Experiment 2 examined the effect of high air temperature in fruits exposed to the high temperature at different coloring stages and harvested when fully ripe.","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"89 1","pages":"1-6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89058433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Random forests as a tool for analyzing partial drought stress based on CO2 concentrations in the rootzone of longan trees.","authors":"S. Fukuda, W. Spreer, W. Wiriya-Alongkorn, K. Spohrer, E. Yasunaga, C. Tiyayon","doi":"10.2525/ECB.56.25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.56.25","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims at establishing a relationship between water supply and CO 2 concentration in the rootzone, and to identify disturbing factors using data-driven modelling. In our previous study, 10 longan trees were planted in split-root technique and kept under controlled conditions. During six months, 5 trees were partially irrigated on one side of the root system, while the other side was kept non-irrigated. The sides were switched in a two-week interval. Five control trees received full irrigation on both sides. Monitoring results on CO 2 concentration in the rootzone, soil moisture and stomatal con-ductance indicated a weak correlation between the CO 2 concentration in the rootzone and the soil moisture, but without a statistically significant correlation, partially because air temperature was a main disturbing factor. In this study, Random Forests was applied to establish a CO 2 -water stress relationship based on air temperature, relative humidity, vapour pressure deficit and soil moisture. It was shown that the most important factor on CO 2 concentration in the rootzone was soil moisture, followed by air temperature. Together with the information retrieved, the results suggest a potential of CO 2 monitoring in the rootzone for assessing plant water status continuously and with a minimum level of invasion.","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"56 1","pages":"25-31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87471220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Estimation of the Circadian Phase by Oscillatory Analysis of the Transcriptome in Plants","authors":"Mariko Takeoka, Takanobu Higashi, M. Honjo, A. Tezuka, A. Nagano, Yusuke Tanigaki, H. Fukuda","doi":"10.2525/ECB.56.67","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2525/ECB.56.67","url":null,"abstract":"Plants have a circadian clock, a biological oscillator with an approximately 24 h period, which is known to dominate various physiologically active rhythms (Harmer et al., 2000). Photoperiodicity induction of flowering, stomatal opening, and concentration of nutrients (e.g. ascorbic acid) are also regulated by the circadian clock (Kotchoni et al., 2008). Recent research has clarified that the internal body time of the circadian clock (the phase of the circadian clock) is also related to pest resistance and metabolism of reactive oxygen species (Lai et al., 2012; Goodspeed et al., 2013). Therefore, knowledge of the phase of circadian clock is thought to be important in control of growth and crop quality. The circadian clock works via clock genes, whose expression varies periodically. For the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, a set of genes with periodic variation in expression level, called clock genes or clock-related genes, such as LHY (LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL), CCA1 (CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOCIATED 1), and TOC1 (TIMING OF CAB EXPRESSION 1) and PRRs (PSEUDORESPONSE REGULATORs) are known factors related to the central oscillator of the clock (Nakamichi et al., 2012; Nagel et al., 2015; Kamioka et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2016; Ezer et al., 2017). Such genes generate a self-sustained circadian rhythm by negative feedback loops (Nohales and Kay, 2016). On the other hand, based on global gene expression analysis through microarray analysis, about 20% of plant genes are under the control of the circadian clock (Li et al., 2017). Recently, for crop species such as rice, tomato and lettuce, the circadian rhythm of the transcriptome in the field and in the plant factory has been clarified (Nagano et al., 2012; Matsuzaki et al., 2015; Tanigaki et al., 2015; Higashi et al., 2016a; 2016b). It is also possible to estimate the phase of the circadian clock by analyzing the periodicity of the transcriptome (Matsushika et al., 2000; Ueda et al., 2004). A method for estimating the phase of the circadian clock, called the molecular timetable method, has been constructed for mammals (Ueda et al., 2004). It is possible to estimate body time from transcriptome data with high accuracy within about 2 h. In the standard application of this method, the period of the circadian rhythm for each expressed gene is regarded as a constant value, 24 h. In addition, the waveform of the circadian rhythm is assumed to be a simple form, that is, a cosine curve. However, in plants, the period and the waveform of the circadian rhythm varies depending on species, environment of cultivation, and other factors (Ninomiya, 1984; Higashi et al., 2014). In this study, the model plant A. thaliana, and lettuce","PeriodicalId":11762,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Control in Biology","volume":"46 1","pages":"67-72"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86493270","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}