Heat-tolerant maize for rainfed hot, dry environments in the lowland tropics: from breeding to improved seed delivery

Pervez Zaidi vinayan mt Sudha Nair Prakash Kuchanur Ayyanagouda Patil Atul Kulkarni Prasanna Boddupalli (2023, [Artículo])

Lowland Tropics CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CLIMATE CHANGE DROUGHT HEAT STRESS LOWLAND MAIZE VAPOUR PRESSURE DEFICIT

The input reduction principle of agroecology is wrong when it comes to mineral fertilizer use in sub-Saharan Africa

Gatien Falconnier Marc Corbeels Frédéric Baudron Antoine Couëdel leonard rusinamhodzi bernard vanlauwe Ken Giller (2023, [Artículo])

Can farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) boost crop yields and improve food availability without using more mineral fertilizer? This question has been at the center of lively debates among the civil society, policy-makers, and in academic editorials. Proponents of the “yes” answer have put forward the “input reduction” principle of agroecology, i.e. by relying on agrobiodiversity, recycling and better efficiency, agroecological practices such as the use of legumes and manure can increase crop productivity without the need for more mineral fertilizer. We reviewed decades of scientific literature on nutrient balances in SSA, biological nitrogen fixation of tropical legumes, manure production and use in smallholder farming systems, and the environmental impact of mineral fertilizer. Our analyses show that more mineral fertilizer is needed in SSA for five reasons: (i) the starting point in SSA is that agricultural production is “agroecological” by default, that is, very low mineral fertilizer use, widespread mixed crop-livestock systems and large crop diversity including legumes, but leading to poor soil fertility as a result of widespread soil nutrient mining, (ii) the nitrogen needs of crops cannot be adequately met solely through biological nitrogen fixation by legumes and recycling of animal manure, (iii) other nutrients like phosphorus and potassium need to be replaced continuously, (iv) mineral fertilizers, if used appropriately, cause little harm to the environment, and (v) reducing the use of mineral fertilizers would hamper productivity gains and contribute indirectly to agricultural expansion and to deforestation. Yet, the agroecological principles directly related to soil fertility—recycling, efficiency, diversity—remain key in improving soil health and nutrient-use efficiency, and are critical to sustaining crop productivity in the long run. We argue for a nuanced position that acknowledges the critical need for more mineral fertilizers in SSA, in combination with the use of agroecological practices and adequate policy support.

Manure Crop Yields Smallholder Farming Systems Environmental Hazards CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA BIOLOGICAL NITROGEN FIXATION LEGUMES NUTRIENT BALANCE SOIL FERTILITY AGROECOLOGY YIELD INCREASES LITERATURE REVIEWS

Mucho más que hilos, aceites y semillas: reconociendo el valor de los linos silvestres

Juan González-Velasco MIREYA BURGOS HERNANDEZ Alejandra Villalvazo Hernández (2023, [Artículo])

Seguramente alguna vez un amigo o vecino te ha recomendado consumir semillas de linaza para mejorar tu digestión, y no sería raro que también cuentes con alguna prenda elaborada con lino. Pues bien, ambos productos provienen de una sola especie, Linum usitatissimum que es de origen europeo e introducida en México, donde actualmente se cultiva. Sin embargo, existen cerca de 180 especies de Linum en el mundo y 24 en nuestro país, las cuales, son subutilizadas o se desconoce su uso. El conocimiento de este grupo puede representar nuevas alternativas de aprovechamiento para las familias campesinas.

ESPECIES SILVESTRES LINAZA LINUM MANEJO DE RECURSOS SISTEMATICA BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA BIOLOGÍA VEGETAL (BOTÁNICA) ECOLOGÍA VEGETAL ECOLOGÍA VEGETAL

LGBT+ media on the Internet: experiences of communication and information in Mexico

RAUL ANTHONY OLMEDO NERI (2023, [Artículo, Artículo])

Two digital LGBT+ media in Mexico are analyzed to understand the implications of their operation and their articulation with the informational and social needs of sex-gender populations. It starts from the communicational perspective to conceptualize these projects as exercises in technological appropriation but highlighting their empirical intersections with other analytical frameworks. Through the method of systematizing the experience, the trajectories of ANODIS and Seis Franjas Mx have been recovered; through semi-structured interviews conducted with their co-founders in February 2022, the reasons, horizons and challenges that these projects have faced are analyzed. The results show that the lack of LGBT+ content and representations in the media motivate the creation of these projects, which articulate a sense of collaboration and sociality with other users belonging to sex-gender communities. In addition, the people participating in these projects are part of the LGBT+ populations, becoming them producers and consumers of information that claim the gender-identity dimension in the content. Likewise, these initiatives are specified in the youth stage of their co-founders, which refers to rethinking the role of LGBT+ youth in the new forms of activism and socialization mediated by Internet. Finally, given the progressive formation of this area of ​​knowledge and the lack of consensus on its definition, it is proposed to name this interdisciplinary field of study as LGBT+ Communicational Studies, to show an epistemological perspective from communication and a Latin American ontological position.

