scholarly journals CRISPR-Cas9-mediated knockout of CYP79D1 and CYP79D2 in cassava attenuates toxic cyanogen production

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A Gomez ◽  
Kodiak C Berkoff ◽  
Baljeet K Gill ◽  
Anthony T Iavarone ◽  
Samantha E Lieberman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cytochrome P450 ◽  
Manihot Esculenta ◽  
West African ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Storage Roots ◽  
The West ◽  
Cytochrome P450 Genes ◽  
The World ◽  
Excessive Consumption ◽  
And Storage

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a starchy root crop that supports over a billion people in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. This staple, however, produces toxic cyanogenic compounds and requires processing for safe consumption. Excessive consumption of insufficiently processed cassava, in combination with protein-poor diets, can have neurodegenerative impacts. Reducing the cyanogen content by conventional breeding is problematic due to the heterozygous nature of the crop; recombination will generally disrupt a clonally propagated cultivar's suite of desirable traits. To reduce cyanide levels in cassava, we used CRISPR-mediated mutagenesis to disrupt the cytochrome P450 genes CYP79D1 and CYP79D2 whose protein products catalyze the first step in cyanogenic glucoside biosynthesis. Knockout of both genes eliminated cyanide in leaves and storage roots of cassava accession 60444 and the West African, farmer-preferred cultivar TME 419. Although knockout of CYP79D2 alone resulted in significant reduction of cyanide, mutagenesis of CYP79D1 did not, indicating these paralogs have diverged in their function. Our work demonstrates cassava genome editing for food safety, reduced processing requirements, and environmental benefits that could be readily extended to other farmer-preferred cultivars.

scholarly journals Is the diversity of the Beach Flies adequately known? Some notes on the state of the art of current knowledge (Diptera: Canacidae)

2015 ◽  
pp. 99-111
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Munari
Keyword(s):  
Bay Of Bengal ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Neotropical Region ◽  
West African ◽  
The State ◽  
South American ◽  
The West ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
The World

An overview of the major zoogeographical gaps in our knowledge of the world beach flies (subfamilies Apetaeninae, Horaismopterinae, Pelomyiinae, and Tethininae) is provided. The identified areas treated in this work are as follows: the subarctic Beringia, the South American circum-Antarctic islands, the Neotropical Region south of the equator, most of the West African seacoasts, the huge area ranging from India, across the Bay of Bengal, to Sumatra and Java, and most of Australia. Apart from the inhospitable northernmost and southernmost areas of the planet, which feature a real very low biodiversity, the remaining vast areas dealt with in this work woefully suffer a dramatic paucity of field collections, as well as of previously collected materials preserved in scientific institutions. This might seem a truism that, however, must be emphasized in order to unequivocally identify the geographic areas that need to be further investigated

Influence of tree species and compass bearing on insect folivory of nine common tree species in the West African savanna

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sybille B. Unsicker ◽  
Karsten Mody
Keyword(s):  
Tree Species ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Insect Herbivory ◽  
West African ◽  
Leaf Damage ◽  
Tropical Rain Forests ◽  
The West ◽  
African Savanna ◽  
The World ◽  
Plant Animal Interactions

Levels of leaf damage due to insect folivory have been investigated in forests of different latitudes all over the world, but most research has concentrated on a few common forest types. Most studies of insect herbivory were conducted in (sub)tropical rain forests (Barone 1998, Basset 1996, Coley 1983, Lowman 1985), or in temperate forests (Landsberg & Ohmart 1989, Lowman & Heatwole 1992). In contrast, little is known about insect folivory of woody plants in tropical savannas (Fowler & Duarte 1991, Marquis et al. 2001, Ribeiro 2003, Stanton 1975), and no such data are available for the West African savanna ecosystem (Andersen & Lonsdale 1990). Savannas cover about 40% of the land surface of Africa and 20% of the world (Scholes & Walker 1993), and savanna trees may host considerable numbers of insects, including many herbivores (Grant & Moran 1986, Mody et al. 2003). Therefore, insect herbivory can be considered a potentially important aspect of plant–animal interactions for vast areas of tropical ecosystems, where it has been studied remarkably rarely so far.

