Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is the number one source of consumed vegetable oil nowadays. It is cultivated in areas of tropical rainforest, where it meets its natural condition of high rainfall throughout the year. The palm oil industry faces criticism due to a series of practices that was considered not environmentally sustainable, and it finds itself under pressure to adopt new and innovative procedures to reverse this negative public perception. Cultivating this oilseed crop outside the rainforest zone is only possible using artificial irrigation. Close to 30% of the world’s irrigated agricultural lands also face problems due to salinity stress. Consequently, the research community must consider drought and salinity together when studying to empower breeding programs in order to develop superior genotypes adapted to those potential new areas for oil palm cultivation. Multi-Omics Integration (MOI) offers a new window of opportunity for the non-trivial challenge of unraveling the mechanisms behind multigenic traits, such as drought and salinity tolerance. The current study carried out a comprehensive, large-scale, single-omics analysis (SOA), and MOI study on the leaves of young oil palm plants submitted to very high salinity stress. Taken together, a total of 1239 proteins were positively regulated, and 1660 were negatively regulated in transcriptomics and proteomics analyses. Meanwhile, the metabolomics analysis revealed 37 metabolites that were upregulated and 92 that were downregulated. After performing SOA, 436 differentially expressed (DE) full-length transcripts, 74 DE proteins, and 19 DE metabolites underwent MOI analysis, revealing several pathways affected by this stress, with at least one DE molecule in all three omics platforms used. The Cysteine and methionine metabolism (map00270) and Glycolysis/Gluconeogenesis (map00010) pathways were the most affected ones, each one with 20 DE molecules.

The cashew, Anacardium occidentale, is a globally important tropical fruit tree, but little is known about its natural infraspecific systematics. Wild Brazilian populations occur in the cerrado biome and coastal restinga vegetation. We investigated whether wild coastal and domesticated populations could be distinguished genetically using inter-simple repeat molecular markers (ISSRs). In total, 94 polymorphic loci from five primers were used to characterise genetic diversity, structure and differentiation in four wild restinga populations and four domesticated ones from eight localities in Piauí state (30 individuals per population). Genetic diversity was greater overall in wild (%P: 57.2%, I: 0.24, H e : 0.15) than domesticated populations (%P: 49.5%, I: 0.19, H e : 0.12). Significant structure was observed among the eight populations (between-population variance 22%, Φ PT = 0.217, P ≥ 0.001), but only weak distinctions between wild and domesticated groups. Cluster and principal coordinate analyses showed marked genetic disparity in populations. No correlation of genetic and geographical interpopulation distance was found (Mantel test, r = 0.02032, P = 0.4436). Bayesian analysis found an eight-group optimal model (ΔK = 50.2, K = 8), which mostly corresponded to sampled populations. Wild populations show strong genetic heterogeneity within a small geographical area despite probable gene flow between them. Within-population genetic diversity of wild plants varied considerably and was lower where extractive activities by local people are most intense (Labino population). The study underlines the importance of wild populations as in situ genetic reserves and the urgent need for further studies to support their conservation.

Drought and salinity are two of the most severe abiotic stresses affecting agriculture worldwide and bear some similarities regarding the responses of plants to them. The first is also known as osmotic stress and shows similarities mainly with the osmotic effect, the first phase of salinity stress. Multi-Omics Integration (MOI) offers a new opportunity for the non-trivial challenge of unraveling the mechanisms behind multigenic traits, such as drought and salinity resistance. The current study carried out a comprehensive, large-scale, single-omics analysis (SOA) and MOI studies on the leaves of young oil palm plants submitted to water deprivation. After performing SOA, 1955 DE enzymes from transcriptomics analysis, 131 DE enzymes from proteomics analysis, and 269 DE metabolites underwent MOI analysis, revealing several pathways affected by this stress, with at least one DE molecule in all three omics platforms used. Moreover, the similarities and dissimilarities in the molecular response of those plants to those two abiotic stresses underwent mapping. Cysteine and methionine metabolism (map00270) was the most affected pathway in all scenarios evaluated. The correlation analysis revealed that 91.55% of those enzymes expressed under both stresses had similar qualitative profiles, corroborating the already known fact that plant responses to drought and salinity show several similarities. At last, the results shed light on some candidate genes for engineering crop species resilient to both abiotic stresses.

Os metabólitos secundários são uma classe de compostos orgânicos de origem vegetal de grande importância econômica, sendo cada vez mais utilizados no setor industrial como fonte de novos produtos. Dentre esses compostos bioativos de origem vegetal, se destacam os alcaloides utilizados no tratamento de diversas doenças, inclusive o câncer. O objetivo deste estudo foi realizar uma prospecção tecnológica de alcaloides utilizados no tratamento do câncer, analisando a participação do país nos depósitos de pedidos de patentes em bancos de inovação e tecnologia nacionais e internacionais nos últimos anos. Para isso, a prospecção tecnológica foi realizada nos bancos de dados USPTO, EPO, WIPO, LATIPAT e INPI selecionando as patentes que possuíam o termo alcaloide e câncer no título e/ou resumo. Os resultados demonstraram que a China é o principal país depositário e o maior número de patentes foi depositado nos últimos 10 anos. Houve um crescimento dos pedidos de patentes a partir de 2002 e a classificação internacional (CIP) mais abundante nessa prospecção foi A61K, a qual trata de preparações para finalidades médicas, Revista GEINTEC

Bauhinia L. é um gênero potencialmente benéfico à saúde devido às suas propriedades medicinais. Neste trabalho, realizou-se uma prospecção científica e tecnológica sobre Bauhinia e foram utilizadas as bases de dados WIPO, EPO e INPI para patentes, e Scopus, Scielo e Web of Science para artigos indexados. Os descritores utilizados foram: “Bauhinia”, “Bauhinia AND câncer”, “Bauhinia AND terapêutica” e “Bauhinia AND diabetes”. Dos 1.746 artigos registrados sobre Bauhinia, 148 foram relacionados a pesquisas com diabetes, 95 sobre câncer e 33 se referem à terapêutica em geral (Scopus). Bauhinia apresentou um número considerável de patentes depositadas (WIPO: 694, EPO: 739). Identificou-se que a China possui a maior quantidade de patentes. As espécies B. forficata (n=118), B. bauhinioides (n=29) e B. ungulata (n=20) se destacaram na produção científica e tecnológica na área da fitoterapia. Devido à relevância como fonte de fitoterápicos e à diversidade de espécies, se faz necessário realizar mais pesquisas sobre o gênero Bauhinia no Brasil.