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BULLETIN 1
WHO Global Summit charts a bold future for traditional medicine
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WHO - 22 December 2025
The second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine, jointly organized with the Government of India, concluded today in New Delhi, marking a major milestone for global health as it drew over 16 000 online registrations and brought together 800 delegates from more than 100 countries, including ministers from over 20 nations. Combined with a strong line up of 160 speakers, the global traditional medicine community shared insights on how traditional medicine (TM) can strengthen health systems with more safe, evidence-based, and affordable care.
The energy in Delhi was palpable as ministers, scientists, Indigenous leaders, and practitioners came together to advance the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034. The Summit was not just about dialogue – it was about action. WHO unveiled the Traditional Medicine Global Library, a first-of-its-kind digital platform consolidating 1.6 million resources on TM, from scientific studies to Indigenous knowledge. With advanced features like Evidence Gap Maps and an AI-powered tool, TMGL GPT, the Library promises to transform access to trusted information and accelerate research worldwide.
Innovation took centre stage with the launch of Health & Heritage Innovations (H2I), an initiative to nurture breakthrough ideas that bridge traditional practices with cutting-edge technologies such as AI, genomics, and digital health. From over 1000 submissions, 21 finalists were announced at the Summit and will enter a year-long acceleration programme to refine prototypes, receive scientific and regulatory guidance, and connect with policy-makers and investors.
WHO also announced the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (STAG-TM), a new advisory body to guide the Global Strategy. Comprised of 19 independent experts, STAG-TM will shape research priorities, develop standards, and advise on integration into health systems. At its inaugural meeting during the Summit, the group set urgent priorities: evidence generation, preservation of traditional knowledge, digital innovation, and capacity building.
Countries rallied behind the Delhi Declaration, with commitments from 26 Member States, signaling a new era for traditional medicine. This collective pledge focuses on integrating traditional medicine into primary health care, strengthening regulation and safety standards, investing in research, and building interoperable data systems to track outcomes. It’s a shift from recognition to results – ensuring traditional medicine is not a parallel system but a driver of universal health coverage.
“Through the Delhi Commitment, countries have agreed not only on why traditional medicine matters – but on how to act,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Traditional medicine can help to address many of the threats to health of our modern world: the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases; inequitable access to health services; and climate change. It can help to support care that is person-centred, culturally grounded, and holistic.”
Looking ahead, WHO will work with Member States to turn these commitments into reality– scaling access to trusted knowledge, accelerating innovation, and embedding TM into health systems everywhere. The Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034 charts a bold course toward a future where care is more inclusive, culturally grounded, and resilient.
See https://www.who.int/news/item/22-12-2025-who-global-summit-charts-a-bold-future-for-traditional-medicine
The second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine, jointly organized with the Government of India, concluded today in New Delhi, marking a major milestone for global health as it drew over 16 000 online registrations and brought together 800 delegates from more than 100 countries, including ministers from over 20 nations. Combined with a strong line up of 160 speakers, the global traditional medicine community shared insights on how traditional medicine (TM) can strengthen health systems with more safe, evidence-based, and affordable care.
The energy in Delhi was palpable as ministers, scientists, Indigenous leaders, and practitioners came together to advance the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034. The Summit was not just about dialogue – it was about action. WHO unveiled the Traditional Medicine Global Library, a first-of-its-kind digital platform consolidating 1.6 million resources on TM, from scientific studies to Indigenous knowledge. With advanced features like Evidence Gap Maps and an AI-powered tool, TMGL GPT, the Library promises to transform access to trusted information and accelerate research worldwide.
Innovation took centre stage with the launch of Health & Heritage Innovations (H2I), an initiative to nurture breakthrough ideas that bridge traditional practices with cutting-edge technologies such as AI, genomics, and digital health. From over 1000 submissions, 21 finalists were announced at the Summit and will enter a year-long acceleration programme to refine prototypes, receive scientific and regulatory guidance, and connect with policy-makers and investors.
WHO also announced the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (STAG-TM), a new advisory body to guide the Global Strategy. Comprised of 19 independent experts, STAG-TM will shape research priorities, develop standards, and advise on integration into health systems. At its inaugural meeting during the Summit, the group set urgent priorities: evidence generation, preservation of traditional knowledge, digital innovation, and capacity building.
Countries rallied behind the Delhi Declaration, with commitments from 26 Member States, signaling a new era for traditional medicine. This collective pledge focuses on integrating traditional medicine into primary health care, strengthening regulation and safety standards, investing in research, and building interoperable data systems to track outcomes. It’s a shift from recognition to results – ensuring traditional medicine is not a parallel system but a driver of universal health coverage.
