We have the address for the funeral home & the family on file If you're not happy with your card we'll send a replacement or refund your money INDIANAPOLIS - David Boyes Biedenkopf, age 77, of Indianapolis, Indiana, passed away Wednesday, February 5, 2025 at his home surrounded by his loved ones. He was born in Evansville, Indiana on December 10, 1947 to Carl C. and Eveline (Boyes)... View Obituary & Service Information The family of David Biedenkopf created this Life Tributes page to make it easy to share your memories A new fire station in Stadtallendorf (Marburg-Biedenkopf) was destroyed by fire Wednesday The fire spread quickly from an apparatus and thick clouds of smoke were visible from afar. The flames blazed more than ten meters high from the roof of the station, according to Fire World at.  There were no fire alarms in the bay,  a decision made by the city as it is a municipal building. There is no legal requirement for a fire alarm system in a fire station, an inspector said. District Fire Inspector Lars Schäfer said the operation was extremely emotionally stressful. "This is every firefighter's nightmare. No one ever wants to have to put out their own fire station." About 170 firefighters were involved in the operation. Although crews tried by all means to limit the damage, the vehicle hall could not be saved and was completely destroyed. However, the adjacent social rooms of the building complex were protected from the flames. The total damage is estimated at 20 to 24 million euros. The modern fire station, which was only officially opened in January 2024, was considered a showcase project in the district. It had the latest technology, a 23-meter-high training tower and energy-efficient facilities.  For Stadtallendorf, the fire not only means a severe financial loss, but also a temporary restriction of fire protection in the city center. An emergency plan must be developed as quickly as possible in order to provide vehicles from surrounding communities.  The cause of the fire is still unclear. No one was injured in the fire. Volume 6 - 2024 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2024.1386061 The systems of policies impacting climate change mitigation are complex we have limited conceptual and empirical knowledge on the dynamics within these We address this gap by employing a systems lens to untangle the interactions between the policies affecting climate change mitigation in the electricity generation space We conceptualise climate policyscapesfor electricity generation as systems populated with policies whose means impact decarbonisation in the electricity generation space The impacts under analysis include both support and obstruction of climate change mitigation We analyse the evolution of the UK climate policyscape from 1956 to 2022 we combine qualitative content analysis and network analysis We populate the policyscapes with pieces of legislation in the electricity generation space and employ qualitative content analysis to identify the policy means affecting climate change mitigation Our network analysis of the 2022 climate policyscape reveals that policies hindering climate mitigation remain largely present which renders the climate policyscape incoherent We show that policies supporting mitigation are more likely to behave as a group than policies hindering climate mitigation Climate policies tend to be adopted as packages whilst fossil policies remain a steady process throughout the history of the UK climate policyscape This can be problematic for the analysis of climate change mitigation Considering solely those climate policies which are explicitly intended as such can lead to the exclusion of relevant instruments with severe positive or negative impacts on the overall mitigation process This paper takes this observation as a starting point by painting the broad picture of policies affecting mitigation both supporting and limiting CO2 emission reduction as well as the extent to which they interact with each other We apply network theory to the study of the electricity generation space in the United Kingdom (UK) from 1956 to 2022 This paper untangles the system of policies affecting climate change mitigation we address the following research question: How has the UK climate policyscape for electricity generation evolved between 1956 and 2022 and how do its individual components interact we employ a combination of qualitative content analysis of legislative texts and network analysis we trace the history of climate policyscapes in the electricity generation space from 1956 to 2022 and explore the interactions within them by analysing the content of 231 legislative documents The results of the content analysis offer the basis to determine nodes and links for the network analysis which unveils the extent to which legislation (mis)aligns within the 2022 climate policyscape We identify bilateral overlap-interactions based on the degree of alignment between policy means such as designations of actors receiving subsidies to deploy solar PVs or paying a carbon price This allows us to categorise the overlap-interactions as climate-symbiotic and fossil-symbiotic according to how the overlap-interaction addresses decarbonisation The findings of this study show an important level of incoherence in the climate policyscape climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions tend to be more clustered with than fossil-symbiotic ones It suggests that climate policies are designed to operate together This finding is echoed by the fact that climate policies tend to be adopted collectively at once whilst fossil policies are steadily adopted over time We consider the overlap-interactions between policies and conceptualise the policy landscape as a heterogeneous space with a diverse policy population the UK presents a constellation of policies underpinning the progress toward halting CO2 emissions yet little is known about how these competing policies interact with each other Drawing on the literature on policy mixes and policyscapes institutional interaction and policy coherence for Earth system governance we propose a framework to study the system of policies affecting climate change mitigation (Section 2) We then summarise how network theory contributes to and enriches the study of interactions within climate policyscapes (Section 3) Section 4 also outlines how we operationalised overlap-interactions in climate policyscapes to conduct a network analysis We then report central results (Section 5) and discuss these findings in the context of Earth system governance for climate change mitigation (Section 6) climate policyscapes are greater than the sum of their parts the simultaneous adoption of two climate policies can produce non-linear effects beneficial to climate change mitigation whilst the co-presence of a policy in support of fossil fuel extraction and a policy to deploy renewable energy technologies can have undermining effects to decarbonisation there is limited knowledge on the link between the components within the climate space we build a conceptual framework using various bodies of literature we focus on the concepts of policy mixes and policyscape for climate change mitigation we discuss overlap-interactions between policies zooming in on coherence as link between policies by touching upon the concept of policy coherence The results from these studies illustrate how jurisdictions have been layering climate policies over time especially by adopting multiple policies at once This suggests that climate policies are adopted in groups and simultaneously it does not delve into the dynamics within such systems of policies it is crucial to untangle the population of policies affecting the climate mitigation process and the modes of interaction between policies This has created a gap both in the conceptual and empirical literature To understand how multiple policies co-exist and operate together in the process of climate change mitigation it is crucial to investigate interplays between the policies as well Overlooking this aspect poses the risk of assuming that a system of policies is equivalent to the sum of various policies Untangling various links between policies allows us to paint a macro-picture of the institutional dynamics affecting the mitigation of the climate crisis By employing a historical overview of policyscapes it is possible to capture an evolutionary macro-picture of the climate policyscape remains understudied in the Earth system governance literature it is important to explore the history of climate policyscapes including how these policies interact with each other These studies highlight how the presence of a mode of interaction between two institutions does not mean that the same two institutions interact also via other channels two institutions can politically interact because they address the same goal in their official documents but do not functionally interact at the impact level – or vice versa it is important to unveil multiple ways through which institutions interact with each other also when they are not part of a top-down assembled arrangement This argument applies also to the study of policy interactions as policies can connect with each other in different ways Their analysis focuses on the intent of policymakers in the interactions between policies Whilst these studies enrich the policy interaction literature they attend the interactions within top-down defined systems This poses the risk of overlooking interactions between policies that affect climate change mitigation but are not part of an explicitly intended climate plan by policymakers it is important to understand if and how policies interact with each other also in cases they are not intendedly designed to interact interactions which Young calls overlaps (1996) tend to focus solely on interactions between two policies it is relevant to expand this knowledge to explore the multiple interactions across a climate policyscape A practical example would be the case of a policy aiming to place a carbon price on gas-fuelled electricity that co-exists with a policy providing financial subsidies to the gas industry this paper conceptualises an overlap-interaction as two policies addressing the same energy source for electricity generation (either fossil fuel or renewable energy source) in their “policy mean,” in line with the policy design literature the two policies either support or hinder the uptake of the source Alignment and misalignment between policies This makes it possible to create a complete picture of the institutional structure affecting climate change mitigation to untangle the climate policyscape it is important to analyse the degree of policy coherence both advancing and hindering climate change mitigation coherence between policies supporting mitigation is not equivalent to mitigation itself we do not evaluate the effects of coherence we explore how coherent climate policyscapes are with reference to uptake of renewables this study identifies the overlap-interactions between policies by employing a network lens Policies are elements part of broader systems Adopting a system perspective allows us to understand the relationships between policies and explore their interactions Systems are composed of elements that interact with each other which network theory conceptualises as nodes being connected with each other through links framing this research with network theory allows us to untangle the complexity of climate policyscapes as systems composed of policies in interaction with each other (the nodes) via overlap-interactions (the links) an increasing and substantial number of scholars of environmental policy and law apply network theory to the study of the Earth system governance This helps understand the socio-institutional dynamics otherwise overlooked when systems are delineated in a top-down or hybrid manner The application of network theory significantly furthers the understanding of Earth system governance including policies and planning for climate change mitigation “[a] system has properties that differ from those of its constitutive part.” Network theory and its methods offer a critical lens by fleshing out the relationships between policies to unveil the weight of the various elements in a climate policyscape this research employs network theory by analysing climate policyscapes as systems composed of policies that interact with each other via overlap-interactions this methodological choice helps meet the objective of this paper It does so by employing content analysis to populate climate policyscapes with legislative policies and identify overlap-interactions between these policies whilst applying network analysis to unveil the pattern in how policies overlap-interact with each other To populate climate policyscapes, we consulted the National Achieves of the UK and applied a search string designed to capture relevant legislation (The National Archives, 2024) We searched in the National Archives for legislative documents mentioning any of the following terms: “climate OR energ* OR electr* OR oil OR petroleum OR gas OR coal OR solar OR wind.” The National Archives has the most extensive collection of UK legislation which allows us to browse relevant legislation for this study The results were filtered to include results from 1956 to 2022 This choice was motivated by the aim of capturing broad climate policyscapes Using a climate policy database for our data collection would have posed the risk of us overlooking legislation relevant to the