Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research in the Biosphere Reserve in Mapimi, Mexico: A Multidimensional Participatory Observatory of Rangeland/Pastoral Systems

Since the creation of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Mapimi (BRM) in Mexico 45 years ago, pastoralism has undergone a series of transformations. Upon the arrival of the Spaniards, horse breeding flourished until 1900; thereafter extensive cattle production lasted for six decades. Only recently, farmers have adopted alternative management types for organic meat production. National and international efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require basic, applied, and participatory research efforts. In the socio-ecological pastoral system BRM, first halophytic ecosystems were examined for their ecohydrological role in rangeland productivity. In 1996, a long-term ecological research site was installed to monitor the effects of herbivores on the composition and biodiversity of desert communities. Shortly thereafter, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas began a rigorous monitoring and conservation program to guarantee both the sustainable management of natural resources and the sustainable development of reserve dwellers. Soon international multisectoral institutions joined Mexican efforts to protect the natural, cultural, and social diversity of the BRM and to strengthen its socio-ecological resilience to climate change and land degradation. Hence, the BRM is currently a space of participatory monitoring and research, with emphasis on the health of this important socio-ecological pastoralist system. It is examined whether institutional programs promoting organic livestock farming are compatible with this desert system and how biological soil crust is developing as a fundamental indicator of soil functioning and the provision of ecosystem services and human wellbeing. The formation of multisectoral partnerships to foster dryland sustainability have led to the foundation of the International Network for Dryland Sustainability; it is currently coordinating a national network of participatory socio-ecological observatories (PSEOs) to promote the SDGs. Mapimi is one of the first PSEOs to promote local governance and social and ecological sustainable development in the drylands of Mexico and world-wide

Participatory Observatories to Connect Multifunctional Landscapes, Link Smallholder Farmers, and Collectively Diversify Income

Cattle ranching was introduced to Baja California, Mexico (semiarid and arid climates) by the Spaniards, who brought the animals and the techniques. One important activity was moving livestock from the mountains (forests and few kinds of grass) to the coast crossing poor shrublands known as chaparrals. Fire was a common practice to promote grass growth and pastoralists could move through the land freely. Pastoralism became a common practice when English workers built the Ensenada port and became ranching landowners. They followed the practice of livestock movement through the exorreic watersheds. Native Indians, as well as other Mexicans known as ejidatarios, who had access to communal land, and wealthy livestock managers learned the same transhumance practices. They followed them until recently when privatizing the land began fragmenting the rangeland by installing fences; besides insecure places emerged due to illegal crop production. The Guadalupe watershed in Baja California is an interesting place to study rangelands as dynamic socio-ecological systems driven by institutional changes. Its land-use history has provoked interesting questions oriented to enlighten the future of livestock and rangeland management. This talk deals with the project of a citizen\u27s observatory where results from good local land and water management practices are being compiled and presented in a portal for its out-reach. The internet site will also make available scientific papers translated into infographics to make high-quality information accessible. Before and after special techniques like keyline design, holistic management, and other locally adapted techniques are being measured by ranchers and students as a citizen science program. We think that co-monitoring and improving data availability will facilitate local decision-making and deal with the multifunctionality of future rangelands in a better way

Generation of Healthy Mice from Gene-Corrected Disease-Specific Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Using the murine model of tyrosinemia type 1 (fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase [FAH] deficiency; FAH−/− mice) as a paradigm for orphan disorders, such as hereditary metabolic liver diseases, we evaluated fibroblast-derived FAH−/−-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) as targets for gene correction in combination with the tetraploid embryo complementation method. First, after characterizing the FAH−/− iPS cell lines, we aggregated FAH−/−-iPS cells with tetraploid embryos and obtained entirely FAH−/−-iPS cell–derived mice that were viable and exhibited the phenotype of the founding FAH−/− mice. Then, we transduced FAH cDNA into the FAH−/−-iPS cells using a third-generation lentiviral vector to generate gene-corrected iPS cells. We could not detect any chromosomal alterations in these cells by high-resolution array CGH analysis, and after their aggregation with tetraploid embryos, we obtained fully iPS cell–derived healthy mice with an astonishing high efficiency for full-term development of up to 63.3%. The gene correction was validated functionally by the long-term survival and expansion of FAH-positive cells of these mice after withdrawal of the rescuing drug NTBC (2-(2-nitro-4-fluoromethylbenzoyl)-1,3-cyclohexanedione). Furthermore, our results demonstrate that both a liver-specific promoter (transthyretin, TTR)-driven FAH transgene and a strong viral promoter (from spleen focus-forming virus, SFFV)-driven FAH transgene rescued the FAH-deficiency phenotypes in the mice derived from the respective gene-corrected iPS cells. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that a lentiviral gene repair strategy does not abrogate the full pluripotent potential of fibroblast-derived iPS cells, and genetic manipulation of iPS cells in combination with tetraploid embryo aggregation provides a practical and rapid approach to evaluate the efficacy of gene correction of human diseases in mouse models