The drivers and impacts of Amazon Forest degradation.

Approximately 2.5 × 106 square kilometers of the Amazon Forest are currently degraded by fire, edge effects, timber extraction, and/or extreme drought, representing 38% of all remaining forests in the region. Carbon emissions from this degradation total up to 0.2 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year−1), which is equivalent to, if not greater than, […]

Human impacts outpace natural processes in the Amazon.

Amazonian environments are being degraded by modern industrial and agricultural activities at a pace far above anything previously known, imperiling its vast biodiversity reserves and globally important ecosystem services. The most substantial threats come from regional deforestation, because of export market demands, and global climate change. The Amazon is currently perched to transition rapidly from […]

Mutation of a bHLH transcription factor allowed almond domestication

Wild almond species accumulate the bitter and toxic cyanogenic diglucoside amygdalin. Almonddomestication was enabled by the selection of genotypes harboring sweet kernels. We report the completion of the almond reference genome. Map-based cloning using an F1 population segregating for kernel taste led to the identification of a 46-kilobase gene cluster encoding five basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors, bHLH1 to bHLH5. Functional characterization demonstrated that bHLH2 […]

Manganese Blocks Intracellular Trafficking of Shiga Toxin and Protects Against Shiga Toxicosis

Infections with Shiga toxin (STx)–producing bacteria cause more than a million deaths each year and have no definitive treatment. To exert its cytotoxic effect; STx invades cells through retrograde membrane trafficking; escaping the lysosomal degradative pathway. We found that the widely available metal manganese (Mn2+) blocked endosome-to-Golgi trafficking of STx and caused its degradation in […]

Cancer chemopreventive activity of resveratrol; a natural product derived from grapes

Resveratrol; a phytoalexin found in grapes and other food products; was purified and shown to have cancer chemopreventive activity in assays representing three major stages of carcinogenesis. Resveratrol was found to act as an antioxidant and antimutagen and to induce phase II drug-metabolizing enzymes (anti-initiation activity); it mediated anti-inflammatory effects and inhibited cyclooxygenase and hydroperoxidase […]