Editorial: Translational research for cucurbit molecular breeding: Traits, markers, and genes

Cucurbits (family Cucurbitaceae) are economically important vegetable crops. Major cucurbits growing globally include cucumber, melon, watermelon, and squash/pumpkin. Other cucurbits like bitter melon, bottle gourd, winter melon, and luffa are popular in many Asian and African countries. The last decade has witnessed a rapid development of genetic and genomics resources including draft genome assemblies, and high-density genetic maps in a dozen cucurbit crops, making it possible to accelerate translational research for cucurbit breeding. This Research Topic is a collection of 21 Original Research articles or Reviews highlighting the achievements and future directions in cucurbit translational research. These articles cover a variety of topics ranging from improvement of the cucurbit genome assemblies to identification and molecular mapping of horticulturally important genes or QTL for horticultural traits, and the use of such knowledge in marker-assisted selection for cucurbit improvement. Major findings from these investigations are summarized below.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Global development assistance for early childhood care and education in 134 low- and middle-income countries, 2007-2021

Providing quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) is widely recognized as a fundamental strategy for lifelong individual and societal benefits. However, the expansion of ECCE in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is impeded by limited financial resources. Little is known about the levels and trends of global development assistance (DA) allocated to ECCE in LMICs between 2007 and 2021. We extracted data from the Creditor Reporting System (CRS) on aid projects in 134 LMICs from 2007 to 2021. Using keyword-searching and funding-allocation methods, we generated two estimates of ECCE aid: one for DA primarily focused on ECCE, and another for DA both primarily and partially focused on ECCE as well as DA not explicitly targeting ECCE but benefiting ECCE. We analyzed the patterns and time trends of ECCE aid by donors, recipients, CRS sectors, implementing agencies, and aid-flow types. We calculated ECCE aid as a percentage of educational aid at both annual and aggregative levels, comparing it to UNICEF’s recommended allocation of at least 10% of educational aid to the ECCE sector in LMICs. Additionally, we explored the alignment of aid with addressing children’s learning losses during global crises by examining ECCE aid to projects involving COVID-19 prevention and mitigation, along with ECCE aid to conflict-affected countries. From 2007 to 2021, primary ECCE-focused DA amounted to US dollars 3,646 million, accounting for 1.7% of the total US dollars 213,279 million allocated to education. The World Bank led all donors with US dollars 1,944 million in ECCE aid (53.3%). Low-income countries consistently received less ECCE aid per child before 2016, then started to catch up, but subsequently experienced a decrease from US dollars 0.8 (2020) to US dollars 0.6 (2021). In contrast, lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income countries saw an increase from US dollars 0.4 (2020) to US dollars 0.6 (2021) and from US dollars 1.0 (2020) to US dollars 1.3 (2021), respectively. ECCE aid to projects with COVID-19 activities declined from US dollars 50 million in 2020 to US dollars 37 million in 2021, representing 11.4% and 6.6% of annual ECCE aid. Over 15 years, conflict-affected countries received an average of US dollars 0.3 per child, only a quarter of the aid received by non-conflict-affected countries (US dollars 1.2 per child). Although ECCE aid increased significantly between 2007 and 2021, its share of total educational aid remained small and fell far short of the recommended minimum of 10%. Our recommendations include increasing the share of ECCE aid in total educational aid, raising aid to low-income and conflict-affected countries, and investing more in preparing ECCE programs for future global crises

Next-generation sequencing, FISH mapping and synteny-based modeling reveal mechanisms of decreasing dysploidy in Cucumis