Abdullah Quilliam’s International Influence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent D. Singleton
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Muslim Communities

News concerning Abdullah Quilliam and his establishment of a community of British converts to Islam in Liverpool quickly spread across the world. This chapter agues that, as a well-placed convert in the heart of the British Empire, Quilliam symbolized many things to Muslim communities worldwide. Correspondingly, each group of Muslims perceived him in whatever light they needed to see him. The American converts to Islam saw a model, a mentor, and a mediator. For Muslims in the British Empire, particularly Africa, Quilliam provided a morale boost, a legitimatization for holding on to their religion and culture in the face of colonialism. Muslims outside of the British Empire considered Quilliam an agent for the spread of Islam in the West. This chapter discusses Quilliam’s relationship with these communities, focusing on American and West African Muslims.

scholarly journals Yam Breeding in Ghana

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Otoo
Keyword(s):  
Research Effort ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
Centre Of Excellence ◽  
The World ◽  
Asiatic Origin ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
Orphan Crop ◽  
Tuber Crops

CSIR-Crops Research Institute of Ghana is the National Centre of Specialization (NCOs) for Root and Tuber Crops and migrating into a Regional Centre of Excellence (RCOE) in Root and Tuber research in the West African sub-region. Yam is one of the major root and tuber crops of importance in the sub-region and for that matter the NCOS. Even though yams are indigenous to the West African sub-region, with the exception of Dioscorea alata (Asiatic origin), yams are often aptly described as an orphan crop due to the relatively little research effort compared to its significance in the sub-region in particular and the world at large. Breeding of yams therefore can be a challenge due to little literature available on the subject matter. This paper looks at the historic perspective, what can be done presently and projects into future direction of yam breeding in Ghana and the world at large. It also serves as a guide for yam breeding in particular and root and tuber crops in general.

scholarly journals Physiotherapy education in Africa- The experience in Nigeria

1994 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-61
Author(s):  
Seyi L. Amosun
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
West African ◽  
African Unity ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
African Nation ◽  
The World ◽  
Physiotherapy Education ◽  
World Confederation

The African Rehabilitation Institute, an arm of the Organisation of African Unity, recently designed a physiotherapy education programme for implementation in African countries.  The West African sub-region, having one of the oldest physiotherapy education programmes in the continent, was not directly involved in the formulation of the programme.  A review of physiotherapy education in Nigeria, the first  African nation after South-Africa to be admitted into the membership of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy, shows that the programme recommended by the African Rehabilitation Institute is highly commendable.

Henry Smeathman, the Flycatcher

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deirdre Coleman
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
West Indies ◽  
West African ◽  
Middle Passage ◽  
The West ◽  
Plantation Slavery ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
The World ◽  
African Coast

In 1771 Joseph Banks, John Fothergill and other wealthy collectors sent a talented, self-taught naturalist to Sierra Leone to collect all things rare and curious, from moths to monkeys. The name of this collector was Henry Smeathman, an ingenious and enterprising Yorkshireman keen on improving his position in the world. His expedition to the West African coast, which coincided with a steep rise in British slave trading in this area, lasted four years during which time he built a house on the Banana Islands, married several times into the coast’s ruling dynasties, and managed to negotiate the tricky life of a ‘stranger’ bound to landlords and local customs. In this book, which draws on a rich and little-known archive of journals and letters, Coleman retraces Smeathman’s life and his attitudes to slavery, both African and European, as he shuttled between his home on the Bananas and two key Liverpool trading forts—Bunce Island and the Isles de Los. In the logistical challenges of tropical collecting and the dispatch of specimens across the middle passage we see the close connection forged in this period between science, collecting, and slavery. The book also reproduces and discusses Smeathman’s essay describing his journey on a fully slaved ship from West Africa to Barbados, a unique account because it is written by a passenger unconnected to the slave trade. After four years in the West Indies observing plantation slavery Smeathman returned to England to write his ‘Voyages and Travels’.

