Current and future scenarios of suitability and expansion of cassava brown streak disease, species complex, and cassava planting in Africa.

Cassava () is among the most important staple crops globally, with an imperative role in supporting the Sustainable Development Goal of 'Zero hunger'. In sub-Saharan Africa, it is cultivated mainly by millions of subsistence farmers who depend directly on it for their socio-economic welfare. However, its yield in some regions has been threatened by several diseases, especially the cassava brown streak disease (CBSD).

Insect pollinators can unlock an annual monetary value of more than US $100 million from crop production in Rwanda.

Insect pollinators provide a natural ecosystem service to more than 80% of known flowering plants, many of which are part of our diet. However, their importance in Africa and an agriculture-dependent country like Rwanda has yet to receive attention. This encumbers policy formulation and investments in insect pollinators as a strategic agronomic input.

A post-gene silencing bioinformatics protocol for plant-defence gene validation and underlying process identification: case study of the Arabidopsis thaliana NPR1.

Background: Advances in forward and reverse genetic techniques have enabled the discovery and identification of several plant defence genes based on quantifiable disease phenotypes in mutant populations. Existing models for testing the effect of gene inactivation or genes causing these phenotypes do not take into account eventual uncertainty of these datasets and potential noise inherent in the biological experiment used, which may mask downstream analysis and limit the use of these datasets. Moreover, elucidating biological mechanisms driving the induced disease resistance and influencing these observable disease phenotypes has never been systematically tackled, eliciting the need for an efficient model to characterize completely the gene target under consideration.

From lateral root density to nodule number, the strigolactone analogue GR24 shapes the root architecture of Medicago truncatula.

In the rhizosphere, strigolactones not only act as crucial signalling molecules in the communication of plants with parasitic weeds and arbuscular mycorrhiza, but they also play a key role in regulating different aspects of the root system. Here we investigated how strigolactones influence the root architecture of Medicago truncatula. We provide evidence that addition of the synthetic strigolactone analogue GR24 has an inhibitory effect on the lateral root density.

A phenomics approach to the analysis of the influence of glutathione on leaf area and abiotic stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Reduced glutathione (GSH) is an abundant low molecular weight plant thiol. It fulfills multiple functions in plant biology, many of which remain poorly characterized. A phenomics approach was therefore used to investigate the effects of glutathione homeostasis on growth and stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana.