Estado del arte de la quinua en el mundo en 2013

Editado por
Bazile, D., Bertero, D. y Nieto, C.

Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO) Santiago, Chile
Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD) Montpellier, France

Resumen
En el 2013 las Naciones Unidas declararon el Año Internacional de la Quinua, situándola en un espacio privilegiado a nivel global, generando expectativas y desafíos.
El "Estado del arte de la quinua en el mundo en 2013" es una publicación conjunta entre el CIRAD y la FAO que reúne en un solo libro toda la información relevante sobre la quinua generada por los más destacados investigadores del mundo, organizaciones de productores, tomadores de decisión, y todos aquéllos que se preocupan por este alimento. El libro tiene como objetivo principal favorecer la difusión de estos conocimientos, promover el dialogo y el debate entre actores del desarrollo de la quinua a nivel mundial y generar nuevas expectativas del cultivo en el mundo, considerando sus aportes a la seguridad alimentaria y a la economía de la agricultura familiar, pero también considerando los riesgos inherentes de una expansión descontrolada, en particular poniendo énfasis: en la necesidad de regulación de la circulación de los recursos fitogenéticos y la redistribución justa y equitativa de los beneficios de su utilización fuera de la zona andina y la sostenibilidad de los sistemas agrícolas. Esperamos que este libro se constituya en una herramienta que impulse el desarrollo de programas y proyectos respetuosos, responsables y éticos de quinua en el mundo manteniendo y preservando la biodiversidad de la quinua.

  i4042s by Francisco Fuentes

Fuente:
http://www.fao.org/

To Refrigerate, Or Not To Refrigerate? – The Chemistry of Tomatoes

You may have previously come across the advice that tomatoes shouldn’t be refrigerated, but should be stored at room temperature, in order to maximise their flavour. To understand the reasoning behind this, we need to take a look at the chemical compounds that give tomatoes their flavour, and the effect that refrigeration has on the production of these.
Let’s first consider the compounds we’re talking about in the first place. Volatile compounds are those that easily evaporate at room temperature, and are responsible for the aromas, and to an extent flavours, of foods. For most foods, a complex mixture of compounds goes into producing the aroma and flavour, and tomatoes are no different. Over 400 volatile compounds have been detected in tomatoes, but of these, researchers have narrowed it down to around 16 key compounds that are associated with flavour and sweetness.
The C6 volatiles (chemical compounds based on six carbons) are known to be the most abundant class of volatiles in tomatoes, but researchers have found that they are not likely to have a significant impact on the flavour of the tomato. With that said, it’s interesting to note that one of the most abundant tomato compounds in this class, (Z)-3-hexenal, is also the chemical compound largely responsible for the aroma of fresh-cut grass. The flavours in tomatoes owe a lot to the presence of sugars such as glucose & fructose, as well as fruit acids, but it’s the effect that chilling has on the volatile compounds that gives weight to the argument for not storing them in the fridge.
A 2013 study found that tomatoes stored at 4˚C showed a drastic decrease in the concentrations of volatile compounds; after 30 days of storage at this temperature, they found that the overall concentration had decreased by 66%. They discovered that the low temperature storage was in particular detrimental to the aroma of the tomatoes, whilst, by contrast, storage at 20˚C resulted in an increase in volatile compound production. The lower volatile compound production at refrigeration temperatures is due to the inhibition of enzymatic activity in the tomato. In theory then, it seems an open and shut case – tomatoes & refrigeration just don’t get along.
However, the study also points out that, for up to a week of storage in the fridge, removing the tomatoes from refrigeration for 24 hours could ‘recondition’ them and increase volatile compound production once again. This was still possible for periods of time longer than a week, but in these cases there remained a discrepancy in the levels of volatile compounds compared to tomatoes at room temperature. Obviously, the refrigeration of tomatoes is often for practical purposes, and it’s doubtless much more conducive to your tomatoes not beginning to rot away if they’re stored in the fridge. It is, however, particularly important not to store tomatoes that are yet to fully ripen in the fridge, as this can slow the ripening process.
In short, the verdict seems to be that you can get away with storing fully ripe tomatoes in the fridge for up to a week to prevent them going off, before then leaving them out for a short time to recover their volatile compound producing ability. Leave them in for longer than a week, and you’re going to be enjoying a less flavoursome tomato!

Source:

http://www.compoundchem.com/

The Planet Needs More Plant Scientists

Academia is not producing sufficient PhDs in the plant sciences to solve the crop production challenges facing a rapidly growing population.
While the message is not new, the declaration of the flaws of the US biomedical research system by four prominent life scientists this spring captured everyone’s attention. Bruce Alberts, Marc Kirschner, Shirley Tilghman, and Harold Varmus wrote in PNAS of how “demands for research dollars grew much faster than the supply . . . [due to] perverse incentives [that] encourage grantee institutions to grow without making sufficient investments in their faculty and facilities.” Rather than devote money to faculty salaries, universities built infrastructure to house more self-paid researchers able to bring in more money via research grants, of which a large fraction was used as revenue (overhead) for the university. More labs required more students to fill them, leading to a dramatic rise of PhDs in the biomedical sciences, which then produced more researchers competing for dwindling grant dollars. In short, research institutions have no incentive to support individual faculty and instead have perverse incentives to encourage further research spending: more grants = more overhead = more buildings = more PIs = more PhDs in an increasingly out-of-control spiral. (See “PhDs in the U.S.”) This is not sustainable, and we are now experiencing the consequences, with the most despairing being the lack of adequate jobs for our postdocs and perceived insufficient funding for all of us.
The unsustainable rate of PhDs awarded per year in the biomedical sciences does not extrapolate to the rate of PhDs in other life sciences, however, especially the agricultural sciences, where the rate of PhDs per year has remained flat for decades. Since 1982, we have consistently trained only about 1,000 PhDs in applied agricultural and related sciences each year. And over the last decade, the U.S. has annually produced only 800 or so plant scientists working in applied agricultural science and only 100 with the skills for basic plant research. (See “Plant science stagnates.”) Given the global agricultural challenges we now face, this is a problem.
The Earth must support another 1 billion humans in the coming decade, and must do so with less arable land and in an unpredictable climate. This means we must find innovative ways to produce crops with higher yields and novel traits—a feat that will require the work of PhDs trained in agriculture and plant sciences. But at this point we are not producing enough plant scientists to lead us out of this Malthusian dilemma.
The US Coalition for a Sustainable Agricultural Workforce recently completed a confidential survey among agricultural biotech companies to ascertain near-term needs for hiring domestic agricultural scientists. This survey generated an amazing result, given the tone of the PNAS perspective, predicting that by 2015, 1,000 new employees will be needed in the half-dozen largest plant-science companies in the US alone (Bayer Crop Science, Dow Agro Sciences, Dupont Pioneer Hybrid, Dupont Crop Protection, Monsanto, and Syngenta). Almost half of these anticipated new hires will hold PhDs. Unfortunately, with what appears to be a dwindling pool of qualified applicants applying to plant science PhD programs, we may not be keeping up with this demand.
The growing world population needs to eat, and it is past due that we elevate basic, translational, and applied plant research to the priority given to biomedical research, or more boldly, to defense. Stabilizing food supplies in a changing environment is integral not only to the world population’s health, as an estimated 50 percent of childhood disease globally is attributed to malnourishment, but also to national security. Moreover, a recent study found that, around the world, the rate of return for investment in agricultural research is ten to one, bringing into question the scaling back of funding for agriculture research and development in many rich countries.
Going forward, we must infuse more resources into plant biology research, to boost research output and to train tomorrow’s plant scientists. In the early 1980s, the National Science Foundation (NSF) established an 11-year postdoctoral fellowship program with the primary objective to nurture future leaders of plant biology research. By many accounts, this program was successful; among a cohort of 236 fellows, four are members of the National Academy of Sciences today, and more than 80 percent remained in plant biology. Of those, the majority stayed in academic institutions, while an impressive number (25 percent) went to industry, where many now hold corporate officer positions. Anticipating the need for leaders to alleviate hunger and to prevent global instability, we should reinstate this program to recruit our best talent to plant science and agricultural research.
In conclusion, it is important that the sirens of a glut of biomedical PhDs do not fallaciously harm other areas of science that are still in desperate need of young researchers and more research funding. This is especially true for the plant sciences, where the next generation of researchers must conquer significant challenges to feed a growing world population in a changing environment.

