In this paper, we discuss the development and piloting of a new methodology for illuminating the socio-material con- stitution of data objects and flows as data move between different sites of practice. The data journeys approach contributes to the development of critical, qualitative methodologies that can address the geographic and temporal scale of emerging knowledge infrastructures, and capture the ‘life of data’ from their initial generation through to re-use in different contexts. We discuss the theoretical development of the data journeys methodology and the application of the approach on a project examining meteorological data on their journey from initial production through to being re- used in climate science and financial markets. We then discuss three key conceptual findings from this project about: (1) the socio-material constitution of digital data objects, (2) ‘friction’ in the movement of data through space and time and (3) the mutability of digital data as a material property that contributes to driving the movement of data between different sites of practice

Mature Arabidopsis seeds are enriched in storage proteins and lipids, but lack starch. In the shrunken seed 1 (sse1) mutant, however, starch is favored over proteins and lipids as the major storage compound. SSE1 has 26 percent identity with Pex16p in Yarrowia lipolytica and complements pex16 mutants defective in the formation of peroxisomes and the transportation of plasma membrane- and cell wall-associated proteins. In Arabidopsis maturing seeds, SSE1 is required for protein and oil body biogenesis, both of which are endoplasmic reticulum-dependent. Starch accumulation in sse1 suggests that starch formation is a default storage deposition pathway.

Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) exists as several isoforms that are found in various compartments in plant cells. The cytosolic and chloroplast APXs appear to play important roles in antioxidation metabolism in plant cells, yet the function of peroxisomal APX is not well studied. In this study, the localization of a putative peroxisomal membrane-bound ascorbate peroxidase, APX3 from Arabidopsis, was confirmed by studying the green fluorescent protein (GFP)-APX3 fusion protein in transgenic plants. GFP-APX3 was found to co-localize with a reporter protein that was targeted to peroxisomes by the peroxisomal targeting signal 1. The function of APX3 in Arabidopsis was investigated by analysing an APX3 knockout mutant under normal and several stress conditions. It was found that loss of function in APX3 does not affect Arabidopsis growth and development, suggesting that APX3 may not be an important antioxidant enzyme in Arabidopsis, at least under the conditions that were tested, or the function of APX3 could be compensated by other antioxidant enzymes in plant cells.

Arabidopsis transcriptional factors LEAFY COTYLEDON1 (LEC1), LEAFY COTYLEDON2 (LEC2), FUSCA3 (FUS3), ABSCISIC ACID3 (ABI3), and ABSCISIC ACID5 (ABI5) are known to regulate multiple aspects of seed development. In an attempt to understand the developmental control of storage product accumulation, we observed the expression time course of the five transcripts. The sequential expression of these factors during seed fill suggests differentiation of their normal responsibilities. By extending the expression periods of the two early genes LEC1 and LEC2 in transgenic seeds, we demonstrated that the subsequent timing of FUS3, ABI3, and ABI5 transcripts depends on LEC1 and LEC2. Because a delayed onset or reduced level of FUS3 mRNA coincided with reduction of seed oil content in the transgenic seeds, the role of FUS3 in oil deposition was further examined. Analysis of published seed transcriptome data indicated that FUS3 transcript increased together with nearly all the plastidial fatty acid biosynthetic transcripts during development. The ability of FUS3 to rapidly induce fatty acid biosynthetic gene expression was confirmed using transgenic Arabidopsis seedlings expressing a dexamethasone (DEX)-inducible FUS3 and Arabidopsis mesophyll protoplasts transiently expressing the FUS3 gene. By accommodating the current evidence, we propose a hierarchical architecture of the transcriptional network in Arabidopsis seeds in which the oil biosynthetic pathway is integrated through the master transcriptional factor FUS3.

