Genetic modification of flavone biosynthesis in rice enhances biofilm formation of soil diazotrophic bacteria and biological nitrogen fixation.

Improving biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) in cereal crops is a long-sought objective; however, no successful modification of cereal crops showing increased BNF has been reported. Here, we described a novel approach in which rice plants were modified to increase the production of compounds that stimulated biofilm formation in soil diazotrophic bacteria, promoted bacterial colonization of plant tissues and improved BNF with increased grain yield at limiting soil nitrogen contents. We first used a chemical screening to identify plant-produced compounds that induced biofilm formation in nitrogen-fixing bacteria and demonstrated that apigenin and other flavones induced BNF.

African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC): status of developing genomic resources for African orphan crops.

The African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC) successfully initiated the ambitious genome sequencing project of 101 African orphan crops/trees with 6 genomes sequenced, 6 near completion, and 20 currently in progress. Addressing stunting, malnutrition, and hidden hunger through nutritious, economic, and resilient agri-food system is one of the major agricultural challenges of this century. As sub-Saharan Africa harbors a large portion of the severely malnourished population, the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC) was established in 2011 with an aim to reduce stunting and malnutrition by providing nutritional security through improving locally adapted nutritious, but neglected, under-researched or orphan African food crops.

The draft genomes of five agriculturally important African orphan crops.

Background: The expanding world population is expected to double the worldwide demand for food by 2050. Eighty-eight percent of countries currently face a serious burden of malnutrition, especially in Africa and south and southeast Asia. About 95% of the food energy needs of humans are fulfilled by just 30 species, of which wheat, maize, and rice provide the majority of calories.

Nitrogen fixation in a landrace of maize is supported by a mucilage-associated diazotrophic microbiota.

Plants are associated with a complex microbiota that contributes to nutrient acquisition, plant growth, and plant defense. Nitrogen-fixing microbial associations are efficient and well characterized in legumes but are limited in cereals, including maize. We studied an indigenous landrace of maize grown in nitrogen-depleted soils in the Sierra Mixe region of Oaxaca, Mexico.

The Gut Microbiota, Food Science, and Human Nutrition: A Timely Marriage.

Analytic advances are enabling more precise definitions of the molecular composition of key food staples incorporated into contemporary diets and how the nutrient landscapes of these staples vary as a function of cultivar and food processing methods. This knowledge, combined with insights about the interrelationship between consumer microbiota configurations and biotransformation of food ingredients, should have a number of effects on agriculture, food production, and strategies for improving the nutritional value of foods and health status. These effects include decision-making about which cultivars of current or future food staples to incorporate into existing and future food systems, and which components of waste streams from current or future food manufacturing processes have nutritional value that is worth capturing.