mitigation process such as the one in support of expanding the fossil fuel industry as well as other supporting mitigation but not explicitly assembled in top-down climate policy mixes we screened for any legislation mentioning “climate,” but also “energ*” and “electr*” to collect sectoral data relevant for this study Adding fuels (“oil,” “petroleum,” “gas,” “coal”) and ready-to-deploy renewable energy technologies (“solar,” “wind”) allowed us to include key elements to halt CO2 emissions in the electricity generation space in the dataset Some legislation regulates these elements affecting climate change mitigation without being a explicitly intended for mitigation this search string allows us to include legislation that hinders mitigation by maintaining or advancing the use of fossil fuels for electricity generation this methodology allows to align with the bottom-up approach of defining a policy mix to consequently populate a climate policyscape for electricity generation The result of this search string included 9,108 legislative documents which were screened to evaluate whether they had potential impact in the mitigation process This research was applied to the two main forms of legislation in the UK: primary legislation (UK Public Acts), and secondary legislation (UK Statutory Instruments) (The National Archives, 2023) The specifications restricted our data to the national governance level (the UK) rather than sub-national (devolved parliaments and local governments) The search string applied to the primary legislation gave 819 results and the one to the secondary legislation gave 8,288 results we included the legislation when it met one of the following criteria: - Additional specification: the secondary legislation provides practical measures to the primary legislation that are not specific in the primary legislation in terms of fossil fuels and ready-to-deploy renewable energy technologies An example is secondary legislation that updates the terms on CO2 savings for energy companies in electricity generation - Novel measures: the secondary legislation proposes novel legislation in terms of fossil fuels and ready-to-deploy renewable energy technologies it is secondary legislation that grants consent for building an offshore wind farm The screening process undertook different considerations We screened the results of our search to evaluate whether a piece of legislation belonged to the conceptualisation of climate policyscape developed for this study we came across legislation that addressed the administration of oil spills in high sea waters Whilst they were relevant acts for environmental protection they fell beyond the scope of the climate policyscape we built for this study legislation to limit the right to protest is relevant in the study of climate change mitigation excluded it as the scope of our study was to unfold legislation that directly speaks to fuels and technologies affecting climate change mitigation in the electricity space For legislation that has been amended over the years we assessed whether the amendment was significant enough to create a new data-entry in the dataset Our assessment of the significance of the amendment was based on to whether an amendment changed the rationale or objective or the involvement of fossil fuels and/or ready-to-deploy renewables in the legislation Such amendments were also flagged in the legislative texts the data-entry of a legislation remained one only if the amendment was flagged as significant Following these steps, the result included 231 pieces of legislation, which were organised into a novel dataset (Supplementary Appendix S1) These legislative documents were used as to the nodes within the networks of climate policyscapes We analysed the legislative documents with qualitative content analysis. The data was systematically unpacked by screening the content of the legislative pieces with the software NVivo. We coded legislative text referring to fuels or technologies that affect the process of climate change mitigation. The analysis followed a codebook developed to identify each act’s characteristics based on overlap-interactions (Supplementary Appendix S2) - Type of fossil fuel addressed by the legislation (general/unspecified fossil fuels - How the fuel is addressed (halt the use of the fuel - Type of ready-to-deploy renewable energy technology addressed by the legislation (general/unspecified renewable energy technologies, solar PV, wind).4 An example of this coding practice can be found in the Supplementary Appendix S3 Spectrum of policies affecting climate change mitigation in the electricity generation space Having classified the policy population by type (climate we then categorised the policies according to the fossil fuel and/or renewable energy technology they address This fuel/technology categorisation covers: (1) general fossil fuels In case a policy addresses more than one fuel and/or renewable we classify the policy with multiple fuel/technology categories This step allows us to unveil more granular aspect of the climate policyscape evolution between 1956 and 2022 We then ran descriptive statistics to present historical data and identify patterns in the temporal evolution of climate policyscapes Qualitative content analysis is an interpretative methodology, meaning it is susceptible to positionality bias (Lincoln and Guba, 1985) one author screened the legislative texts in two different rounds they gained information on the climate policyscape that led to a more comprehensive picture of the policyscape itself by the end of the first coding round Adding a second round of coding validated the initial understanding of climate policyscapes In case of inconsistencies between the first and the second round one author consulted secondary sources to increase their understanding of the policy The few instances where this occurred related to fossil fuel taxation policies whose language in the legislative text was ambivalent Undertaking two rounds of qualitative content analysis significantly increased reliability of the coding the data was coded and organised in a dataset serving as basis to identify overlap-interactions (links in the network) and to run a network analysis Overlap-interactions occur when two legislative documents address the same fuel or technology in their policy-means This methodology allowed us to include overlap-interactions between policies that would not be identified otherwise Some texts – especially energy acts and financial acts – did not mention fuels and technologies in their aims whilst they were regularly mentioned throughout other sections of their text By screening whole legislative texts rather than focusing on the aims identified by the government who created the item we gained a comprehensive picture of policies populating climate policyscapes and of their overlap-interactions that would otherwise have been overlooked we employed an interpretative research approach in populating climate policyscapes and in identifying overlap-interactions We also surveyed which policies were adopted each year, which were their fuel and/or technology addressed in their “policy means,” and how these were targeted (i.e., supporting or limiting the uptake of that fuel and/or technology for electricity generation). When two pieces of legislation in the same year addressed the same mean(s),6 there was the empirical basis for an overlap-interaction The type of overlap-interaction depended on whether two legislative pieces addressed the same mean(s) (see text footnote 7) in the same manner towards CO2emission reduction or towards fossil fuels expansion When the overlap-interaction is based upon addressing the same fuel or technology in support of mitigation the overlap-interaction was coded as climate-symbiotic When an overlap-interaction was based on addressing the same fuel or technology hindering mitigation the overlap-interaction was coded as fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions were un-directed links between legislative documents based on the co-occurrence of the same fuel and/or technology mean in two legislative texts We adopted a critical realist approach in our study of overlap-interactions by going beyond the scope of this binary coding to evaluate whether an overlap-interaction was beneficial or harmful to climate change mitigation (Geels, 2022) By identifying overlap-interactions we were able to discern the legislative structures of climate policyscapes rather than evaluate its effects on the ground The temporal lens of this study allowed us to identify overlap-interactions between policies that were co-existing in the same climate policyscape Our objective was to assess the population of climate policyscapes and its temporal evolution from 1956 to 2022 we did not research the politics of the overlap-interactions explaining if an overlap-interaction is intended as policy feedback Overlap-interactions correspond to the links in the network analysis. Kim (2013 980) explains that network analysis “uncovers the underlying system architecture by reducing the system to an abstract structure capturing only the basics of connection patterns between its components” Our study employs overlap-interactions as proxy for relationships between legislative documents Identifying these overlap-interactions allowed us to untangle the complexity of climate policyscapes by abstracting a channel through which the different elements of policyscape-system interplay with each other identifying overlap-interactions was a fundamental methodological step to analyse the network structure of climate policyscapes Running a network analysis requires populating a system with nodes and identifying links between them We used climate and fossil policies as nodes and we did so by employing the respective legislative texts as population of climate policyscapes Each year under analysis corresponded to one climate policyscape which we populated with legislation in place that year The links between the nodes corresponded to the overlap-interactions mentioned in the previous section (either climate-symbiotic or fossil-symbiotic) Having populated networks with nodes and identified the links between them we analysed climate policyscapes as networks As an initial step towards a network analysis we ran descriptive statistics to identify the historical evolution of climate policyscapes we visualised how many policies were adopted and populated climate policyscapes from 1956 to 2022 We paid particular attention to the type of policies (climate and ambiguous policies) and the means of these (different fuels and technologies addressed in the policy document) we identified the years when the policy adoption peaked and delved into the policyscape details of these years we explored the presence of possible patterns in how policies interact with each other We did so by studying frequency of overlap-interactions between climate These two steps allowed us to gain a macro-picture of the population of climate policyscapes and its dynamics Our network analysis considered the three types of nodes outlined in section 4.2: climate These were linked with each other through the overlap-interactions identified in the qualitative content analysis The links were either climate-symbiotic or fossil-symbiotic overlap-interaction To gain a deeper understanding of the diversity populating climate policyscapes we compared different reconfigurations of the same climate policyscape we considered only climate-symbiotic overlap-interaction in the 2022 climate policyscape we ran a network analysis that fleshed out only fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions in the same climate policyscape we analysed the climate policyscape of 2022 with both climate-and fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions we gained further insights into the plethora of dynamics within a climate policyscape We constructed and visualised the networks with the software R and Gephi which provided visual and statistical insights and modularity allowed us to untangle how the nodes behave within the network We ran these in order to compare how climate and fossil policies behaved within the 2022 climate policyscape Our qualitative content analysis did not apply metrics to the legislative texts As that analysis provided the nodes to the network analysis our network was undirected as the links under analysis stemmed from the co-occurrence of the same means rather than from a cause-effect relationship we now offer insights into the findings from the various analyses we ran we show the results from descriptive statistics of the population of the climate policyscapes from 1956 to 2022 we detail patterns of overlap-interactions between legislative documents over time we illustrate the results from the network analysis of the 2022 climate policyscape The first results we present regard the composition of climate policyscapes and their evolution over the years. We find that the population of climate policyscapes has diversified over the years. In terms of fossil policies (Figure 3) policies in support of the oil industry have dominated the policyscape Policies supporting the use of coal for electricity generation expanded in the 1970s and 1980s whilst those favouring gas-generated electricity grew rapidly in the 1990s the adoption of policies hindering the deployment of ready-to-deploy renewables have started to populate climate policyscapes Evolution of fossil policies in the UK climate policyscape the policy landscape has been increasingly populated