A CRITICAL PERCEPTION ON GENETIC MANIPULATION TECHNIQUES

Since its beginning agriculture has achieved considerable progress mainly becauseof the development of Genetics and corresponding applications on genetic manipulationtechniques. Almost all improvement obtained so far has been due to the so-called conventionaltechniques. Modern Biotechnology contributed to new techniques to further increase geneticmanipulation. Cultivated area of transgenic plants is being increased worldwide annually althoughstill facing strong opposition from some institutions. However, it is becoming increasingly moreevident that transgenics are as safe as or safer than corresponding non-transgenic counterparts.In this regard, transgenics should be considered a complement to conventionally improvedvarieties. The complexity to obtain transgenics, together with the slowness to reach approvalby biosafety commissions, lead to a considerable delay in the effective utilization of these materialsto society. Although biotechnology techniques represent an important contribution to theincorporation of desirable characteristics into cultivars, conventional techniques, especially theavailable schemes of recurrent selection with proved efficiency, still present a great potencial tobe explored in maize breeding

Agricultura sustentável nos trópicos

Sustainable agriculture should involve the successful management for resources to satisfy changing human needs while maintaining or enhancing the quality of the environment and conserving natural resources. Since ten thousands years ago agriculture developed to several phases, attaining at present an extraordinary efficiency, thanks to the employment of scientific advances. Tropical agriculture presents more problems of higher complexity in comparison to those of temperate climates. In spite of the limitations, tropical Brazilian agriculture is better developed regarding the tropical world in general. Promising new advances are expected from technical innovations, such as Biotechnology.A Agricultura sustentável deve envolver o manejo eficiente dos recursos disponíveis para satisfazer às crescentes aspirações de uma também crescente população, mantendo ou melhorando a qualidade do ambiente e conservando os recursos naturais. Tendo surgido há dez mil anos, a agricultura passou por várias fases, atingindo no presente uma eficiência sem precedentes graças ao emprego racional dos avanços científicos. A agricultura tropical enfrenta mais problemas, que são também mais complexos do que aqueles que ocorrem nos climas temperados. Apesar das limitações, o Brasil tem a agricultura tropical mais desenvolvida. Progressos subseqüentes são esperados com o emprego de técnicas inovadoras, como a Biotecnologia

Nitrate Reductase And Glutamine Synthetase Activities In S1 Endogamic Families Of The Maize Populations Sol Da Manhã Nf And Catetão