Source:

http://www.plantsci.org.uk

Plant variants point the way to improved biofuel production

Manufacturing biofuels from food crop by-products such as straw could be made quicker and cheaper thanks to a new study led by scientists at the University of York.

The research funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) discovered variant straw plants whose cell walls are more easily broken down to make biofuels, but which are not significantly smaller or weaker than regular plants.
The discovery by researchers in the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products at York could help ease pressure on global food security as biofuels from non-food crops become easier and cheaper to make.
The impact of carbon emissions on global warming is driving the need for carbon neutral biofuels. Many existing biofuels are produced from crops which can be used for food, and therefore have a negative impact on global food security.
One answer is to make fuels from woody, non-food parts of plants such as straw. These are rich in polysaccharides (sugar chains) which can be broken down into simple sugars and then fermented into ethanol for fuel. However, such biofuels are currently too expensive because of the cost of digesting the woody tissues into simple sugars.
The CNAP researchers led by Professor Simon McQueen-Mason, working with colleagues in France, screened a large collection of variants of the model grass species Brachypodium for digestibility. Screening mutants in this way allows rapid assessment of the range of natural diversity that can be found in a species.
Using this approach, PhD student Poppy Marriott identified 12 independent plant lines with highly digestible straw, but which grew normally and showed no decrease in straw strength. Analysing these plants showed that increased digestibility can be achieved through a range of changes in the cell wall, where the majority of sugar is contained in woody biomass.
In addition the team at York also showed they can identify the gene alterations that give rise to the high digestibility. The new results are published in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
By identifying these plant variants with straw that is easier to digest, but which retain their size and strength, the cost and complexity of biofuel production could be reduced.
Professor McQueen-Mason said: “This work sets the stage for identifying similar high-digestibility lines in commercial crop species that will pave the way to more cost-effective and sustainable biofuels.
“Using plant by-products such as straw provides a double benefit as we can harvest the food from the plant, then use the straw to produce a carbon neutral fuel.”
Professor Melanie Welham, BBSRC Executive Director for Science, said: “This research is another important step towards making carbon-neutral biofuels both easier and cheaper to produce. Using crop by-products such as straw for biofuels reduces pressure on food supplies and also adds value to the crop, boosting food security and helping farmers.
“It is just one example of how BBSRC investment in world class bioscience is working towards addressing some of the existing and emerging global challenges that we all face.”

Further information:A range of cell wall alterations enhance saccharification in Brachypodium distachyon mutants is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) invests in world-class bioscience research and training on behalf of the UK public. Its aim is to further scientific knowledge, to promote economic growth, wealth and job creation and to improve quality of life in the UK and beyond. Funded by Government, BBSRC invested over £484M in world-class bioscience in 2013-14. It supports research and training in universities and strategically funded institutes. BBSRC research and the people it funds are helping society to meet major challenges, including food security, green energy and healthier, longer lives. BBSRC investments underpin important UK economic sectors, such as farming, food, industrial biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.For more information about BBSRC, its science and impact see:http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk For more information about BBSRC strategically funded institutes see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/institutes
The Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) is an award winning strategic research centre based in the Department of Biology at the University of York. CNAP is dedicated to realising the potential of plants as renewable, low-cost factories that produce high-value chemicals and biofuels. Laboratory based discoveries are translated into practice in partnership with industry.www.york.ac.uk/org/cnap/

Source:

http://www.york.ac.uk/

Natural gene selection can produce orange corn rich in provitamin A for Africa, U.S.

