Bluetongue, a devastating disease of ruminants, has historically made only brief, sporadic incursions into the fringes of Europe. However, since 1998, six strains of bluetongue virus have spread across 12 countries and 800 km further north in Europe than has previously been reported. We suggest that this spread has been driven by recent changes in European climate that have allowed increased virus persistence during winter, the northward expansion of Culicoides imicola, the main bluetongue virus vector, and, beyond this vector's range, transmission by indigenous European Culicoides species - thereby expanding the risk of transmission over larger geographical regions. Understanding this sequence of events may help us predict the emergence of other vector-borne pathogens.

Climate change and the recent emergence of bluetongue in Europe.

Water deficit effects on Salvia officinalis fatty acids and essential oils composition

An ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants in Edremit Gulf (Balıkesir-Turkey).

Cephalostatin 1, OSW-1, ritterazine B and schweinfurthin A are natural products that potently, and in some cases selectively, inhibit the growth of cultured human cancer cell lines. The cellular targets of these small molecules have yet to be identified. We have discovered that these molecules target oxysterol binding protein (OSBP) and its closest paralog, OSBP-related protein 4L (ORP4L)--proteins not known to be involved in cancer cell survival. OSBP and the ORPs constitute an evolutionarily conserved protein superfamily, members of which have been implicated in signal transduction, lipid transport and lipid metabolism. The functions of OSBP and the ORPs, however, remain largely enigmatic. Based on our findings, we have named the aforementioned natural products ORPphilins. Here we used ORPphilins to reveal new cellular activities of OSBP. The ORPphilins are powerful probes of OSBP and ORP4L that will be useful in uncovering their cellular functions and their roles in human diseases.

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Natural products reveal cancer cell dependence on oxysterol-binding proteins

The ligandin activity of specific glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) is necessary for the transport of anthocyanins from the cytosol to the plant vacuole. Five GSTs were purified from Vitis vinifera L. cv. Gamay Freaux cell suspension cultures by glutathione affinity chromatography. These proteins underwent Edman sequencing and mass spectrometry fingerprinting, with the resultant fragments aligned with predicted GSTs within public databases. The corresponding coding sequences were cloned, with heterologous expression in Escherichia coli used to confirm GST activity. Transcriptional profiling of these candidate GST genes and key anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway genes (PAL, CHS, DFR, and UFGT) in cell suspensions and grape berries against anthocyanin accumulation demonstrated strong positive correlation with two sequences, VvGST1 and VvGST4, respectively. The ability of VvGST1 and VvGST4 to transport anthocyanins was confirmed in the heterologous maize bronze-2 complementation model, providing further evidence for their function as anthocyanin transport proteins in grape cells. Furthermore, the differential induction of VvGST1 and VvGST4 in suspension cells and grape berries suggests functional differences between these two proteins. Further investigation of these candidate ligandins may identify a mechanism for manipulating anthocyanin accumulation in planta and in vitro suspension cells.

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Purification, molecular cloning, and characterization of glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) from pigmented Vitis vinifera L. cell suspension cultures as putative anthocyanin transport proteins

Medicinal and aromatic plants , Medicinal and aromatic plants , کتابخانه مرکزی دانشگاه علوم پزشکی تهران

Medicinal and aromatic plants

The Challenge of Non-Experimental Validation of Mac Plants.- Medicinal Plants and Tomorrow's Pharmacy.- Cultivation of Medicinal Plants as a Tool for Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Alleviation in the Amatola Region, South Africa.- Conversations with Farmers in Sri Lanka.- Connecting the Disadvantaged to the Uninformed.- A Comparison of Cultivation and Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Under Sustainability Aspects.- Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants.- Revision of the 'Guidelines on the Conservation of Medicinal Plants' By Who, IUCN, WWF and Traffic.- Intellectual Property Protection for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants.- Amidst Peril and Progress.- International Trade in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants.- Designing for Development.- Devil's Claw (Harpagophytum Procumbens) from Southern Africa.- Conservation of Eastern-European Medicinal Plants.- What is Marketing?.- Demand and Availability of Rhodiola Rosea L. Raw Material.- Drying of Medicinal Plants.- Quality Control in the Production Chain of Herbal Products.- Plants as Source of Medicines.- Research to Improve Artemisinin Production for use in the Preparation of Anti-Malarial Drugs.- Functional Genomic Approaches to Study and Engineer Secondary Metabolism in Plant Cell Cultures.- The Schweinfurthins.

