Barriers to better care for people with AIDS in developing countries

Access to good quality antiretroviral treatment has transformed the prognosis for people with AIDS in the developed world. Although it is feasible and desirable to deliver antiretroviral drugs in resource poor settings,few of the 95% of people with HIV and AIDS who live in developing countries receive them. The World Health Organization has launched a programme to deliver antiretroviral drugs to three million people with AIDS in the developing world by 2005, the “3 by 5” initiative. We identify some of the challenges faced by the initiative, focusing on delivery of care

TDZ AND 4-CPPU in Gamborg B5 salts with MS vitamins doubles embryogenic 191 response from male flowers of EA-AAA banana.

Conventionally, auxins have been used in MS medium in combination or without purine-based cytokinins for induction of embryogenesis in EA-AAA banana (Musa spp.). Besides, low embryogenic response, it has been rare for more than two cultivars to respond similarly to a single treatment. This study investigated the efficacy of urea-type cytokinins, N-phenyl-N’-1,2,3-thidiazol-5-ylurea (TDZ) and N-(2-chloro-4-pyridyl)-N'-phenylurea (4-CPPU); and salt formulations, Chu (N6), Eriksson, Gamborg B5, MS, Nitsch, NLN, SH and White for embryogenic callus induction in different EA-AAA banana cultivars. Immature male flowers of cultivars Mpologoma, Mbwazirume, Nakabululu, Nakinyika and Nfuuka were cultured on callus induction medium, supplemented with different TDZ and 4-CPPU combinations. Most of the cultivars had embryogenic response to the medium with 10μM TDZ+10μM CPPU. Cultivar Nakabululu recorded 22.2% embryogenic response, followed by Mwazirume (5.7%), Nakinyika (5.3%) and Mpologoma (4.6%). Cultivar Nfuuka had 9.1% embryogenic response on 15μM TDZ+15μM CPPU. When cultivars Mpologoma and Nakinyika were cultured on the same medium containing 10μM TDZ+10μM CPPU, but the MS salts substituted with the other salt formulations, their cultures recorded 11.4 and 8.3% embryogenic response, respectively to Gamborg B5 salts; which was almost twice their response to MS medium. The results suggested that TDZ and 4-CPPU, particularly in Gamborg B5 salt formulation, could increase percentage of embryogenic callus induced from male flowers of EA-AAA banana cultivars, and would improve plant regeneration and consequently help in the process of genetic improvement of EA-AAA banana.Key Words: Cytokinins, embryogenic response, Musa spp., Thidiazuro

Planning a Family:priorities and concerns in rural Tanzanmia

A fertility survey using qualitative and quantitative techniques described a high fertility setting (TFR 5.8) in southern Tanzania where family planning use was 16%. Current use was influenced by rising parity, educational level, age of last born child, breastfeeding status, a\ud preference for longer than the mean birth interval (32 months), not being related to the household head, and living in a house with a tin roof. Three principal concerns amongst women were outlined from the findings. First, that there is a large unmet need for family planning services in the area particularly among teenagers for whom it is associated with induced abortion. Second, that family planning is being used predominantly for spacing but fears\ud associated with it often curtail effective use. Third, that service provision is perceived to be lacking in two main areas — regularity of supply, and addressing rumours and fears associated with family planning. Reproductive health interventions in the area should ultimately be more\ud widespread and, in particular, abortion is highlighted as an urgent issue for further research.\ud The potential for a fast and positive impact is high, given the simplicity of the perceived needs of\ud women from this study. (Afr J Reprod Health 2004; 8[2]:111-123)\u

Agrobacterium mediated transformation of banana (Musa sp.) cv. Sukali Ndiizi (ABB) with a modified Carica papaya cystatin (CpCYS) gene

Conventional banana breeding for pest and disease resistance is a very difficult and slow process due to the limited sources of resistance, sterility of cultivated banana varieties, high polyploidy levels, long cropping cycle and the lack of rapid screening methods. Molecular breeding using the transgenic approach with candidate genes such as cystatins offers an alternative method to banana improvement. Cystatin proteins inhibit the activity of cysteine proteases responsible for the breakdown of dietary proteins in the gut of many pests including nematodes resulting in protein deficiency. In this study, the papaya cystatin gene was introduced into the banana genome. Embryogenic cell suspension (ECS) cultures of the banana cultivar Sukali Ndiizi (ABB) were used as explants material for the successful transformation of banana. The Carica papaya cystatin gene (CpCYS-Mut89) previously modified to improve its inhibitory potential against banana pests was introduced into this cultivar using Agrobacterium tumefaciens, strain LBA4404 and the gus reporter gene was used to observe successful transformation process. We report the successful protocol for routine transformation of this cultivar, which was completed in six months with plant regeneration observed at a frequency of 23%. An additional four months was required to multiply the regenerant lines in order to have at least 20 plants per line for downstream challenging studies. Putatively transgenic plants were analyzed by PCR using hpt and CpCYS-Mut89 specific primers to confirm the presence of transgenes. Out of 28 selected lines, 27 were positive for both hpt and CpCYS-Mut89 transgenes giving 96.4% transformation efficiency. Five lines were then selected on the basis of putative PCR positives and a Southern blot analysis gave hybridization signals with 1 to 4 copy number integration patterns characteristic of Agrobacterium mediated transformation. These results confirm stable gene integration in East African banana cultivar cv. Sukali Ndiizi (genome group ABB) through an efficient Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocol described for routine use in future improvement of this crop with genes of economic importance.Keywords: Cystatins, banana, Agrobacterium mediated transformation, southern blotAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(15), pp. 1811-181

Transient expression of ß-glucuronidase in recalcitrant Ugandan sweetpotato and putative transformation with two cry genes.

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas Lam.) has high potential to contain hunger, malnutrition and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), since it gives early yield with few inputs. However, productivity of the crop in Africa is very low due to various challenges, such as severe viral diseases and increasing attacks by sweetpotato weevils, Cylas puncticollis and C. brunneus. Effective resistance to weevils has not been identified in the sweetpotato gene pool. On the other hand, the weevil-resistance genes, cry7Aa1 and cry3Ca1 were assembled into a plasmid vector for use in genetic transformation of African sweetpotato cultivars. The parameters for efficient transfer of these genes and the conditions for de novo regeneration optimised in preliminary studies were used in the genetic transformation of Ugandan landrace ‘Kyebandula’ with Agrobacterium tumefaciens EHA 105 harbouring the plasmid pCIP84, which contains cry7Aa1, cry3Ca1 and nptII in its T-DNA. Fifty-four percent of the explants formed adventitious buds. With a mean of 7 buds formed per explant, 6.0% explants formed shoots with a mean of one shoot per explant for those explants that formed shoots on medium containing 50 mg L-1 kanamycin as a selection agent. PCR analysis using primers for cry7Aa1 showed that the transformation efficiency could be as high as 2%. These data highlight the potential of genetic transformation in transferring resistance genes and pave way for enhancement of food security through production of adapted sweetpotato weevil resistant cultivars.Key Words: Agrobacterium tumefaciens, b-glucuronidase, Ipomoea batata

Induction of somatic embryogenesis in recalcitrant sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) cultivars

Genetic transformation is considered as one of the most promising options for improvement of crop traits. Current transformation methods for sweetpotato depend on plant regeneration through organogenesis or somatic embryogenesis. Somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration at a high frequency has been  restricted to a few sweetpotato varieties. Three auxins namely: 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D),  4-fluoroamphetamine (4-FA) and 4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) were investigated in this study for enhancing somatic embryogenesis from various plant organs of recalcitrant African sweetpotato cultivars.  2,4-D was found to be the best (p . 0.05) for induction of embryogenic callus. Cultivar Bwanjule had the highest  (20.2%) embryogenic callus frequency among the five African cultivars tested. The highest number of plants in this study was regenerated from the non-African cultivar variety Jonathan on media supplemented with 0.2 mg Zeatin. The emergence of roots from callus of recalcitrant Ugandan cultivars and the comparable high embryogenic responses in this work demonstrate the potential for regenerating plants from African  cultivars that have not been regenerated before. The regeneration of roots in this work could be useful for the initiation of root cultures. The most important application of this work is in genetic transformation of sweet potato, particularly for improvement of resistance to weevils.Key words: Embryogenesis, plant growth regulators, plant regeneration, Ipomoea batatas