Chemical Technology NOV DEC 2016 p1-32 low res 1ab

Chemical Technology • November/December 2016

ET CETERA

Purdue University

scientists in West

Lafayette, Indiana,

got a glimpse into

more than 450 mil-

lion years of evolu-

tion by tracing the

function of a hor-

mone pathway that

has been passed

along and co-opted by new species since

the first plants came onto land.

Flowering plants today, known as angio-

sperms, use the phytohormone abscisic

acid (ABA) to keep seeds dormant until

ready for germination and to open and close

stomates, tiny openings on leaves used to

control gas exchange.

“This hormone is important for drought

tolerance,” said Jody Banks, Purdue profes-

Scientists trace plant hormone pathway back 450 million years

Since Pyrotemp’s roots originated from

Product Centre (PC) Wetzer, the tempera-

ture product centre in Bavaria, Germany,

Pyrotemp South Africa decided to host an

annual Oktoberfest to let their customers

partake in their Bavarian heritage.

Endress+Hauser has two compa-

nies based in South Africa, the original

referred to within the group as a Sales

Centre (SC) and the Temperature Factory,

Pyrotemp, in Benoni, as a Product Centre

(PC). The SC is responsible for sales of all

Endress+Hauser products and services,

while Pyrotemp serves as the local manu-

facturing facility to produce quality temper-

ature sensors and transmitters, timeously.

Pyrotemp forms part of Endress+Hauser’s

global temperature network of companies,

reporting to its Head Office located in the

heart of Bavaria.

The Endress+Hauser temperature

network of companies

prides itself on its inno-

vative products, manu-

facturing capabilities

and accredited services.

To share such attributes

with the sub-equatori-

al African customers,

Pyrotemp hosted an

open day where visi-

tors could experience

the Virtual Temperature

Display Unit as well as

offering an optional fac-

tory tour, showcasing the precision of the

automated Thermowell production centre,

SANAS accredited laboratory, innovative

RTD Pt100 technologies, laser technology

to serialise products for lifelong traceabil-

ity and exclusive high temperature sensors

with platinum sheaths. More than 140 cli-

ents were hosted on the day which turned

out to be a fun filled occasion incorporating

a wide variety of Bavarian food delicacies,

drinks and a live oompah band.

For further information,

please visit

www.za.endress.com

Endress+Hauser Pyrotemp’s 2

annual Oktoberfest

Complete the grid so that every

row across, every column down

and every 3x3 box is filled with

the numbers 1 to 9. That’s all

there is to it! No mathematics

are involved. The grid has num-

bers, but nothing has to add up

to anything else. You solve the

puzzle with reasoning and logic.

For an introduction to Sudoku

see

http://en.wikipedia.org/

wiki/Sudoku

SUDOKU NO 121

Solution

for SUDOKU 120

sor of botany and plant pathology. “When

plants are water-stressed, ABA levels shoot

up and close the stomates so the plants

won’t wilt as quickly.”

Having shelved the research for nearly

two decades, Banks, together with scien-

tists at Australia’s University of Tasmania

and Germany’s University of Würzburg,

determined that ABA plays a key role

in determining the sex of ferns, using a

mechanism that was co-opted by flowering

plants to tolerate desiccation.

Matching the genes of Arabidopsis, a

model flowering plant, and the fern

Cera-

topteris richardii,

researchers at the Uni-

versity of Tasmania found the homologous

fern gene responsible for ABA signalling.

Scientists at the University of Würzburg

then found that the proteins produced

when the ABA signalling pathway is turned

on do not interact with proteins that would

open and close stomates. They realised that

regulating stomate closing by ABA was novel

to angiosperms, which evolved from ferns

about 150 million years ago.

ABA, they found, promotes femaleness

in ferns. When a wild type plant is exposed

to ABA, the plant becomes female. They

also discovered that ABA is linked to spore

dormancy in ferns, just as ABA is linked to

seed dormancy in angiosperms.

“Promoting a dormant state was likely

the original function of ABA as plants came

up out of the water onto the land, where you

need to have dormancy to survive desicca-

tion,” concluded Banks.

For more information

contact: Natalie van

Hoose, at email

nvanhoos@purdue.edu

Jody Banks