News & Events
Chairing the session, Dr Arvind Kumar, Deputy Director General – Research, ICRISAT, described it as historic day for breeding program modernization as the Product Advancement Meetings facilitate rigorous assessment of the breeding program’s progress while enabling data-based decisions in advancing products. It is feasible to assess the rates of genetic gain from various pipelines in a systematic way and take measures to enhance it further, he said.
Decades of air pollution regulation have yielded enormous benefits in the United States, but vehicle emissions remain a climate and public health issue. Studies have quantified the vehicle-related fine particulate matter (PM2.5)-attributable mortality but lack the combination of proper counterfactual scenarios, latest epidemiological evidence, and detailed spatial resolution; all needed to assess the benefits of recent emission reductions. We use this combination to assess PM2.5-attributable health benefits and also assess the climate benefits of on-road emission reductions between 2008 and 2017. We estimate total benefits of $270 (190 to 480) billion in 2017.
ICRISAT’s standing as an important partner in Zimbabwe’s efforts to build resilient food and nutrition systems was reaffirmed by the Government, donors and development partners in various meetings with ICRISAT staff Dr Rebbie Harawa, Regional Director – Eastern and Southern Africa, and Ms Anita Pirani, Director – Business Development, during their recent visit to the country.
Cultural diversity, cheer and resilience marked ICRISAT’s 49th Annual Day celebrated on 21 December across its offices in Africa and India. Signalling a departure from last year’s subdued celebrations due to COVID-19, staff participated actively taking necessary precautions. “We are celebrating our values, achievements, diversity, and we are celebrating us. We now have our strategic plan 2021-2025, which outlines a strong and focussed vision. We worked through a rolling medium-term plan and have recently launched a tool to track how we are doing,” said DrJacqueline Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT.
The COVID-19 pandemic presented enormous data challenges in the United States. Policy makers, epidemiological modelers, and health researchers all require up-to-date data on the pandemic and relevant public behavior, ideally at fine spatial and temporal resolution. The COVIDcast API is our attempt to fill this need: Operational since April 2020, it provides open access to both traditional public health surveillance signals (cases, deaths, and hospitalizations)
Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) has killed millions of children in less-developed countries for at least the last three decades—roughly 2 million annually in the early 1990s alone (1⇓⇓–4). Although the number is declining, it was estimated to be 266,200 (4) at the start of the millennium. The consumption of the genetically modified rice variety known as Golden Rice (GR) offers a potent and cost-effective strategy to combat VAD.
Franciscan monks today awarded UN Secretary-General António Guterres the Lamp of Peace of Saint Francis, recognizing commitment to the peaceful existence of people and actions to promote dialogue among them. Unable to attend in person due to pandemic restrictions, Guterres delivered his remarks by video, noting that the award recognizes the work of all United Nations employees around the world.
Multi-omics prediction has been shown to be superior to genomic prediction with genome-wide DNA-based genetic markers (G) for predicting phenotypes. However, most of the existing studies were based on historical datasets from one environment; therefore, they were unable to evaluate the efficiency of multi-omics prediction in multi-environment trials and distantly related populations. To fill those gaps, we designed a systematic experiment to collect omics data and evaluate 17 traits in two oat breeding populations planted in single and multiple environments.
A research team led by the University of Bonn, and also involves researchers from Argentina, Canada and the University of Düsseldorf provides new insights into an enzyme that plays a key role in C4 photosynthesis. Around three percent of all plants have developed a trick that enables them to use even the smallest amounts of CO2 in C4 photosynthesis. In this process, they first pre-fix CO2 by linking it to a transport molecule, producing an organic compound containing four carbons - hence the name C4 photosynthesis
Seoul National University scientists reported the boost in the drought tolerance of rice through lignin buildup in the roots. Their findings are reported in Plant Biotechnology Journal. Drought is one of the most destructive abiotic stresses that impacts crop development and yield. Previous studies have shown a link between lignin production and drought tolerance, but the molecular mechanisms are still to be identified.
Thioredoxin (Trx) is a protein that mediates the reducing power transfer from the photosynthetic electron transport system to target enzymes in chloroplasts and regulates their activities. Redox regulation governed by Trx is a system that is central to the adaptation of various chloroplast functions to the ever-changing light environment. However, the factors involved in the opposite reaction (i.e., the oxidation of various enzymes) have yet to be revealed. Recently, it has been suggested that Trx and Trx-like proteins could oxidize Trx-targeted proteins in vitro. To elucidate the in vivo function of these proteins as oxidation factors, we generated mutant plant lines deficient in Trx or Trx-like proteins and studied how the proteins are involved in oxidative regulation in chloroplasts.
The state of food security and nutrition in Asia and the Pacific has worsened, as more than 375 million people in the region faced hunger in 2020, an increase of 54 million over the previous year, according to a joint report just published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). While hunger has increased, so too has inadequate access to nutritious foods.