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- Conservation and sustainable use of the medicinal Leguminosae plants from AngolaPublication . Catarino, Silvia; Duarte, Maria Cristina; Costa, Esperança; Carrero, Paula Garcia; Romeiras, Maria M.Leguminosae is an economically important family that contains a large number of medicinal plants, many of which are widely used in African traditional medicine. Angola holds a great socio-cultural diversity and is one of the richest floristic regions of the world, with over 900 native Leguminosae species. This study is the first to assess the medicinal uses of the legumes in Angola and provides new data to promote the conservation and the sustainable use of these unique resources. We document the ethnobotanical knowledge on Angola by reviewing the most important herbarium collections and literature, complemented by recent field surveys. Our results revealed that 127 native legume species have medicinal uses and 65% of them have other important uses by local populations. The species with most medicinal applications are Erythrina abyssinica, Bauhinia thonningii and Pterocarpus angolensis. The rich flora found in Angola suggests an enormous potential for discovery of new drugs with therapeutic value. However, the overexploitation and the indiscriminate collection of legumes for multiple uses such as forage, food, timber and medical uses, increases the threats upon the native vegetation. Efforts to assess the conservation status of these species are urgently needed, and future actions should promote the sustainable use of medicinal plants in Angola together with the implementation of conservation strategies.
- Chromolaena odorata invasion in Guinea-Bissau (West Africa): first records and trends of expansionPublication . Catarino, Luís; Indjai, Bucar; Duarte, Maria Cristina; Monteiro, FilipaThe Siam weed, Chromolaena odorata (L.) R. M. King & H. Rob. (Asteraceae), is recognized as one of the world’s worst tropical weeds. It is a perennial herb or shrub native to the neotropics that has become invasive across the tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Oceania. The species was introduced in 1937 in Nigeria and later spread to neighboring countries. Its presence and effects have been documented in the upland zones of almost all West African countries. Although, until the present study, the species had not been recorded in Guinea-Bissau, its presence in the country was very likely. In this work we document, for the first time, the invasion of Guinea-Bissau by C. odorata, assessing its present distribution and reporting effects, local uses and common names. Dispersal trends, potential consequences of its expansion and recommendations for management and control are also presented.
- Genetic and Genomic Tools to Asssist Sugar Beet Improvement: The Value of the Crop Wild RelativesPublication . Monteiro, Filipa; Frese, Lothar; Castro, Sílvia; Duarte, Maria Cristina; Paulo, Octávio S.; Loureiro, João; Romeiras, Maria M.Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L. ssp. vulgaris) is one of the most important European crops for both food and sugar production. Crop improvement has been developed to enhance productivity, sugar content or other breeder’s desirable traits. The introgression of traits from Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) has been done essentially for lessening biotic stresses constraints, namely using Beta and Patellifolia species which exhibit disease resistance characteristics. Several studies have addressed crop-to-wild gene flow, yet, for breeding programs genetic variability associated with agronomically important traits remains unexplored regarding abiotic factors. To accomplish such association from phenotype to-genotype, screening for wild relatives occurring in habitats where selective pressures are in play (i.e., populations in salt marshes for salinity tolerance; populations subjected to pathogen attacks and likely evolved resistance to pathogens) are the most appropriate streamline to identify causal genetic information. By selecting sugar beet CWR species based on genomic tools, rather than random variations, is a promising but still seldom explored route toward the development of improved crops. In this perspective, a viable streamline for sugar beet improvement is proposed through the use of different genomic tools by recurring to sugar beet CWRs and focusing on agronomic traits associated with abiotic stress tolerance. Overall, identification of genomic and epigenomic landscapes associated to adaptive ecotypes, along with the cytogenetic and habitat characterization of sugar beet CWR, will enable to identify potential hotspots for agrobiodiversity of sugar beet crop improvement toward abiotic stress tolerance.