Food and Energy Security

To reach the sustainable intensification of food production, the use of recombinant DNA-derived products, fused with non-restrictive operational policies that foster high quality education and ecological knowledge, can form the foundation of a viable option for a new agricultural configuration for our planet.

Plants of the genus Pinus are able to grow in a wide range of environments, many of which quite harsh and extreme. Pine forests work as sinks of atmospheric carbon, contributing to greenhouse effect mitigation. They are important sources of numerous useful products, including not only wood and cellulose, but also non-wood products used by the chemical, food, biofuel, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as for biorefineries.

The importance of viticulture and of the winemaking socio-economic sector in Europe is largely acknowledged. Given the strong influence of the atmospheric factors on this crop, climate change can significantly affect yield and wine quality under future conditions. An overview of the current scientific knowledge, mostly concerning the European viticulture, the potential climate change impacts and feasible adaptation measures is provided herein

This review is about the molecular and environmental factors that determine grain quality in rice. Grain quality is a general concept which covers many characteristics ranging from physical to biochemical and physiological properties. Starch and protein are the two main components of rice endosperm and therefore are key to quality. The knowledge of how starch and protein are synthesized, sorted and stored in starch granules and protein bodies is important for future rice breeding.

We review the most recent research carried on cadmium-induced stress in plants and suggest key aspects that deserve attention in future research on this subject.

Lysine is a limiting essential amino acid in cereals. The saccharopine pathway that converts lysine to α-aminoadipate can be manipulated to engineer crops for increased nutritional value and stress tolerance.