The role of agrobiodiversity in strengthening the resilience of small-scale farmers: biophysical and economic trends towards 2050

In this study we analyze the capacity of agrobiodiversity to increase resilience of banana-based smallholders in Uganda as affected by disease incidence or climate change and associated price changes until 2050. We explore trade-offs and synergies by means of various indicators of economic, environmental and nutritional impact determined by selected cropping patterns. As a result of increased agrobiodiversity, in all scenarios considerable improvements could be achieved for almost all indicators, which results in higher farm resilience. Our results also indicate that climate change can increase vulnerability of smallholder farmers in Uganda with respect to their income, whereas banana disease can put pressure on nutrition and sustainability of production. Increasing revenues from cropping associated with a stronger focus on a small number of profitable crops would come with a trade-off due to increased vulnerability to yield and price fluctuations. When it comes to crop diversification, it has a significant positive impact on soil health, especially soil erosion, and nutrition. Our analysis of correlations between areas of different crops and the performance indicators reveals a further layer of trade-offs at crop level. In particular, under baseline scenario yam leads as an income-generating crop, with high vitamin A yield but with negative consequences to environment and high revenue instability

On the Rice: Climate Change and the (in)stability of rice in Africa

Food stability – or the lack thereof has caused several issues on global food security in the past. Prime examples are the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine-Russian war, and the 2008 African food crisis. Meanwhile, the occurrence of extreme meteorological events has been increasing rapidly (droughts, floods, …), resulting in substantial harvest losses putting food security under pressure with strong indications that these will become even more prevalent under climate change. Yet, the amount of studies assessing food stability or potential climate change effects is scarce – hindering purposeful policymaking. This makes a methodological framework to assess food stability urgent

The CDK inhibitor CR8 acts as a molecular glue degrader that depletes cyclin K

Molecular glue compounds induce protein-protein interactions that, in the context of a ubiquitin ligase, lead to protein degradation1. Unlike traditional enzyme inhibitors, these molecular glue degraders act substoichiometrically to catalyse the rapid depletion of previously inaccessible targets2. They are clinically effective and highly sought-after, but have thus far only been discovered serendipitously. Here, through systematically mining databases for correlations between the cytotoxicity of 4,518 clinical and preclinical small molecules and the expression levels of E3 ligase components across hundreds of human cancer cell lines3-5, we identify CR8-a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor6-as a compound that acts as a molecular glue degrader. The CDK-bound form of CR8 has a solvent-exposed pyridyl moiety that induces the formation of a complex between CDK12-cyclin K and the CUL4 adaptor protein DDB1, bypassing the requirement for a substrate receptor and presenting cyclin K for ubiquitination and degradation. Our studies demonstrate that chemical alteration of surface-exposed moieties can confer gain-of-function glue properties to an inhibitor, and we propose this as a broader strategy through which target-binding molecules could be converted into molecular glues

Rice availability and stability in Africa under future socio-economic development and climatic change

As Africa is facing multiple challenges related to food security, frameworks integrating production and availability are urgent for policymaking. Attention should be given not only to gradual socio-economic and climatic changes but also to their temporal variability. Here we present an integrated framework that allows one to assess the impacts of socio-economic development, gradual climate change and climate anomalies. We apply this framework to rice production and consumption in Africa whereby we explicitly account for the continent’s dependency on imported rice. We show that socio-economic development dictates rice availability, whereas climate change has only minor effects in the long term and is predicted not to amplify supply shocks. Still, rainfed-dominated or self-producing regions are sensitive to local climatic anomalies, while trade dominates stability in import-dependent regions. Our study suggests that facilitating agricultural development and limiting trade barriers are key in relieving future challenges to rice availability and stability