The impact of Bioversity International’s African leafy vegetables programme in Kenya

An effort by Bioversity and several partners in Kenya increased production, consumption and marketing of a wide range of African leafy vegetables (ALVs) and improved household welfare. Between 1996 and 2004, Bioversity International worked with partners in Kenya to revive the interest of researchers and ordinary people in these valuable foods. An impact assessment study showed that nearly two-thirds of households growing ALVs increased their income from ALVs, while nearly half had increased their consumption of ALVs. Bioversity was ranked as the most influential partner in promoting production and use of ALVs and in raising awareness of the value of ALVs

Matching Seeds to Needs - female farmers adapt to a changing climate in Ethiopia

Between 2010 and 2012 Bioversity International worked with partners and stakeholders in Ethiopia to develop an innovative low-cost strategy for managing risks to agricultural systems posed by the adverse effects of climate change. The objective, which the project indeed achieved, was to decrease vulnerability and enhance adaptive capacity in smallholder farming communities by increasing the intraspecific diversity of important food security crops using barley and durum wheat

Livelihood implications of in situ conservation strategies of wild fruit tree species in Uzbekistan

Throughout 2006 and 2011, Bioversity International has been promoting the conservation and use of plant genetic diversity in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF).After 2013, an impact assessment study was carried out to examine whether the tangible benefits of the Bioversity International project were transferred at the household level, with specific emphasis on Uzbekistan, selected for the country relevance in terms of household characteristics and area covered by the project.In particular, the assessment focused on the effects of the interventions in the activity areas involving the enhancement of use and consumption of target fruits, as well as of their marketing value, to improve household food security and wellbeing

Enhanced shelf-life of the formulated biocontrol agent Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CPA-8 combining diverse packaging strategies and storage conditions

Two effective biocontrol products (named as BA3 and BA4) based on Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CPA-8 have been reported as a potential alternative to chemical applications against brown rot caused by Monilinia spp. on stone fruit. To have practical use, this study aimed to describe the best packaging strategies (bags or flasks, atmosphere, and temperature of storage) to not only guarantee efficacy but also stability and ease of application of the products to be handled through the normal channels of distribution and storage. In terms of the viability neither the BA3 nor the BA4 product has been compromised after twelve months of storage. However, storage at 4 °C affected the stability and visual aspect of both CPA-8 formulations, mainly associated not only to the increase of RH but also aw. Moreover, it should be pointed out that flasks did not conserve refrigerated BA3 samples in a suitable way, since RH and aw increased noticeably making their visual properties unsightly after 10 months of cold storage. At that time, the BA4 products were better preserved at 4 °C when packaged in flasks. Finally, this study also demonstrated that the most suitable packaging conditions for long-term storability (stored at 22 °C) did not show any negative effect in the biocontrol efficacy of CPA-8 in nectarines artificially infected with M. fructicola and provide suitable product delivery and field application. In conclusion, these results contribute to the final stage of development of these two CPA-8 products, practically ready for registration, thus contributing to the environmental-friendly management of postharvest diseases in stone fruit.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Study of the enzymatic activity inhibition on the saccharification of acid pretreated corn stover

The inhibition of the enzymatic saccharification of acid pretreated corn stover (PCS) biomass due to several compounds either present in PCS or produced during saccharification has been studied. The prospective inhibitors tested were glucose ( 110 g L1 ), celobiose ( 24 g L1 ), xylose ( 50 g L1 ), arabinose ( 1.5 g L1 ), furfural ( 2gL1 ), hydroxymethylfurfural ( 1gL1 ), acetic acid ( 4gL1 ), and lignin ( 50 g L1 ). Each of these compounds was added at three different concentrations, being the concentration intervals different according to standard maximum concentrations of such compounds in the reaction medium, previously measured and described in literature. In addition, these experiments were employed to evaluate the standard error present during the evaluation of the results obtained in the inhibition reactions. Those results show that significant inhibition was only detected for lignin (more than 25 g L1 ) and it was also appreciable for glucose at high concentrations (above 75 g L1 ), although it was not remarkable at medium concentrations (40 g L1 ). On the other hand, neither of the remaining compounds tested presented any significant inhibitory effect at the usual process concentration range

Costs of tree seed and seedling supply systems. The cost of integrating genetic diversity into forest landscape restoration.