Purdue researchers have identified a set of genes that can be used to naturally boost the provitamin A content of corn kernels, a finding that could help combat vitamin A deficiency in developing countries and macular degeneration in the elderly.
Professor of agronomy Torbert Rocheford and fellow researchers found gene variations that can be selected to change nutritionally poor white corn into biofortified orange corn with high levels of provitamin A carotenoids - substances that the human body can convert into vitamin A. Vitamin A plays key roles in eye health and the immune system, as well as in the synthesis of certain hormones.
"This study gives us the genetic blueprint to quickly and cost-effectively convert white or yellow corn to orange corn that is rich in carotenoids - and we can do so using natural plant breeding methods, not transgenics," said Rocheford, the Patterson Endowed Chair of Translational Genomics for Crop Improvement.
Vitamin A deficiency causes blindness in 250,000 to 500,000 children every year, half of whom die within a year of losing their eyesight, according to the World Health Organization. The problem most severely affects children in Sub-Saharan Africa, an area in which white corn, which has minimal amounts of provitamin A carotenoids, is a dietary mainstay.
Insufficient carotenoids may also contribute to macular degeneration in the elderly, a leading cause of blindness in older populations in Europe and the U.S.
Identifying the genes that determine carotenoid levels in corn kernels will help plant breeders develop novel biofortifed corn varieties for Africa and the U.S. The dark orange color of these corn varieties also makes them more culturally acceptable to consumers in African countries where yellow corn is generally fed only to animals, Rocheford said.
Previous research by Rocheford and his colleagues identified two genes that contribute to provitamin A carotenoid levels in corn kernels, but "we wanted more cookies in the jar for breeders to pick from," he said.
The researchers used a combination of statistical analysis and prediction models to identify and assess the potential usefulness of genes associated with carotenoid levels in corn. They evaluated data sets from about 200 genetically diverse lines of corn at varying scopes of investigation - from the entire corn genome to stretches of DNA surrounding small sets of genes. They uncovered four genes that had not previously been linked to carotenoid levels in corn kernels.
Though many genes likely contribute to carotenoid levels in corn, "we're pretty confident that our previous and current research has now identified several genes that are the major players," Rocheford said.
Their study found that a combination of visually selecting corn with darker orange kernels and using a number of these favorable genes could be an effective way to rapidly convert white and yellow corn varieties to orange corn with higher levels of provitamin A and total carotenoids.
"We now have the genetic information needed to begin developing a major public-private sector collaboration with the goal of providing orange corn with high levels of provitamin A to farmers throughout Sub-Saharan Africa," he said.
The study also showed that using a more targeted approach to predicting the usefulness of a small set of genes was as effective as evaluating the whole corn genome, said Brenda Owens, doctoral candidate and first author of the study.
"Having this smaller list of genes to select for means that we can make the improvement of carotenoid levels in corn a simpler, faster process for plant breeders," she said.
Their research - in collaboration with HarvestPlus and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, also known as CIMMYT - has yielded varieties of orange corn with markedly higher amounts of provitamin A carotenoids. But further efforts to produce even higher levels will be necessary to offset degradation of nutrients after harvest and reduce the amount of corn African consumers would need to eat to attain enough provitamin A, Rocheford said.
Varieties of orange corn are currently being grown in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Ghana. An open-pollinated variety of orange corn could be available for organic and local grower operations in the U.S. by 2016, he said.
The paper was published online in Genetics and is available at http://www.genetics.org/content/early/2014/09/25/genetics.114.169979.full.pdf+html
A video presentation of Rocheford discussing the research behind biofortified orange corn and its implications is available athttp://docs.lib.purdue.edu/dawnordoom/2014/presentations/11/
Funding for the research was provided by the National Science Foundation; HarvestPlus; Purdue University startup and Patterson Chair funds; the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service; Cornell University startup funds; a U.S. Department of Agriculture National Needs Fellowship; and a Borlaug Fellowship.