The Emergence of Nautical Astronomy in Portugal in the XVth century

1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. G. L. Randles
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canary Islands ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
The World ◽  
Isidore Of Seville ◽  
Navigational Aid ◽  
Christian Writer ◽  
Methods Of Measurement

Of the great oceans of the world, the Atlantic, because of its violence, was the last to be mastered by man. The task in its entirety had to wait for the Portuguese sailors of the Renaissance. Isidore of Seville (c. 570–636), a Christian writer of the late Roman Empire, had written of the Atlantic that it was ‘incommensurable and uncrossable’. Although Pliny (a.d. 23–79) refers vaguely to the Canary Islands, all knowledge of them disappears in the Middle Ages until a Portuguese expedition under the command of the Italian Lanzarotto Malocello ‘re- discovered’ them in 1336. Italian charts of the XIVth century begin progressively to show the Canaries, Madeira, Porto Santo and the Azores, but all aligned along a N/S axis without any appreciation of the relative distances between them or how far they lay from the European shore. The first written evidence of the Portuguese ‘discovery’ of the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo appears in 1419–20 and of the Azores in 1427, about the same time as they began to be colonised under the aegis of Prince Henry of Portugal, called the ‘Navigator’. The difficulties of returning to them on regular voyages was to motivate the Portuguese to develop methods of measurement using the Pole Star as a navigational aid and this led, not only to a greater accuracy in placing the islands on the charts, but also to a greater precision in the charting of the west African coastline which they were progressively exploring during the second half of the XVth century.Claims that Portuguese nautical astronomy originated in Aragon and was transmitted from there to Portugal or was introduced into Portugal from Germany by Regiomontanus and Martin Behaim have long ago been shown to be baseless.

Review of Europe and the Sea, by Michael Mollat du Jourdain; Early Irish and Welsh Kinship, by T. M. Charles-Edwards; An Historical Geography of Ireland, by B. J. Graham and L. J. Proudfoot; Moving Europeans, by Leslie Page Moch; Housing Strategies in Europe, 1880-1930, by Colin G. Pooley; The Edwardian House, by Helen C. Long; Slums and Redevelopment, by J. A. Yelling; Street Noises, by Adrian Rifkin; Wild Majesty, by Peter Hulume and Neil L. Whitehead; Art and Empire, by Vivien Green Fryd; Mapping American Culture, by Wayne Franklin and Michael Steiner; The Power of Maps, by Denis Wood (with John Fels); The Transformation of Agriculture in the West, by David Grigg; World Trade Since 1431, by Peter J. Hugill; Ways of the World, by M. G. Lay; West African Slavery and Atlantic Commerce, by James F. Searing; Crossings, by Walter Nugent; Miasms and Disease, by Carlo M. Cipolla; Epidemics and Ideas: Essays on the Historical Perception of Pestilence, by Terence Ranger and Paul Slack; Black Mountain, by Colin Murray and War Machine: The Rationalization of Slaughter in the Modern Age, by Daniel Pick

1994 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-230
Author(s):  
John H. Pryor ◽  
Glansville R.J. Jones ◽  
Robin A. Butlin ◽  
Charles W.J. Withers ◽  
Richard Dennis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Trade ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Historical Geography ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
War Machine ◽  
The World ◽  
Black Mountain

scholarly journals EFFECTS OF CONCESSIONAL DEBT ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A MULTILATERAL AND BILATERAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE WEST AFRICAN MONETARY ZONE

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ifeoma C. Nwakoby ◽  
Hillary Chijindu Ezeaku
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Random Effect ◽  
Panel Cointegration ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
West African ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Less Developed Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The World

Studies on the contribution of concessional debt to economic development are sketchy. The paucity of empirical studies on this subject is even more glaring in the context of the English-speaking West African countries. Bilateral and multilateral aid donors have intensified the flow of official assistance to the developing countries of the world with the aim to bridge the developmental gap between the less developed countries and the industrialized countries of the world. The question that often arises is whether such aids have yielded the desired results among the recipient countries. Against this backdrop, we examined the effect of concessional debt on the economic development in the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) using cross-sectional data from 1975-2014. The panel cointegration and panel unit root tests were employed to test for long-run relationship and stationarity of the series respectively. Our model was analysed with both fixed and random effect panel regression while the Hausman test be used to determine the best and appropriate choice between the two. Our findings reveal that multilateral and bilateral concessional debts have significant positive effect on standard of living in the West African Monetary Zone. The panel cointegration test also indicates that there is no long-run relationship between concessional debt and per capita income. We conclude that inflow of concessional aid from multilateral and bilateral donors has had remarkable influence on the standard of living in the region. We recommend that concessional aid to the less developed countries be intensified. However, recipient countries should have a credible external borrowing guideline scribed in their legislation to check against excessive borrowing and also ensure that aid received is used for the intended (developmental) purposes. External institutions and aid agencies should also be involved in the entire aid administration with aim of ensuring that aid is extended based on need, not political ties. JEL: A10; B20; C01 <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0781/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

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