Biotechnology in Agricultural Policies of Sub-Saharan Africa

The agricultural policy environment in sub-Saharan Africa in the last 15 years has been erratic, especially with regard to adoption of biotechnology. While many biotech products such as tissue culture (TC) banana, hybrid maize, and others are now frequent at farm level, the adoption of some of the technologies remains relatively low, partly due to political and regulatory bottlenecks that have hampered farm deployment and entry into market systems of genetically engineered crops and products. This chapter reviews the political landscape of biotech crops across sub-Saharan Africa; analyses the state of enabling policy environment in key countries; discusses the impact of push-pull factors on food security, research, and training; and identifies the opportunities for investment in biotechnology and agribusiness in sub-Saharan Africa

Establishing African genomics and bioinformatics programs through annual regional workshops

The African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) Open Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics aims to overcome barriers to capacity building through its distributed African regional workshops and prioritizes the exchange of grassroots knowledge and innovation in biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics. In 2023, we implemented 28 workshops on biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics, covering 11 African countries across the 5 African geographical regions. These regional workshops trained 408 African scientists in hands-on molecular biology, genomics and bioinformatics techniques as well as the ethical, legal and social issues associated with acquiring genetic resources. Here, we discuss the implementation of transformative strategies, such as expanding the regional workshop model of AfricaBP to involve multiple countries, institutions and partners, including the proposed creation of an African digital database with sequence information relating to both biodiversity and agriculture. This will ultimately help create a critical mass of skilled genomics and bioinformatics scientists across Africa.</p

A pragmatic approach for integrating molecular tools into biodiversity conservation

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The data availability statement does not apply for this article.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL : TABLE S1. Case studies in which genetic data are being used to inform conservation.Molecular tools are increasingly applied for assessing and monitoring biodiversity and informing conservation action. While recent developments in genetic and genomic methods provide greater sensitivity in analysis and the capacity to address new questions, they are not equally available to all practitioners: There is considerable bias across institutions and countries in access to technologies, funding, and training. Consequently, in many cases, more accessible traditional genetic data (e.g., microsatellites) are still utilized for making conservation decisions. Conservation approaches need to be pragmatic by tackling clearly defined management questions and using the most appropriate methods available, while maximizing the use of limited resources. Here we present some key questions to consider when applying the molecular toolbox for accessible and actionable conservation management. Finally, we highlight a number of important steps to be addressed in a collaborative way, which can facilitate the broad integration of molecular data into conservation.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/csp2hj2024BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologySDG-15:Life on lan

A pragmatic approach for integrating molecular tools into biodiversity conservation

Molecular tools are increasingly applied for assessing and monitoring biodiversity and informing conservation action. While recent developments in genetic and genomic methods provide greater sensitivity in analysis and the capacity to address new questions, they are not equally available to all practitioners: There is considerable bias across institutions and countries in access to technologies, funding, and training. Consequently, in many cases, more accessible traditional genetic data (e.g., microsatellites) are still utilized for making conservation decisions. Conservation approaches need to be pragmatic by tackling clearly defined management questions and using the most appropriate methods available, while maximizing the use of limited resources. Here we present some key questions to consider when applying the molecular toolbox for accessible and actionable conservation management. Finally, we highlight a number of important steps to be addressed in a collaborative way, which can facilitate the broad integration of molecular data into conservation

The ECOUTER methodology for stakeholder engagement in translational research.

BACKGROUND: Because no single person or group holds knowledge about all aspects of research, mechanisms are needed to support knowledge exchange and engagement. Expertise in the research setting necessarily includes scientific and methodological expertise, but also expertise gained through the experience of participating in research and/or being a recipient of research outcomes (as a patient or member of the public). Engagement is, by its nature, reciprocal and relational: the process of engaging research participants, patients, citizens and others (the many 'publics' of engagement) brings them closer to the research but also brings the research closer to them. When translating research into practice, engaging the public and other stakeholders is explicitly intended to make the outcomes of translation relevant to its constituency of users. METHODS: In practice, engagement faces numerous challenges and is often time-consuming, expensive and 'thorny' work. We explore the epistemic and ontological considerations and implications of four common critiques of engagement methodologies that contest: representativeness, communication and articulation, impacts and outcome, and democracy. The ECOUTER (Employing COnceptUal schema for policy and Translation Engagement in Research) methodology addresses problems of representation and epistemic foundationalism using a methodology that asks, "How could it be otherwise?" ECOUTER affords the possibility of engagement where spatial and temporal constraints are present, relying on saturation as a method of 'keeping open' the possible considerations that might emerge and including reflexive use of qualitative analytic methods. RESULTS: This paper describes the ECOUTER process, focusing on one worked example and detailing lessons learned from four other pilots. ECOUTER uses mind-mapping techniques to 'open up' engagement, iteratively and organically. ECOUTER aims to balance the breadth, accessibility and user-determination of the scope of engagement. An ECOUTER exercise comprises four stages: (1) engagement and knowledge exchange; (2) analysis of mindmap contributions; (3) development of a conceptual schema (i.e. a map of concepts and their relationship); and (4) feedback, refinement and development of recommendations. CONCLUSION: ECOUTER refuses fixed truths but also refuses a fixed nature. Its promise lies in its flexibility, adaptability and openness. ECOUTER will be formed and re-formed by the needs and creativity of those who use it

