Asunto(s)
Agricultura/tendencias , Biotecnología/tendencias , Productos Agrícolas/genética , Salud Global/tendencias , Desnutrición/prevención & control , Adulto , Agricultura/métodos , Niño , Productos Agrícolas/economía , Productos Agrícolas/crecimiento & desarrollo , Femenino , Salud Global/normas , Humanos , Cooperación Internacional , Masculino , Naciones UnidasRESUMEN
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are international development targets for the year 2015 that aim to achieve relative improvements in the standards of health, socioeconomic status and education in the world's poorest countries. Many of the challenges addressed by the MDGs reflect the direct or indirect consequences of subsistence agriculture in the developing world, and hence, plant biotechnology has an important role to play in helping to achieve MDG targets. In this opinion article, we discuss each of the MDGs in turn, provide examples to show how plant biotechnology may be able to accelerate progress towards the stated MDG objectives, and offer our opinion on the likelihood of such technology being implemented. In combination with other strategies, plant biotechnology can make a contribution towards sustainable development in the future although the extent to which progress can be made in today's political climate depends on how we deal with current barriers to adoption.
Asunto(s)
Biotecnología/tendencias , Objetivos , Plantas , Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida/prevención & control , Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida/terapia , Adulto , Niño , Mortalidad del Niño/tendencias , Conservación de los Recursos Naturales , Países en Desarrollo , Educación , Femenino , Salud Global , Humanos , Hambre , Cooperación Internacional , Malaria/prevención & control , Malaria/terapia , Masculino , Desnutrición/prevención & control , Bienestar Materno/tendencias , Enfermedades de las Plantas/prevención & control , Plantas/genética , Plantas Modificadas Genéticamente/genética , Pobreza/prevención & control , Tuberculosis/prevención & control , Tuberculosis/terapia , Naciones Unidas , Vacunas/biosíntesisRESUMEN
Immature zygotic embryos of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) produce somatic embryos when cultured on medium supplemented with a cytokinin as the sole source of exogenous growth regulators. The timing of the induction phase and subsequent morphogenic events have been well characterized in previous work. We address here the question of the role of endogenous indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), since auxins are known to have a crucial role in the induction of somatic embryogenesis in many other culture and regeneration systems. The fact that in the sunflower system no exogenous auxin is required for the induction of somatic embryos makes this system very suitable for the study of the internal dynamics of IAA. We used an immuno-cytochemical approach to visualize IAA distribution within the explants before, during and after the induction phase. IAA accumulated transiently throughout cultured embryos during the induction phase. The detected signal was not uniform but certain tissues, such as the root cap and the root meristem, accumulated IAA in a more pronounced manner. IAA accumulation was not restricted to the reactive zone but the kinetics of endogenous variations strikingly mimic the pulse of IAA that is usually provoked by exogenous IAA application. The direct evidence presented here indicates that an endogenous auxin pulse is indeed among the first signals leading to the induction of somatic embryogenesis.