Summary of the 2000 Surgeon General's Listening Session: Toward a National Action Plan on Overweight and Obesity

Objective: To provide insight into discussions at the Surgeon General's Listening Session, “Toward a National Action Plan on Overweight and Obesity,” and to complement The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity. Research Methods and Procedures: On December 7 and 8, 2000, representatives from federal, state, academic, and private sectors attended the Surgeon General's Listening Session and were given an opportunity to recommend what to include in a national plan to address overweight and obesity. The public was invited to comment during a corresponding public comment period. The Surgeon General's Listening Session was also broadcast on the Internet, allowing others to view the deliberations live or access the archived files. Significant discussion points from the Listening Session have been reviewed by representatives of the federal agencies and are the basis of this complementary document. Results: Examples of issues, strategies, and barriers to change are discussed within five thematic areas: schools, health care, family and community, worksite, and media. Suggested cooperative or collaborative actions for preventing and decreasing overweight and obesity are described. An annotated list of some programmatic partnerships is included. Discussion: The Surgeon General's Listening Session provided an opportunity for representatives from family and community groups, schools, the media, the health-care environment, and worksites to become partners and to unite around the common goal of preventing and decreasing overweight and obesity. The combination of approaches from these perspectives offers a rich resource of opportunity to combat the public health epidemic of overweight and obesity.     

The molecular genetics of seed maturation in maize

The maturation phase of seed formation involves coordinated expression of multiple developmental pathways. These processes include abscisic acid regulated responses associated with the arrest of embryo development and induction of anthocyanin synthesis in embryo and aleurone tissues. Studies of the maturation defective vivaparous mutants of maize suggest that one gene, viviparous-1 ( vpl ), regulates both of these pathways in the developing seed. Mutations at vpl reduce the sensitivity of the developing embryo to abscisic acid. In addition, Vpl is required for expression of Cl , a regulatory gene for the anthocyanin pathway. This interaction is consistent with the idea that Vpl and Cl function as part of a regulatory hierarchy controlling seed development. Molecular studies of vpl mutations which separate control of embryo arrest and anthocyanin synthesis suggest that these functions map to discrete domains in the Vpl protein. Therefore, coordinate control of diverse maturation processes may be achieved through expression of a functionally complex regulatory molecule.