Galina Brychkova

Mountainous regions are highly climate-vulnerable. Despite this, fine-scale assessments of social vulnerability to climate change in mountainous regions remain limited. This study addresses this gap for mountain communities in Vietnam by mapping social vulnerability at the commune level (the smallest administrative unit) by combining the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) with nationwide socioeconomic data. Van Yen District in Yen Bai Province was selected as the research area of focus because it reflects the broader conditions of northwestern mountainous regions in Vietnam, including a high dependence on rain-fed agriculture, high ethnic diversity, infrastructural constraints, and recurrent exposure to multiple hazard-induced disasters. The framework defines social vulnerability as a function of sensitivity and adaptive capacity . Our results reveal that communes in the central and southern parts of Van Yen exhibit moderate to very high social vulnerability to climate change, primarily driven by high sensitivity and low adaptive capacity. Of the 18 indicators analyzed, six were found to have statistically significant effects on vulnerability, namely population density, proportion of women, aquaculture area, proportion of ethnic minorities, housing quality, and access to clean energy. These findings provide actionable insights for local governments to better target vulnerable communities and prioritize resources for climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Our analytical approach demonstrates the transferability of AHP-based fine-scale mapping to mountainous regions, offering a practical tool for advancing equitable and sustainable adaptation planning nationally and globally.

Summary: Genome‐edited plants, endowed with climate‐smart traits, have been promoted as tools for strengthening resilience against climate change. Successful plant gene editing (GE) requires precise regulation of the GE machinery, a process controlled by the promoters, which drives its transcription through interactions with transcription factors (TFs) and RNA polymerase. While constitutive promoters are extensively used in GE constructs, their limitations highlight the need for alternative approaches. This review emphasizes the promise of tissue/organ specific as well as inducible promoters, which enable targeted GE in a spatiotemporal manner with no effects on other tissues. Advances in synthetic biology have paved the way for the creation of synthetic promoters, offering refined control over gene expression and augmenting the potential of plant GE. The integration of these novel promoters with synthetic systems presents significant opportunities for precise and conditional genome editing. Moreover, the advent of bioinformatic tools and artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the characterization of regulatory elements, enhancing our understanding of their roles in plants. Thus, this review provides novel insights into the strategic use of promoters and promoter editing to enhance the precision, efficiency and specificity of plant GE, setting the stage for innovative crop improvement strategies.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of “Connect the circle” systems thinking tools for improving contextualised systems thinking from sustainability perspectives. The guiding question is could “Connect the circle” improve sustainability education? Design/methodology/approach: The effect of the “Connect the circle” tool on the development of learning dimensions, especially improved problem understanding, shared vision and quality of communication in STEM modules, was analysed by qualitative and quantitative methods. Findings: Authors find that “Connect the circle” is an effective tool for thinking skills development. However, scaffolding in education is required to achieve higher-order thinking skills by empowering students to become active agents of change, capable of envisioning and implementing sustainable solutions at multiple levels. Practical implications: Educators must bridge gaps between systems theory and understanding how systems thinking skills should be developed in sustainability contexts. Insights from this research will support the development of knowledge and skills required for higher education institutions graduates to address complex sustainability issues. Originality/value: Applying this tool to STEM curricula represents an original way to explain student holistic vision to connect systems theory to the application of systems thinking skills for sustainability change.

Despite the transformative power of gene editing for crop improvement, its widespread application across species and varieties is limited by the transformation bottleneck that exists for many crops. The genetic transformation of plants is hindered by a general reliance on in vitro regeneration through plant tissue culture. Tissue culture requires empirically-determined conditions and aseptic techniques, and cannot easily be translated to recalcitrant species and genotypes. Both Agrobacterium-mediated and alternative transformation protocols are limited by a dependency on in vitro regeneration, which also limits their use by non-experts and hinders research into non-model species such as those of possible novel biopharmaceutical or nutraceutical use, as well as novel ornamental varieties. Hence, there is significant interest in developing tissue culture-independent plant transformation and gene editing approaches which can circumvent the bottlenecks associated with in vitro plant regeneration recalcitrance. Compared to tissue culture-based transformations, tissue culture-independent approaches offer advantages such as avoidance of somaclonal variation effects, with more streamlined and expeditious methodological processes. The ease of use, dependability, and accessibility of tissue culture-independent procedures can make them attractive to non-experts, outperforming classic tissue culture-dependent systems. This review explores the diversity of tissue culture-independent transformation approaches and compares them to traditional tissue culture-dependent transformation strategies. We highlight their simplicity and provide examples of recent successful transformations accomplished using these systems. Our review also addresses current limitations and explores future perspectives, highlighting the significance of these techniques for advancing plant research and crop improvement.

Improving the salt stress tolerance of crops is an important goal in plant breeding. Changes in the number of chromosome sets (i.e. ploidy level) cause genome dosage effects which can result in enhanced or novel traits. Maternal inheritance versus paternal inheritance of the same chromosome sets can have differential epigenetic effects on traits of F1 offspring. Hence, genome dosage effects can be parent-of-origin independent or dependent. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana displays both genome dosage and parent-of-origin effects on plant growth under non-stress conditions. Using an isogenic ploidy series of diploid, triploid and tetraploid lines, we investigate the extent of genome dosage effects and their parent-of-origin dependency on in vitro salt stress tolerance of seedlings across 10 different A. thaliana accessions (genetic backgrounds). We detected genome dosage effects on salt stress tolerance for tetraploid lines in five accessions. In addition, through the generation of isogenic reciprocal F1 triploid lines, both parent-of-origin dependent and independent genome dosage effects on salt stress tolerance were detected. Thus, our results indicate not only that genome dosage balance effects can have significant impacts on abiotic stress tolerance in A. thaliana but also that parent-of-origin specific genome dosage effects can affect salt stress tolerance in plants.

Mushrooms are a nutritionally rich and sustainably-produced food with a growing global market. Agaricus bisporus accounts for 11% of the total world mushroom production and it is the dominant species cultivated in Europe. It faces threats from pathogens that cause important production losses, including the mycoparasite Lecanicillium fungicola, the causative agent of dry bubble disease. Through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), we determine the impact of L. fungicola infection on the transcription patterns of A. bisporus genes involved in key cellular processes. Notably, genes related to cell division, fruiting body development, and apoptosis exhibit dynamic transcriptional changes in response to infection. Furthermore, A. bisporus infected with L. fungicola were found to accumulate increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Interestingly, the transcription levels of genes involved in the production and scavenging mechanisms of ROS were also increased, suggesting the involvement of changes to ROS homeostasis in response to L. fungicola infection. These findings identify potential links between enhanced cell proliferation, impaired fruiting body development, and ROS-mediated defence strategies during the A. bisporus (host)–L. fungicola (pathogen) interaction, and offer avenues for innovative disease control strategies and improved understanding of fungal pathogenesis.