Genome Editing in Crop Plant Research—Alignment of Expectations and Current Developments

The rapid development of genome editing and other new genomic techniques (NGT) has evoked manifold expectations on purposes of the application of these techniques to crop plants. In this study, we identify and align these expectations with current scientific development. We apply a semi-quantitative text analysis approach on political, economic, and scientific opinion papers to disentangle and extract expectations towards the application of NGT-based plants. Using the sustainable development goals (SDG) of the 2030 agenda as categories, we identify contributions to food security or adaptation to climatic changes as the most frequently mentioned expectations, accompanied by the notion of sustainable agriculture and food systems. We then link SDG with relevant plant traits and review existing research and commercial field trials for genome-edited crop plants. For a detailed analysis we pick as representative traits drought tolerance and resistance against fungal pathogens. Diverse genetic setscrews for both traits have been identified, modified, and tested under laboratory conditions, although there are only a few in the field. All in all, NGT-plants that can withstand more than one stressor or different environments are not documented in advanced development states. We further conclude that developing new plants with modified traits will not be sufficient to reach food security or adaption to climatic changes in a short time frame. Further scientific development of sustainable agricultural systems will need to play an important role to tackle SDG challenges, as well.

Need of the Hour: Awareness on Green Banking Products

Human beings for their self-centeredness, warmth, and leisure in their life, have chosen the avenue of globalization, technological advancement, and industrialization. The price that they are paying for this avenue is the catastrophe of biodiversity, climatic changes, global warming, depleting resources, melting of glaciers, and the catastrophe of greenery. Hence environmental sustainability and sustainable development have turned into a crucial agenda in the global association. India is a rapidly flourishing nation which is backed by the industrial sectors, yet it is exposed terribly to climatic change and global warming. Due to this alarming plight, the banking sectors who are the chief financial supporter of industries that cause pollution have taken a small start: Going Green. This has given push up to the conception of green banking and it has given birth to green banking products. The green banking products target cutback of carbon impression, resource-efficient economies, and ward off wastage of the accessible limited resources. It is focused upon moving towards banking practices that are non-hazardous to the environment and aids to conserve it. These green banking products initiatives have recently kick-started in a handful of banks across the country. Fueling of green products is required at a quick pace than anticipated, as they have a close association with other sectors that forms the country’s economy. This paper skates through the Need of the Hour and the awareness on Green Banking Products.

Tick-Born Relapsing Fever and Genespecies Diversity of Borrelia: Current Status

Relevance. Tick-borne relapsing fevers caused by Borrelia species pathogenic for humans are not well understood. Aim of this review is to assess the genetic diversity of Borrelia with special attention to the relapsing fever group and phylogenetically related species carried by ticks. The review also provides up-to-date information on the main vectors and their geographic distribution, reservoirs of borrelia – pathogens, and potential pathogens of tick-borne recurrent fevers. Conclusions. New types of Borrelia, including a candidate, of relapsing fever clade and related phylogenetic lines/groups, which are carried not only by argasid, but also by solid-body ixodids ticks, deserve further study. The preservation of the epidemic potential of tick-borne relapsing fever can be facilitated by climatic changes, and poorly studied adaptation mechanisms of Borrelia to the range of vectors.

Bluetongue virus in Europe: the current epidemiological situation

The article reviews the history of BT occurrence in Europe and its present status. It describes the distribution of BT in Europe before 1998, the emergence of BTV in southern and eastern Europe in 1998-2006 and the epidemiology of BT in north-western Europe after 2006. Up to 1998, sporadic cases of BT were noted in Cyprus, on the Iberian Peninsula and on several Greek islands. However, since 1998, probably due to climatic changes, BTV has spread northwards into the Mediterranean Basin, where five BTV serotypes (1, 2, 4, 9 and 16) have been identified. In August 2006, BTV passed for the first time latitude 50°N, and BT outbreaks caused by BTV serotype 8 occurred in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and Luxembourg. Mass vaccination campaigns implemented in Europe in the spring of 2008 quickly limited the spread of disease caused by BTV-8, and it was eradicated by 2011. However, after a 3-year break, in September 2015, BTV-8 re-emerged in Europe, in central France, and subsequently spread throughout the entire country. In the following years, BTV-8 outbreaks were found in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Spain. In addition to BTV-8 outbreaks, BTV serotypes 1, 2, 4, 9 and 16 have recently circulated in Europe. As revealed by phylogeographic inference, the recent spread of BTV in Europe is a consequence of climatic, landscape and vertebrate host factors

