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Brassica crops are well known for the accumulation of glucosinolates—secondary metabolites crucial for plants’ adaptation to various stresses. Glucosinolates also functioning as defence compounds pose challenges to food quality due to their goitrogenic properties. Their disruption leaves plants susceptible to insect pests and diseases. Hence, a targeted reduction in seed glucosinolate content is of paramount importance to increase food acceptance. GLUCOSINOLATE TRANSPORTERS (GTRs) present a promising avenue for selectively reducing glucosinolate concentrations in seeds while preserving biosynthesis elsewhere. In this study, 54 putative GTR protein sequences found in Brassica were retrieved, employing Arabidopsis GTR1 and GTR2 templates. Comprehensive bioinformatics analyses, encompassing gene structure organization, domain analysis, motif assessments, promoter analysis, and cis-regulatory elements, affirmed the existence of transporter domains and stress-related regulatory elements. Phylogenetic analysis revealed patterns of conservation and divergence across species. Glucosinolates have been shown to increase under stress conditions, indicating a potential role in stress response. To elucidate the role of GTRs in glucosinolate transportation under NaCl stress in two distinct Brassica species, B. juncea and B. napus, plants were subjected to 0, 100, or 200 mM NaCl. Based on the literature, key GTR genes were chosen and their expression across various plant parts was assessed. Both species displayed divergent trends in their biochemical profiles as well as glucosinolate contents under elevated salt stress conditions. Statistical modelling identified significant contributors to glucosinolate variations, guiding the development of targeted breeding strategies for low-glucosinolate varieties. Notably, GTR2A2 exhibited pronounced expressions in stems, contributing approximately 52% to glucosinolate content variance, while GTR2B1/C2 displayed significant expression in flowers. Additionally, GTR2A1 and GTR1A2/B1 demonstrated noteworthy expression in roots. This study enhances our understanding of glucosinolate regulation under stress conditions, offering avenues to improve Brassica crop quality and resilience.

The effects of a cancer diagnosis can be devastating and far-reaching. Expressive-supportive group therapy has proven useful for treating patients struggling with many of these effects. In addition, individual therapeutic writing methods have shown benefit for many individuals addressing a variety of difficult life circumstances including cancer. In this article, we describe specific techniques and processes of an innovative expressive journaling group for cancer patients offered at a comprehensive cancer centre in western Canada. Further, we discuss existential and constructivist connections to our clients' experiences and our work. In addition, we note specific practice considerations and references. Finally, implications for research into journal writing groups are provided.

Genome- or gene-editing (abbreviated here as ‘GEd’) presents great opportunities for crop improvement. This is especially so for the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, which is home to more than half of the world’s growing population. A brief description of the science of gene-editing is provided with examples of GEd products. For the benefits of GEd technologies to be realized, international policy and regulatory environments must be clarified, otherwise non-tariff trade barriers will result. The status of regulations that relate to GEd crop products in Asian countries and Australasia are described, together with relevant definitions and responsible regulatory bodies. The regulatory landscape is changing rapidly: in some countries, the regulations are clear, in others they are developing, and some countries have yet to develop appropriate policies. There is clearly a need for the harmonization or alignment of GEd regulations in the region: this will promote the path-to-market and enable the benefits of GEd technologies to reach the end-users.

Book Review of Michael Gilbert's Arguing with People (2014).

Trudy Govier argues in The Philosophy of Argument that adversariality in argumentation can be kept to a necessary minimum. On her ac-count, politeness can limit the ancillary adversariality of hostile culture but a degree of logical opposition will remain part of argumentation, and perhaps all reasoning. Argumentation cannot be purified by politeness in the way she hopes, nor does reasoning even in the discursive context of argumentation demand opposition. Such hopes assume an idealized politeness free from gender, and reasoners with inhuman or at least highly privileged capabilities and no need to learn from others or share understanding.

This special issue of Informal Logic brings together two important areas of philosophy that have shown significant development in the last three decades: informal logic and feminist philosophy. A significant innovation they both share is new thinking about practices of argumentation and related practices of reasoning. Feminist theorizing supporting social and political change foregrounds “reasoning for change” in a way that draws attention to the contextual and rhetorical dimensions of argument and thus connects with significant developments in informal logic.

Popular textbook treatments of the fallacies approach to argument evaluation employ the Adversary Method identified by Janice Moulton (1983) that takes the goal of argumentation to be the defeat of other arguments and that narrows the terms of discourse in order to facilitate such defeat. My analysis of the textbooks shows that the Adversary Method operates as a Kuhnian paradigm in philosophy, and demonstrates that the popular fallacies pedagogy is authoritarian in being unresponsive to the scholarly developments in informal logic and argumentation theory. A progressive evolution for the fallacies approach is offered as an authoritative alternative.