with policies aiming to uptake ready-to-deploy renewables Wind energy technologies have been the most targeted form of renewable energy in the climate policyscapes since the mid-2010s Evolution of climate policies in the UK climate policyscape Comparing the historical population of climate policyscapes shows that policies supporting mitigation and policies hindering mitigation now equally compose the policyscape (Figure 5) fossil policies have been steadily adopted up to 2022 climate policies have had an exponential growth that allowed them to equally compose the climate policyscape in 2010 the number of climate policies in the policyscape was higher than the one of fossil policies This proportion has been maintained since then the number of policies carrying mixed messages about mitigation The qualitative content analysis highlights that such legislation tends to be Financial Acts or Energy Acts which foster the fossil fuel industries whilst providing support to deploy renewables for electricity generation Historical evolution of climate policyscape comparing the cumulative number of climate Comparing the adoption of new fossil policies with the adoption of new climate policies highlights two points. On the one hand, fossil policies have had more steady numbers in terms of policy adoption (Figure 6). On the other hand, climate policies tend to be adopted in specific moments (Figure 7) there was a growth of adopted legislative documents supporting climate change mitigation in 2013 the climate policy population was 70 These are significant increases in the population of a climate policyscape and we can observe that the population of climate policies steeply increases in 2004 This suggests that a policy plan or package addressing mitigation was adopted in that year which is reflected in the adoption of multiple legislation Fossil policies: newly adopted and cumulative population in the climate policyscapes 1956–2022 Climate policies: newly adopted and cumulative population in the climate policyscapes 1956–2022 The data results presented in this section serve as basis to identify the nodes of the 2022 climate policyscape (5.3) Having presented our findings in terms of climate policyscapes population we now describe the trends concerning overlap-interactions between policies We observe the policyscape dynamics in the years with highest climate policy adoption as these years altered the equilibrium of the climate policyscapes which drove the adoption of climate policy in the following years It is noticeable that 2004 was the first year when the policyscape was composed by more than one third by climate policies We note that in 2008 and 2014 the rate of adoption of fossil policies relatively reduced whilst the rate of climate policy adoption steeply increased It is striking that the highest number of fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions falls in the scope of the oil industry It is worth noting that gas-fuelled electricity also gained a considerable number of fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions over the years while fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions for coal remain steady Climate-symbiotic interactions are more diversified in their patterns Climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions hindering the adoption of oil-fuelled electricity and targeting the emission reduction for electricity generation are widely present It is also notable that the number of climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions for offshore wind uptake rose steeply over the years Having painted a general descriptive macro-picture of climate policyscapes from 1956 to 2022 we turned our attention to the dynamics within the current climate policyscape Legislative documents and overlap-interactions serve as nodes and links in the subsequent network analysis we undertook three network analyses of the 2022 climate policyscape Initially we analyse the network of climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions and fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions in the climate policyscape This allowed us to compare how diverse types of interlinkages behave within a network populated by the same nodes We then ran a network analysis of the whole climate policyscape to untangle the dynamics of every overlap-interaction The climate policyscape of 2022 is populated with 213 legislative documents (the nodes) They are connected by 1933 links in case of climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions and 1,350 in case of fossil-symbiotic ones We ran network analysis for two networks: (1) the network of climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions and fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions. We conducted descriptive statistics of the two networks (Table 2) Our first finding of note is that the average degree of overlap-interactions in a climate-symbiotic network is higher than in the fossil-symbiotic network This metric means that each node in the climate-symbiotic network has more links than in the fossil-symbiotic one This finding can be explained by the content analysis of the legislative documents which shows that legislation supporting mitigation tends to have a broader range of means either addresses a group of fossil fuels or prevents the uptake of wind energy technologies Our second key finding was that climate-symbiotic overlap interactions have higher degrees of density than fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions the number of links that exist in comparison to how many links are possible) of the climate-symbiotic network was 0.086 as compared to the 0.06 for the fossil-symbiotic network This shows that the nodes part of climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions interact more with each other than the nodes part of fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions is high for both types of overlap-interactions We expected this result because the nodes are cohesive by design The climate policyscape is populated with legislative documents mentioning technologies or fuels relevant to climate change mitigation The overlap-interactions are between nodes addressing such technologies and fuels we detect links stemming from overlap-interactions between legislation that address the same technologies or fuels the high degree of density is justifiable by how the network was built climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions present higher rates of modularity compared to fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions This suggests that the former have denser connections between the nodes within their cluster in comparison to the ones in the fossil-symbiotic space have a positive value in their modularity score meaning that the nodes in these interlinkages also behave in groups within the climate policyscape yet not at the same extent amongst climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions We then conduct network analysis of the complete climate policyscape of 2022 and conduct descriptive statistics of this network (Table 3) We observe a significant increase in modularity This points towards a significant rate of overlap-interactions between clustered policies Nodes part of climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions tend to behave in a group similarly fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions This finding indicates that nodes connected via climate-symbiotic and fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions operate in groups by forming clusters Our study highlights the incoherence of UK climate policyscapes We show that policies hindering mitigation are highly represented in climate policyscape yet their dynamics differ from policies supporting mitigation expanding the conceptual understanding of climate policyscapes is a promising avenue to explore the complex policy system affecting climate change mitigation Including fossil policies in climate policyscapes offers a novel perspective on the governance of climate change mitigation It expands the macro-picture of the policy population affecting mitigation Studies on policy mixes have so far taken a top-down or hybrid approach to the assessment of policy plans for renewables uptake When fossil policies are included in the picture we can see that they occupy a large space in the climate policyscape the level of incoherence within the policyscape increases significantly This poses questions on how to assess the characteristics of large-N studies of policy mixes that have been proposed in the literature The outcomes of this type of analysis are largely dependent on the way that the researcher assembles the policy system and the delineation they place on an issue climate policyscapes are not simply a collection of climate They are also reflective of the ambiguous means present in individual policies Individual policies often convey a multitude of messages at once Energy Acts and Financial Acts are clear examples of ambiguous policies that pursue incoherent mitigation messages They simultaneously create tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry whilst adopting a carbon price to limit the use of fossil fuels Incoherence is embedded within such policies The policy means of Energy Acts and Financial Acts carry messages to a diverse range of actors with various interests This is also true of other overarching policies such as industrial and trade policies In order to capture and dissect the policy messages hindering mitigation it is critical that researchers expand the pool of policies under analysis there is a risk of excluding policies affecting mitigation and considering ambiguous policies “climate” ones whilst they foster the fossil fuel industry although climate policies are highly interactive and operate as a cluster the climate policyscape is similarly populated with interacting fossil policies We contend that researching antithetical messages in individual overarching policies demonstrates further layers of mitigation incoherence We encourage further studies in policy areas not explicitly labelled as “climate policies” by policymakers This helps evaluate the (in)coherence of climate policyscapes in high emitting jurisdictions Engaging with climate policyscapes highlights that policies for climate change mitigation exceed the first climate laws of the early 2000s we expected to observe higher rates of fossil policy adoption from the 1950s to the 1980s in comparison with the adoption of climate policies This is reflected in how the climate policyscapes populated in these timeframes as these were the decades when the fossil fuel industry further established itself in the UK and worldwide the fossil fuel industry gained status and the scientific community provided considerable evidence of the socio-ecological harm caused by burning fossil fuels the adoption of the Clean Air Act in 1956 shows that there were environmental concerns in the UK policy space as the Act aimed to reduce air pollution caused by burning fuels By comparing how a fossil timeline runs next to a climate one we are able to see that the climate and fossil policies evolved at different rates A pivotal moment for climate action was in the year 2000, when the Climate Change Program was adopted (Bulkeley, 2015). Since then, we observed a rapid escalation in climate policy adoption driven by knowledge advances and the increased attention to the climate crisis globally. We also noticed that climate policies tend to be adopted in “chunks,” i.e., several climate policies adopted at once (Rai, 2020) Climate mitigation is a multifaceted process which requires encompassing societal transformations Institutions intend to translate these into different legislative measures also in light of the increasing degree of bureaucratisation of climate action Policymakers tend to plan climate policy packages rather than constantly adopting climate policies This tendency shows a less consistent policy adoption pattern There has also been a steady adoption of fossil policies, even when concerns on climate change mitigation entered the UK policy space. Currently, there is a dominant presence of fossil policies supporting oil and gas. The coal industry phased out in the UK in the 1990s, in parallel to when the supply of gas for electricity generation was privatised, i.e., the dash for gas (Winskel, 2002; Carter, 2014; Somerville, 2021) The evolution of climate policyscapes sees how fossil policies for gas overcame fossil policies for coal the required policy action to mitigate the climate crisis is substantially different from the one to maintain the fossil fuel industry Delving into such details is a key part of the exploration of how policyscapes are populated via institutional inertia (i.e. policies are adopted but are not of reference anymore) or if there are legacy policies that add further layers of policies to the climate policyscape Our network analysis suggests that the climate and fossil policies operate in clusters within the current policyscape Moving beyond policies explicitly intended by policymakers as climate policies leads to questions about how parallel histories of climate change mitigation are presented Our study highlights that there are contradictory messages across different policy spaces that have persisted over time These insights would be overlooked by focusing only on top-down policy mixes rather than taking a bottom-up approach using climate policyscapes Not acknowledging the different policy rhythms