The possibility of improving nitrogen use efficiency in maize was investigated using S1 endogamic families of the populations Sol da Manhã NF and Catetão. A simple 10 × 10 lattice design was adopted and the trials carried out at the experimental field of MITLA AGRÍCOLA LTDA, in Uberlândia, State of Minas Gerais, during the 1994/95 planting season. Based on grain production figures, the three best and three worst performing S1 endogamic families were selected for this study. These were pooled to form four sub-populations denominated NFB, NFR (the best and worst families, respectively, of the Sol da Manhã NF variety), CATB and CATR (the best and worst families, respectively, of the Catetão variety). Each of these sub-populations was evaluated under greenhouse conditions. The experimental design was factorial with treatments arranged in randomized blocks. Sample replicates consisted of pots with four plants. Feeding with modified Hoagland's nutrient solution began on the seventh day after sowing. The study involved four nitrogen regimes, where varying proportions of NO3 - and NH4 + were formulated, such that the nutrient solution contained the following mixtures: 75% NO3 -: 25% NH4 +; 25% NO3 -: 75% NH4 +; 50% NO3 -: 50% NH4 + (all high N mixtures) and 5% NO3 -: 5% NH4 + (low N mixture). Twenty-five days after planting, the activities of the enzymes nitrate reductase and glutamine synthetase (transferase and synthetase assays) were determined for the leaves using the third topmost expanded leaf of the four plants in each pot. The data show that glutamine synthetase (transferase assay) and nitrate reductase activities were efficient in discriminating the S1 endogamic families and could therefore be useful biochemical parameters in breeding programs seeking nitrogen use efficiency.13188102Alfoldi, Z., Pinter, L., Feil, B., Accumulation and partitioning of biomass and soluble carbohydrates in maize seedlings as affected by source of nitrogen, nitrogen concentration and cultivar (1992) Journal of Plant Nutrition, 15, pp. 2567-2583Balko, L.G., Russel, W.A., Effects of rates of nitrogen fertilizer on maize inbred lines and hybrid progeny-I. Prediction of yield response (1980) Maydica, 25, pp. 65-79Balko, L.G., Russel, W.A., Effects of rates of nitrogen fertilizer on maize inbred lines and hybrid progeny. II. Correlations among agronomic traits (1980) Maydica, 25, pp. 81-94Bänziger, M., Lafitte, H.R., Edmeades, G.O., Intergenotypic competition during evaluation of maize progenies under limited and adequate N supply (1995) Field Crops Research, 44, pp. 25-31Below, F.E., Gentry, L.E., Maize productivity as influenced by mixed nitrogen supplied before or after anthesis (1992) Crop Science, 32, pp. 163-168Beuchamp, E.G., Kannenberg, L.W., Hunter, R.B., Nitrogen accumulation and translocation in crop genotypes following silking (1976) Agronomy Journal, 68, pp. 418-422Cacco, G., Ferrari, G., Saccomani, M., Genetic variability of the efficiency of nutrient utilization by maize (Zea mays L.) (1983) Genetic aspects of plant nutrition, pp. 435-439. , SARIC, M.R. & LAUGHMAN, B.C. (Eds.) Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The HagueChevalier, P., Schrader, L.E., Genotypic differences in nitrate absorption and partitioning of N among plant parts in maize (1977) Crop Science, 17, pp. 897-901Cregan, P.B., Van Berkum, P., Genetics of nitrogen metabolism and physiological/biochemical selection for increased grain crop productivity (1984) Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 67, pp. 97-111Eghball, B., Maranville, J.W., Root development and nitrogen influx of corn genotypes grown under combined water and nitrogen stress (1993) Agronomy Journal, 85, pp. 147-152Eichelberger, K.D., Lambert, R.J., Below, F.E., Hageman, R.H., Divergent