Brassica crops are well known for the accumulation of glucosinolates-secondary metabolites crucial for plants' adaptation to various stresses. Glucosinolates also functioning as defence compounds pose challenges to food quality due to their goitrogenic properties. Their disruption leaves plants susceptible to insect pests and diseases. Hence, a targeted reduction in seed glucosinolate content is of paramount importance to increase food acceptance. GLUCOSINOLATE TRANSPORTERS ( GTRs ) present a promising avenue for selectively reducing glucosinolate concentrations in seeds while preserving biosynthesis elsewhere. In this study, 54 putative GTR protein sequences found in Brassica were retrieved, employing Arabidopsis GTR1 and GTR2 templates. Comprehensive bioinformatics analyses, encompassing gene structure organization, domain analysis, motif assessments, promoter analysis, and cis-regulatory elements, affirmed the existence of transporter domains and stress-related regulatory elements. Phylogenetic analysis revealed patterns of conservation and divergence across species. Glucosinolates have been shown to increase under stress conditions, indicating a potential role in stress response. To elucidate the role of GTRs in glucosinolate transportation under NaCl stress in two distinct Brassica species, B. juncea and B. napus , plants were subjected to 0, 100, or 200 mM NaCl. Based on the literature, key GTR genes were chosen and their expression across various plant parts was assessed. Both species displayed divergent trends in their biochemical profiles as well as glucosinolate contents under elevated salt stress conditions. Statistical modelling identified significant contributors to glucosinolate variations, guiding the development of targeted breeding strategies for low-glucosinolate varieties. Notably, GTR2A2 exhibited pronounced expressions in stems, contributing approximately 52% to glucosinolate content variance, while GTR2B1/C2 displayed significant expression in flowers. Additionally, GTR2A1 and GTR1A2/B1 demonstrated noteworthy expression in roots. This study enhances our understanding of glucosinolate regulation under stress conditions, offering avenues to improve Brassica crop quality and resilience.

Genome- or gene-editing (abbreviated here as 'GEd') presents great opportunities for crop improvement. This is especially so for the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, which is home to more than half of the world's growing population. A brief description of the science of gene-editing is provided with examples of GEd products. For the benefits of GEd technologies to be realized, international policy and regulatory environments must be clarified, otherwise non-tariff trade barriers will result. The status of regulations that relate to GEd crop products in Asian countries and Australasia are described, together with relevant definitions and responsible regulatory bodies. The regulatory landscape is changing rapidly: in some countries, the regulations are clear, in others they are developing, and some countries have yet to develop appropriate policies. There is clearly a need for the harmonization or alignment of GEd regulations in the region: this will promote the path-to-market and enable the benefits of GEd technologies to reach the end-users.

For millennia, natural and artificial selection has combined favourable alleles for desirable traits in crop species. While modern plant breeding has achieved steady increases in crop yields over the last century, on the current trajectory we will simply not meet demand by 2045. Novel breeding strategies and sources of genetic variation will be required to sustainably fill predicted yield gaps and meet new consumer preferences. Here, we highlight that stepping up to meet this grand challenge will increasingly require thinking 'beyond the gene'. Significant progress has been made in understanding the contributions of both epigenetic variation and cis-regulatory variation to plant traits. This non-genic variation has great potential in future breeding, synthetic biology and biotechnology applications., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In vitro regeneration is a pre-requisite for developing transgenic plants through tissue culture-based genetic engineering approaches. Huge variations among different genotypes of the genus Brassica necessitate the identification of a set of regeneration conditions for a genotype, which can be reliably used in transformation experiments. In this study, we evaluated the morphogenesis potential of four commercial cultivars (Faisal canola, Punjab canola, Aari canola, Nifa Gold) and one model, Westar, from four different explants namely cotyledons, hypocotyls, petioles and roots on three different Brassica regeneration protocols, BRP-I, -II and -III. The regeneration efficiency was observed in the range of 6-73%, 4-79.3%, 0-50.6%, and 0-42.6% from cotyledons, petioles, hypocotyls and roots, respectively, whereas, the regeneration response in terms of average shoots per explant was found to be 0.76-10.9, 0.2-3.2, 0-3.4 and 0-2.7 from these explants. Of the commercial varieties tested, almost all varieties showed poorer regeneration than Westar except Aari canola. In comparison to Westar, its regeneration frequency from cotyledons was up to 7.5-fold higher on BRP-I, while it produced up to 21.9-fold more shoots per explant. Our data show that the explant has strong influence on the regeneration response, ranging from 24% to 92%. While the growth of commercial cultivars was least affected by the regeneration conditions provided, the effect on Westar was twice that of the commercial cultivars. After determining the optimal explant type and regeneration conditions, we also determined the minimum kanamycin concentration levels required to selectively inhibit the growth of untransformed cells for these cultivars. Regenerated shoots of Aari canola could be successfully grown to maturity within 16-18 weeks, with no altered phenotype noted and normal seed yields obtained. Therefore, the commercial variety, Aari canola, could be a good candidate for future genetic transformation studies.