in a policyscape risks creating a homogenous understanding of how climate policyscapes evolve and of insufficiently addressing the fossil policy space which builds upon a steady policy adoption process Employing network analysis allows us to untangle climate policyscape dynamics that otherwise would remain overlooked We see promising avenues in applying this method to the study of climate laws and policies The number of links between fossil policies in the climate policyscape is slightly less than between climate policies To enrich our understanding of dynamics within the climate policyscape beyond descriptive statistics we need to measure how clustered overlap-interactions are Policies supporting mitigation are more interconnected with each other within their cluster in comparison to policies hindering mitigation This indicates that policies for climate change mitigation tend to behave as a group A higher degree of modularity suggests that the repeal of one climate policy has a stronger impact to the dynamics across the cluster of climate policies in comparison to repealing one fossil policies As climate policies are generally planned and adopted in clusters repealing one policy has a heavy weight on the group dynamics Climate change mitigation requires societal transformations that are not achievable with a silver bullet policy multiple policies need to be adopted and operate together to decarbonise societies What could appear as a fragmented policy picture tends to be a planned policy portfolio designed by policymakers This is exemplified in the means mentioned in legislative texts which are designed to interplay with each other fossil policies are adopted to maintain a socio-institutional structure that has been in place for a longer period the policy adoption process intends to layer fossil policies rather than stirring policy change This means that the behaviour of fossil policies differs from the one of climate policies whose role in the climate policyscape is to transform a system our findings show that limiting the analysis of policyscapes or mixes to their policy density leads to an analytical omission Climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions and fossil-symbiotic overlap-interactions differ in their dynamics as demonstrated by the modularity in the networks Our study suggests that climate policyscapes are populated with several modes of overlap-interactions Our analysis builds on content analysis of legislative texts assuming overlap-interactions are homogenous we did not delve into the details of each node (i.e. we did not evaluate the level of stringency of each policy nor if overlap-interactions lead to policy change or maintain policy stagnation Our analysis did not explore the differences between each node and each link beyond the classification employed for the network analysis We recommend further work exploring metrics to fully evaluate legislative documents and overlap-interactions populating climate policyscapes further research should distinguish between intentional and unintentional overlap-interactions to discern the extent to which they result from planned overlap-interactions This would allow us to gain comprehensive pictures of the diverse dynamics between policies affecting climate change mitigation Third, our analysis was based on an unweighted and undirected network analysis. Therefore, we did not discern which policies are the source of the overlap-interaction and which ones are the targets. Directionality can stem from a range of factors (Kim, 2013) Building weighted and directed networks would enrich the analysis by further unpacking how overlap-interactions are orchestrated we did not evaluate the effects of the overlap-interactions on mitigation we did not assume that a climate-symbiotic certainly results in mitigation Further studies should explore the effects of overlap-interactions on a range of effects change in the energy matrix for electricity generation and fairness in the costs of decarbonised electricity This would allow us to understand how diverse overlap-interactions impact the process of mitigation via sustainable transformations This requires policy dismantling to disrupt older and more robust policy portfolios that allow for the expansion of fossil fuels future research should consider the analysis of modes of overlap-interactions not based on policy coherence Our study shows that the policy system affecting climate change mitigation in the electricity generation space is heavily populated with policies hindering mitigation These policies have been steadily adopted since the 1950s whereas policies to mitigate the climate crisis have been adopted more irregularly and in clusters This highlights systemic issues in the UK climate policycape Policies in support of fossil fuels are deeply embedded in the policy landscape as they have been layering and sequencing each other for a longer time than policies for climate change mitigation This means that the governance of climate change mitigation requires disrupting policy foundations that are supporting fossil fuel production and consumption as well as the adoption of policies to strengthen policies supporting decarbonisation This would help move beyond the explicit intent of policymakers in defining “climate policies” and place the climate crisis at the centre of such studies Employing network analysis allowed us to identify overlaps-interactions between policies in the 2022 climate policyscape We observed that the climate-symbiotic overlap-interactions differ from fossil-symbiotic ones They do so by behaving as a group within their cluster This echoes our concern that policy mixes studies require further attention to the interactions between policies rather than assessing a mix as the sum of different policies This tendency runs to the contrary objective of studying mixes which is to appreciate the dynamics between different components Network theory and adjacent methods help reveal the multiple levels of interactions between policies and appreciate the population heterogeneity in systems of policies we observe an incoherent picture of climate policyscapes To advance climate action institutional inertia must be overcome by dismantling policy structures in support of the fossil fuel industry whilst halting further adoption of such policies Further research is crucial to capture the broad picture of climate policyscapes and demonstrate the degrees of incoherence present outside of top-down assembled policy plans The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary material further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement 853168) The authors are extremely grateful to James Patterson for his invaluable comments They thank Brian Dermody and Ashok Vardhan Adipudi for kindly answering our questions about network analysis The authors gratefully acknowledge the participants of the 2023 Earth System Governance Conference for their feedback and Denitsa Marchevska for their constructive comments on previous drafts of this manuscript The authors would like to thank two reviewers for their relevant and helpful comments that helped improve the quality of the manuscript The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher The Supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fclim.2024.1386061/full#supplementary-material 2. ^Rather than employing the term “environmental governance,” this study follows Biermann’s argument that “Earth system governance” allows us to overcome the dichotomy of humans vs. nature, to instead focus on socio-ecological dynamics (Biermann, 2021) 3. ^In the UK electricity generation has historically been highly centralised because of the high bureaucratisation of the sector (Valenzuela and Rhys, 2022; Pearson and Watson, 2023) The behaviour of these actors is affected by the adopted legislation which intend to place regulatory pressure and affect how electricity is generated – including in terms of which fuel is used consequently impacting the emission of CO2 the electricity space is populated with a wide array of dispersed studying such cases bridges the above-mentioned theoretical and methodological relevance with empirical significance necessary to advance climate change mitigation 4. ^As mentioned at footnote 1 this study builds upon the epistemology that mitigating the climate crisis is possible with technologies already present this study focuses on the electricity generation space we consider only technologies pertinent to the generation and supply of electricity (i.e. we acknowledge that societal transformations for climate change mitigation require a set of policies beyond the scope of fuels and technologies for electricity generation 6. ^In case a 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Valeria Zambianchi, dmFsZXJpYS56YW1iaWFuY2hpQGt1bGV1dmVuLmJl Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Katja is Senior Associate Research Fellow at the Institute for European Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussels She is also Assistant Professor at the University of Leuven where she teaches courses on EU policy-making global environmental politics and research methods The focus of Katja's academic research is on global governance and the external effects of EU environmental policy Stay at the forefront of the industrial gas industry with a gasworld subscription and get access to: Peter Biedenkopf, General Manager at INMATEC as he discusses his new role at the company and its response to the Covid-19 pandemic over the last 18 months Dr. Biedenkopf also talks about change in the medical gases business and the destination in focus for travel to continue reading you must be subscribed At a time when the world is forced to go digital more than ever before just to stay connected discover the in-depth content our subscribers receive every month by subscribing to gasworld According to the Hessian Ministry of the Interior the fire on Wednesday morning caused around 20 million euros in damage A witness reported a burning fire engine inside the station to the emergency control centre early in the morning The fire quickly spread to the entire vehicle hall Initial findings suggest that all the vehicles except one were destroyed Around 170 firefighters from across the Marburg-Biedenkopf district were deployed to prevent the fire from spreading to the main building local residents were advised to keep windows and doors closed The Weserbahn railway line was temporarily closed According to the Central Hesse Police Headquarters in Gießen and state-of-the-art," was not equipped with a fire alarm German media report that this has caused widespread confusion and outrage especially since legal requirements did not mandate a fire alarm for a building of this type chairman of the Hesse State Fire Brigade Association has called for a review of these regulations Im mittelhessischen Stadtallendorf ist das Gerätehaus der Feuerwehr in Flammen aufgegangen. Das Gebäude wurde erst im vergangenen Jahr fertiggestellt - der Schaden liegt in immenser Millionenhöhe.https://t.co/nzF5o68uO6 Looking to access paid articles across multiple policy topics Interested in policy insights for EU professional organisations The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell’s recent speech could lead to a sea change in the functioning of the EU’s diplomatic service and Kolja Raube explain how this can be done… EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell in Brussels Stephan Keukeleire is a Jean Monnet professor in European foreign policy (LINES Kolja Raube is an associate professor for European governance and EU external action (LINES KU Leuven) and Franziska Petri is a doctoral researcher (LINES Katja Biedenkopf is an associate professor of sustainability politics (LINES Burk, a junior from Lahntalschule Biedenkopf high school in the Marburg region of Germany, and several other juniors from the school are here in Topeka as part of a decades-long exchange program with Seaman High School’s German program it was really hot — hotter in the fall than it is in Germany SeaMapp as the Seaman Marburg Partnership Program between the schools is called when Seaman High’s first German teacher reached out to a former colleague in Marburg to see about having students from their schools visit each other The schools have continued that tradition every other year since A delegation of German students visits the U.S and a contingent of Seaman students travels to Germany the summer after who was a student when he first came to visit Kansas in 1994 is now an assistant principal at Lahntalschule Lahnau in charge of the school’s exchange program and some language classes he and Calhoun have developed a close friendship “It’s just so nice to meet the people here,” he said since there’s ‘nothing in Kansas,’ I tell them It's the little things that make Seaman student exchange visit memorableSince they arrived a week and a half ago the German students have stayed at the homes of host families from Seaman’s German language program But they’ve also gotten to visit various landmarks and attractions around the area such as the Eisenhower Museum and the Statehouse which included a brief conversation with Gov they participated in some of the most quintessential American traditions of high school football “The point is to show the similarities between our cultures learn the language and just raise awareness of the good things in both places,” Calhoun said the exposure to nonstop English is invaluable especially since English is a required class at their school It’s also typically the first time they’ve made this significant of a trip away from their homes More: These 10 Topeka teens are some of the top scholars in the country “They also learn a lot of the cultural differences, and they really learn that the U.S. is not at all like what it seems to be on German TV,” the assistant principal said. “High schoolers are very different from what they’re like on TV. For example, they learn that that notion of American kids not having any freedom — that’s not true either. Yes, it’s different, but they have a lot of possibilities here.” Even Seaman High students who don’t take German get to interact with and learn from the foreign students, since they go to various classes and give presentations about their lives in Germany. It’s the little things that stick out most as cultural differences, said Burk the junior student. Door handles aren’t as sensitive in the U.S. Refrigerators are way bigger. “I’ll definitely remember the people,” Burk said. “I’ve not met a single rude person so far. Maybe that’s just luck, but I’ll definitely remember this trip and the school.” Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com or by phone at ‪785-289-5325. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Familienmensch und Landesvater für 14 Jahre: das politische Leben des ehemaligen niedersächsischen Ministerpräsidenten Ernst Albrecht in Bildern. 1 | 11 1976 beginnt die 14-jährige Amtszeit von Ernst Albrecht als Ministerpräsident von Niedersachsen. Parteigenossen gratulieren ihm am 5. Januar überschwänglich zu seiner Wahl. 2 | 11 Hier berät sich der Ministerpräsident mit seinen CDU-Parteifreunden, dem damaligen Generalsekretär Kurt Biedenkopf und dem späteren Bundeskanzler Helmut Kohl (vorne rechts), damals noch rheinland-pfälzischer Ministerpräsident. 3 | 11 Privat gilt Ernst Albrecht als Familienmensch. Im Januar 1976 lässt er sich beim Musizieren in seinem Haus bei Hannover mit seinen Kindern Lorenz, Barthold, Hans-Holger und Ursula fotografieren. 4 | 11 Das erste CDU/FDP-Kabinett unter dem damals 47 Jahre alten Ministerpräsident Albrecht 1977 in Hannover (v. l. n. r.): Hermann Schnipkoweit, Hans Puvogel, Walter Leisler Kiep (alle CDU), Erich Küpker (FDP), Werner Remmers, Ministerpräsident Ernst Albrecht, Gerhard Glup (alle CDU), Rötger Groß (FDP) und Wilfried Hasselmann (CDU). 5 | 11 Albrecht versteht es, Politik und Hobby zu vereinbaren: Prominentester Gast bei der Staatsjagd im Saupark in Springe ist 1980 Alt-Bundespräsident Walter Scheel. 6 | 11 1982 ziehen die Grünen erstmals in den Landtag in Hannover ein. Ihr Fraktionsvorsitzender, Martin Mombaur, überreicht Ministerpräsident Albrecht im Parlament ein solarbetriebenes Niedersachsen-Ross. 7 | 11 Der Ministerpräsident gibt sich gern volkstümlich und bürgernah: 1976 posiert er mit Schauspielern der Karl-May-Festspiele in Bad Segeberg als Häuptling. 8 | 11 1990 muss Albrecht sein Ministerpräsidenten-Amt an Gerhard Schröder (SPD) abgeben und zieht sich aus der aktiven Politik zurück. Neun Jahre später treffen sich beide bei einem Empfang im Landesmuseum in Hannover. Gemeinsam stoßen sie mit Schröder-Nachfolger Gerhard Glogowski (SPD, rechts im Bild) an. 9 | 11 Ein berühmtes Lächeln: Nach dem CDU-Sieg bei den niedersächsischen Landtagswahlen im Februar 2003 freut sich Ernst Albrecht mit dem neuen Ministerpräsidenten Christian Wulff (rechts im Bild) und CDU-Generalsekretär David McAllister. 10 | 11 Nach dem Fall des Eisernen Vorhangs engagiert sich Albrecht einige Jahre im Osten. Dann zieht er sich weitgehend aus der Öffentlichkeit auf sein Grundstück in Beinhorn in der Region Hannover zurück. Dort verbringt Albrecht, der Im Alter an Demenz leidet, seinen Lebensabend im Kreis seiner Familie. 11 | 11 Ernst Albrechts Tochter Ursula von der Leyen tritt in Vaters Fußstapfen: Sie macht in der CDU rasch Karriere und wird 2005 erstmals Bundesministerin - zunächst im Familienressort, später im Arbeits- und dann im Verteidigungsministerium. Seit 2019 ist sie Präsidentin der Europäischen Kommission. Two weeks after county commissioners offered the company an incentives package, plastics manufacturer Elkamet Inc. announced Monday it will begin a $2.35 million-plus expansion at its East Flat Rock plant this fall. The expansion will result in the creation of 15 to 20 new positions, paying more than $34,000 per year plus benefits. Hiring for machine operators and other support positions will begin this summer, company officials said. According to the Henderson County Partnership for Economic Partnership, the expansion will allow for the “addition of a new plastics-related product to support existing and new business in the automotive sector.” Elkamet specializes in manufacturing custom rotational molded plastic such as hydraulic oil tanks, as well as finishing plastic parts such as windshield profiles. The company supplies its plastic parts to vehicle manufacturers such as Ford, Volkswagen and Caterpillar, among others. On March 17, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners approved up to $42,693 in incentives for Elkamet, provided the company adds up to $2.5 million in new equipment over seven years. Elkamet will begin investing in new machinery this fall, the release said, with production slated to begin in early 2015. “Henderson County's employment growth is driven by incremental decisions by small- and medium-sized businesses that choose to invest in our community and employ our friends and neighbors,” said Chairman Charlie Messer. “The Board of Commissioners supported the effort to encourage Elkamet's initial location here, and we are proud to be a partner in their continued success and growth.” Headquartered in Biedenkopf, Germany, the company chose to locate its first and only U.S. manufacturing operation in Henderson County in 2006. Since then, Elkamet has doubled its workforce and its physical footprint here, along with diversifying the markets and customers it serves. “Since the beginning of our engagement here in Henderson County, we found the support and the right resources for a successful development,” Plant Manager Artur Bitner said. “This most recent investment is introducing one of our key manufacturing lines to the East Flat Rock location and another important step toward the full integration of the whole value-added process.” Elkamet's continued growth demonstrates the county's “commitment to bringing new companies to the area, but also our nurturing and encouraging their growth and expansion,” said Nathan Kennedy, chair of the HCPED. The company has invested in the community beyond its payroll and tax contributions, hosting eighth-grade student at its facilities as part of HCPED's “Made in Henderson” initiative. The program is designed to introduce students to the diverse employment opportunities in today's manufacturing environment. Job seekers interested in exploring employment with Elkamet should look for postings through www.ncworks.gov and Blue Ridge Community College during the summer. For more information about Elkamet, visit www.elkamet.com. For more information about HCPED, visit www.hcped.org. Volume 11 - 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00476 This article is part of the Research TopicRNAi Based PesticidesView all 15 articles several studies have revealed the enormous potential of RNA-silencing strategies as a potential alternative to conventional pesticides for plant protection We have previously shown that targeted gene silencing mediated by an in planta expression of non-coding inhibitory double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) can protect host plants against various diseases with unprecedented efficiency In addition to the generation of RNA-silencing (RNAi) signals in planta and pests by spray-applied RNA-based biopesticides Despite the striking efficiency of RNA-silencing-based technologies holds for agriculture the molecular mechanisms underlying spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS) strategies are virtually unresolved a requirement for successful future application in the field we predict that the molecular mechanism of SIGS is controlled by the fungal-silencing machinery we used SIGS to compare the silencing efficiencies of computationally-designed vs manually-designed dsRNA constructs targeting ARGONAUTE and DICER genes of Fusarium graminearum (Fg) We found that targeting key components of the fungal RNAi machinery via SIGS could protect barley leaves from Fg infection and that the manual design of dsRNAs resulted in higher gene-silencing efficiencies than the tool-based design our results indicate the possibility of cross-kingdom RNA silencing in the Fg-barley interaction a phenomenon in which sRNAs operate as effector molecules to induce gene silencing between species from different kingdoms such as a plant host and their interacting pathogens These alarming developments demonstrate that novel strategies in pathogen and pest control are urgently needed Notably, we previously demonstrated that FgDCL1 is required for SIGS-mediated Fg disease resistance (Koch et al., 2016). However, further analysis of Fg RNAi KO mutants revealed that all tested mutants were slightly or strongly compromised in SIGS, whereas FgCYP51 target gene expression was completely abolished in Δdcl2 and Δqip1 mutants (Gaffar et al., 2019) these studies indicate a central role of RNAi pathways in regulating Fg development we assume that Fg RNAi components represent suitable targets for RNA spray-mediated disease control we generated different dsRNA constructs targeting FgAGO and FgDCL genes that were sprayed onto barley leaves We also compared two different dsRNA design strategies; in particular we used a tool-based prediction of suitable dsRNA construct sequences vs a manual construct design related to current dsRNA design principles and experiences which target specific and easily accessible regions are shorter while the manually-designed dsRNA molecules are longer and target non-overlapping regions The length of manually selected sequences were 658 bp for FgAGO1 while the respective tool-designed sequences were 173 The respective sequences of tool- and manually-designed constructs did not overlap MEGAscript Kit High Yield Transcription Kit (Ambion) was used for dsRNA synthesis by following the manufacturers’ instructions using primers containing a T7 promoter sequence at the 5’ end of both forward and reverse primers (Supplementary Table S1) We produced four biological replicates for independent sample collection Each treatment group was compared to the TE-Buffer control using students t-test These parameters were: no mismatches to the target sequence a 5’-A or -U on the potential guide strand a higher minimum free energy (MFE) on the 5’-end of the guide strand compared to the passenger strand and good target site accessibility; the default parameters were used Quantification of infection symptoms of Fg on barley leaves sprayed with AGO/DCL-targeting dsRNAs Detached leaves of 3 week-old barley plants were sprayed with AGO/DCL-targeting dsRNAs or TE buffer leaves were drop inoculated with 5 × 104 ml–1 of macroconidia and evaluated for infection symptoms at 5 dpi shown as the percent of the total leaf area for 10 leaves for each dsRNA and the TE control relative to the infected leaf area Bars represent mean values ± SDs of three independent experiments Asterisks indicate statistical significance (*p < 0.05 DCL-dsRNAs Exhibited Higher Target Gene Silencing Than AGO-dsRNAs Relative expression of the respective fungal DCLs and AGOs 5 dpi on (A) tool- and (B) manually-designed-dsRNA-sprayed leaves The expression was measured via the 2–ΔΔCt method in which the expression of the respective AGOs and DCLs was normalized against the fungal reference genes EF1α (translation elongation-factor 1 α) and ß-tubulin and this Δ-Ct value was then normalized against the Δ-Ct of the GFP control Error bars represent the SE of the four independent experiments each using 10 leaves of 10 different plants for each transgenic line Overview of target gene-silencing efficiencies of different tested AGO- and DCL-dsRNA constructs Direct comparison of long (manual) and short (tool) constructs Relative expression of the respective fungal DCLs and AGOs 5 dpi on dsRNA-sprayed leaves is grouped by the target gene The expression was measured via the ΔΔ-Ct method in which the expression of the respective AGOs and DCLs was normalized against the fungal reference gene EF1α (translation elongation-factor 1 α) and β-tubulin The asterisks indicate a significant expression of the sprayed leaves in comparison to the mock-treated TE controls Bars represent mean values ± SE of the four independent experiments Number of efficient siRNAs and silencing efficiency of double dsRNA constructs further studies must explore the mechanistic role of FgAGO1 in SIGS in contrast to using only one specific siRNA processing of long dsRNA into many different inhibitory siRNAs by the fungus may reduce the chance of pathogen resistance under field test conditions RNAi-based plant protection technologies are limited by the uptake of RNAi-inducing trigger molecules either siRNAs and/or dsRNAs; both RNA types have been shown to confer plant disease resistance independent of how they were applied/delivered (i.e. Figure 4. Representation of dsRNAs and the complementary region in the corresponding genes. (A) Graphic representation of all four targeted mRNAs and their respective accessions with target regions marked in colors. Manually selected regions are marked in dark colors