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In this study the authors focus on the results of an International Labour Organization (ILO) survey conducted in 2021 for Hungary. The global survey assessed the impact of COVID-19 on trade union leaders’ perceptions of the extent to which it stimulates or hinders the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG8) declared by the UN 2030 Agenda. With regard to SDG8’s “Decent Work and Economic Growth”, the views of trade unions as institutions that defend workers’ labour interests are important and decisive, although by no means exclusive. In this research, the authors use a questionnaire survey to investigate the general awareness of Hungarian trade union leaders regarding the SDG8 targets and the impact of COVID-19 on SDG8 implementation at both the national and organisational levels. The authors discuss their findings in comparison with the results of global ILO research and reinforce the professional relevance of the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Callus induction, which results in fate transition in plant cells, is considered as the first and key step for plant regeneration. This process can be stimulated in different tissues by a callus‐inducing medium (CIM), which contains a high concentration of phytohormone auxin. Although a few key regulators for callus induction have been identified, the multiple aspects of the regulatory mechanism driven by high levels of auxin still need further investigation. Here, we find that high auxin induces callus through a H3K36 histone methylation‐dependent mechanism, which requires the methyltransferase SET DOMAIN GROUP 8 (SDG8). During callus induction, the increased auxin accumulates SDG8 expression through a TIR1/AFBs‐based transcriptional regulation. SDG8 then deposits H3K36me3 modifications on the loci of callus‐related genes, including a master regulator WOX5 and the cell proliferation‐related genes, such as CYCB1.1. This epigenetic regulation in turn is required for the transcriptional activation of these genes during callus formation. These findings suggest that the massive transcriptional reprogramming for cell fate transition by auxin during callus formation requires epigenetic modifications including SDG8‐mediated histone H3K36 methylation. Our results provide insight into the coordination between auxin signaling and epigenetic regulation during fundamental processes in plant development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The seed maturation programme occurs only during the late phase of embryo development, and repression of the maturation genes is pivotal for seedling development. However, mechanisms that repress the expression of this programme in vegetative tissues are not well understood. A genetic screen was performed for mutants that express maturation genes in leaves. Here, it is shown that mutations affecting SDG8 (SET DOMAIN GROUP 8), a putative histone methyltransferase, cause ectopic expression of a subset of maturation genes in leaves. Further, to investigate the relationship between SDG8 and the Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins, which are known to repress many developmentally important genes including seed maturation genes, double mutants were made and formation of somatic embryos was observed on mutant seedlings with mutations in both SDG8 and EMF2 (EMBRYONIC FLOWER 2). Analysis of histone methylation status at the chromatin sites of a number of maturation loci revealed a synergistic effect of emf2 and sdg8 on the deposition of the active histone mark which is the trimethylation of Lys4 on histone 3 (H3K4me3). This is consistent with high expression of these genes and formation of somatic embryos in the emf2 sdg8 double mutants. Interestingly, a double mutant of sdg8 and vrn2 (vernalization2), a paralogue of EMF2, grew and developed normally to maturity. These observations demonstrate a functional cooperative interplay between SDG8 and an EMF2-containing PcG complex in maintaining vegetative cell identity by repressing seed genes to promote seedling development. The work also indicates the functional specificities of PcG complexes in Arabidopsis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]