Methodological interculturalism: breaking down epistemological barriers around diversity management

As part of the post-multicultural era, transnationalism, super-diversity, cosmopolitanism and solidarity develop a sense of awareness to live in a complex society. This requests us to identify the epistemological barriers preventing us to produce new knowledge, since there is a raising consciousness that these new frameworks cannot be addressed with old policy maps. All share the need to go beyond methodological nationalism, and one of its by-products: multiculturalism. Methodological interculturalism is a promising epistemological lens through which to cluster this new diversity geography. It is a direct answer to the key question, what happens when the unit of analysis from which we argue about “how to live together” is diversity itself rather than a supposed us/we/unity/ majority/state/nation lens. The outcome is the recognition that super-diversity and transnationalism is a fact that we need to incorporate into our public culture, together with new normative claims of justice related to cosmopolitanism and solidarity.     

Funding for teratology information services: Up, down, and all around

Funding for Teratology Information Services has been an ongoing struggle over the 25 years of its existence. Traditional and novel funding mechanisms have been explored with varying success. The importance of providing teratology risk assessment and counseling to all women of reproductive age is now an established health care objective. Sufficient and stable funding for these services is essential. Birth Defects Research (Part A) 94:660-663, 2012. ? 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Signaling in development

A report on the 'Integration of Signaling Pathways in Development' Keystone Symposium, Keystone, Colorado, USA, 27 January to 1 February 2001.     

Regulation of Shoot and Root Development through Mutual Signaling

Plants adjust their development in relation to the availability of nutrient sources. This necessitates signaling between root and shoot. Aside from the well-known systemic signaling processes mediated by auxin, cytokinin, and sugars, new pathways involving carotenoid-derived hormones have recently been identified. The auxin-responsive MAX pathway controls shoot branching through the biosynthesis of strigolactone in the roots. The BYPASS1 gene affects the production of an as-yet unknown carotenoid-derived substance in roots that promotes shoot development. Novel local and systemic mechanisms that control adaptive root development in response to nitrogen and phosphorus starvation were recently discovered. Notably, the ability of the NITRATE TRANSPORTER 1.1 to transport auxin drew for the first time a functional link between auxin, root development, and nitrate availability in soil. The study of plant response to phosphorus starvation allowed the identification of a systemic mobile miRNA. Deciphering and integrating these signaling pathways at the whole-plant level provide a new perspective for understanding how plants regulate their development in response to environmental cues.     

Root development and function

Book Review

Root development and functionP.J. Gregory, J.V. Lake and D.A. Rose (Eds.), (Society for Experimental Biology Seminar Series 30). Cambridge University Press 1987. 206 pages. Price £20. ISBN 0-5213-2931-0     

Signaling dynamics and embryonic development

Comment on: Warmflash A, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2012; 109:E1947-56.     

Limb development: Getting down to the ground state

In 1935, Snodgrass proposed that the evolutionary ground state of arthropod limbs consisted of two segments. Recent genetic studies on the Antennapedia and Homothorax genes of Drosophila raise questions about the nature of this ground state appendage.     

Systemic Root-Shoot Signaling Drives Jasmonate-Based Root Defense against Nematodes

1. Download : Download high-res image (212KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image

     

Knocked down and out: PACAP in development, reproduction and feeding

One approach to understanding the role of PACAP in vivo is to knockdown the translation of PACAP mRNA to protein or to knock out the PACAP gene by targeted disruption. In this paper, we review the effect of PACAP knockdown with morpholinos on early brain development in zebrafish. Also reviewed is the role of PACAP at several stages of reproduction as assessed in mice with a disrupted PACAP gene. New data are presented to analyze PACAP's action in energy homeostasis (body mass, food intake, endocrine parameters) using female PACAP-null mice. The evidence suggests PACAP is important for brain development in zebrafish and is required for normal reproduction, but not for body mass or food intake in mice maintained near thermoneutrality.     

Root and shoot development in peas

Seven root and shoot characters of young pea (Pisum sativum and Pisum fulvum) seedlings were analysed to study genetic variability and to obtain measures of heritability in the broad sense. Considerable genetic variation was noted in all characters studied in the thirty genotypes with the length of the main root showing the greatest variability. Estimates of heritability exceeding 50 % were noted for the number of laterals, length of shoot, weight of root and weight of shoot. Seed weight was significantly correlated only with length of longest lateral and weight of root. The length of the longest lateral and the length to the last lateral were correlated with most other characters.