ABSTRACT

A foundation for provitamin A biofortification of maize: genome-wide association and genomic prediction models of carotenoid levels

Brenda F. Owens 1; Alexander E. Lipka 2; Maria Magallanes-Lundback 3; Tyler Tiede 1; Christine H. Diepenbrock 4; Catherine B. Kandianis 3, 4; Eunha Kim 3; Jason Cepela 5; Maria Mateos-Hernandez 1; C. Robin Buell 1; Edward S. Buckler 2, 4, 6; Dean DellaPenna 3; Michael A. Gore 4; Torbert Rocheford 1

1 Purdue University, Department of Agronomy, West Lafayette, IN 47907
2 Cornell University, Institute for Genomic Diversity, Ithaca, NY 14853
3 Michigan State University, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, East Lansing, MI 48824
4 Cornell University, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Ithaca, NY 14853
5 Michigan State University, Department of Plant Biology, East Lansing, MI 48824
6 United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health, Ithaca, NY 14853

Efforts are underway for development of crops with improved levels of provitamin A carotenoids to help combat dietary vitamin A deficiency. As a global staple crop with considerable variation in kernel carotenoid composition, maize (Zea mays L.) could have widespread impact. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of quantified seed carotenoids across a panel of maize inbreds ranging from light yellow to dark orange in grain color to identify some of the key genes controlling maize grain carotenoid composition. Significant associations at the genome-wide level were detected within the coding regions of zep1 and lut1, carotenoid biosynthetic genes not previously shown to impact grain carotenoid composition in association studies, as well as within previously associated lcyE and crtRB1 genes. We leveraged existing biochemical and genomic information to identify 58 a priori candidate genes relevant to the biosynthesis and retention of carotenoids in maize to test in a pathway-level analysis. This revealed dxs2 and lut5, genes not previously associated with kernel carotenoids. In genomic prediction models, use of markers that targeted a small set of quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with carotenoid levels in prior linkage studies were as effective as genome-wide markers for predicting carotenoid traits. Based on our GWAS, pathway-level analysis, and genomic prediction studies, we outline a flexible strategy involving use of a small number of genes that can be selected for rapid conversion of elite white grain germplasm, with minimal amounts of carotenoids, to orange grain versions containing high levels of provitamin A.

Source:

http://www.purdue.edu

Prosopis: A global assessment of the biogeography, benefits, impacts and management of one of the world’s worst woody invasive plant taxa

Invasive species cause ecological, economic and social impacts and are key drivers of global change. This is the case for the genus Prosopis (mesquite; Fabaceae) where several taxa are among the world’s most damaging invasive species. Prosopistaxa are currently naturalised or invasive in 103 countries and are bioclimatically suitable for many more. There are numerous management practices available to control Prosopis invasions, each with their benefits and costs, however, in most areas management has had only limited success. In a new article published in AoB PLANTS, Shackleton et al. present a global review of Prosopis, focusing on its distribution, impacts, benefits and approaches to management. Key gaps in knowledge and promising options for management are highlighted.

Source:

http://aobblog.com/

Getting keen about quinoa

Stephen Jones is the producer of 100% British grown quinoa grains. He does that on his farm in Shropshire, and runs the British Quinoa Company. Hear from him about how he started up the firm and where production of the super-grain is headed. Plus we’ll hear much more about the grain: how it’s grown and harvested, the problems posed by the great British weather, about its different strains, how Stephen has to have a licence to grow it. And … how you pronounce the name of the grain. A fascinating chat in store!
And Claire from Juvela tells us about the British prescription-based glutenfree brand. Yep in the UK we can get coeliac-friendly food through the National Health Service. Hear how that works, what you are entitled to and why that’s different in various parts of the country. Juvela only make GF food for prescriptions and provide to pharmacies across the country, so hear about their range and why they’re not allowed to call their flour, ‘flour’!

Source:

http://www.spreaker.com/

ICN2 Photo Contest - 15 September to 16 October 2014

The problems of malnutrition—undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity—exist in all countries, developed and developing, and across all socio-economic classes. By launching this photo contest, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) aims to raise awareness about the importance of nutrition, emphasizing that it starts with what we eat: the products of the food and agriculture sector. FAO also wishes to engage the general public in an international effort to improve nutrition.

As the United Nations premier agency working on food and agriculture, FAO leads the effort to eliminate hunger and to ensure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. The images on the topic of nutrition, sent by participants from around the world, will help illustrate the importance of this key thematic area of FAO’s work.
Jury and prizes

The jury of the contest will be formed by FAO staff with the support of National Geographic.

The best three images will be awarded with prizes consisting of assignments with FAO for a photographic mission to an FAO project or office close to the residence of the awardee.

The best images will be featured in FAO communication materials and social media channels.

Source:

http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/icn2/photo-contest/en/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social+media&utm_campaign=faoknowledge

Consumers will pay more for eco-friendly plants, study shows

People make decisions all the time, and some have long-term consequences: Do I work out? Do I take the bus? Do I recycle? Researchers have found those who value long-term consequences of their decisions are more apt to buy eco-friendly plants.

While 16 cents may not seem like much, researchers see any willingness to pay more to help the ornamental plants industry and the environment as good news.
Previous research has investigated the effects of perceived long-term consequences on people's environmental behavior, including recycling or using public transportation. So UF food and resource economics assistant professor Hayk Khachatryan wanted to understand how differences in people's perceptions of long- and short-term consequences affect plant preferences and purchase decisions.
For the study, 159 people bought plants at experimental auctions at Texas A&M University, the University of Minnesota and the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre in Ontario, Canada. The participants were recruited through Craigslist and community newsletters. Researchers studied differences in what's called "consideration of future consequences" ─ the extent to which consumers consider potential outcomes of their actions ─ and how that affected their willingness to pay for edible and ornamental plants. Specifically, the study focused on their preferences for plant attributes related to sustainable production methods, container types and origin of production.
Eighty-eight of the 159 participants were deemed concerned about the consequences of their purchases. The study showed they were willing to pay up to 16 cents more for plants grown using energy-saving and sustainable production methods, sold in non-conventional containers as well as plants produced locally.
Some people recycle, exercise or diet, actions that take time to see results. Paying for long-term environmental conservation is a bit like working out or jogging, Khachatryan said.
"When you exercise, you don't see the benefits right away," he said.
Similarly, the benefits of pro-environmental production practices in the ornamental plants industry may not produce immediate impacts. Thus, consumers' plant choices may depend on how much they consider future versus immediate consequences of their choices, said Khachatryan, a member of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences who conducts research at the Mid-Florida Research and Education Center in Apopka.
The price increase is relatively low, but even 16 cents can help retailers offset their costs, researchers said. Some larger retailers may go through thousands of plants in a short period, and that can add up quickly, said Ben Campbell, a University of Connecticut extension economist, and study co-author.
A garden center or retailer may have a thin margin between production cost and the sales price, Campbell said. By adding 16 cents per plant ─ the amount some say they're willing to pay for eco-friendly plants ─ the margin can increase considerably, he said. That makes garden centers and other retailers more profitable and, perhaps more sustainable. The study is published online in the current issue of the Journal of Environmental Horticulture.

Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/

The future of global agriculture may include new land, fewer harvests

Climate change may expand suitable cropland, particularly in the Northern high latitudes, but tropical regions may becoming decreasingly suitable.

Most of the Earth's accessible agricultural land are already under cultivation. Ecological factors such as climate, soil quality, water supply and topography determine the suitability of land for agriculture. Climate change may impact global agriculture, but some regions may benefit from it. In a new study, researchers focused on the probable impact of climate change on the supply of land suitable for the cultivation of the 16 major food and energy crops worldwide, including staples such as maize, rice, soybeans and wheat. They simulated the impact of climate change on agricultural production over the course of the 21st century and found that two-thirds of all land potentially suitable for agricultural use is already under cultivation.
The results indicate that climate change may expand the supply of cropland in the high latitudes of the Northern hemisphere, including Canada, Russia, China, over the next 100 years. However, in the absence of adaptation measures such as increased irrigation, the simulation projects a significant loss of suitable agricultural land in Mediterranean regions and in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. The land suitable for agricultural would be about 54 million km2 -- and of this, 91% is already under cultivation. "Much of the additional area is, however, at best only moderately suited to agricultural use, so the proportion of highly fertile land used for crop production will decrease," says Zabel. Moreover, in the tropical regions of Brazil, Asia and Central Africa, climate change will significantly reduce the chance of obtaining multiple harvests per year.
"In the context of current projections, which predict that the demand for food will double by the year 2050 as the result of population increase, our results are quite alarming. In addition, one must consider the prospect of increased pressure on land resources for the cultivation of forage crops and animal feed owing to rising demand for meat, and the expansion of land use for the production of bioenergy," says Zabel.

Source:http://www.sciencedaily.com/

Florian Zabel, Birgitta Putzenlechner, Wolfram Mauser. Global Agricultural Land Resources – A High Resolution Suitability Evaluation and Its Perspectives until 2100 under Climate Change Conditions. PLoS ONE, 2014; 9 (9): e107522 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107522

New 3-D imaging techniques may improve understanding of biofuel plant material: Never-before-seen details

A comparison of 3-D transmission electron microscopy imaging techniques reveals never-seen-before details of plant cell walls.

Cost-effective production of plant material for biofuel requires efficient breakdown of plant cell wall tissue to retrieve the complex sugars in the cell wall required for fermentation and production of biofuels. In-depth knowledge of plant cell wall composition is therefore essential for improving the fuel production process. The precise spatial three-dimensional organization of certain plant structures, including cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, and lignin, within plant cell walls remains unclear, due to the limited to 2D, topographic or low-resolution imaging currently used by researchers, as well as other factors.
In an attempt to compare the quality of 3D TEM imaging techniques of the cell wall structure in plant stem tissue, the authors of this study compared three different sample preparation methods for imaging: conventional microwave-assisted chemical fixation and embedding followed by imaging at room temperature; high-pressure freezing, freeze substitution (HPF-FS) followed by room temperature embedding and imaging; and cryo-immobilization of fresh tissue by self-pressurized rapid freezing, cryo-sectioning, and cryo-tomography- a type of electron microscopy run at very low temperatures that yields near-native 3D reconstructions.
Qualitative and quantitative analyses showed that plant ultrastructure and wall organization of cryo-immobilized samples were preserved remarkably better than conventionally prepared samples. However, due to the highly challenging techniques associated with cryo-tomography, large-scale quantitative analyses are better performed on HPF-FS samples.
Manfred Auer added: "We have developed and compared novel sample preparation and molecular 3D imaging approaches for plant cell walls, yielding insight into faithfully preserved 3D wall architecture, which will lead to rational re-engineering of second-generation lignocellulosic biofuel crops."