and regions selected by the pssRNAit tool1 for better target accessibility are marked with light colors All (B) manually and (C) tool designed dsRNAs triggers are shown RNAs are represented correctly scaled to each other The molecular mechanism of SIGS is controlled by the fungal silencing machinery our findings support the model that SIGS involves: (1) uptake of sprayed dsRNA by the plant (via stomata); (2) transfer of apoplastic dsRNAs into the symplast (DCL processing into siRNAs); (3) systemic translocation of siRNA or unprocessed dsRNA via the vascular system (phloem/xylem); (4) uptake of apoplastic dsRNA (a) or symplastic dsRNA/siRNA by the fungus (b) or siRNAs from multivesicular body (MVBs) derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) (c); (5) processing into siRNA by fungal DCL which are also specifically selected to produce potential siRNAs with a minimal potential to silence unintended targets could greatly reduce these off-target effects based on our results obtained with the tool-designed dsRNAs and the work of others we suggest using minimal-length dsRNA sequences carefully selected based on known design criteria requirements Another possible way to achieve high silencing efficiencies while retaining high target specificity (less off-target effect) could be the construction of dsRNAs repeating a shorter tool- designed sequence several times the design of RNAi triggers that likely mediate the efficient uptake of dsRNAs and/or siRNAs by the target pathogen is crucial in the success of SIGS as well as HIGS technologies such ckRNAi-related sRNA effectors are produced by fungal DCL proteins and thus SIGS of fungal DCLs abolishes sRNA production and attenuates fungal pathogenicity and growth whether our findings suggest that Fg utilizes ckRNAi-related sRNAs to suppress host immunity needs further exploration for example: (a) how plant and fungal-silencing machinery contributes to HIGS and SIGS; (b) the nature of the inhibitory RNA that translocates from the plant to the fungus after its transgenic expression or spray application; (c) how that RNA crosses the plant-fungal interface; and (d) how dsRNA is transported at the apoplast-symplast interface addressing these questions is key for making RNAi-based strategies a realistic and sustainable approach in agriculture All datasets generated for this study are included in the article/Supplementary Material AK designed the study and wrote the manuscript AK and BW analyzed all the data and drafted the figures JS and DB conducted the RNA spray experiments This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemein- schaft Research Training Group (RTG) 2355 (project number 325443116) to AK This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to AK (RTG:2355) and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst to FG The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.00476/full#supplementary-material FIGURES S1–S4 | Coding sequences (CDS) of the respective Fg target gene with the sequences of the dsRNA marked (blue FIGURE S5 | Representative pictures of barley (golden promise) leaves sprayed with 10 μg (20 ng/μl) of respective dsRNA in TE-Buffer and the control without dsRNA DsRNA was applied on the upper half of 10 leaves and 2 days after spraying the leaves were inoculated with three 20 μl droplets of Fg (50,000 spores/ml) TABLE S1 | Primers used in this study Silencing efficiency of dsRNA fragments targeting Fusarium graminearum TRI6 and patterns of small interfering RNA associated with reduced virulence and mycotoxin production PubMed Abstract | Google Scholar Host-induced silencing of pathogenicity genes enhances resistance to Fusarium oxysporum wilt in tomato The expanding world of small RNAs in plants Cross-kingdom RNA trafficking and environmental RNAi nature’s blueprint for modern crop protection strategies Plants send small RNAs in extracellular vesicles to fungal pathogen to silence virulence genes Host-induced silencing of Fusarium culmorum genes protects wheat from infection Characterization of RNA silencing components in the plant pathogenic fungus Fusarium graminearum Host-induced gene silencing of an essential chitin synthase gene confers durable resistance to Fusarium head blight and seedling blight in wheat Genetically modified organism-free RNA interference: exogenous Google Scholar Induction of silencing in plants by high-pressure spraying of in vitro-synthesized small RNAs Discovery and profiling of small RNAs from Puccinia triticina by deep sequencing and identification of their potential targets in wheat Exogenous RNAs for gene regulation and plant resistance CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Various components of the RNAi pathway are required for conidiation DON production and SIGS-mediated fungal inhibition by exogenous dsRNA in the Head Blight 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Scholar A large-scale functional analysis of putative target genes of mating-type loci provides insight into the regulation of sexual development of the cereal pathogen Fusarium graminearum An RNAi-based control of Fusarium graminearum infections through spraying of long dsRNAs involves a plant passage and is controlled by the fungal silencing machinery New wind in the sails: improving the agronomic value of crop plants through RNAi-mediated gene silencing Host-induced gene silencing of cytochrome P450 lanosterol C14α-demethylase-encoding genes confers strong resistance to Fusarium spec RNA-based disease control as a complementary measure to fight Fusarium fungi through silencing of the azole target cytochrome P450 lanosterol C-14 α-demethylase SIGS vs HIGS: a study on the efficacy of two dsRNA delivery strategies to silence Fusarium FgCYP51 genes in infected host and non-host plants Exogenous application of double-stranded RNA molecules from TMV p126 and CP genes confers resistance 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insect-resistant plants: RNAi-mediated crop protection Exogenous plant MIR168a specifically targets mammalian LDLRAP1: evidence of cross-kingdom regulation by microRNA Cotton plants export microRNAs to inhibit virulence gene expression in a fungal pathogen Nat Plant microRNAs in larval food regulate honeybee caste development Biedenkopf D and Koch AM (2020) RNA-Spray-Mediated Silencing of Fusarium graminearum AGO and DCL Genes Improve Barley Disease Resistance Copyright © 2020 Werner, Gaffar, Schuemann, Biedenkopf and Koch. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) *Correspondence: Aline Michaela Koch, YWxpbmUua29jaEBhZ3Jhci51bmktZ2llc3Nlbi5kZQ== †These authors have contributed equally to this work Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish. Volume 6 - 2015 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00906 Pathogenic and mutualistic microbes actively suppress plant defense by secreting effector proteins to manipulate the host responses for their own benefit Current knowledge about fungal effectors has been mainly derived from biotrophic and hemibiotrophic plant pathogenic fungi and oomycetes with restricted host range We studied colonization strategies of the root endophytic basidiomycete Piriformospora indica that colonizes a wide range of plant species thereby establishing long-term mutualistic relationships indica’s genome helped to identify hundreds of genes coding for candidate effectors and provides an opportunity to investigate the role of those proteins in a mutualistic symbiosis We demonstrate that the candidate effector PIIN_08944 plays a crucial role during fungal colonization of Arabidopsis thaliana roots PIIN_08944 expression was detected during chlamydospore germination and fungal deletion mutants (PiΔ08944) showed delayed root colonization Constitutive over-expression of PIIN_08944 in Arabidopsis rescued the delayed colonization phenotype of the deletion mutant PIIN_08944-expressing Arabidopsis showed a reduced expression of flg22-induced marker genes of pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and the salicylic acid (SA) defense pathway and expression of PIIN_08944 in barley reduced the burst of reactive oxygen species (ROS) triggered by flg22 and chitin These data suggest that PIIN_08944 contributes to root colonization by P indica by interfering with SA-mediated basal immune responses of the host plant PIIN_08944-expressing Arabidopsis also supported the growth of the biotrophic oomycete Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis while growth of the necrotrophic fungi Botrytis cinerea on Arabidopsis and Fusarium graminearum on barley was not affected opening new avenues to investigate their role in the Sebacinalean symbiosis We show that the candidate effector contributes to plant colonization by the mutualistic fungus by suppressing the salicylate (SA)-mediated basal resistance response we found that PIIN_08944 also supports growth of the biotrophic oomycete Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis while growth of the necrotrophic fungi Botrytis cinerea and Fusarium graminearum were unaffected Piriformospora indica (Verma et al., 1998) cultures (DSM11827, Deutsche Sammlung für Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen, DSMZ, Braunschweig, Germany) were propagated at 28°C in liquid complete medium (CM; Pham et al., 2004) supplemented with 2% glucose on a shaker at 140 rpm Hygromycin B (100 μg/ml) was supplemented for growth of P indica chlamydospore suspension (500,000 chlamydospore mL-1 in 0.002% TWEEN20) Inoculated plants were transferred to a growth chamber and grown under a dark/light cycle of 16 h light (110 μmol m-2 s-1) at 24°C and 8 h dark at 18°C Control plants were treated with water containing 0.002% (v/v) TWEEN20 Root samples were collected at the indicated time points and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen Arabidopsis roots of 7-day-old seedlings were inoculated with 1 ml of 500,000 chlamydospores mL-1 Root material was harvested and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen at 3 roots from 80 to 100 plants were harvested chlamydospores were collected from 3 to 4-week-old P indica cultures grown on solid CM medium using water containing 0.002% (v/v) TWEEN20 To verify integration of the hygromycin resistance cassette into the nuclear genome of P Genomic DNA from 7-day-old cultures grown on CM medium was extracted; 10–20 μg of extracted DNA was digested overnight with SacI (NEB) The digested DNA was separated on 0.9% TAE agarose gel for 5 h at 80 V and blotted onto a nylon membrane (AmershamBiosciences Hybond-N+ The DNA was UV cross-linked to the membrane in a GS GENE LINKER UV chamber (BIO-RAD) using an auto cross-linking program (C2 The labeling of the Hygromycin B probe was performed using the Prime-a-Gene® Labeling System according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Promega) Hybridization and washing steps were performed at 65°C The membrane was exposed on phosphorimaging screens (Bio-Rad) and signals were detected using a molecular imager and the Quantity One software (Bio-Rad) To assess the disruption of the PIIN_08944 gene in P mRNA expression analysis was performed using reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) indica cultures grown on CM medium/plates or from Arabidopsis roots inoculated with the P cDNA was synthesized from total RNA and 40 ng served as template for RT-PCR in a final volume of 25 μl indica ubiquitin gene PIIN_01523 served as a reference For barley leaf inoculation, F. graminearum, Fg-IFA65 (Jansen et al., 2005) was cultured on SNA agar as described (Koch et al., 2013) and conidia concentration was adjusted to 5 × 105 mL-1 in 0.02% Tween 20 Leaves of 3-week-old barley of each transgenic line (T2 generation) and empty vector (EV) control plants were detached and transferred into square petri plates containing 1% agar Each leaf was inoculated with 20 μl and plates were incubated at 22°C with a 16 h photoperiod for up to 6 days Disease symptoms were analyzed by measuring the lesion size/area using the Image J free software program3 and the relative amount of fungal biomass determined by qPCR after DNA extraction using the β-tubulin gene (FGSG_09530) as normalization control roots of 3-day-old seedlings were dip-inoculated in a F graminearum conidial suspension for 30 min then transferred into pots containing a 2:1 mixture of expanded clay (Seramis Germany) and allowed to grow in a growth chamber under long day conditions (dark/light cycle of 16 h light (110 μmol m-2 s-1) at 24°C and 8 h dark at 18°C) for up to 2 weeks roots washed with H2O and the root length (in cm) and root fresh weight (in mg) were determined Leaf disks from 3-week-old barley plants (HvPIIN_08944 or EV control) or 4-week-old Arabidopsis plants (AtPIIN_08944 or WT control) were cut and pre-incubated overnight in sterile distil water in 96 well micro-titer plate Water is carefully discarded and the leaf disks are treated with luminol (Sigma A8511-5 g) 40 μl luminol buffer [15 mg/ml] 400 μl horseradish peroxidase [1 mg/ml] and elicitor [100 nM flg22 200 mg/ml crab shell chitin (sigma–aldrich) or water control] luminescence was measured in a TECAN infinite® F200 micro plate reader (TECAN The relative light units over time as a result of the production of oxygen radicals were measured for 50 min All experiments were repeated at least two to three times in each case as indicated in the figure legends A student’s two-tailed t test was used to determine the significance of the data reported in this study Differences were considered to be significant at P ≤ 0.05 