Mobilizing agro-biodiversity and social networks to cope with adverse effects of climate and social changes: experiences from Kitui, Kenya

Poster presented at 13th Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology. Montpellier (France), 20-25 May 201

Standard operating procedures for sweetpotato breeding data management. COP Breeding Data Management SweetGAINS

Current modernization efforts of sweetpotato breeding operations in Africa establish a new mindset. A modern sweetpotato breeding program continuously generates vast amounts of data on which it depends for all decision making throughout the program. Without a proper systematization of efforts, it is likely that significant mistakes can be unwillingly made, which would impact in a negative manner both genetic gains and the adoption of new varieties by smallholders. This document describes standard operating procedures (SOPs) for implementing breeding data workflows to ensure that all necessary breeding data are recorded appropriately and made easily accessible. This document needs to be considered as an alive one, as through its ensuing iterations additional SOPs will be added, and the current ones would be modified to reflect the learnings acquired. The data management SOPs in this volume cover the following key sweetpotato breeding data workflows: phenotyping, crossing, quality assessment, germplasm management, and DNA sample management. A relational database, SPBase (www.sweetpotatobase.org)1, plays a central role as a breeding data management system across workflows. Several other digital tools have been developed to connect to SPBase to facilitate recording and uploading different types of data

Progress in developing a sweetpotato ontology for breeders

Crop ontologies have been identified under the Generation Challenge Program and at the International Potato Center (CIP) as a crucial tool for managing and analyzing crop related information. Here we report progress on applying ontological concepts on sweetpotato traits important for breeders and varietal development. We defined a general strategy of identifying important traits based on their re-use in catalogs and experience in usage. A list of about 40 descriptors was identified, including 17 morphological and 22 evaluation traits. Those traits were crosschecked against other crop-ontologies (cassava, barley, maize, solanaceae) on the community site ‘crop ontology’ for consistency. Where appropriate, we annotated linkages. The current draft list of traits is still work-in-progress and subject to further review and refinement. This will include completion of traits, further consistency checks and translation before depositing on the crop-ontology site. The 39 descriptors include morphological (17), agronomical (3), resistance (4), biochemical (11) and post-harvest (4) traits

Internacionalización del profesional Químico Farmacéutico

La Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, viene formando profesionales Químico Farmacéuticos desde finales del siglo XIX; primero desde la Escuela de Medicina hasta casi la mitad del siglo XX, cuando en 1943 la antigua escuela pasa a ser la Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Desde entonces, varias decenas de promociones han egresado y sus integrantes han logrado ocupar importantes espacios laborales, académicos y científicos con singular éxito, gracias a la formación renovada y sustentada en los avances científicos y tecnológicos, a lo que se ha sumado la experiencia laboral de quienes ejercieron la docencia universitaria y de los actuales profesores

The xylanolytic enzyme system from the genus Penicillium

Indexación: ScopusIn nature, there are numerous microorganisms that efficiently degrade xylan, a major component of lignocellulose. In particular, filamentous fungi have demonstrated a great capability for secreting a wide range of xylanases, being the genus Aspergillus and Trichoderma the most extensively studied and reviewed among the xylan-producing fungi. However, an important amount of information about the production and genetics of xylanases from fungi of the genus Penicillium has accumulated in recent years. A great number of Penicillia are active producers of xylanolytic enzymes, and the use of xylanases from these species has acquired growing importance in biotechnological applications. This review summarizes our current knowledge about the properties, genetics, expression and biotechnological potential of xylanases from the genus Penicillium.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168165606000824?via%3Dihu

Procedures for standard evaluation and data management of advanced potato clones. Summary guide to selecting potato clones for drought tolerance under field conditions international cooperators’ guide

Drought stress is a multidimensional stress and generally leads to changes in the physiological, morphological, ecological, biochemical, and molecular traits of plants (Farooq et al., 2009). In addition, it can negatively affect the quantity and quality of plant growth and yield (Zlatev and Lidon, 2012). Many plants have developed resistance mechanisms to tolerate drought stress, but these mechanisms are varied and depend on plant species (Hossain et al., 2016). There are several options for drought tolerance mechanisms in plants, including developmental, physiological, morphological, ecological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms. Typically, the mechanisms involved in plant tolerance to drought follow a general plan: maintaining cell water homeostasis under drought conditions (Hossain et al., 2016). Impact of abiotic stresses on potato production will increase over the next decades, due to climate change and the extension of potato cultivation under drought/heat conditions (Hijmanns, 2003) since potato is extremely susceptible to drought (Monneveux et al., 2013). Plant adaptation to drought involves several different morphological and physiological characteristics; however, no specific traits have been reported since drought responses change according to plant genotype and growth stage. Stem height, number of green leaves and leaf length are considered to be the parameters most sensitive to moderate drought conditions (Deblonde and Ledent, 2001); however, these traits have shown inconsistency in many cases. In the present protocol, a selection of traits is shown as a result of previous experiments and exhaustive data analysis at the International Potato Center

The use of indigenous knowledge in development: problems and challenges

The use of indigenous knowledge has been seen by many as an alternative way of promoting development in poor rural communities in many parts of the world. By reviewing much of the recent work on indigenous knowledge, the paper suggests that a number of problems and tensions has resulted in indigenous knowledge not being as useful as hoped for or supposed. These include problems emanating from a focus on the (arte)factual; binary tensions between western science and indigenous knowledge systems; the problem of differentiation and power relations; the romanticization of indigenous knowledge; and the all too frequent decontextualization of indigenous knowledge

Indicators of resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes (SEPLs)

The following policy report constitutes an important supplement to a set of 20 indicators for resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes (SEPLs) that was developed over the course of joint collaboration between Bioversity International and the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS). The indicators were disseminated widely in pamphlet form for the first time in March 2012. Subsequently, a need was identified for sharing a more in-depth overview of the considerations that went into creating this list of indicators as well as the outcomes of initial field-testing