Source:http://www.sciencedaily.com/

Purbasha Sarkar, Elena Bosneaga, Edgar G. Yap, Jyotirmoy Das, Wen-Ting Tsai, Angelo Cabal, Erica Neuhaus, Dolonchampa Maji, Shailabh Kumar, Michael Joo, Sergey Yakovlev, Roseann Csencsits, Zeyun Yu, Chandrajit Bajaj, Kenneth H. Downing, Manfred Auer. Electron Tomography of Cryo-Immobilized Plant Tissue: A Novel Approach to Studying 3D Macromolecular Architecture of Mature Plant Cell Walls In Situ. PLoS ONE, 2014; 9 (9): e106928 DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0106928

Future of our crops is at risk in conflict zones, say scientists

Wild species related to our crops, which are crucial as potential future food resources, have been identified by scientists, however, a significant proportion are found in conflict zones in the Middle East, where their conservation is increasingly comprised.

Wild species related to our crops which are crucial as potential future food resources have been identified by University of Birmingham scientists, however, a significant proportion are found in conflict zones in the Middle East, where their conservation is increasingly comprised.
The scientists have identified 'hotspots' around the globe where crop wild relatives (CWR) -- species closely related to our crops which are needed for future crop variety development -- could be conserved in the wild in order to secure future global food resources.
The hotspot where CWR are most concentrated is in the so-called 'Fertile Crescent', which is situated in the Middle East, arcing around the Arabian desert from Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and ending in Iraq and Iran.
Climate change, along with a steady rise in the human population is forecast to have a detrimental impact on crops that are grown for food. The wild relatives of crops, however, contain many useful traits such as drought tolerance, yield improvement, and resilience to pests and diseases. These wild species can be used by plant breeders to create stronger, more resilient crop varieties which will help to underpin future food security.
Now a comprehensive database of globally important CWR exists, thanks to this study. The inventory lists 173 crops and their 1667 priority wild relatives, along with their particular traits. For example, the crop wild relative of the wheat crop, Aegilops tauschii, is resistant to Hessian Fly which is pest of cereal crops; Saccharum arundinaceum is a relative of sugar cane and can survive very low temperatures, andPrunus ferganensis, the crop wild relative of peach, is tolerant to drought conditions. Globally, the highest concentration of CWR per unit area is found in Syria and Lebanon.
Research at Birmingham has shown that 12 per cent of CWRs are threatened with extinction and all are likely to be already suffering a loss of genetic diversity due to habitat loss and alteration, conflict, intensive agriculture, urbanisation, and mismanagement of the environment. However, until now, there has been no attempt to systematically conserve the diversity of this important global resource.
A new initiative led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN, with help from scientists at the University of Birmingham, will, for the first time, plan and implement effective conservation of these priority plant species in the countries where they are found. The Birmingham scientists are now working on a strategy to conserve CWRs by identifying and promoting the establishment of managed conservation sites in the wild, while taking samples and placing them in gene banks as a safety back up, where the genetic material can be kept for up to 300 years.
The team is currently negotiating with governments in the Fertile Crescent to highlight the plight of these species and to try to implement 'in situ' conservation in the hotspot areas.
Dr Nigel Maxted, lead investigator from the University of Birmingham's School of Biosciences, said: 'There has previously been no opportunity to systematically conserve and use CWR as there was a lack of clarity over their identities and distribution. By creating an inventory of globally important CWR we can discover which countries and regions are the richest in terms of priority CWR, and more efficiently plan and coordinate conservation efforts to ensure their survival.
'It is very important that we conserve these species in secure gene banks, but it is critical to conserve them in their natural habitat as they will continue to adapt to changes in the climate as well as threats from pests and diseases.'
'The global population is now 7 billion and by 2050 it will be 9 billion so it is now even more crucial that we conserve crop wild relatives as part of the wider need to address global food security issues.'
As well as the abundance of CWR in the Fertile Crescent, many CWR can be found in the UK including the wild relatives of sugarbeet, asparagus, raddish and wild garlic. The Birmingham team is now working with Natural England to identify an area where CWR can be conserved in their natural habitat in the UK.

Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/