Challenges in measuring indicators of progress for the Atlantic Action Plan

The EU Atlantic Action Plan (AAP) has recently been updated and revised to support ‘blue growth’ along Europe’s western coastal regions. The revisions reflect recent challenges facing the Atlantic Arc maritime economies including the Covid-19 crisis, Brexit and the new requirements of the European Green Deal. This new revision, termed AAP 2.0, also addresses some of the weaknesses highlighted in the original Atlantic Action Plan particularly regarding identifying indicators that may be used to measure progress in the achievement of the Plan’s objectives. Using a database with comparable marine socio-economic data across the Atlantic regions, a number of indicators are identified that may be used to monitor progress of the AAP 2.0. Recent trends and spatial distributions across the Atlantic Arc region are shown for these indicators. The challenges in measuring progress are also highlighted, including where some AAP objectives and associated indicators may conflict with other EU policy aims and where the current monitoring framework can be bolstered with the inclusion of new indicators

Challenges in measuring indicators of progress for the Atlantic Action Plan

The EU Atlantic Action Plan (AAP) has recently been updated and revised to support ‘blue growth’ along Europe’s western coastal regions. The revisions reflect recent challenges facing the Atlantic Arc maritime economies including the Covid-19 crisis, Brexit and the new requirements of the European Green Deal. This new revision, termed AAP 2.0, also addresses some of the weaknesses highlighted in the original Atlantic Action Plan particularly regarding identifying indicators that may be used to measure progress in the achievement of the Plan’s objectives. Using a database with comparable marine socio-economic data across the Atlantic regions, a number of indicators are identified that may be used to monitor progress of the AAP 2.0. Recent trends and spatial distributions across the Atlantic Arc region are shown for these indicators. The challenges in measuring progress are also highlighted, including where some AAP objectives and associated indicators may conflict with other EU policy aims and where the current monitoring framework can be bolstered with the inclusion of new indicators

Loss and retention of resistance genes in five species of the Brassicaceae family

Background: Plants have evolved disease resistance (R) genes encoding for nucleotide-binding site (NB) and leucine-rich repeat (LRR) proteins with N-terminals represented by either Toll/Interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) or coiled-coil (CC) domains. Here, a genome-wide study of presence and diversification of CC-NB-LRR and TIR-NB-LRR encoding genes, and shorter domain combinations in 19 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions and Arabidopsis lyrata, Capsella rubella, Brassica rapa and Eutrema salsugineum are presented.Results: Out of 528 R genes analyzed, 12 CC-NB-LRR and 17 TIR-NB-LRR genes were conserved among the 19 A. thaliana genotypes, while only two CC-NB-LRRs, including ZAR1, and three TIR-NB-LRRs were conserved when comparing the five species. The RESISTANCE TO LEPTOSPHAERIA MACULANS 1 (RLM1) locus confers resistance to the Brassica pathogen L. maculans the causal agent of blackleg disease and has undergone conservation and diversification events particularly in B. rapa. On the contrary, the RLM3 locus important in the immune response towards Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria spp. has recently evolved in the Arabidopsis genus.Conclusion: Our genome-wide analysis of the R gene repertoire revealed a large sequence variation in the 23 cruciferous genomes. The data provides further insights into evolutionary processes impacting this important gene family