Two old crocs Steneosaurus, Metriorhynchus and relatives

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A global surveillance system for crop diseases: Global preparedness minimizes the risk to food supplies

To satisfy growing demand for food, global agricultural production must in-crease by 70% by 2050. However, pests and crop diseases put global food supplies at risk. Worldwide, yield losses caused by pests and diseases are estimated to aver-age 21.5% in wheat, 30.0% in rice, 22.6% in maize, 17.2% in potato, and 21.4% in soybean [1]; these crops account for half of the global human calorie intake [2]. Climate change and global trade drive the distribution, host range, and impact of plant diseases [3], many of which can spread or re-emerge after having been under control [4] (see photo). Though many national and regional plant protec-tion organizations (NPPOs and RPPOs) work to monitor and contain crop disease outbreaks, many countries, particularly low-income countries (LIC) do not effi-ciently exchange information, delaying coordinated responses to prevent disease establishment and spread. To improve re-sponses to unexpected crop disease spread, we propose a Global Surveillance System (GSS) that will extend and adapt established biosecurity practices and networking facilities into LIC, enabling countries and regions to quickly respond to emerging disease outbreaks to stabilize food supplies, enhancing global food pro-tection

Distinctive features of the Gac‐Rsm

Productive plant–bacteria interactions, either beneficial or pathogenic, require that bacteria successfully sense, integrate and respond to continuously changing environmental and plant stimuli. They use complex signal transduction systems that control a vast array of genes and functions. The Gac-Rsm global regulatory pathway plays a key role in controlling fundamental aspects of the apparently different lifestyles of plant beneficial and phytopathogenic Pseudomonas as it coordinates adaptation and survival while either promoting plant health (biocontrol strains) or causing disease (pathogenic strains). Plant-interacting Pseudomonas stand out for possessing multiple Rsm proteins and Rsm RNAs, but the physiological significance of this redundancy is not yet clear. Strikingly, the components of the Gac-Rsm pathway and the controlled genes/pathways are similar, but the outcome of its regulation may be opposite. Therefore, identifying the target mRNAs bound by the Rsm proteins and their mode of action (repression or activation) is essential to explain the resulting phenotype. Some technical considerations to approach the study of this system are also given. Overall, several important features of the Gac-Rsm cascade are now understood in molecular detail, particularly in Pseudomonas protegens CHA0, but further questions remain to be solved in other plant-interacting Pseudomonas.This research was supported by grants BIO2014-55075-P and BIO2017-83533-P from the ERDF/Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities - State Research Agency. M.D.F. was supported by a FPU contract from the Spanish MECD/MEFP (ECD/1619/2013)