Sigrid Reinsch

Research Spotlight: The future of biofuels: is it in the bag?

How and where it will be possible to produce biofuels at a scale that can compete with fossil fuels, without competing with agriculture for water, fertilizer and land, is a fundamental unanswered question. We propose that the answer could be offshore membrane enclosures for growing algae. Microalgae are the fastest growing biomass and best oil producers known; by cultivating microalgae offshore using wastewater as a source of water and nutrients in floating photobioreactors (PBRs), the system would not compete with agriculture. Furthermore, freshwater microalgae clean the wastewater, capture CO2 and, if they accidentally escape, they cannot become invasive species because they cannot thrive in seawater. The seawater supports the PBRs, controls temperature and can be used for forward osmosis to concentrate nutrients and facilitate harvesting. Algae products, wastewater treatment, carbon sequestration and compatible aquaculture support the economics of the system as a whole. The completion of a 2-year feasibility study on prototype PBRs, control systems, biofouling, wastewater treatment, life cycle analysis and energy return on investment sets the stage for future offshore studies.

Fluorescent tagged analysis of neural gene function using mosaics in zebrafish and Xenopus laevis.

An important question in the neurosciences is the role of specific gene expression in the control of neural morphology and connectivity. To address this question, methods are needed for expression of exogenous genes in a subset of neurons. This limited and mosaic expression allows the assessment of gene expression in a cell autonomous fashion without environmental contributions from neighboring expressing cells. These methods must also label neurons so that detailed morphology and neural connections can be evaluated. The labeling method should label only a subset of neurons so that neuronal morphology can be viewed upon a non-stained background, in a Golgi staining fashion. Here, we report methods using plasmids called pTAGUM (tagged analysis of genes using mosaics) that accomplish these goals. These methods should prove useful for the analysis of neural gene function in two important model organisms, the zebrafish and Xenopus laevis.

Movement of Nuclei

This unit describes the first assay that reconstructs the movement of the female pronucleus in the newly fertilized frog egg. Nuclei are assembled in frog egg extracts and translocated along microtubules using the microtubule motor dynein.