Impactos dos subsídios agrícolas dos Estados Unidos na expansão do agronegócio brasileiro

Nos fóruns de negociações multilaterais da Organização Mundial de Comércio subsiste veemente debate com intuito de eliminar as subvenções agrícolas nos países desenvolvidos. Contudo, os Estados Unidos têm aumentado o volume desses subsídios, causando distorções no comércio agrícola mundial. Assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar os impactos desses subsídios norte-americanos (Loan Deficiency Payments), concedidos no período de 2002 a 2007, sobre o crescimento do agronegócio brasileiro. Os resultados permitem inferir que a redução dos subsídios nos EUA propiciaria o crescimento da produção agroindustrial brasileira e ampliaria o superávit na balança comercial desse setor, com crescimento conjunto das exportações e importações. Portanto, cortes nesses subsídios contribuiriam para maior competitividade das exportações brasileiras e gerariam oportunidades para o crescimento do agronegócio.In the forums of multilateral negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) there has been a strong debate which tries to eliminate the agricultural subventions in the developed countries. However, the United States has increased the amount of these subsidies causing distortions in the world agricultural trade. Therefore, the purpose of this research has been to evaluate these American subsidies impacts (Loan Deficiency Payments) given between 2002 and 2007 upon the Brazilian agribusiness growth. The findings allow to deduce that the reduction of the subsidies in the United States might promote the growth of the Brazilian agribusiness production and might produce trade surplus in the trade balance in this sector as well as the growth of both exports and imports. Hence the cuts in these subsidies would contribute to a bigger competitiveness of the Brazilian exports and would generate opportunities to the agribusiness growth

Plant antimicrobial peptides: an overview of superSAGE transcriptional profile and a functional review.

Defensin, thionin and lipid transfer protein (LTP) gene families, which antimicrobial activity has an attractive use in protein engineering and transgenic production of agronomically important plants, have been here functionally reviewed. Also, a transcriptional overview of plant SuperSAGE libraries and analysis of 26 bp tags possibly annotated for those families are presented. Tags differentially expressed (p < 0.05) or constitutively transcribed were identified from leaves or roots from SuperSAGE libraries from important Brazilian plant crops [cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.), soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) and modern sugarcane hybrids (Saccharum spp.)] submitted to abiotic [salt (100 mM NaCl) or drought] or biotic stresses [fungus inoculation (Phakopsora pachyrhizi; Asiatic Soybean Rust phytopathogen)]. The diverse transcriptional patterns observed, probably related to the variable range of targets and functions involved, could be the first step to unravel the antimicrobial peptide world and the plant stress response relationship. Moreover, SuperSAGE opens the opportunity to find some SNPs or even rare transcripts that could be important on plant stress resistance mechanisms. Putative defensin or LTPs revealed by SuperSAGE following a specific plant treatment or physiological condition could be useful for future use in genetic improvement of plants

Characterization of new polymorphic functional markers for sugarcane

Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP)[02/01167-1]Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP)[02/00197-4]Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP)[01/14656]Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP)[04/10596-9]CTC (Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira - Piracicaba/SP)CAPES[0181-056]Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq

Characterization of new polymorphic functional markers for sugarcane

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) offer the opportunity to exploit single, low-copy, conserved sequence motifs for the development of simple sequence repeats (SSRs). The authors have examined the Sugarcane Expressed Sequence Tag database for the presence of SSRs. To test the utility of EST-derived SSR markers, a total of 342 EST–SSRs, which represent a subset of over 2005 SSR-containing sequences that were located in the sugarcane EST database, could be designed from the nonredundant SSR-positive ESTs for possible use as potential genic markers. These EST–SSR markers were used to screen 18 sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) varieties. A high proportion (65.5%) of the above EST–SSRs, which gave amplified fragments of foreseen size, detected polymorphism. The number of alleles ranged from 2 to 24 with an average of 7.55 alleles per locus, while polymorphism information content values ranged from 0.16 to 0.94, with an average of 0.73. The ability of each set of EST–SSR markers to discriminate between varieties was generally higher than the polymorphism information content analysis. When tested for functionality, 82.1% of these 224 EST–SSRs were found to be functional, showing homology to known genes. As the EST–SSRs are within the expressed portion of the genome, they are likely to be associated to a particular gene of interest, improving their utility for genetic mapping; identification of quantitative trait loci, and comparative genomics studies of sugarcane. The development of new EST–SSR markers will have important implications for the genetic analysis and exploitation of the genetic resources of sugarcane and related species and will provide a more direct estimate of functional diversity522191209CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPsem informação0181-05602/01167-1; 02/00197-4; 01/14656; 04/10596-