Changes in globalised agriculture raise critical questions as rapid agricultural development leads to widespread social and environmental transformation. With increased global demand for vegetable ...oils and biofuel, in Indonesia the area under oil palm has doubled over the last decade. This paper presents a case study of how micro-processes that are linked to wider dynamics shape oil palm related agrarian change in villages in Sumatra, Indonesia. It pursues related questions regarding the impact of agribusiness-driven agriculture, the fate of smallholders experiencing contemporary agrarian transition, and the impact of increased demand for vegetable oils and biofuels on agrarian structures in Sumatra. It argues that the paths of agrarian change are highly uneven and depend on how changing livelihood strategies are enabled or constrained by economic, social and political relations that vary over time and space. In contrast to simplifying narratives of inclusion/exclusion, it argues that outcomes depend on the terms under which smallholders engage with oil palm. Distinguishing between exogenous processes of agribusiness expansion and endogenous commodity market expansion, it finds each is associated with characteristic processes of change. It concludes that the way successive policy interventions have worked with the specific characteristics of oil palm have cumulatively shaped the space where agrarian change occurs in Sumatra.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs involved in post-transcriptional gene silencing. A small number of striated muscle-specific miRNAs have been identified and shown to have an ...important role in myogenesis, embryonic muscle growth and cardiac function and hypertrophy. One of these myomiRs (myo
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muscle
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miR
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miRNA), miR-206, is unique in that it is only expressed in skeletal muscle. The purpose of this review is to discuss what is currently known about miR-206 and its function in myogenesis as well as propose potential new roles for miR-206 in skeletal muscle biology. The review is also intended to serve as a comprehensive resource for miR-206 with the hope of encouraging further research on the role of miR-206 in skeletal muscle.
The ribosome is the enzymatic macromolecular machine responsible for protein synthesis. The rates of protein synthesis are primarily dependent on translational efficiency and capacity. Ribosome ...biogenesis has emerged as an important regulator of skeletal muscle growth and maintenance by altering the translational capacity of the cell. Here, we provide evidence to support a central role for ribosome biogenesis in skeletal muscle growth during postnatal development and in response to resistance exercise training. Furthermore, we discuss the cellular signaling pathways regulating ribosome biogenesis, discuss how myonuclear accretion affects translational capacity, and explore future areas of investigation within the field.
Abstract
Gene expression stochasticity is inherent in the functional properties and evolution of biological systems, creating non-genetic cellular individuality and influencing multiple processes, ...including differentiation and stress responses. In a distinct form of non-transcriptional noise, we find that interactions of the yeast translation machinery with the GCN4 mRNA 5’UTR, which underpins starvation-induced regulation of this transcriptional activator gene, manifest stochastic variation across cellular populations. We use flow cytometry, fluorescence-activated cell sorting and microfluidics coupled to fluorescence microscopy to characterize the cell-to-cell heterogeneity of GCN4-5’UTR-mediated translation initiation. GCN4-5’UTR-mediated translation is generally not de-repressed under non-starvation conditions; however, a sub-population of cells consistently manifests a stochastically enhanced GCN4 translation (SETGCN4) state that depends on the integrity of the GCN4 uORFs. This sub-population is eliminated upon deletion of the Gcn2 kinase that phosphorylates eIF2α under nutrient-limitation conditions, or upon mutation to Ala of the Gcn2 kinase target site, eIF2α-Ser51. SETGCN4 cells isolated using cell sorting spontaneously regenerate the full bimodal population distribution upon further growth. Analysis of ADE8::ymRuby3/ GCN4::yEGFP cells reveals enhanced Gcn4-activated biosynthetic pathway activity in SETGCN4 cells under non-starvation conditions. Computational modeling interprets our experimental observations in terms of a novel translational noise mechanism underpinned by natural variations in Gcn2 kinase activity.
Graphical Abstract
Graphical Abstract
The Archaeology of New Netherland illuminates the
influence of the Dutch empire in North America, assembling evidence
from seventeenth-century settlements located in present-day New
York, New Jersey, ...Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
Archaeological data from this important early colony has often been
overlooked because it lies underneath major urban and industrial
regions, and this collection makes a wealth of information widely
available for the first time.
Contributors to this volume begin by discussing the global
context of Dutch colonization and reviewing typical Dutch material
culture of the time as seen in ceramics from Amsterdam households.
Next, they focus on communities and activities at colonial sites
such as forts, trading stations, drinking houses, and farms. The
essays examine the agency and impact of Indigenous people and
enslaved Africans, particularly women, in the society of New
Netherland, and they trace interactions between Dutch settlers and
Europeans from other colonies including New Sweden. The volume also
features landmark studies of cooking pots, marbles, tobacco pipes,
and other artifacts.