phenotypic recurrent selection for nitrate reductase activity in maize. I. Selection and correlated responses (1989) Crop Science, 29, pp. 1393-1397Eichelberger, K.D., Lambert, R.J., Below, F.E., Hageman, R.H., Divergent phenotypic recurrent selection for nitrate reductase activity in maize. II. Efficient use of fertilizer nitrogen (1989) Crop Science, 29, pp. 1398-1402Feil, B., Thiraporn, R., Stamp, P., In vitro nitrate reductase activity of laboratory-grown seedlings as an indirect selection criterion for maize (1993) Crop Science, 33, pp. 1280-1286Ferguson, A.R., Sims, A.P.A., Inactivation in vivo of glutamine synthetase and NAD-specific glutamate dehydrogenase, its role in the regulation of glutamine synthesis in yeasts (1971) Journal of General Microbiology, 69, pp. 423-427Fernandes, M.S., Rossielo, O.P., Nitrogen mineral in plant physiology and plant nutrition (1995) Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, 14, pp. 111-148Gentry, L.E., Below, F.E., Maize productivity as influenced by form and availability of nitrogen (1993) Crop Science, 33, pp. 491-497Hageman, R.H., Lambert, R.J., The use of physiological traits for corn improvement (1998) Corn and Corn Improvement. 3 ed., pp. 431-461. , SPRAGUE, G.F. (Ed.) American Society of Agronomy, MadisonJackson, W.A., Volk, R.J., Morgan, M.A., Pan, W.L., Teyker, R.H., Nitrogen uptake and partitioning by roots (1986) Proceeding of the First Annual Penn State Symposium in Plant Physiology, pp. 83-104. , SHANNON, J.C.KNIEVEL, D.P. & BOYER, C.D. (Eds.) American Society of Plant Physiology, BaltimoreJelenic, D., Sukalovic, H.T., The effect of nitrogen on the activity of some enzymes of nitrogen metabolism during ontogenesis of maize kernel hybrids (1983) Genetic aspects of plant nutrition, pp. 237-242. , SARIC, M.R. & LAUGHMAN, B.C. (Eds.) Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The HagueKamprath, E.J., Moll, R.H., Rodrigues, N., Effects of nitrogen fertilization and recurrent selection on performance of hybrid population of corn (1982) Agronomy Journal, 74, pp. 955-958Lafitte, H.R., Edmeades, G.O., Improvement for tolerance to low soil nitrogen in tropical maize. I. Selection criteria (1994) Field Crops Research, 39, pp. 1-14Lafitte, H.R., Edmeades, G.O., Association between traits in tropical maize inbred lines and their hybrids under high and low soil nitrogen (1995) Maydica, 40, pp. 259-267Li, X.Z., Dawn, L.E., Clibertic, M., Oaks, A., Effect of glutamine on the induction of nitrate reductase (1995) Physiologia Plantarum, 93, pp. 740-744Machado, A.T., (1997) Perspectiva do melhoramento genético em milho (Zea mays L.) visando eficiência na utilização do nitrogênio, , Rio de Janeiro, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. 219p. Tese de DoutoradoMachado, A.T., Magalhães, J.R., Magnavaca, R., Silva, M.R., Determinação da atividade de enzimas envolvidas no metabolismo do nitrogênio em diferentes genótipos de milho (1992) Revista Brasileira de Fisiologia Vegetal, 4, pp. 45-47Machado, A.T., Magalhães, J.R., Melhoramento de milho para uso eficiente de nitrogênio sob condições de estresse (1995) Anais..., pp. 321-342. , SIMPÓSIO INTERNACIONAL SOBRE ESTRESSE AMBIENTAL: O MILHO EM PERSPECTIVA, 1992. Belo Horizonte. Sete Lagoas: EMBRAPA/CNPMSMagalhães, J.R., Huber, D.M., Growth and ammonium assimilation enzyme activity in response to nitrogen forms and pH control (1989) Journal of Plant Nutrition, 12, pp. 985-996Magalhães, J.R., Huber, D.M., Ammonium assimilation in different plant species as affected by nitrogen form and pH control in solution culture (1989) Fertilizer Research, 21, pp. 1-6Magalhães, J.R., Huber, D.M., Responses of ammonium assimilation enzymes to nitrogen treatments in different plant species (1991) Journal of Plant Nutrition, 