A Note on the Grafting and Anatomy of Black Pepper

SummarySome early attempts to graft black pepper are described. Good unions have formed between different clones of Piper nigrum L., and between different species of Piper grown in a glasshouse in the United Kingdom. The structure of pepper stems is considered in relation to the apparent impermanence, in the tropics, of unions that initially appear to be successful.

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Small RNA sequencing reveals various microRNAs involved in piperine biosynthesis in black pepper (Piper nigrum L.)

BMC Genomics ◽

10.1186/s12864-021-08154-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yuanhao Ding ◽

Yuyuan Mao ◽

Yi Cen ◽

Lisong Hu ◽

Yuefeng Su ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Secondary Metabolism ◽

Rna Sequencing ◽

Small Rna ◽

Small Rnas ◽

Black Pepper ◽

Piper Nigrum ◽

Small Rna Sequencing ◽

Mirna Regulation ◽

Sequencing Data ◽

The Tropics

Abstract Background Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.), an important and long-cultivated spice crop, is native to South India and grown in the tropics. Piperine is the main pungent and bioactive alkaloid in the berries of black pepper, but the molecular mechanism for piperine biosynthesis has not been determined. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are classical endogenous noncoding small RNAs, play important roles in regulating secondary metabolism in many species, but less is known regarding black pepper or piperine biosynthesis. Results To dissect the functions of miRNAs in secondary metabolism especially in piperine biosynthesis, 110 known miRNAs, 18 novel miRNAs and 1007 individual targets were identified from different tissues of black pepper by small RNA sequencing. qRT-PCR and 5′-RLM-RACE experiments were conducted to validate the reliability of the sequencing data and predicted targets. We found 3 miRNAs along with their targets including miR166-4CL, miR396-PER and miR397-CCR modules that are involved in piperine biosynthesis. Conclusion MiRNA regulation of secondary metabolism is a common phenomenon in plants. Our study revealed new miRNAs that regulate piperine biosynthesis, which are special alkaloids in the piper genus, and they might be useful for future piperine genetic improvement of black pepper.

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Tropicality and the Choc en Retour of Covid-19 and Climate Change

eTropic electronic journal of studies in the tropics ◽

10.25120/etropic.20.1.2021.3787 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 54-93

Author(s):

Daniel Clayton

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

United Kingdom ◽

Extreme Weather ◽

Epidemic Disease ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Science Theory ◽

Boomerang Effect ◽

Tropical Areas ◽

The Media ◽

The Tropics

This article reads ‘pandemic, plague, pestilence and the tropics’ through Covid-19, climate change and the discourse of tropicality. It asks: What happens, as seems to be the case today, when the temperate/tropical oppositions around which tropicality revolves start to unravel because the aberrations and excesses (here of epidemic disease and extreme weather) hitherto deemed to belong to tropical areas, and as constitutive of their otherness, are found in temperate ones? This question is broached with a focus on the United Kingdom as one such ‘temperate’ place that currently finds itself in this situation (although the argument has broader resonance), and with Aimé Césaire’s ideas about the choc en retour (boomerang effect) of Western colonisation and la quotidienneté des barbaries (the daily barbarisms) by which this effect works. Evidence and feelers from science, theory, politics, and the media are used to consider how sensibilities of tropicality, and especially (as Césaire enquired) distinctions between the ‘normal’ and ‘pathological,’ and ‘immunity’ and ‘susceptibility,’ permeate the way Covid-19 and climate change are perceived and felt in the temperate world.

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