In the large Cucurbitaceae genus Cucumis, cucumber (C. sativus) is the only species with 2n = 2x = 14 chromosomes. The majority of the remaining species, including melon (C. melo) and the sister species of cucumber, C. hystrix, have 2n = 2x = 24 chromosomes, implying a reduction from n = 12 to n = 7. To understand the underlying mechanisms, we investigated chromosome synteny among cucumber, C. hystrix and melon using integrated and complementary approaches. We identified 14 inversions and a C. hystrix lineage-specific reciprocal inversion between C. hystrix and melon. The results reveal the location and orientation of 53 C. hystrix syntenic blocks on the seven cucumber chromosomes, and allow us to infer at least 59 chromosome rearrangement events that led to the seven cucumber chromosomes, including five fusions, four translocations, and 50 inversions. The 12 inferred chromosomes (AK1–AK12) of an ancestor similar to melon and C. hystrix had strikingly different evolutionary fates, with cucumber chromosome C1 apparently resulting from insertion of chromosome AK12 into the centromeric region of translocated AK2/AK8, cucumber chromosome C3 originating from a Robertsonian-like translocation between AK4 and AK6, and cucumber chromosome C5 originating from fusion of AK9 and AK10. Chromosomes C2, C4 and C6 were the result of complex reshuffling of syntenic blocks from three (AK3, AK5 and AK11), three (AK5, AK7 and AK8) and five (AK2, AK3, AK5, AK8 and AK11) ancestral chromosomes, respectively, through 33 fusion, translocation and inversion events. Previous results (Huang, S., Li, R., Zhang, Z. et al., 2009, Nat. Genet. 41, 1275–1281; Li, D., Cuevas, H.E., Yang, L., Li, Y., Garcia-Mas, J., Zalapa, J., Staub, J.E., Luan, F., Reddy, U., He, X., Gong, Z., Weng, Y. 2011a, BMC Genomics, 12, 396) showing that cucumber C7 stayed largely intact during the entire evolution of Cucumis are supported. Results from this study allow a fine-scale understanding of the mechanisms of dysploid chromosome reduction that has not been achieved previously.This research was supported by US Department of Agriculture Current Research Information System Project 3655-21000-048-00D and a US Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative grant (project number 2011-51181-30661) to Y.W.Peer reviewe

Syntenic relationships between cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) and melon (C. melo L.) chromosomes as revealed by comparative genetic mapping

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cucumber, <it>Cucumis sativus </it>L. (2n = 2 × = 14) and melon, <it>C. melo </it>L. (2n = 2 × = 24) are two important vegetable species in the genus <it>Cucumis </it>(family Cucurbitaceae). Both species have an Asian origin that diverged approximately nine million years ago. Cucumber is believed to have evolved from melon through chromosome fusion, but the details of this process are largely unknown. In this study, comparative genetic mapping between cucumber and melon was conducted to examine syntenic relationships of their chromosomes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using two melon mapping populations, 154 and 127 cucumber SSR markers were added onto previously reported F₂- and RIL-based genetic maps, respectively. A consensus melon linkage map was developed through map integration, which contained 401 co-dominant markers in 12 linkage groups including 199 markers derived from the cucumber genome. Syntenic relationships between melon and cucumber chromosomes were inferred based on associations between markers on the consensus melon map and cucumber draft genome scaffolds. It was determined that cucumber Chromosome 7 was syntenic to melon Chromosome I. Cucumber Chromosomes 2 and 6 each contained genomic regions that were syntenic with melon chromosomes III+V+XI and III+VIII+XI, respectively. Likewise, cucumber Chromosomes 1, 3, 4, and 5 each was syntenic with genomic regions of two melon chromosomes previously designated as II+XII, IV+VI, VII+VIII, and IX+X, respectively. However, the marker orders in several syntenic blocks on these consensus linkage maps were not co-linear suggesting that more complicated structural changes beyond simple chromosome fusion events have occurred during the evolution of cucumber.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Comparative mapping conducted herein supported the hypothesis that cucumber chromosomes may be the result of chromosome fusion from a 24-chromosome progenitor species. Except for a possible inversion, cucumber Chromosome 7 has largely remained intact in the past nine million years since its divergence from melon. Meanwhile, many structural changes may have occurred during the evolution of the remaining six cucumber chromosomes. Further characterization of the genomic nature of <it>Cucumis </it>species closely related to cucumber and melon might provide a better understanding of the evolutionary history leading to modern cucumber.</p

Editorial: Translational research for cucurbit molecular breeding: Traits, markers, and genes

This work in YW's lab was supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant 2015-51181-24285 from the USDA NIFA (National Institute of Food and Agriculture).Work in FL's lab was supported by the China Agriculture Research System fund (CARS-25). Work in JG-M's lab was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness grant AGL2015-64625-C2-1-R, the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D 2016-2020 (SEV-2015-0533), and the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya.Peer reviewe

Assessing the impact of the president's emergency plan for AIDS relief on all-cause mortality.

This study estimated the impacts of PEPFAR on all-cause mortality (ACM) rates (deaths per 1,000 population) across PEPFAR recipient countries from 2004-2018. As PEPFAR moves into its 3rd decade, this study supplements the existing literature on PEPFAR 's overall effectiveness in saving lives by focusing impact estimates on the important subgroups of countries that received different intensities of aid, and provides estimates of impact for different phases of this 15-year period study. The study uses a country-level panel data set of 157 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 1990-2018, including 90 PEPFAR recipient countries receiving bilateral aid from the U.S. government, employing difference-in-differences (DID) econometric models with several model specifications, including models with differing baseline covariates, and models with yearly covariates including other donor spending and domestic health spending. Using five different model specifications, a 10-21% decline in ACM rates from 2004 to 2018 is attributed to PEPFAR presence in the group of 90 recipient countries. Declines are somewhat larger (15-25%) in those countries that are subject to PEPFAR's country operational planning (COP) process, and where PEPFAR per capita aid amounts are largest (17-27%). Across the 90 recipient countries we study, the average impact across models is estimated to be a 7.6% reduction in ACM in the first 5-year period (2004-2008), somewhat smaller in the second 5-year period (5.5%) and in the third 5-year period (4.7%). In COP countries the impacts show decreases in ACM of 7.4% in the first period attributed to PEPFAR, 7.7% reductions in the second, and 6.6% reductions in the third. PEPFAR presence is correlated with large declines in the ACM rate, and the overall life-saving results persisted over time. The effects of PEFAR on ACM have been large, suggesting the possibility of spillover life-saving impacts of PEPFAR programming beyond HIV disease alone

Analysis of maternal and child health spillover effects in PEPFAR countries

Objectives This study examined whether the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funding had effects beyond HIV, specifically on several measures of maternal and child health in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). The results of previous research on the question of PEPFAR health spillovers have been inconsistent. This study, using a large, multicountry panel data set of 157 LMICs including 90 recipient countries, adds to the literature.Design Seven indicators including child and maternal mortality, several child vaccination rates and anaemia among childbearing-age women are important population health indicators. Panel data and difference-in-differences estimators (DID) were used to estimate the impact of the PEPFAR programme from inception in 2004 to 2018 using a comparison group of 67 LMICs. Several different models of baseline (2004) covariates were used to help balance the comparison and treatment groups. Staggered DID was used to estimate impacts since all countries did not start receiving aid at PEPFAR’s inception.Setting All 157 LMICs from 1990 to 2018.Participants 90 LMICs receiving PEPFAR aid and cohorts of those countries, including those required to submit annual country operational plans (COP), other recipient countries (non-COP), and three groupings of countries based on cumulative amount of per capita aid received (high, medium, low).Interventions PEPFAR aid to combat the HIV epidemic.Primary outcome measures Maternal mortality and child mortality rates, vaccination rates to protect children for diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus, measles, HepB3, and tetanus, and prevalence of anaemia in women of childbearing age.Results Across PEPFAR recipient countries, large, favourable PEPFAR health effects were found for rates of childhood immunisation, child mortality and maternal mortality. These beneficial health effects were large and significant in all segments of PEPFAR recipient countries studied. We also found significant and favourable programme effects on the prevalence of anaemia in women of childbearing age in PEPFAR recipient countries receiving the most intensive financial support from the PEPFAR programme. Other recipient countries did not demonstrate significant effects on anaemia.Conclusions This study demonstrated that important health indicators, beyond HIV, have been consistently and favourably influenced by PEPFAR presence. Child and maternal mortality have been substantially reduced, and childhood immunisation rates increased. We also found no evidence of ‘crowding out’ or negative spillovers in these resource-poor countries. These findings add to the body of evidence that PEPFAR has had favourable health effects beyond HIV. The implications of these findings are that foreign aid for health in one area may have favourable health effects in other areas in recipient countries. More research is needed on the influence of the mechanisms at work that create these spillover health effects of PEPFAR