Genetic and physiological quality are crucial for the short and long-term success of restoration projects. While physiological quality has a considerable influence on both the germination rate of seedlings and the immediate vitality of the seedling after planting, genetic quality enables a planted population to adapt to a changing environment, and positively correlates with an increased resilience to pests and diseases. Moreover, genetic quality is considered to be an important prerequisite that allows seedlings to establish under prevailing conditions at the planting site and thus to avoid or decrease mortality due to maladaptation. Although there is broad consensus about the advantages of integrating genetic quality into Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR), markets often fail to offer seed of high genetic quality, resulting in genetic quality hardly being considered in current restoration projects. Besides the possible lack of appropriate guidelines or a general lack of awareness about the importance of genetic diversity, a collection strategy that prefers quantity over (genetic) quality might also be a reason for this. It may be economically feasible to collect as many seeds as possible from a few nearby trees, but the disadvantages of this strategy far outweigh the advantages. The resulting lack of genetic quality potentially leads to a (total) failure of a restoration initiatives, which ultimately entails a loss of investment and hence comes with significantly higher costs compared to the costs that were saved during collection. In order to better understand the interrelationships between costs, benefits, properties of the supply chain (e.g., vegetation cover at the planting site), and quality considerations (physical, physiological, plant health, and genetic) we developed a cost model that integrates relevant cost drivers of the tree seed and seedling supply chain into a single cost structure. By presenting a holistic view of relevant cause-effect relationships, we aim to help decision makers and practitioners to take better informed decisions and to create appropriate incentives, which are reflected, for example, in genetic quality-dependent prices for seeds. The model is based on a framework that represents important components of and interrelations within currently applied seed sourcing strategies, as well as associated costs and mechanisms to which these costs are subjected

Hydrogen sulfide: From a toxic molecule to a key molecule of cell life

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has always been considered toxic, but a huge number of articles published more recently showed the beneficial biochemical properties of its endogenous production throughout all regna. In this review, the participation of H2S in many physiological and pathological processes in animals is described, and its importance as a signaling molecule in plant systems is underlined from an evolutionary point of view. H2S quantification methods are summarized and persulfidation is described as the underlying mechanism of action in plants, animals and bacteria. This review aims to highlight the importance of its crosstalk with other signaling molecules and its fine regulation for the proper function of the cell and its survival.EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie 834120Junta de Andalucía US-125578

Photosynthetic Adaptation to Length of Day Is Dependent on S-Sulfocysteine Synthase Activity in the Thylakoid Lumen

Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) chloroplasts contain two O-acetyl-serine(thiol)lyase (OASTL) homologs, OAS-B, which is an authentic OASTL, and CS26, which has S-sulfocysteine synthase activity. In contrast with OAS-B, the loss of CS26 function resulted in dramatic phenotypic changes, which were dependent on the light treatment. We have performed a detailed characterization of the photosynthetic and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters in cs26 plants compared with those of wild-type plants under short-day growth conditions (SD) and long-day growth conditions (LD). Under LD, the photosynthetic characterization, which was based on substomatal CO2 concentrations and CO2 concentration in the chloroplast curves, revealed significant reductions in most of the photosynthetic parameters for cs26, which were unchanged under SD. These parameters included net CO2 assimilation rate, mesophyll conductance, and mitochondrial respiration at darkness. The analysis also showed that cs26 under LD required more absorbed quanta per driven electron flux and fixed CO2. The nonphotochemical quenching values suggested that in cs26 plants, the excess electrons that are not used in photochemical reactions may form reactive oxygen species. A photoinhibitory effect was confirmed by the background fluorescence signal values under LD and SD, which were higher in young leaves compared with mature ones under SD. To hypothesize the role of CS26 in relation to the photosynthetic machinery, we addressed its location inside of the chloroplast. The activity determination and localization analyses that were performed using immunoblotting indicated the presence of an active CS26 enzyme exclusively in the thylakoid lumen. This finding was reinforced by the observation of marked alterations in many lumenal proteins in the cs26 mutant compared with the wild type.Peer Reviewe