Moreover the protein did not show a significant sequence similarity to proteins with known functions of other organisms Colonization of plant roots by Piriformospora indica increases over time (A) Roots of 3-day-old barley grown on 1/10 PNM agar in sterile glass jars and 21 dpi as the relative amount of fungal DNA by qPCR using barley (HvUBQ-60-Deg) and fungal (ITS) specific primers Values represent the mean ± SE of two independent experiments (B) Seven-day-old Arabidopsis seedlings were inoculated with chlamydospores of P and 21 dpi as the relative amount of fungal DNA by qPCR using Arabidopsis (AtUBQ4) and fungal (ITS) specific primers Data represents the Ct thresholds of ITS relative to the Ct thresholds of AtUBQ-4 (±SE obtain from three technical replicates of one biological experiment) Experiments were repeated twice with similar results Asterisks indicate significance between time points at ∗P < 0.05 ∗∗∗P < 0.001 analyzed by student’s t-test (C) Analysis of PIIN_08944 expression by semi-quantitative RT-PCR Transcripts of PIIN_08944 were detected in in vitro germinated P indica chlamydospores (CS) grown in CM liquid medium for 7 days and in planta during colonization of Arabidopsis roots by P Transcript abundance increased over time from 3 to 21 dpi indica ubiquitin (UBQ) gene served as reference PIIN_08944 transcripts were detected in RNA from in vitro germinated P indica chlamydospores as well as colonized Arabidopsis roots The increase in transcript abundance from 3 to 21 days is correlated with the increase in fungal biomass as the ubiquitin reference gene (PIIN_01523) also increased in abundance over the time course This result is in agreement with our analysis of the public available microarray data where PIIN_08944 did not show differential regulation indica Knockout Strains PiΔ08944 (PiT1-PiT5) (A) Roots of 7-day-old Arabidopsis seedlings were inoculated with chlamydospores of PiΔ08944 strains PiT1 or PiT2 and 21 dpi and PIIN_08944 transcript levels were determined from extracted RNA by RT-PCR using PIIN_08944 specific primer PIIN_08944 transcripts from PiΔ08944 strains were not detected in planta indica ubiquitin UBQ gene served as reference (B) Deletion of PIIN_08944 delays colonization of Arabidopsis roots Roots of 7-day-old Arabidopsis seedlings were inoculated with PiΔ08944 (PiT1) and wt (C) Colonization of PIIN_08944-expressing Arabidopsis with PiΔ08944 (PiT1) mutant Roots of 7-day-old AtPIIN_08944OE seedlings or wt were inoculated with PiΔ08944 and 21 dpi as relative amount of fungal DNA by qPCR using fungal (ITS) and plant (AtUBQ4) specific primers Data displays the Ct thresholds of ITS relative to the Ct thresholds of AtUBQ- 4 (±SE obtain from three technical replicates of one biological experiment) Asterisks indicate significance at ∗P < 0.05 ∗∗P < 0.01 analyzed by Student’s t-test demonstrating that PIIN_08944 likely plays a crucial role in the colonization process of roots by P These data suggest that PIIN_08944 supports P indica’s colonization during interaction with plants Assessment of the immune status of AtPIIN_08944OE plants (A) Two-week-old AtPIIN_08944OE and the respective wt plants were treated with 100 nM flg22 in six well plates RNA was extracted at 0 (untreated control) Suppression of flg22-induced transcription was observed for AtWRKY22 and CBP60g Arabidopsis UBQ-4 was used for normalization Values are means ± SE of two independent experiments (B) Detached leaves of four to 6-week-old AtPIIN_08944OE (lines #L6 #L10) and the respective wt plants were inoculated with conidia of Botrytis cinerea (C) Average lesion size of AtPIIN_08944OE (lines #L6 and #L10) and the wt plants after inoculation with B Averages were calculated from 10 to 15 leaves per line Values are means ± SE of three independent experiments (D) Two-week-old AtPIIN_08944OE seedlings (lines #4 #L6 #L10) and wt plants were sprayed with spores of Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis and sporangiophores development on true leaves determined 4 dpi For each line at least 100 plants were analyzed Asterisks indicate significant differences at ∗P < 0.05 ∗∗∗P < 0.001 as analyzed by student’s t-test We further analyzed the ability of PIIN_08944 to suppress PTI in barley by analyzing reactive oxygen species (ROS) production after flg22 and chitin treatment. In HvPIIN_08944OE plants, flg22-induced ROS accumulation was reduced to about 50%, while chitin-induced ROS production was almost completely suppressed (Figures 4A,B). Notably, however, overexpression of PIIN_08944 did not suppress flg22-induced ROS production in Arabidopsis (Figure 4C) Assessment of flg22 and chitin-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in barley and Arabidopsis tissue Leaf disks of 3-week-old barley HvPIIN_08944-OE or EV control plants were treated with (A) 100 nM flg22 (C) Leaf disks of 4-week-old AtPIIN_08944-OE or wt Arabidopsis plants were treated with 100 nM flg22 ROS was determined by measuring the relative light unit over time with a luminol-chemiluminescence assay using a Tecan reader Error bars represent the mean ± SE of three independent experiments These findings support the hypothesis that PIIN_08944 plays a critical role in the Sebacinalean symbiosis by interfering with the plant’s SA-mediated basal resistance response Characterization of barley HvPIIN_08944OE plants inoculated with macroconidia of Fusarium graminearum Root length (A) and root fresh weight (B) of six plants per line inoculated with F Values represent the mean with ± SE of three independent experiments (C) Detached leaves of 3-week-old HvPIIN_08944OE plants (#4 #8 #14) and EV control were inoculated with F The experiment was repeated three times with similar outcome (D) Relative fungal biomass on detached HvPIIN_08944OE (#4 #8 #14) and EV control leaves by qPCR Values represent the mean with ±SE of three independent experiments The genome of P. indica contains hundreds of putative effector genes coding for SSPs (Zuccaro et al., 2011). About 123 out of 216 SSPs were responsive to colonization either on Arabidopsis or barley (Lahrmann et al., 2013) which also may indicate that colonization on different hosts needs a specialized set of effectors 21 SSPs were expressed at similar symbiotic stages both in Arabidopsis and barley suggesting that these effector candidates might target similar cellular processes Our results show that PIIN_08944 is a host unspecific effector which is exploited by P indica to target conserved molecular processes in different plants and therefore act as a general determinant of compatibility during plant root colonization One reason for the accumulation of PIIN_08944 in germinating spores could be that this effector is important to counteract the pre-invasive host defenses and thereby might prepare the host cell for subsequent hyphal colonization Therefore it is not surprising that the expression of effectors can be induced even before host contact has been established We speculate that PIIN_08944 is unlikely to affect the JA response as necrotrophic Bc infection on Arabidopsis AtPIIN_08944OE plants and Fg infection on barley HvPIIN_08944OE plants were similar to wt flg22- and chitin-mediated ROS production was reduced on HvPIIN_08944OE plants but not in transgenic Arabidopsis indica can exploit PIIN_08944 to suppress early PTI responses triggered by chitin perception during fungal colonization of roots At present it remains unclear whether there are differences in early PTI signaling events in barley vs The differential ROS response mediated by PIIN_08944 in barley vs whether PIIN_08944 is able to suppress chitin-induced ROS burst in Arabidopsis still needs further investigation indica has evolved effectors such as PIIN_08944 as important determinants that contribute to the establishment and/or maintenance of a mutualistic relationship during interaction with plants the suppressive activity of PIIN_08944 in a dicot (Arabidopsis) and a monocot (barley) might give a first hint on our understanding at the molecular level indica can colonize a broad spectrum of different plant species It is plausible that several other effector candidates may contribute in shaping the colonization process of P Therefore it would be important to investigate the role played by other P indica effector candidates during root colonization This work was supported by the German Research Council (DFG) to K-HK The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2015.00906 FIGURE S1 | Phenotypic analysis of Piriformospora indica PiΔ08944 mutants (PiT1 and PiT2) and wt Fungal growth rates and morphology was similar between PiΔ08944 mutants (PiT1 and PiT2) and the wt fungus FIGURE S2 | Analysis of HvPIIN_08944OE in barley plants Western blot analysis of transgenic barley expressing GFP: PIIN_08944 fusion protein using anti GFP antibody a lower GFP band (∼27 kDa) was observed in the GFP control and a 39 KDa band corresponding to GFP: PIIN_08944 was observed in HvPIIN_08944OE plants FIGURE S3 | Enhanced colonization by P Roots of 3-day-old transgenic barley seedlings or the EV control were inoculated with P and 21 dpi; genomic DNA was extracted and the relative amount of fungal biomass was determined by qPCR using plant and fungal specific primers Data represent the mean with ±SD of two independent experiments Asterisks indicate significance at ∗P < 0.05 analyzed using student’s t-test indica transgenic mutants and transgenic Arabidopsis (A) Relative expression of PIIN_08944 in in vitro germinated spores of the five PiΔ08944 strains vs PIIN_08944 transcripts accumulated only in wt (B) Determination of T-DNA copy numbers in PiΔ08944 transformants by Southern blot analysis Genomic DNA from transformants and wt was digested with SacI and hybridized with a 32P radio-labeled 32P-dCTP 600 bp fragment of hygromycin B (hph) Three out of the five transformants have one copy of T-DNA inserted in the genome (C) Expression analysis of Arabidopsis expressing PIIN_08944 (upper panel) and ubiquitin UBQ (lower panel) by RT-PCR Piriformospora indica mycorrhization increases grain yield by accelerating early development of barley plants CYP94-mediated jasmonoyl-isoleucine hormone oxidation shapes jasmonate profiles and attenuates defence responses to Botrytis cinerea infection Molecular and phenotypic characterization of Sebacina uermifera strains associated with orchids and the description of Piriformospora williamsii sp nov Haustorially expressed secreted proteins from flax rust are highly enriched for avirulence elicitors Floral dip: a simplified method for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Arabidopsis thaliana Arabidopsis MAPKs: a complex signalling network involved in multiple biological processes Conserved fungal LysM effector Ecp6 prevents chitin-triggered immunity in plants The root endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica requires host cell death for proliferation during 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beneficial plant–microbe interactions and involves early plant protein modifications in the endoplasmic reticulum and at the plasma membrane SignalP 4.0: discriminating signal peptides from transmembrane regions “Axenic culture of symbiotic fungus Piriformospora indica,” in Plant Surface Microbiology Effector MiSSP7 of the mutualistic fungus Laccaria bicolor stabilizes the populus JAZ6 protein and represses jasmonic acid (JA) responsive genes A secreted effector protein of Laccaria bicolor is required for symbiosis development Piriformospora indica—a mutualistic basidiomycete with an exceptionally large plant host range The mutualistic fungus Piriformospora indica colonizes Arabidopsis roots by inducing an endoplasmic reticulum stress–triggered caspase-dependent cell death Challenges and progress towards understanding the role of effectors in plant-fungal interactions Internalization of flax rust avirulence proteins into flax and tobacco cells can occur in the absence of the pathogen Effector candidates in the secretome of Piriformospora indica is required for normal growth and sugar metabolism Mycorrhizal symbioses: how to be seen as a good fungus Manipulation of plant innate immunity and gibberellin as factor of compatibility in the mutualistic association of barley roots with Piriformospora indica Ancient class of translocated oomycete effectors targets the host nucleus The endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica stimulates the expression of nitrate reductase and the starch-degrading enzyme glucan-water dikinase in tobacco and Arabidopsis roots through a homeodomain transcription factor that binds to a conserved motif in their promoters A growth quantification assay for Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis isolates in Arabidopsis thaliana Dual regulation of gene expression mediated by extended MAPK activation and salicylic acid contributes to robust innate immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana The role of auxins and cytokinins in the mutualistic interaction between Arabidopsis and Piriformospora indica a cultivable plant-growth-promoting root endophyte Google Scholar The endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica reprograms barley to salt-stress tolerance Arabidopsis CaM binding protein CBP60g contributes to MAMP-induced SA accumulation and is involved in disease resistance against Pseudomonas syringae A modular cloning system for standardized assembly of multigene constructs A translocation signal for delivery of oomycete effector proteins into host plant cells A Phosphate transporter from the root endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica plays a role in phosphate transport to the host plant Endophytic life strategies decoded by genome and transcriptome analyses of the mutualistic root symbiont Piriformospora indica Citation: Akum FN, Steinbrenner J, Biedenkopf D, Imani J and Kogel K-H (2015) The Piriformospora indica effector PIIN_08944 promotes the mutualistic Sebacinalean symbiosis. Front. Plant Sci. 6:906. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2015.00906 Copyright © 2015 Akum, Steinbrenner, Biedenkopf, Imani and Kogel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited *Correspondence: Karl-Heinz Kogel, a29nZWxAYWdyYXIudW5pLWdpZXNzZW4uZGU=">karl-heinza29nZWxAYWdyYXIudW5pLWdpZXNzZW4uZGU= The Development and Manufacture of High-Tech Casting ToolsThe KRÄMER + GREBE factory located in Ludwig-Grebe-Strasse in Biedenkopf has - with the development and manufacture of high-tech casting tools - developed into a well-known center of excellence for mold and toolmaking over the past 95 years and is specialized in the production of tools for complex components and engine blocks to the world market leaders.In 1922 Fritz Krämer set the stage for the founding of a model and machine factory Together with his son-in-law and mechanical engineer the company has been operating under KRÄMER + GREBE since 1942.Hand in Hand with the Automobile IndustryThe history of the company has been shaped by the automotive industry and the order books which offer interesting insights into the changing demand for various cast parts over the decades be it parts for the drive train or chassis from 1- to 12-cylinder engines and from pump housings to the Ferrari door the company has handled orders for various automotive manufacturers and large foundries The development of the casting process itself has also been successfully supported in numerous projects using simultaneous engineering.Katrin Grebe: Industry 4.0 is well-establishedAt an anniversary event held at the end of September managing director Katrin Grebe and her staff led guests through the business and production areas in Biedenkopf That Industry 4.0 has arrived is very clear and an impressive machine system enables a range of services at the highest technical level.In a Smart Tooling Forum with interesting lectures on topics such as Rapid Toolmaking 4.0 Innovative and Lifetime Optimized Engineering Benefits of Simulation in Tool Development as well as an expert round that showed how future responsive Grebe and her team completed the successful event.Well Prepared for the FutureA festive evening event at Dagobertshausen provided the nearly 100 guests with the opportunity for stimulating conversation and exchange of ideas.An interesting and emotional journey through the company’s history gave guests a look into the past - and at the same time opened up a promising outlook to the future a young team of talented acrobats amused guests with breathtaking feats.We are eagerly looking forward to a promising future for this company a new generation of engineers can look forward to interesting upcoming projects.<link https: www.foundry-planet.com de equipment detailansicht _top external-link-new-window internal link in current> auch in Deutsch  verfügbar  I would like to receive the bi-weekly Foundry-Planet newsletter with all latest news Plus the special newsletters – all can be cancelled anytime and at no cost The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded its Starting Grants Among this year’s recipients are Katja Biedenkopf Never before have all KU Leuven Starting Grants gone exclusively to female researchers from the Humanities and Social Sciences Group ERC Starting Grants provide funding for promising early-career researchers with two to seven years of post-PhD experience The grants are awarded for a five-year period and may be worth up to € 1.5 million All grant applications are assessed on the basis of one single criterion: the excellence of both the project and the researcher The applications that pass the quality threshold are ranked on the basis of their score and only the highest-ranked proposals receive funding Assistant Professor at LINES (Leuven International and European Studies)  “My team and I will investigate the implementation and spread of carbon pricing policies around the world We will focus on the two core pricing methods: the first is carbon taxes a fixed fee per tonne of carbon levied on specific products or services which set a maximum limit for greenhouse gas emissions Companies receive or have to buy allowances that equal their actual emissions and can trade them.”  “We aim to find out why carbon pricing policies are adopted and withdrawn Together they form a global system in which they interact with each other Political and economic developments in the United States can have a tremendous impact on other jurisdictions – China “We aim to understand this complex system and identify the conditions that allow carbon pricing to be an effective tool for the low-carbon transition Climate justice is also a crucial aspect that requires tailored carbon pricing approaches to forestall reactions like the gilets jaunes protests.”  I forwarded it to my partner so that he could confirm that it is no spam This grant is an exciting challenge that I look forward to tackling.”  Are you hopeful about the progress being made against climate change “Climate policy is a very challenging field and all of us need to change our behaviour we strive to contribute to this by improving our understanding of how carbon pricing policies can be used to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.” project info Director of the Institute for European Law at KU Leuven Congratulations on your ERC Starting Grant but I was hopeful: I had a good feeling after the interview “Say an employer dismisses a Muslim employee because she refuses to remove her headscarf but on who has the final say: who shapes our fundamental rights at the European level?”  the answer was simple: the Council of Europe (comprising 47 member states 28 of which are EU member states – ed.) has been the continent’s leading fundamental rights organisation since WWII the European Union has also begun to address fundamental rights questions Rather than only following the Council’s lead the EU is now issuing its own directives on sex equality and the rights of the defendant in criminal proceedings “Is the EU fully equipped to take on this new role Will there be a fierce backlash from the member states as suggested by the heated debates on asylum seekers’ rights in Greece and Hungary What are the pros and cons of reshuffling the system for the protection of fundamental rights You’ve received close to 1.5 million euros “I want to hire two PhD students and two postdocs I already have a team at the KU Leuven Institute for European Law but it will be great to have people working on EU fundamental rights law – a new field project info Assistant professor at the School for Mass Communication Research “There is a lot of pressure on adolescents to conform to demanding ideals that are projected through We depart from the hypothesis that this pressure leads to stress destructive compensation behavior and so on Our study suggests that these ideals are linked to the utilitarian individualistic idea that you can achieve anything you want Such self-blaming discourse can be very damaging.” “Our study will focus on the effects of television and social media on adolescents’ experience of social pressure We will follow groups of adolescents short-term through a diary study the study will take place in three countries we are considering countries with more and less individualistic cultures.” Why did you choose to focus on adolescents “We construct our identity during adolescence This process has consequences for the rest of our lives That’s why it is a key period to examine which ideals shape our identity Adolescents also undergo developmental changes regarding sexuality they are more susceptible to media messages regarding for instance the ideal boy- or girlfriend You can see this in the immense popularity of television and social media among most adolescents I decided to write the proposal in late summer and defended it while I was actually on leave Perhaps that helped me to put things in perspective.” project info The European Research Council (ERC) funds ground-breaking and innovative projects by Europe's finest researchers through five types of grant: for groups of 2 to 4 Principal Investigators ERC GRANT HOLDERs at KU leuven YOUR ERC PROJECT AT KU LEUVEN? He emphasized that KU Leuven wants to contribute to Earth Day Rector Rik Torfs endorsed this statement and added: “Apart from Leuven Paris is the most beautiful city in the world And it’s great to see that countries such as the United States are dedicated to the climate as well American ambassador Denise Bauer charmingly greeted the audience of 320 listeners in Dutch But then she adopted a more serious tone: “Some in the U.S. and around the world still claim that climate change is not happening But we know that climate change is a fact and that it is largely the result of human activity.” we will see more frequent extreme weather patterns around the world Have no doubt that climate change is a real and significant threat to the security of Belgium Bauer emphasized that the United States take global warming very seriously Just last week, President Obama said, “This is the only planet we’ve got. #EarthDay #ActOnClimate She gave high praise to American President Obama: “I am proud to say that I serve under a President who has the courage to take the difficult and necessary steps to address climate change through reduced emissions that will lead to a sustainable environment.”   under President Obama is doing its part and is ready to do more “This is a global problem that requires a global solution we continue to see progress and support from economic giants of the developing world But Bauer also sees new opportunities in global warming including students: “Your generation will develop clean energy solutions that will one day be considered as significant as the light bulb and as life changing as the Internet Renewable energy presents one of the greatest economic opportunities in human history.”   The American ambassador ended her lecture with the following advice: Be bold, and be fearless. Nothing less than the fate of the planet depends on it. #EarthDay #ActOnClimate You can read Denise Bauer’s entire speech here We use some essential cookies to make this website work We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK remember your settings and improve government services We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services You have accepted additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time You have rejected additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time Freedom of Information releases and corporate reports Acceptance speech held by HRH The Duke of Kent The Dresden International Peace Prize for 2015 First of all thank you for your very kind words I need hardly tell you what an enormous honour it is for me to be presented with this prestigious International Peace Prize to the achievements that this award recognises is but a very small part of a huge amount of work on the part of the Dresden Trust over many years in the name of reconciliation and friendship between the people of Britain and those of Dresden and Saxony The Trust was launched as a response to the Ruf aus Dresden to help rebuild the Frauenkirche as a monument to all who suffered from aerial bombardments in WWII it financed and gifted the Orb and Cross that now crown the dome of the Church furthering cultural exchanges between the city and Britain and funding commemorative infrastructure projects This is the sixth time I have visited Dresden since I first came here for the 50th Anniversary of the destruction of Dresden in 1995 It is always a great pleasure to be here and to see how much has changed over those years and to observe the progress made in the restoration of this city In 1995 the Frauenkirche was still a ruin and the decision to rebuild it had yet to be made I can never forget the sight of the rebuilt church at the time of its reconsecration in 2005 so it was wonderful for me to see this glorious building again yesterday in the very moving ceremony of remembrance that you It has long been important for me to be involved in fostering Anglo-German relations – as some of you know I am also Patron of the British German Association which shares many of the underlying aims of The Dresden Trust Ever since I first spent time in Germany as a young officer in the British Army I have seen and admired at first hand the way this country has developed over the past sixty years looking positively to the future and putting the stability of Europe first I should like to take this opportunity to remember all those who died all who suffered the long-lasting effects of what happened that night The loss of the beautiful city of Dresden was a terrible outcome of the effort to liberate Germany from the Nazi dictatorship I also pay tribute to the partnership that emerged out of those dark days The relationship between Dresden and Coventry The reconstructed Frauenkirche is a lasting symbol of the British-German friendship which grew out of the ashes we must look to the future and reinforce the message to the younger generation: never again Don’t include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details.