The impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on global grain market and food security:Short-and long-term effects

Since the 24th February 2022,Russia has been conducting extensive air and missile strikes against the Ukraine military they have also been conducting concurrent ground offensives beyond Crimea and the Donbas breakaway entities.Recent reports highlighted that Russia has continually advanced in different maneuver axes and at present,no one can predict when and how the Ukraine conflict will end.For over three months,the conflict has greatly influenced the global economy and sounded the alarm bells for global food safety,especially to those countries which greatly depend on food and chemical fertilizer import from Russia and Ukraine,as well as those countries sensitive to food price variation shock.

Acetylglutamate kinase is required for both gametophyte function and embryo development in Arabidopsis thaliana

The specific functions of the genes encoding arginine biosynthesis enzymes in plants are not well characterized. We report the isolation and characterization of Arabidopsis thaliana N-acetylglutamate kinase （NAGK）, which catalyzes the second step of arginine biosynthesis. NAGK is a plastid-localized protein and is expressed during most developmental processes in Arabidopsis. Heterologous expression of the Arabidopsis NAGK gene in a NAGK-deficient Escherichia coli strain fully restores bacterial growth on arginine-deficient medium, nagk mutant pollen tubes grow more slowly than wild type pollen tubes and the phenotype is restored by either specifically through complementation by NAGK in pollen, or exogenous supplementation of arginine, nagk female gametophytes are defective in micropylar pollen tube guidance due to the fact that female gametophyte cell fate specification was specifically affected. Expression of NAGK in synergid cells rescues the defect of nagk female gametophytes. Loss- of-function of NAGK results in Arabidopsis embryos not developing beyond the four-celled embryo stage. The embryo-defective phenotype in nagk/NAGK plants cannot be rescued by watering nagk/NAGK plants with arginine or ornithine supplementation. In conclusion, our results reveal a novel role of NAGK and arginine in regulating gametophyte function and embryo development, and provide valuable insights into arginine transport during embryo development.

Arabidopsis RAN 1 Mediates Seed Development through Its Parental .Ratio by Affecting the Onset of Endosperm Cellularization

Although previous studies have demonstrated that endosperm development is influenced by its parental genome constitution, the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms that control parent-of-origin effects require further elucidation. Here we show that the Ras-related nuclear protein 1 （RAN1） regulates endosperm development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Reciprocal crosses between wild-type （WT） and transgenic lines misexpressing RAN1 （msRAN1） gave rise to small F1 seeds when RAN1 down-regulated/up-regulated individuals were used as a male/female parent; in contrast, F1 seeds were aborted when RAN1 down-regulated/up-regulated plants were used as a female/male parent, suggesting that seed development is affected by the parental genome ratio of RAN1. Whereas RAN1 expression in wild-type plants is reduced before the onset of endosperm cellularization, F1 seeds from reciprocal crosses between WT and msRAN1 showed abnormal endosperm cellularization and ectopic expression of RAN1. The expression of MINISEED3 （MINI3）-a gene that also controls endosperm cellularization-was also affected in these reciprocal crosses, and the misregulation of MINI3 activity rescued F1 seeds when msRAN1 plants were used in reciprocal crosses. Taken together, our results suggest that the parental ratio of RAN1 regulates the onset of endosperm cellularization through its genetic interaction with MINI3.

RPL18aB helps maintain suspensor identity during early embryogenesis

Summary During embryogenesis, plants are thought to use a mechanism that allows the suspensor to maintain its identity. Here, we reported that RPL18a is involved in this mechanism in Arabidopsis thaliana. The suspensor cells proliferated in rp118aB and formed a multicellular structure rather than undergo pro- grammed cell death, as in wild type. Suspensors of rpl18a expressed the embryo proper marker, DRN：： GFP, but not the suspensor marker, WOX8：：GFP. In addition, auxin accumulated throughout the suspensors of rpl18a proembryos. Suspensor-specific expression of RPL18a could rescue the cell proliferation defects in rpl18a suspensors. These findings supported a role for RPL18a in maintaining suspensor identity.