News & Events
For the first time, the World Health Organization projects that the number of males using tobacco is on the decline, indicating a powerful shift in the global tobacco epidemic. The findings, published today in a new WHO report, demonstrate how government-led action can protect communities from tobacco, save lives and prevent people suffering tobacco-related harm.
Every week, new reports announce the increasingly dire state of the global climate emergency. UN experts recently warned that global temperatures could rise by almost 4°C by the end of the century. This foreboding outlook was announced on the heels of no less than 11,000 scientists trying, once again, to shock the world into action by warning of the “untold suffering” to come from mounting climate impacts.
OsHKT1;1 in rice, belongs to the high-affinity K+ Transporter family, has been found to be involved in salt tolerance. OsHKT1;1 in japonica rice (Nipponbare) produces mRNA variants, but their functions remain elusive. In salt tolerant rice, Pokkali, eight OsHKT1;1 variants (V1-V8) were identified in addition to the full-length OsHKT1;1 (FL) cDNA. Absolute quantification by qPCR revealed that accumulation of OsHKT1;1-FL mRNA is minor in contrast to that of OsHKT1;1-V1, -V2, -V4, and -V7 mRNAs, all of which are predominant in shoots, while only V1 and V7 mRNAs are predominant in roots.
The COP25 talks will have focused mainly on how to mitigate and adapt to an average temperature increase. However, climate change also means that extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and cyclones are growing in frequency and intensity. We should not ignore the behavioral impacts of these events when modeling or predicting the effects of climate change. Going a step further
More than 11,000 scientists signed on to a recent report showing that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency and the United Nations warned that the world is on course for a 3.2 degree spike by 2100, even if 2015 Paris Agreement commitments are met. Agriculture, forestry, and land-use change are implicated in roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Magnaporthe grisea is the causal agent of rice blast disease, which is the most serious disease of cultivated rice. Aromatic polyketides are its typical metabolites and are involved in the infection process. In the search for novel lead compounds, chemical investigation of the fungus M. grisea M639 has led to the isolation of four new aromatic polyketides
While international and national campaigns to restore degraded landscapes are gaining steam, a serious shortcoming persists at the heart of the restoration agenda: the lack of attention to the socio-political dimensions of ecological interventions, due to interpretations of sustainability that focus only on biophysical aspects
Food systems are a major driver of the unsustainable use of the planet’s increasingly fragile ecosystem. Water, land, forests and the biodiversity they contain are precious, yet finite, natural resources. Agriculture and food systems account for up to 29% of greenhouse gas emissions, and yet will be profoundly affected by the more rapidly changing climate that those emissions cause.
Identification of Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) has been a challenge for complex traits due to the use of populations with narrow genetic base. Most of QTL mapping studies were carried out from crosses made within the subspecies, either indica × indica or japonica × japonica. In this study we report advantages of using Multi-parent Advanced Generation Inter-Crosses global population, derived from a combination of eight indica and eight japonica elite parents, in QTL discovery for yield and grain quality traits.
The health of animals and humans are intrinsically linked. Addressing animal diseases can directly improve human health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Livestock also indirectly contribute to health goals by supporting better livelihoods and therefore better dietary, educational and health choices.
The forecast scenario for the development of the domestic meat market until 2020, on the basis of the author’s approach to the analysis of markets of commodity substitutes, which is related to the study of the behavior of structural changes in the consumption of these commodities, is presented. Reasoned criticism of measures for supporting the Russian meat production complex, which are suggested by the Russian Meat Union, is conducted.
Glycolytic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is an abundant enzyme whose activity depends on a reactive catalytic cysteine. Here, we determined the effect of 2 cysteine-based redox modifications, namely oxidation and S-glutathionylation, on the functionality and structural stability of GAPDH of Arabidopsis thaliana. Hydrogen peroxide causes the irreversible oxidation of the catalytic cysteine without altering the GAPDH structure.