Phylogenetics in plant biotechnology: principles, obstacles and oppportunities for the resource poor

Phylogenetic inference has become routine for most studies of genetic variation among plant taxa. However, inferring phylogenies can be confounded by both biological and computational or statistical complexities, resulting in misleading evolutionary hypotheses. This is particularly critical because the “true tree” can only truly be known in exceptional circumstances. Moreover, selecting appropriate marker(s), characters, sample sizes and the appropriate reconstruction methods offers a challenge to most evolutionary geneticists. Textbooks are generic (and sometimes outdated), and in resource poor labs, they may altogether be inaccessible. In this review, we take the worker through the low-down on reconstructing a phylogeny, review the enigmatic biological and computational problems, and examine cases where cheaper markers and extremely small sample sizes can recover a reliable phylogeny

DNA Evidence for a Population Bottleneck in Lake Victoria Nile perch

A recent decline in Nile perch abundance in Lake Victoria is of concern to the fishing industry. To determine if this decline threatens the persistence of Nile perch, we quantified the level of genetic variation and the structure of its populations. Samples of Nile perch from lakes Victoria and Turkana were characterized by a single haplotype, while those from Lake Albert exhibited two haplotypes varying in a single T-C transition. Variation across the seven microsatellites was low with allelic richness ranging from 2.6 to 3.3. Bayesian analysis of genetic structure showed all samples belong to one population, consistent with a low genetic differentiation (FST = 0.054; p ≥ 0.05). Patterns of allelic distribution and heterozygote excess suggested a recent population bottleneck. Such species are either threatened or endangered based on their low genetic diversity, lack of genetic differentiation among populations, molecular signatures of recent bottleneck, and reduced census.Keywords: Genetic bottleneck, Genetic variation and structure, Genotyping Sequence analysi

Nuclear ribosomal pseudogenes resolve a corroborated monophyly of the eucalypt genus Corymbia despite misleading hypotheses at functional ITS paralogs

Divergent paralogs can create both obstacles and opportunities for phylogenetic reconstruction. Phylogenetic relationships among eucalypt genera have been incongruent among datasets in previous studies, where morphological characters supported monophyly of the genus Corymbia, while intergenic spacers of the nuclear ribosomes (ITS) and chloroplast loci (trnL, trnH, psbA) showed Corymbia as either equivocal or paraphyletic. Ribosomal DNA occurs in multiple copies in a genome. We cloned and sequenced the nrITS to investigate if gene duplication was the cause of incongruence among trees in the eucalypts. Three ITS riboforms, two of them widespread, were recovered within some genomes. One of the ITS riboforms recovered a robust phylogeny showing Corymbia as a monophyletic genus, corroborating the evidence from morphology, fossil data, a recent ITS/ETS dataset and microsatellites (SSRs). Compelling evidence suggested that this divergent riboform is a pseudogene, i.e., non-functional paralog: comparatively lower GC content suggesting lower structural stability, deamination-like mutations at potential methylation sites, lack of conserved helices and hairpins and conspicuously lower thermodynamic stability in secondary structures. Phylogenies from the apparently functional riboform retained Corymbia as paraphyletic. We show here that pseudogenes can recover a well-corroborated phylogeny whereas their functional paralogs show misleading hypotheses. We explain that phylogenetic signals may be obscured when functional constraints in ITS necessitate compensatory mutations in the secondary structure helices involved in RNA transcription, whereas pseudogenes mutate under neutrality. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved