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1.
Orphan crops for future food security.
Kumar, B, Bhalothia, P
Journal of biosciences. 2020
Abstract
Climate change, along with current agricultural practices, is going to pose a significant challenge for future food security, especially in developing countries. Orphan crops can help mitigate this threat due to their inherent properties of stress tolerance and nutrition content. Industrialization of agriculture has left these minor crops behind in terms of domestication. As a result, the potential of these crops is underutilized. These crops can be a game-changer in the long term if necessary steps are taken to improve the quality as well as quantity of yield. Concerted efforts by many groups around the world have been taken for research and development of these crops. Besides, the unique properties of these crops have caught the media attention, which hails these crops as superfoods. Favourable government policies to promote these crops can help in the large-scale adoption of these crops by the farming community. Besides, the stress-resilience of these crops can help boost the sustainability of agriculture and ensure food security for future generations.
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2.
Integration of molecular tools in microbial phosphate solubilization research in agriculture perspective.
Alaylar, B, Egamberdieva, D, Gulluce, M, Karadayi, M, Arora, NK
World journal of microbiology & biotechnology. 2020;(7):93
Abstract
Phosphorus (P) is the second most crucial nutrient for plant growth after nitrogen. However, its highly reactive nature causes formation of insoluble derivatives and limits uptake by the plant roots. The wide spread applications of P based chemical fertilizers cause detrimental effects on soil fertility, agricultural product quality and environment. In this regard, phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms (PSMs) stand out as the most remarkable and promising tools for the development of safer and sustainable technologies. As a result of this, many bacterial and fungal species with significant phosphate-solubilizing activity have been discovered by using the conventional screening methods. However, the growing need for the discovery of new strains of PSMs necessitates the replacement or support to the time-consuming conventional methods with techniques that are more sensitive, reliable, reproducible and less time consuming. In this context, molecular tools and techniques provide novel approaches for microbial phosphate solubilization research. Hence, in this review information on the molecular approaches for the PSMs research is provided and its importance explained. The review also discusses the genes related to phosphate solubilizing mechanisms and molecular tools for screening these genes.
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3.
Evolution in crop improvement approaches and future prospects of molecular markers to CRISPR/Cas9 system.
Dheer, P, Rautela, I, Sharma, V, Dhiman, M, Sharma, A, Sharma, N, Sharma, MD
Gene. 2020;:144795
Abstract
The advent of genetic selection and genome modification method assure about a real novel reformation in biotechnology and genetic engineering. With the extensive capabilities of molecular markers of them being stable, cost-effective and easy to use, they ultimately become a potent tool for variety of applications such a gene targeting, selection, editing, functional genomics; mainly for the improvisation of commercially important crops. Three main benefits of molecular marker in the field of agriculture and crop improvement programmes first, reduction of the duration of breeding programmes, second, they allow creation of new genetic variation and genetic diversity of plants and third most promising benefit is help in production of engineered plant for disease resistance, or resistance from pathogen and herbicides. This review is anticipated to present an outline how the techniques have been evolved from the simple conventional applications of DNA based molecular markers to highly throughput CRISPR technology and geared the crop yield. Techniques like using Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFNs), Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases (TALENs) and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR/Cas9) systems have revolutionised in the field of genome editing. These have been promptly accepted in both the research and commercial industry. On the whole, the widespread use of molecular markers with their types, their appliance in plant breeding along with the advances in genetic selection and genome editing together being a novel strategy to boost crop yield has been reviewed.
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4.
Revisiting the plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria: lessons from the past and objectives for the future.
Aeron, A, Khare, E, Jha, CK, Meena, VS, Aziz, SMA, Islam, MT, Kim, K, Meena, SK, Pattanayak, A, Rajashekara, H, et al
Archives of microbiology. 2020;(4):665-676
Abstract
Plant beneficial rhizobacteria (PBR) is a group of naturally occurring rhizospheric microbes that enhance nutrient availability and induce biotic and abiotic stress tolerance through a wide array of mechanisms to enhance agricultural sustainability. Application of PBR has the potential to reduce worldwide requirement of agricultural chemicals and improve agro-ecological sustainability. The PBR exert their beneficial effects in three major ways; (1) fix atmospheric nitrogen and synthesize specific compounds to promote plant growth, (2) solubilize essential mineral nutrients in soils for plant uptake, and (3) produce antimicrobial substances and induce systemic resistance in host plants to protect them from biotic and abiotic stresses. Application of PBR as suitable inoculants appears to be a viable alternative technology to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Furthermore, PBR enhance nutrient and water use efficiency, influence dynamics of mineral recycling, and tolerance of plants to other environmental stresses by improving health of soils. This report provides comprehensive reviews and discusses beneficial effects of PBR on plant and soil health. Considering their multitude of functions to improve plant and soil health, we propose to call the plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPR) as PBR.
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5.
Yeast a potential bio-agent: future for plant growth and postharvest disease management for sustainable agriculture.
Mukherjee, A, Verma, JP, Gaurav, AK, Chouhan, GK, Patel, JS, Hesham, AE
Applied microbiology and biotechnology. 2020;(4):1497-1510
Abstract
The native microbial flora and fauna are replaced by commercial chemical fertilizers and pesticides, in the current agricultural system. Imbalance of beneficial microbial diversity and natural competitors increases the severity of plant diseases. Hence, sustainable agricultural practices like bio-inoculant, stress tolerant consortium, crop rotation and mix cropping sequences is only the solution of recharging the microbial population in soils to make healthier for crop productivity and suppression of soil borne phytopathogen. Microorganisms use several direct mechanism activities, e.g. production of plant hormones (indole-3-acetic acid), ammonium, siderophore and nutrient solubilization, and indirect mechanism activities, e.g. hydrogen cyanide, chitinase, protease and antibiotic for plant growth promotion. The plant growth-promoting effect of bacteria, fungi, mycorrhizal fungi and algae is widely explored. Yeast is a single-celled microbe classified as members of the kingdom fungi. Yeast and their product use in the food industry, medical science and biotechnological research purpose but very few literatures reported that yeasts have the ability to produce a group of plant growth-promoting activities and biocontrolling activity. Therefore, the main aim of this mini review is to highlight the application of yeasts as biological agents in different sectors of sustainable farming practices.
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6.
Combining organic and mineral fertilizers as a climate-smart integrated soil fertility management practice in sub-Saharan Africa: A meta-analysis.
Gram, G, Roobroeck, D, Pypers, P, Six, J, Merckx, R, Vanlauwe, B
PloS one. 2020;(9):e0239552
Abstract
Low productivity and climate change require climate-smart agriculture (CSA) for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), through (i) sustainably increasing crop productivity, (ii) enhancing the resilience of agricultural systems, and (iii) offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. We conducted a meta-analysis on experimental data to evaluate the contributions of combining organic and mineral nitrogen (N) applications to the three pillars of CSA for maize (Zea mays). Linear mixed effect modeling was carried out for; (i) grain productivity and agronomic efficiency of N (AE) inputs, (ii) inter-seasonal yield variability, and (iii) changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) content, while accounting for the quality of organic amendments and total N rates. Results showed that combined application of mineral and organic fertilizers leads to greater responses in productivity and AE as compared to sole applications when more than 100 kg N ha-1 is used with high-quality organic matter. For yield variability and SOC, no significant interactions were found when combining mineral and organic fertilizers. The variability of maize yields in soils amended with high-quality organic matter, except manure, was equal or smaller than for sole mineral fertilizer. Increases of SOC were only significant for organic inputs, and more pronounced for high-quality resources. For example, at a total N rate of 150 kg N ha-1 season-1, combining mineral fertilizer with the highest quality organic resources (50:50) increased AE by 20% and reduced SOC losses by 18% over 7 growing seasons as compared to sole mineral fertilizer. We conclude that combining organic and mineral N fertilizers can have significant positive effects on productivity and AE, but only improves the other two CSA pillars yield variability and SOC depending on organic resource input and quality. The findings of our meta-analysis help to tailor a climate smart integrated soil fertility management in SSA.
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7.
Core Rhizosphere Microbiomes of Dryland Wheat Are Influenced by Location and Land Use History.
Schlatter, DC, Yin, C, Hulbert, S, Paulitz, TC
Applied and environmental microbiology. 2020;(5)
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Abstract
The Inland Pacific Northwest is one of the most productive dryland wheat production areas in the United States. We explored the bacterial and fungal communities associated with wheat in a controlled greenhouse experiment using soils from multiple locations to identify core taxa consistently associated with wheat roots and how land use history influences wheat-associated communities. Further, we examined microbial co-occurrence networks from wheat rhizospheres to identify candidate hub taxa. Location of origin and land use history (long-term no-till versus noncropped Conservation Reserve Program [CRP]) of soils were the strongest drivers of bacterial and fungal communities. Wheat rhizospheres were especially enriched in many bacterial families, while only a few fungal taxa were enriched in the rhizosphere. There was a core set of bacteria and fungi that was found in >95% of rhizosphere or bulk soil samples, including members of Bradyrhizobium, Sphingomonadaceae, Massilia, Variovorax, Oxalobacteraceae, and Caulobacteraceae Core fungal taxa in the rhizosphere included Nectriaceae, Ulocladium, Alternaria, Mortierella, and Microdochium Overall, there were fewer core fungal taxa, and the rhizosphere effect was not as pronounced as with bacteria. Cross-domain co-occurrence networks were used to identify hub taxa in the wheat rhizosphere, which included bacterial and fungal taxa (e.g., Sphingomonas, Massilia, Knufia, and Microdochium). Our results suggest that there is a relatively small group of core rhizosphere bacteria that were highly abundant on wheat roots regardless of soil origin and land use history. These core communities may play important roles in nutrient uptake, suppressing fungal pathogens, and other plant health functions.IMPORTANCE Plant-associated microbiomes are critical for plant health and other important agroecosystem processes. We assessed the bacterial and fungal microbiomes of wheat grown in soils from across a dryland wheat cropping systems in eastern Washington to identify the core microbiome on wheat roots that is consistent across soils from different locations and land use histories. Moreover, cross-domain co-occurrence network analysis identified core and hub taxa that may play important roles in microbial community assembly. Candidate core and hub taxa provide a starting point for targeting microbiome components likely to be critical to plant health and for constructing synthetic microbial communities for further experimentation. This work is one of the first examples of identifying a core microbiome on a major field crop grown across hundreds of square kilometers over a wide range of biogeographical zones.
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8.
Uptake and utilization of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as related to yield advantage in maize-soybean intercropping under different row configurations.
Fan, Y, Wang, Z, Liao, D, Raza, MA, Wang, B, Zhang, J, Chen, J, Feng, L, Wu, X, Liu, C, et al
Scientific reports. 2020;(1):9504
Abstract
Intercropping advantage occurs only when each species has adequate time and space to maximize cooperation and minimize competition between them. A field experiment was conducted for two consecutive years between 2013 and 2014 to investigate the effects of maize and soybean relay strip intercropping systems on the uptake and utilization of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The treatments included "40:160" (T1, maize narrow and wide row spacing of 40 and 160 cm, where two rows of soybean with a 40 cm row were planted in the wide rows. The area occupation ratio of maize and soybean both were 50% of the every experimental block), "80:120" (T2, maize narrow and wide row spacing of 80 and 120 cm, the soybean planting was the same as T1 treatment. The area occupation ratio of maize and soybean were 60% and 40% of the every experimental block), "100:100" (T3, one row of maize and one row of soybean with a 100-cm row. The area occupation ratio of maize and soybean was the same as T1 treatment), sole cropping of maize (CK1, The area occupation ratio of maize was 100% of the every experimental block), and sole cropping of soybean (CK2, The area occupation ratio of soybean was 100% of the every experimental block). The results show that, compared with the sole cropping system (sole maize), the economic yields in T1, T2, and T3 treatments increased by 761, 536, and 458 kg·ha-1, respectively, and the biological yields increased by 2410, 2127, and 1588 kg·ha-1. The uptake and utilization of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in T1, T2, and T3 treatments were significantly higher than those in sole crops, and the nutrient advantage is mainly due to nutrient uptake rather than nutrient use efficiency. The land equivalent ratio values in T1, T2, and T3 treatments were 1.43, 1.32, and 1.20, respectively. In particular, the economic and biological yield in T1 treatment exhibited potential as an intercropping pattern.
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9.
Fruits and Vegetables in International Agricultural Research: A Case of Neglect?
Anderson, JR, Birner, R
World review of nutrition and dietetics. 2020;:42-59
Abstract
Fruits and vegetables (F+Vs) can play an important role in combatting the problem of the double burden of malnutrition. Agricultural research can help to increase the productivity and the resource-use efficiency of fruit and vegetable production and, thus, reduce prices so that these commodities can become more available to poor households. However, the crops research of the international agricultural research system, including its centerpiece the CGIAR, has so far concentrated mainly on staple grains and starchy food crops, while largely neglecting most F+Vs. None of the current CGIAR centers is specifically dedicated to fruits or vegetables if the convention is followed not to consider cassava, potatoes of all types, and bananas and their relatives as vegetables. The underlying reasons why the CGIAR has not focused on F+Vs are explored in this review. The early emphasis on food staple crops was motivated by the perception that the hunger problems of the era were primarily deficiencies in food energy. The success of the Green Revolution, in which international agricultural research played a key role, stimulated further emphasis on increasing the productivity of staple grains as the major strategy to combat hunger. F+Vs, however, received limited attention. The Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center in Taiwan was created outside the CGIAR system. In the 1990s new centers were added to the CGIAR system, but this opportunity was not used to create a dedicated center for F+Vs. Some informal activities to conduct research on F+Vs also took place in several other CGIAR centers as part of the farming systems research activities, based on the recognition that F+Vs are small but important elements of many farming systems of the developing world. Through an analysis of the reasons why the CGIAR system has tended little to F+Vs, this paper presents an assessment of possible future strategies to better integrate these "neglected" commodities into international agricultural research efforts. The assessment shows that genetic improvement might perhaps best be largely left to the private sector, while international agricultural research could better focus on developing strategies for integrated pest management, biological pest control, and improved water use efficiency, as these are areas where private companies have limited incentives to invest. Moreover, publicly funded research could help to find low-cost solutions for infrastructure-related aspects such as postharvest handling and storage (e.g., cooling and drying), aspects where renewable energy sources have a substantial potential.
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10.
Unravelling the Food-Health Nexus to Build Healthier Food Systems.
Yambi, O, Rocha, C, Jacobs, N, ,
World review of nutrition and dietetics. 2020;:1-8
Abstract
The urgent call to transform global food systems is well founded on the need to reduce the effects of food systems on human health, environment, peoples' rights, and creation of a just society. Unhealthy diets contribute significantly to the global disease burden and pose huge risks to morbidity and mortality. Efforts to transform diets are highly dependent on transformation of the food system. All countries are now affected by the various forms of malnutrition - undernutrition, overweight and obesity, micronutrient deficiencies - with progress often too slow and in some cases going into reverse. Concomitantly, the number of food insecure is increasing, and the prevalence of non-communicable disease is high. IPES-Food, in collaboration with the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, undertook a review of the scientific evidence covering a whole range of global health impacts associated with food systems. The review examined how food and farming systems affect human health, explored why the negative impacts are systematically reproduced and why we fail to prioritize them politically, and how we can build healthier food systems for all. Five categories of health impacts were examined: (i) occupational hazards; (ii) environmental contamination; (iii) contaminated, unsafe, and altered foods; (iv) unhealthy dietary patterns, and (v) food insecurity. The study confirmed that food systems affect health through multiple, interconnected pathways, generating severe human and economic costs. It also highlighted how prevailing power relations in the food system help to shape and sometimes obscure our understanding of the impacts. Five leverage points for building healthier food systems are recommended: (i) promotion of food systems thinking; (ii) reasserting scientific integrity and research as a public good; (iii) bringing the alternatives to light; (iv) adopting the precautionary principle, and (v) building integrated food policies under participatory governance.