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Medicinal and aromatic plants : agricultural, commercial, ecological, legal, pharmacological and social aspects

Preface and acknowledgments Colour pages 1. Introduction Willem Takken and Pim Martens (The Netherlands).- 2. Climate change and malaria risk: complexity and scaling Pim Martens (The Netherlands) and Chris Thomas (UK).- 3. Global environmental change and health: integrating knowledge from natural, socioeconomic and medical sciences Rik Leemans (The Netherlands).- 4. Application of geographic information systems to the study of the ecology of mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases John E. Gimnig, Allen W. Hightower and William A. Hawley (USA).- 5. A model structure for estimating malaria risk M.B. Hoshen and A.P.Morse (UK).- 6. Rapid assessment of malaria risk using entomological techniques: taking an epidemiological snapshot P.F. Billingsley (UK), J.D. Charlwood (Denmark) and B.G.J. Knols (Austria, The Netherlands).- 7. Malaria risk in the highlands of western Kenya: an entomological perspective C.J.M. Koenraadt (The Netherlands) and A.K. Githeko (Kenya).- 8. Malaria risk scenarios for Kisumu, Kenya: blending qualitative and quantitative information Michael van Lieshout (The Netherlands).- 9. INDEPTH Network: a viable platform for the assessment omalaria risk in developing countries Osman Sankoh and Fred Binka (Ghana).- 10. Challenges for dengue control in Brazil: overview of socioeconomic and environmental factors associated with virus circulation Paulo de Tarso R. Vilarinhos (Brazil).- 11. Effects of environmental change on malaria in the Amazon region of Brazil Willem Takken (The Netherlands), Paulo de Tarso R. Vilarinhos (Brazil), Petra Schneider (The Netherlands) and Fatima dos Santos (Brazil).- 12. Bluetongue in the Mediterranean: prediction of risk in space and time B.V. Purse, P.S. Mellor and M. Baylis (UK).- 13. Discussion and epilogue Pim Martens and Willem Takken (The Netherlands).- List of participants

Environmental change and malaria risk : global and local implications

Introduction: Ethical challenges for the life sciences.- Researchers in Organizations.- Moral complexity in organizations.- Comments on Jeurissen: Organization and moral complexity.- The social role of businesses and the role of the professional.- Comments on Wempe: Conditions for ethical business.- Responsible Authorship and Communication.- The responsible conduct of research, including responsible authorship and publication practices.- Comments on Bulger: The responsible conduct of research, including responsible authorship and publication practices.- Professional ethics and scholarly communication.- Comments on Zwart: Professional ethics and scholarly communication.- Some recent challenges to openness and freedom in scientific publication.- Comments on Resnik: Some recent challenges to openness and freedom in scientific publication.- Ethics of Animal Research.- Research ethics for animal biotechnology.- Comments on Thompson: Research ethics for animal biotechnology.- Ethics for Life Scientists as a Challenge for Ethics.- How common morality relates to business and the professions.- Comments on Gert: Gert's common morality: old-fashioned or untimely?.- Research as a challenge for ethical reflection.- Comments on Duwell: Research as a challenge for ethical reflection.- Scientists in Society.- New public responsibilities for life scientists.- Comments on Korthals: New public responsibilities for life scientists.- Science, context and professional ethics.- Bioscientists as ethical decision-makers.- Comments on Hayry: Assessing bioscientific work from a moral point of view.- New Developments.- The human genome: common resource but not common heritage.- Conclusions.- Conclusions: Towards ethically sound life sciences.

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Robert J. Bogers

Papers

Medicinal and aromatic plants

Medicinal and aromatic plants : agricultural, commercial, ecological, legal, pharmacological and social aspects

Environmental change and malaria risk : global and local implications

Ethics for life scientists

Environmental Change and Malaria Risk