14, pp. 175-185Magalhães, J.R., Fernandes, M.S., Absorção e metabolismo do nitrogênio sob condições de stress (1993) Anais..., pp. 249-266. , SIMPÓSIO BRASILEIRO DE NITROGÊNIO EM PLANTAS, 1., Rio de Janeiro, 1990. Rio de Janeiro: UFRRJMagalhães, J.R., Machado, A.T., Fernandes, M.S., Silveira, J.A.G., Nitrogen assimilation efficiency in maize genotypes under ammonia stress (1993) Revista Brasileira Fisiologia Vegetal, 5, pp. 163-166Magalhães, J.R., Machado, A.T., Biochemical parameters selecting maize for nitrogen assimilation efficiency under stress conditions (1995) Anais..., pp. 345-367. , SIMPÓSIO INTERNACIONAL SOBRE ESTRESSE AMBIENTAL: O MILHO EM PERSPECTIVA, 1992. Belo Horizonte. Sere Lagoas: EMBRAPA/CNPMSMolaretti, G., Bosio, M., Gentinetta, E., Motto, M., Genotypic variability for N-related traits in maize. Identification of inbred lines with high or low levels of NO3-N in the stalks (1987) Maydica, 32, pp. 309-323Moll, R.H., Kamprath, E.J., Effects of population density upon agrononic traits associated with genetic increases in yield of Zea mays L. (1977) Agronomy Journal, 69, pp. 81-85Moll, R.H., Jackson, A., Mikkelsen, A., Recurrent selection for maize grain yield: Dry matter and nitrogen accumulation and partitioning changes (1994) Crop Science, 34, pp. 874-881Mori, T.E.S., (1981) Metabolismo do nitrogênio durante a fase do desenvolvimento reprodutivo da soja, , Campinas: UNICAMP/Biologia Vegetal. 94p. Tese de MestradoMurulli, B.I., Paulsen, G.M., Improvement of nitrogen use efficiency and its relationship to other traits in maize (1981) Maydica, 26, pp. 63-73Pan, W.L., Kamprath, E.J., Moll, R.H., Jackson, W.A., Prolificacy in corn: Its effects on nitrate and ammonium uptake and utilization (1984) Soil Science Society of America Journal, 48, pp. 1101-1106Paterniani, E., Maize breeding in the tropics (1990) Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, 9, pp. 125-154Pollmer, W.G., Eberhard, D., Klein, D., Dhillon, B.S., Genetic control of nitrogen uptake and translocation in maize (1979) Crop Science, 19, pp. 82-86Reed, A.J., Below, F.E., Hageman, R.H., Grain protein accumulation and the relationship between leaf nitrate reductase and protease activities during grain development in maize (Zea mays L.) (1980) Plant Physiology, 66, pp. 1179-1183Rhodes, D., Rendon, G.A., Stewart, G.R., The control of glutamine synthetase level in Lemna minor L. (1975) Planta, 125, pp. 201-211Rizzi, E., Balconi, C., Morselli, A., Motto, M., Genotypic variation and relationships among N-related traits in maize hybrid progenies (1995) Maydica, 40, pp. 253-258Salsac, L., Chaillou, S., Morot-Gaudry, J.F., Leisant, C., Jolivet, E., Nitrate and ammonium nutrition in plants (1987) Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, 25, pp. 805-812Sherrard, J.H., Lambert, R.J., Messmer, N.J., Bellow, F.E., Hageman, H., Plant breeding for efficient plant use of nitrogen (1984) Nitrogen in Crop Production, pp. 363-378. , HAUCK, R.D. (Ed.) ASA/CSSA/SSSA, MadisonSherrard, J.H., Lambert, R.J., Below, F.E., Dunand, R.T., Messmer, M.J., Willman, M.R., Winklels, C.S., Hageman, R.H., Use of physiological traits, especially those nitrogen metabolism, for selection in maize (1986) Biochemical Basis of Plant Breeding, pp. 109-130. , NEYRA, C.D. (Ed.) Boca Raton: CRCSmiciklas, K.D., Below, F.E., Role of nitrogen form in determining yield of field-grown maize (1992) Crop Science, 32, pp. 1220-1225Sodek, L., Mecanismos bioquímicos de enchimento de grãos em leguminosas (1989) Anais..., 1989, pp. 115-121. , REUNIÃO BRASILEIRA DE FISIOLOGIA VEGETAL, 2., Piracicaba. Piracicaba: SBFV/ESALQTsai, C.Y., Huber, D.M., Glover, D.V., Warren, W.L., Relationship of N deposition to grain yield and N response of three maize hybrids (1984) Crop Science, 24, pp. 277-28

