Plant genetic resources for agriculture, plant breeding, and biotechnology: Experiences from Cameroon, Kenya, the Philippines, and Venezuela

"Local farming communities throughout the world face binding productivity constraints, diverse nutritional needs, environmental concerns, and significant economic and financial pressures. Developing countries address these challenges in different ways, including public and private sector investments in plant breeding and other modern tools for genetic crop improvement. In order to measure the impact of any technology and prioritize investments, we must assess the relevant resources, human capacity, clusters, networks and linkages, as well as the institutions performing technological research and development, and the rate of farmer adoption. However, such measures have not been recently assessed, in part due to the lack of complete standardized information on public plant breeding and biotechnology research in developing countries. To tackle this void, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in consultation with the International Food Policy Institute (IFPRI) and other organizations, designed a plant breeding and biotechnology capacity survey for implementation by FAO consultants in 100 developing countries. IFPRI, in collaboration with FAO and national experts contracted by FAO to complete in-country surveys, identified and analyzed plant breeding and biotechnology programs in four developing countries: Cameroon, Kenya, the Philippines, and Venezuela. Here, we use an innovation systems framework to examine the investments in human and financial resources and the distribution of resources among the different programs, as well as the capacity and policy development for agricultural research in the four selected countries. Based on our findings, we present recommendations to help sustain and increase the efficiency of publicly- and privately-funded plant breeding programs, while maximizing the use of genetic resources and developing opportunities for GM crop production. Policy makers, private sector breeders, and other stakeholders can use this information to prioritize investments, consider product advancement, and assess the relative magnitude of the potential risks and benefits of their investments." from Author's Abstractplant breeding, biotechnology, public research, Funding, Innovation systems, Capacity building, Biosafety,

Yield and Response of First and Ratoon Crops of Eggplant (Solanum melongena) to the Eggplant Fruit and Shoot Borer (Leucinodes orbonalis) under an Integrated Pest Management System

Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is a highly valued crop with an average production of 10 t·ha–1 and contributes to nearly PhP2 billion in the Philippine economy using conventional farming methods. An integrated pest management system was designed to control the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB) for increased productivity with reduction on harmful pesticide inputs. Under a split plot in randomized complete block design, two eggplant varieties, i.e., hybrid Banate King F1 (BK) and open-pollinated Dumaguete Long Purple (DLP), were tested under four different pesticide treatments, namely, (1) control–no pesticide, (2) organic–Bird’s chilli extract, (3) synthetic–spinosad + flubendiamide, and (4) combination–Bird’s chilli extract + spinosad + flubendiamide. After data was obtained, the first crops were ratooned and tested under the same IPM system. Data on yield and EFSB damage of the ratoon crops were compared with the first crop as influenced by eggplant variety and pesticide treatment. All plants were grown on plots covered with polyethylene mulch sheets under a uniform fertilization and fungicide regimen. Multiple cropping with regular field sanitation and inspection were also incorporated in the IPM system. Results indicate that BK is a superior variety over DLP with a gross yield of about 40 t·ha–1 and a marketable yield of about 20 t·ha–1 in 22 harvests. Ratoon crops produced lower yield than first crops with only 2 t·ha–1 in 12 harvests. Among the pesticide treatments, synthetic or combination treatments are superior over the control (no pesticide) or organic treatments. Use of open-pollinated DLP and chilli spray is inferior to hybrid and synthetic or combination sprays. Chilli spray also tends to nullify the effectiveness of synthetic pesticides when used in combination. The designed IPM system produced higher yield than conventional methods, but all treatments only provided moderate control over EFSB damage with average yield losses of about 50% in first crops and about 60% in ratoon crops

Multilateral benefit-sharing from digital sequence information will support both science and biodiversity conservation

Open access to sequence data is a cornerstone of biology and biodiversity research, but has created tension under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Policy decisions could compromise research and development, unless a practical multilateral solution is implemented

Identification of QTLs conferring resistance to downy mildews of maize in Asia

Downy mildew is one of the most destructive diseases of maize in subtropical and tropical regions in Asia. As a prerequisite for improving downy mildew resistance in maize, we analyzed quantitative trait loci (QTLs) involved in resistance to the important downy mildew pathogens – Peronosclerospora sorghi (sorghum downy mildew) and P. heteropogoni (Rajasthan downy mildew) in India, P. maydis (Java downy mildew) in Indonesia, P. zeae in Thailand and P. philippinensis in the Philippines – using a recombinant inbred line population derived from a cross between Ki3 (downy mildew resistant) and CML139 (susceptible). Resistance was evaluated as percentage disease incidence in replicated field trials at five downy mildew 'hotspots' in the four countries. Heritability estimates of individual environments ranged from 0.58 to 0.75 with an across environment heritability of 0.50. Composite interval mapping was applied for QTL detection using a previously constructed restriction fragment length polymorphism linkage map. The investigation resulted in the identification of six genomic regions on chromosomes 1, 2, 6, 7 and 10 involved in the resistance to the downy mildews under study, explaining, in total, 26–57% of the phenotypic variance for disease response. Most QTL alleles conferring resistance to the downy mildews were from Ki3. All QTLs showed significant QTL × environment interactions, suggesting that the expression of the QTL may be environment-dependent. A strong QTL on chromosome 6 was stable across environments, significantly affecting disease resistance at the five locations in four Asian countries. Simple-sequence repeat markers tightly linked to this QTL were identified for potential use in marker-assisted selection

Multilateral benefit-sharing from digital sequence information will support both science and biodiversity conservation

Open access to sequence data is a cornerstone of biology and biodiversity research, but has created tension under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Policy decisions could compromise research and development, unless a practical multilateral solution is implemented.This workwas funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) WiLDSI 031B0862 (A.H.S., J.O., and J.F.) and Horizon Europe EVA-GLOBAL 871029 (A.H.S.). I.K.M. was supported by the National Center for Biotechnology Information of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health

Re-Shape: A Method to Teach Data Ethics for Data Science Education

Data has become central to the technologies and services that human-computer interaction (HCI) designers make, and the ethical use of data in and through these technologies should be given critical attention throughout the design process. However, there is little research on ethics education in computer science that explicitly addresses data ethics. We present and analyze Re-Shape, a method to teach students about the ethical implications of data collection and use. Re-Shape, as part of an educational environment, builds upon the idea of cultivating care and allows students to collect, process, and visualizetheir physical movement data in ways that support critical reflection and coordinated classroom activities about data, data privacy, and human-centered systems for data science. We also use a case study of Re-Shape in an undergraduate computer science course to explore prospects and limitations of instructional designs and educational technology such as Re-Shape that leverage personal data to teach data ethics

Legume Genomics and Breeding

This chapter contains sections titled; Introduction; Constraints in Crop Production; Genomic Resources in Legumes;Trait Mapping and Marker-Assisted Selection; Summary and Prospects; Acknowledgments; Literature Cite