Crop prediction using machine learning

For most developing countries, agriculture is their primary source of revenue. Modern agriculture is a constantly growing approach for agricultural advances and farming techniques. It becomes challenging for the farmers to satisfy our planet’s evolving requirements and the expectations of merchants, customers, etc. Some of the challenges the farmers face are-(i) Dealing with climatic changes because of soil erosion and industry emissions (ii) Nutrient deficiency in the soil, caused by a shortage of crucial minerals such as potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus can result in reduced crop growth. (iii) Farmers make a mistake by cultivating the same crops year after year without experimenting with different varieties. They add fertilizers randomly without understanding the inferior quality or quantity. The paper aims to discover the best model for crop prediction, which can help farmers decide the type of crop to grow based on the climatic conditions and nutrients present in the soil. This paper compares popular algorithms such as K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Decision Tree, and Random Forest Classifier using two different criterions Gini and Entropy. Results reveal that Random Forest gives the highest accuracy among the three.

Ecological Succession of Wetlands

The change in community structure induced by environmental perturbances over time is called ecological succession and results in modification of community structure in a particular ecosystem. However, with climatic changes and pollution, wetlands are most likely to have modified their successional trails, especially as these ecosystems are exposed to various fluctuating water rhythms enhanced carbon dioxide, salinity invasion, and climatic temperatures. The chapter is an attempt to review the present condition of wetlands with respect to pollution and its impact on successional patterns.

Impact of Climatic Changes on Earth's Survival

Every species' survival on earth is dependent on each other for their demand and dependent on the environment and various other sources. These resources include fresh food, clean drinking water, timber for construction, natural gas and coal for industries, fibers for clothing. All the human activity affects the environment severely in different ways. The biggest threats to the environment are climatic changes. Climate is an important factor that affects all survival on earth. The different pollutants, transport, dispersion, chemical transformation, as well as the deposition can be affected by meteorological variable such as humidity, wind, temperature. Climatic changes are expected to worsen the quality of air and water by changing the atmospheric processes and chemistry. Not only human beings but every aspect of the ecosystem is affected due to the changing climate. This chapter will explore the impacts of climatic changes on biodiversity by various activities of humans. Additionally, it will sketch how the impacts can be reduced by plants.

The features of the biotopic distribution of Orthoptera insects in the Adon-Chelon terrain (Daursky Nature Reserve, Southern Transbaikalia)

The features of the species composition and abundance of orthoptera insects (Insecta, Orthoptera) in different stations of the Adon-Chelon locality (Daursky Biosphere Reserve, south-eastern Transbaikalia) were studied. The differences in these parameters were revealed for Orthoptera communities inhabiting different stations. The differences in the Orthoptera fauna were noted in comparison with previous studies, which may be associated with cyclical climatic changes characteristic of Southern Transbaikalia.

Comprehensive Archaeological and Palaeoecological Studies of the Holocene Chronosequence in the Southern Taiga of the Middle Yenisei

The article presents the results of a comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of archaeological and palaeoecological data. The aim of the study was to identify climatic changes in the habitat and their impact on the formation of the palaeoeconomics of the ancient population, on the expansion or reduction of the area of archaeological cultures with foraging and producing economy. Based on the analysis of palaeosignals obtained by a complex of methods (pollen, botanical analysis of peat, charcoal analysis, determination of the ash content of sediments), the following intervals of changing conditions were identified: 7400—6800 calibrated years before present (cal. BP) — humidity reduction, 4850—4400 cal. BP — an increase in humidity, 3850—3150 cal. BP — decrease in humidity, 3150—2000 cal. BP — stable humid, with 1600 cal. BP — moisture reduction, 1250—700 cal. BP — minimal moisture. Changes in conditions are consistent with changes in the boundaries of the subzone of the southern taiga and forest-steppe, as well as with the range of cultures of Siberian hunters, fishers, gatherers and pastoralists. The results can be projected over the entire Siberian region.