Occupations, black spatial praxis and whitopia: towards a critique of whiteness in urban studies on São Paulo

Baseado em pesquisa etnográfica, este artigo traça a equivocação controlada de trabalhador a partir da crítica da branquidade da economia política da urbanização e nos estudos urbanos paulistas. Além disso, apresenta algumas contribuições para uma produção acadêmica antibranquidade, a partir do reconhecimento das ocupações de prédio e de terra, da circulação de corpos negros na cidade e da prática da imaginação e produção de vida como práxis negra e recusa ao confinamento da brancopia.Based on ethnographic research, this article traces the controlled equivocation of worker from the critique of the whiteness of the political economy of urbanization and urban studies. This is done initially through a brief historiographical review. After that, some contributions to an anti-whiteness academic production are presented, based on the recognition of the occupation of buildings and land, the circulation of black bodies in the city and the practice of imagination and production of life as black praxis and refusal to the confinement of whitopia

Driblando o desmonte: um experimento etnográfico com agentes populares de saúde frente à pandemia de covid-19

Due to the absence of a national policy against covid-19 pandemic, popular solidarity campaigns were articulated in Brazilian peripheries, based on networks that have long articulated forms of care and through a way of life that merges conviviality and consubstantiality. These campaigns understand life and survival as inseparable: to stay alive, in this context, is to eat well, to take care of your health, to take care of yourself and others and to live in the struggle in community – dribbling the confinement to the precarity that the dismantle of the Unified Health System (SUS) produces. Based on the history and the experience of popular health agents of a solidarity campaign, I propose to recognize a link between conviviality, consubstantiality and the playing with state legibility through care, based on what activists claim as popular health. As the research was carried out with activists involved in different national territories around the campaign and in different organizational instances, the method found to make it intelligible to the reader was an ethnographic experimentation, creating a family composed by the many families and the many activists with whom I spoke throughout 2020 and 2021.Frente à ausência de uma política nacional de combate à pandemia de covid-19 foram sendo articuladas, nas periferias brasileiras, campanhas de solidariedade popular, a partir de redes que desde há muito combinam formas de cuidado e por meio de um modo de vida baseado na convivialidade e na consubstancialidade. Essas campanhas entendem a vida e a sobrevivência como indissociáveis: manter-se vivo, nessa conjuntura, é se alimentar bem, cuidar da saúde, cuidar de si e do outro e viver na luta em comunidade – driblando o confinamento à precariedade que o desmonte do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) produz. A partir da história e da experiência dos agentes populares de saúde de uma campanha de solidariedade, proponho reconhecer um vínculo entre convivialidade, consubstancialidade e a brincadeira com a legibilidade estatal por meio do cuidado, a partir do que os militantes reivindicam como saúde popular. Como a pesquisa se deu com ativistas envolvidos em distintos territórios nacionais em torno da campanha e em distintas instâncias organizativas, o método encontrado para torná-la inteligível à leitora foi uma experimentação etnográfica criando uma família composta pelas muitas famílias e pelos muitos ativistas com os quais conversei ao longo de 2020 e 2021

São Paulo cidade negra : branquidade e afrofuturismo a partir de lutas por moradia

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Departamento de Antropologia, Programa de Pós-graduação em Antropologia Social, 2019.Esta tese é uma contribuição para o debate sobre a branquidade na organização e formação da cidade de São Paulo, bem como na produção dos estudos urbanos paulistas, a partir do reconhecimento de que as relações sociais são racializadas. A tese foi feita a partir de minha pesquisa com movimentos de moradia; de minha atuação como pesquisadora no Observatório de Remoções; e do contato com uma literatura pós-colonial e feminista. Confronto a literatura consolidada sobre os estudos urbanos paulistas, gestada numa matriz essencialmente classista e branca, com o racismo que a ela subjaz, especialmente pela ausência do léxico racial. Apresento, no diálogo com ênfase em uma literatura antropológica recente e a partir de minha pesquisa etnográfica, a proposição de uma noção de espaço afrofuturista, a partir de uma crítica do arcabouço teórico-epistemológico da economia política da urbanização. Nos dois primeiros capítulos, apresento o argumento de que as relações sociais são racializadas, vinculado a uma breve revisão historiográfica sobre São Paulo e sobre a política habitacional e sua orientação de estabilização da casa negra: em quilombo, cortiço, vila operária, conjunto habitacional. Nos dois capítulos seguintes, apresento a contribuição sobre a noção afrofuturista de espaço e as mediações que as pessoas que lutam por um lugar para morar fazem ao se relacionar com a necropolítica estatal (ou a distopia da política habitacional), como as brincadeiras com a produção de (i)legibilidade do e perante o Estado. Concluo retomando os principais pontos de cada capítulo.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).This dissertation is a contribution to the debate on whiteness in the development and formation of the city of São Paulo, as well as in the urban studies, from the recognition that social relations are racialized. The dissertation was made from material from my research with movements that struggle for housing; my research work at the Observatory of Evictions (Observatório de Remoções); and readings on postcolonialism and feminism. I confront the establishment of the urban studies of São Paulo with the racism that underlies it, very much due to its essentially classist and white matrix, and due to the absence of the racial lexicon. I present, from my ethnographical research, the proposition of an afrofuturistic notion of space, rooted on a critique of the theoretical-epistemological framework of the political economy of urbanization. In the first two chapters, I present the argument that social relations are racialized, linked to a brief historiographic review of São Paulo and the housing policy and its orientation towards the stabilization of the black house: in quilombo (Brazilian maroon), cortiço, vila operária (working village), conjunto habitacional (housing complex). In the following two chapters, I present the contribution towards an afrofuturistic notion of space and the mediations that people that struggle for a place to live do when they relate to State necropolitics (or to the dystopia of the housing policy), such as playing with the production of (i)legibility of the State and towards it. I conclude by summing up the main points of each chapter