Medios de comunicación Internet LGBT Jóvenes redes sociales de apoyo CIENCIAS SOCIALES CIENCIAS SOCIALES Media LGBT youth

Integrative transcriptome and metabolome analysis reveals the mechanisms of light-induced pigmentation in purple waxy maize

XUECAI ZHANG Yunbi Xu Prasanna Boddupalli (2023, [Artículo])

Pigment Accumulation Light Response CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA ANTHOCYANINS LIGHT METABOLOMICS TRANSCRIPTOMICS WAXY MAIZE

Addressing agricultural labour issues is key to biodiversity-smart farming

Thomas Daum Frédéric Baudron Matin Qaim Ingo Grass (2023, [Artículo])

There is an urgent need for agricultural development strategies that reconcile agricultural production and biodiversity conservation. This is especially true in the Global South where population growth is rapid and much of the world's remaining biodiversity is located. Combining conceptual thoughts with empirical insights from case studies in Indonesia and Ethiopia, we argue that such strategies will have to pay more attention to agricultural labour dynamics. Farmers have a strong motivation to reduce the heavy toil associated with farming by adopting technologies that save labour but can negatively affect biodiversity. Labour constraints can also prevent farmers from adopting technologies that improve biodiversity but increase labour intensity. Without explicitly accounting for labour issues, conservation efforts can hardly be successful. We hence highlight the need for biodiversity-smart agriculture, that is farming practices or systems that reconcile biodiversity with land and labour productivity. Our empirical insights suggest that technological and institutional options to reconcile farmers' socio-economic goals and biodiversity conservation exist but that more needs to be done to implement such options at scale.

Land Sharing Trade-Offs CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION LABOUR SUSTAINABILITY

Agricultural value chains in Sudan: an annotated bibliography

Hugo De Groote Paswel Marenya (2023, [Libro])

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA AGRICULTURAL VALUE CHAINS CASH CROPS FOOD CROPS LIVESTOCK SOCIOECONOMIC ASPECTS GENDER SOCIAL INCLUSION POSTHARVEST LOSSES BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Transcriptome mining provides insights into cell wall metabolism and fiber lignification in Agave tequilana Weber

Luis Fernando Maceda Lopez ELSA BEATRIZ GONGORA CASTILLO Enrique Ibarra-Laclette DALIA C. MORAN VELAZQUEZ AMARANTA GIRON RAMIREZ Matthieu Bourdon José Luis Villalpando Aguilar Gabriela Chavez-Calvillo Toomer John Tang Parastoo Azadi Jorge Manuel Santamaría Fernández Itzel López-Rosas Mercedes G Lopez June Simpson FULGENCIO ALATORRE COBOS (2022, [Artículo])

Resilience of growing in arid and semiarid regions and a high capacity of accumulating sugar-rich biomass with low lignin percentages have placed Agave species as an emerging bioen-ergy crop. Although transcriptome sequencing of fiber-producing agave species has been explored, molecular bases that control wall cell biogenesis and metabolism in agave species are still poorly understood. Here, through RNAseq data mining, we reconstructed the cellulose biosynthesis pathway and the phenylpropanoid route producing lignin monomers in A. tequilana, and evaluated their expression patterns in silico and experimentally. Most of the orthologs retrieved showed differential expression levels when they were analyzed in different tissues with contrasting cellulose and lignin accumulation. Phylogenetic and structural motif analyses of putative CESA and CAD proteins allowed to identify those potentially involved with secondary cell wall formation. RT-qPCR assays revealed enhanced expression levels of AtqCAD5 and AtqCESA7 in parenchyma cells associated with extraxylary fibers, suggesting a mechanism of formation of sclerenchyma fibers in Agave similar to that reported for xylem cells in model eudicots. Overall, our results provide a framework for un-derstanding molecular bases underlying cell wall biogenesis in Agave species studying mechanisms involving in leaf fiber development in monocots. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

AGAVE CELL WALLS LIGNOCELLULOSE CAD PROTEIN CESA PROTEIN SCLERENCHYMA BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA GENÉTICA GENÉTICA MOLECULAR DE PLANTAS GENÉTICA MOLECULAR DE PLANTAS

Preliminary dissection of grain yield and related traits at differential nitrogen levels in diverse pre-breeding wheat germplasm through association mapping

Achla Sharma Juan Burgueño Prashant Vikram Nitika Sandhu Satinder Kaur Parveen Chhuneja (2023, [Artículo])

Plant Nitrogen Use Efficiency Pre-Breeding Lines Genome-Wide Association Study Marker Trait Association CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA WHEAT PRE-BREEDING BREEDING LINES NITROGEN LANDRACES GENETIC MARKERS

Robert Gordon: el enigma de Max Gluckman

LEIF KORSBAEK (2022, [Artículo])

"El libro The Enigma of Max Gluckman, de Robert J. Gordon, publicado en Nebraska, Estados Unidos, en 2018, se limita a la temprana carrera de Max Gluckman y cuenta acerca de su familia en Sudáfrica; sus estudios en Londres; su matrimonio con Mary Brignoli, del Partido Comunista Sudafricano —no obstante que se ha considerado a Gluckman como un pensador liberal—, y sus primeros trabajos de campo, también en Sudáfrica".

CIENCIAS SOCIALES SOCIOLOGÍA SOCIOLOGÍA CULTURAL SOCIOLOGÍA DE LA LITERATURA SOCIOLOGÍA DE LA LITERATURA