The research in this volume offers an invitation to investigate
New Netherland with the same sustained rigor that archaeologists
and historians have shown for English colonialism. The many topics
outlined here will serve as starting points for further work on
early Dutch expansion in America.
Contributors:
Craig Lukezic | John P. McCarthy | Charles Gehring | Marijn Stolk |
Ian Burrow | Adam Luscier | Matthew Kirk | Michael T. Lucas |
Kristina S. Traudt | Marie-Lorraine Pipes | Anne-Marie Cantwell |
Diana diZerega Wall | Lu Ann De Cunzo | Wade P. Catts | William B.
Liebeknecht | Marshall Joseph Becker | Meta F. Janowitz | Richard
G. Schaefer | Paul R. Huey | David A. Furlow
•We analyse how TLM changes property rights, livelihoods and landscapes.•Remittances help households to cope with shocks and support livelihoods.•TLM can produce important agrarian-environmental ...changes.•However, TLM ultimately fails to transform entrenched structural inequalities.•Advance the rights of migrants and enhance state support to improve TLM outcomes.
While scholars and policy makers have increasingly focused on transnational labour migration (TLM) in Asia, few comparative studies have analysed how TLM shapes poverty, livelihoods, vulnerability, and agrarian-forest change across different rural contexts. Based on focused comparative fieldwork and a critical review of the secondary literature, this paper identifies the salient patterns of TLM-led change affecting rural livelihoods and agrarian-forest landscapes in three migrant-sending Asian countries: Nepal, Indonesia and Laos. Depending on how social relations, including those based on gender and ethnicity, and how specific geographic places are integrated into migration pathways, TLM can result in patterns of changes involving agricultural deactivation and de-agrarianisation, as well as incipient re-agrarianisation. We also find that where remittances are integrated with diversified livelihood portfolios, and where state policies play a supportive role, transnational labour migration may improve household livelihoods. In the absence of these factors, the transformative potential of TLM can be overestimated, and TLM may end up reproducing underlying structural drivers of rural poverty and vulnerability. We, therefore, challenge the simplistic narrative that TLM provides an easy solution to the limitations of rural development in agrarian Asia. We suggest policy innovations that ameliorate critical issues of migrant vulnerability and precarity, and that support the mobilisation of labour remittances for agricultural development and livelihood diversification.
Despite economic growth in middle-income countries across the global south, pockets of food poverty persist in the countryside. An accepted account suggests that many of the poor are stuck in a ...'truncated agrarian transition' where neither agriculture nor labour markets provide sufficient opportunities. Yet, statistics indicate that many have moved out of poverty, even as undernourishment continues. Exploring an Indonesian periphery, this paper interrogates this conundrum. It describes a 'sideways scenario' where change fails to map onto both expectations of forward development and stagnation described by established theory. While many progress in quotidian terms, persistent food poverty and stunting remain. Here, 'advancing sideways' amounts to a paradoxical form of progress.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as important players in the regulation of gene expression, being involved in most biological processes examined to date. The proposal that miRNAs are primarily ...involved in the stress response of the cell makes miRNAs ideally suited to mediate the response of skeletal muscle to changes in contractile activity. Although the field is still in its infancy, the studies presented in this review highlight the promise that miRNAs will have an important role in mediating the response and adaptation of skeletal muscle to various modes of exercise. The roles of miRNAs in satellite cell biology, muscle regeneration, and various myopathies are also discussed.
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•MicroRNA expression changes in response to both acute and chronic exercise.•Expression of muscle-specific microRNAs known as myomiRs changes in response to exercise.•The microRNAs involved in adaptation to exercise seem to be specific for the type and intensity of exercise.•MicroRNAs have a role in skeletal muscle development and muscle diseases such as muscular dystrophy.
Regular exercise has a central role in human health by reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, stroke and cancer. How exercise is able to promote such systemic benefits has remained somewhat ...of a mystery but has been thought to be in part mediated by the release of myokines, skeletal muscle‐specific cytokines, in response to exercise. Recent studies have revealed skeletal muscle can also release extracellular vesicles (EVs) into circulation following a bout of exercise. EVs are small membrane‐bound vesicles capable of delivering biomolecules to recipient cells and subsequently altering their metabolism. The notion that EVs may have a role in both skeletal muscle and systemic adaptation to exercise has generated a great deal of excitement within a number of different fields including exercise physiology, neuroscience and metabolism. The purpose of this review is to provide an introduction to EV biology and what is currently known about skeletal muscle EVs and their potential role in the response of muscle and other tissues to exercise.
figure legend Physical activity promotes the release of extracellular vesicles from skeletal muscle into circulation which are subsequently taken up by other tissues. Extracellular vesicle uptake results in the delivery of biomolecules, such as microRNAs, which alters the metabolism of recipient cells. This mechanism is proposed to provide a basis for how regular exercise is able to improve overall health.
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