The Antarctic Pearlwort, Colobanthus quitensis (Kunth.) Bartl. (Caryophyllaceae) is one of the two native vascular plant species that have successfully colonized the maritime Antarctic during the Holocene (Smith 1984). Within the Antarctic biome, it is only found on the Antarctic Peninsula and on islands in the maritime Antarctic (Smith 1984). Its distribution also includes South Georgia (sub-Antarctic), the Falkland Islands, and sites along the Andes, reaching c. 10°N in Mexico (Moore 1970). Moore (1970) observed that C. quitensis is self-compatible and appears to be largely, if not entirely, self-pollinated. Convey (1996), found that maritime Antarctic C. quitensis showed lower allocation to seed production than plants from sub-Antarctic sites.

The fungi Botrytis cinerea and Erysiphe necator are responsible for gray mold and powdery mildew diseases, respectively, which are among the most devastating diseases of grapes. Two endochitinase (ech42 and ech33) genes and one N-acetyl-β-D-hexosaminidase (nag70) gene from biocontrol agents related to Trichoderma spp. were used to develop a set of 103 genetically modified (GM) 'Thompson Seedless' lines (568 plants) that were established in open field in 2004 and evaluated for fungal tolerance starting in 2006. Statistical analyses were carried out considering transgene, explant origin, and plant response to both fungi in the field and in detached leaf assays. The results allowed for the selection of the 19 consistently most tolerant lines through two consecutive years (2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons). Plants from these lines were grafted onto the rootstock Harmony and established in the field in 2009 for further characterization. Transgene status was shown in most of these lines by Southern blot, real-time PCR, ELISA, and immunostrips; the most tolerant candidates expressed the ech42-nag70 double gene construct and the ech33 gene from a local Hypocrea virens isolate. B. cinerea growth assays in Petri dishes supplemented with berry juices extracted from the most tolerant individuals of the selected population was inhibited. These results demonstrate that improved fungal tolerance can be attributed to transgene expression and support the iterative molecular and physiological phenotyping in order to define selected individuals from a population of GM grapevines.

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The overall objective of this study is to estimate, detect and specify the main sources of variance which affect the contents of the different elements in overbank sediments across Spain. These sources of variance were assessed and compared by means of a series of analyses of variance (ANOVAs), by regarding two parameters: their significance and their contribution to the total variance. Overbank sediments, sampled in erosion banks, were studied in several locations, in basins which drain different types of geological backgrounds and land uses (urban, mining, agricultural or pristine) across the Iberian Peninsula. Forty-eight elements (mostly in the < 63 μm fraction) were analysed by ICP-OES, ICP-MS and INAA. After an isometric log ratio (ilr) transformation of the data, three ANOVA analyses were performed considering three perspectives: (1) local scale, (2) regional scale: within-profile perspective and (3) regional scale: inter-profile perspective. On a local scale, it was observed that the variability of rare earth elements (REE) depends mostly on the grain size and that heavy metals are also influenced by depth. In the analysis carried out on a regional scale, from a within-profile perspective, depth and duplicates do not influence significantly the variability of the element contents. Finally, from an inter-profile perspective, the selected sources of variance were land use and provenance, whose significance is the highest. While grain size and the selection of depth are of crucial importance in the final results, on local studies, land use and provenance are the ones that influence the most the composition of sediments in regional studies.