(RE)PENSANDO TERRA, CORPO E TEMPO: algumas ferramentas analíticas anti-branquidade

Este artigo apresenta algumas ferramentas analíticas para uma produção anti-branquidade, a partir de três eixos de reflexão: terra, corpo e tempo. No que diz respeito à terra, argumenta acerca da importância de considerar processos de remoção como banimento racial. Apresenta a ontologia combativa como concepção de corpo anti-branquidade. Por fim, apresenta o afrofuturismo como perspectiva de tempo confluente que reconhece a transfluência, nos termos de Bispo (2015)

Gayatri Spivak e o feminismo negro: notas para um debate

Resumo: O presente trabalho constitui-se em alguns apontamentos aproximativos entre o trabalho de Gayatri Spivak, Pode o subalterno falar? (2010) e as contribuições de Patricia Collins e bell hooks para o feminismo negro. O argumento anti-identitário e antiessencialista de Spivak, bem como o da criação de espaços de fala do subalterno, são fundamentais para o feminismo negro. Este, por sua vez, emerge enquanto crítica a um feminismo que universaliza uma experiência de mulher: branca, universitária, casada, heterossexual, de classe média e média-alta. Para contraporem a isso, hooks e Collins propõem a humanização da mulher negra, vinculando-se, portanto, como muitos autores da crítica pós-colonial, a uma tradição humanista. Palavras-chave: feminismo negro; Spivak; pós-colonial; humanismo. Resumen: Esta obra consiste en algunas notas aproximativas entre el trabajo de Gayatri Spivak, ¿Puede el subalterno hablar? y las contribuciones de Patricia Collins y bell hooks al feminismo negro. El argumento contra la identidad y anti-esencialista de Spivak, así como su outro argumento acerca de la creación de espacios de conversación donde los subalternos pueden hablar son fundamentales para el feminismo negro. Esto feminismo, a su vez, surge como un feminismo crítico de la universalización de una experiencia de la mujer: blanca, com estudios em la universidad, casada, heterosexual, de clase media y media-alta. Para contrarrestar esto, lo que hooks y Collins proponen es la humanización de las mujeres negras, lo que las vincula, por tanto, como muchos autores de la crítica poscolonial, a la tradición humanista. Palabras clave: feminismo negro; Spivak; poscolonial; humanismo. Abstract: Here are some notes that intend to bring together Gayatri Spivak's work, Can the subaltern speak? and Patricia Collins' and bell hooks' constributions to black feminism. Spivak's point, anti-identity and anti-essence, as though as her point about the creation of spaces where the subaltern can speak are fundamental to black feminism. This feminism, in its turn, emerges as critical to a feminism that universalizes one specific women's experience: white, with universitary studies, married, heterosexual, middle-class/high-class. To counteract that, what hooks and Collins propose is the humanization of the black woman, which vinculates the authors, as thought many post-colonial authors, to a humanistic tradition. Keywords: black feminism; Spivak; post-colonial; humanism