Relearning old lessons for the future of food—by bread alone no longer: diversifying diets with fruit and vegetables

Diversifying diets and agricultural enterprises with fruit and vegetables is a potent weapon in the current global battle against malnutrition and poverty. Agricultural science can contribute substantially to enhance the development prospects and health of not only disadvantaged and vulnerable individuals at one end of the spectrum but also the growth and equity of national economies at the other. Moreover, with relatively simple applied research, new crop species and technologies can rapidly enter the development pathway to benefi t even the poorest people or nations. More upstream research can help to guard fruit and vegetable production against the vagaries of potential climatic uncertainty, which is projected to become more prominent over future decades. However, historical and continuing widespread underinvestment in fruit and vegetable research and development from the national to the global level may severely compromise the world’s ability to use such highvalue species for crop diversifi cation and as a major engine of development growth to ensure global food and nutritional security

Preserving the Future of Vegetable Improvement

Diverse and readily accessible genetic resources are vital for any crop improvement program oriented toward high and stable yields and specific consumer preferences to finally contribute to food security and a diverse diet for the ever increasing global population. Molecular tools to identify and use genes responsible for specific traits in gene bank accessions of wild and cultivated species have great potential to enhance germplasm utilization and to shorten breeding cycles. Complementary approaches of in situ and ex situ conservation are used to preserve germplasm for improvement programs. AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center conserves approximately 56,000 accessions and is therefore the world’s most important gene bank for vegetable crops. More than 35,000 samples of regular and improved vegetable germplasm have been distributed over the last 10 years to a range of users in the public and private sectors. Another 10,000 samples have been used by the Center’s scientists for their research. After extensive screening and breeding efforts, five anthracnose-resistant pepper lines have been released by the Center. Similarly, Solanum pimpinellifolium, a wild tomato species is being used to develop resistant varieties against bacterial wilt. Resistance against the damage from aphids was detected in Capsicum annuum accessions from Costa Rica. Moderate to highly resistant lines to bruchid, a destructive storage insect pest of mungbean resulted from extensive screening trials at the Asian Regional Center. The AVRDC Vegetable Genetic Resources Information System (AVGRIS) provides direct access to information pertaining to the accessions in the gene bank to all potential users through the internet. To secure the future of variety improvement programs of staple crops including fruits and vegetables, gene bank capacities for medium to long-term conservation, germplasm characterization and evaluation, and information exchange need to be given priority attention

Morphological and cellular aspects of tail and limb regeneration in lizards: a model system with implications for tissue regeneration in mammals

The present Review summarizes studies on the process of tissue regeneration of lizards, intended as amodel to understand the process of regeneration in amniote