The Arabidopsis Shrunken Seed 1 (SSE1) gene encodes a homolog of the peroxisome biogenesis factor Pex16p, and a loss-of-function mutation in this gene alters seed storage composition. Two lines of evidence support a function for SSE1 in peroxisome biogenesis: the peroxisomal localization of a green fluorescent protein-SSE1 fusion protein and the lack of normal peroxisomes in sse1 mutant embryos. The green fluorescent protein-SSE1 colocalizes with the red fluorescent protein (RFP)-labeled peroxisomal markers RFP-peroxisome targeting signal 1 and peroxisome targeting signal 2-RFP in transgenic Arabidopsis. Each peroxisomal marker exhibits a normal punctate peroxisomal distribution in the wild type but not the sse1 mutant embryos. Further studies reported here were designed toward understanding carbon metabolism in the sse1 mutant. A time course study of dissected embryos revealed a dramatic rate decrease in oil accumulation and an increase in starch accumulation. Introduction of starch synthesis mutations into the sse1 background did not restore oil biosynthesis. This finding demonstrated that reduction in oil content in sse1 is not caused by increased carbon flow to starch. To identify the blocked steps in the sse1 oil deposition pathway, developing sse1 seeds were supplied radiolabeled oil synthesis precursors. The ability of sse1 to incorporate oleic acid, but not pyruvate or acetate, into triacylglycerol indicated a defect in the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway in this mutant. Taken together, the results point to a possible role for peroxisomes in the net synthesis of fatty acids in addition to their established function in lipid catabolism. Other possible interpretations of the results are discussed.

Nitrate redudase (NR) is the first enzyme in nitrate assimilation, a critica1 process for plant survival. l h e regulation of NR gene expression is complex, involving both interna1 and externa1 factors. O f these, nitrate indudion of NR gene expression has been studied most extensively and is well conserved among baderia, fungi, and higher plants. We are interested in understanding the mechanism of nitrate indudion of higher plant NR genes. Here we describe promoter analyses of the 5' flanking regions of the Arabidopsis NR genes, NR1 and NRZ, with resped to nitrate indudion of gene expression. To facilitate these analyses, a nitrate indudion procedure using 1, transgenic tobacco plants was established. Approximately 1.5-kb 5' flanking regions of the two Arabidopsis NR genes (NR1 and NRZ) were fused to a reporter gene and its expression in transgenic plants was analyzed. Deletion analyses of these regions show that 238-and 188-bp 5' flanking regions of the NR1 and NRZ, respedively, contain sequences responsive to nitrate indudion.

Here we identify the cis-acting elements of NP1 and NP2 that are necessary for nitrate-dependent transcription by linker-scanning (1s) analysis. In transgenic plants one LS mutant of NP1 and two LS mutants of NP2 exhibited significantly lower nitrate-induced reporter gene chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity. To distinguish which of these three mutants lost nitrate inducibility, competitive reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used t o measure the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase mRNA levels before and after nitrate induction. The single LS mutant in N P l lost its response to nitrate, whereas the t w o LS mutants in NP2 partially lost their response to nitrate. A 12-bp sequence is conserved between the NP1 site and the two NP2 sites. This sequence motif is also conserved i n the 5' flanking regions of other nitrate-inducible plant genes. Cel mobility shift experiments indicate that these three regions bind t o similar proteins. The binding is constitutive with respect t o nitrate treatment and was observed in both nonphotosynthetic suspension cells and green leaves.

This peer-reviewed journal article considers open data and participatory media by investigating the socio-technical practices and dynamics within a Voluntary Geographical Information (VGI) innovation system. Based on a case study on OpenStreetMap, an open source project that crowd-sources geographical data and geographical information, the paper provides a contextual and embodied understanding of the user-led, user-participatory and user-generated produsage phenomenon. It employs Grounded Theory, Social Worlds Theory, and qualitative methods to illuminate and explore the produsage processes of OpenStreetMap making, and to investigate how knowledge artefacts such as maps can be collectively and collaboratively produced by a community of people who are situated in different places around the world but engaged with the same repertoire of mapping practices. \ud \ud The empirical data illustrate that OpenStreetMap itself acts as a boundary object that enables actors from different social worlds to co-produce the Map through interacting with each other and negotiating the meanings of mapping, the mapping data and the Map itself. The discourses also show that unlike traditional maps, which black-box cartographic knowledge to produce a single dominant perspective of cities or places, OpenStreetMap is an embodied epistemic object that embraces different world views. The paper also explores how contributors build their identities as OpenStreetMappers alongside some of the other identities they have. Understanding the identity-building process helps to understand mapping as an embodied activity with emotional, cognitive and social repertoires. \ud \ud This research has led to a collaborative project with the Institute of Geoinformation and Cartography at Vienna University of Technology (TU-Wien), and Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft in Austria: the Fostering the participation of women in Voluntary Geographical Information – encouraging FEMales to MAP (Fem2Map) project, funded by the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) under the structural research programme FEMtech-fFORTE. http://cartography.tuwien.ac.at/fem2map