“Through the Delhi Commitment, countries have agreed not only on why traditional medicine matters – but on how to act,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Traditional medicine can help to address many of the threats to health of our modern world: the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases; inequitable access to health services; and climate change. It can help to support care that is person-centred, culturally grounded, and holistic.”
Looking ahead, WHO will work with Member States to turn these commitments into reality– scaling access to trusted knowledge, accelerating innovation, and embedding TM into health systems everywhere. The Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034 charts a bold course toward a future where care is more inclusive, culturally grounded, and resilient.
See https://www.who.int/news/item/22-12-2025-who-global-summit-charts-a-bold-future-for-traditional-medicine
BULLETIN 2
Project Oppotunity completes first CRISPR-Cas field trials of late blight-resistant starch potatoes in Sweden and Denmark
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Potato News Today, Nov. 14 2025
Project opportunity: a collaboration of 12 European organisations in the starch potato value chain – has reported successful completion of its first field trials with starch potatoes edited using CRISPR-Cas technology to improve resistance to late blight. The 2025 trials were conducted in Sweden and Denmark, alongside a seed multiplication programme designed to scale up material for larger tests in 2026.
From greenhouse seedlings to field plots in a single year
According to the project, the late blight-resistant lines were developed using new genetic technologies (NGTs), specifically CRISPR-Cas gene editing, applied to Kuras – a widely grown European starch potato variety supplied to the project by Agrico.
“Only last year we created the first seedlings and cultivated them in greenhouse to produce seed-tubers, and have now grown these so-called mini-tubers in the field during the 2025 growing season,” said Hans Berggren, secretary of Project Oppotunity.
“I’m very optimistic that by 2026 and onwards, we can show stakeholders the power of NGTs in the field via enhanced potato genotypes tolerant to a plant disease as severe as late blight. We have proven the speed this technology brings to adapt potatoes to urgent and changing environmental requirements.”
In parallel with the initial field plots, seed multiplication was carried out to produce more and larger seed potatoes. This will allow dedicated multi-location trials in 2026 focused on measuring how strongly the edited lines resist late blight and how they perform agronomically under commercial-style conditions.
Late blight pressure
Late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, remains one of the most economically important diseases of potato worldwide. Growers in many regions apply frequent fungicide sprays each season to keep the disease in check, and new pathogen strains continue to emerge, challenging existing chemistry and resistance genes.
Against that backdrop, industry-driven projects such as Oppotunity are positioning gene-edited resistance as a way to reduce fungicide use and strengthen the resilience of starch potato production in Europe – provided that EU rules for new breeding methods are clarified and implemented in a practical way.
Eight to ten years faster than traditional breeding
While the early signals from the 2025 field season are encouraging, Oppotunity stresses that several more years of testing and selection will be needed before a commercial product could be released.
“It will still take some years to verify the effects and select the single event that will deliver an appropriate increased late blight tolerance so that it contributes to a more sustainable starch potato cultivation,” said Sjefke Allefs, potato breeder at Agrico and a partner in the project.
“It needs to be stressed that the overall process is probably 8–10 years faster than what can be achieved with traditional breeding.”
By editing a specific resistance trait directly into an already established starch variety such as Kuras – rather than relying solely on repeated crossing and selection – the Oppotunity partners argue that they can keep familiar agronomic and processing characteristics largely intact while adding a targeted improvement in late blight tolerance.
Next steps: larger field trials in 2026
With seed stocks now increased, the consortium plans more extensive field trials in 2026 to quantify late blight pressure and resistance levels, assess yield and starch quality, and compare fungicide requirements against standard Kuras and other commercial checks. Results from those trials will help determine which single edited event, if any, moves forward toward potential commercialisation.
If the performance data stay on track and the evolving EU regulatory framework for NGTs provides a clear path to approval and market access, Oppotunity believes that gene-edited late blight-resistant starch potatoes could reach growers significantly faster than through conventional breeding alone – and provide a template for similar traits in other varieties.
More information about Project Oppotunity and its activities is available on the initiative’s website, oppotunity.eu.
See https://www.potatonewstoday.com/2025/11/14/project-oppotunity-completes-first-crispr-cas-field-trials-of-late-blight-resistant-starch-potatoes-in-sweden-and-denmark/
From greenhouse seedlings to field plots in a single year
According to the project, the late blight-resistant lines were developed using new genetic technologies (NGTs), specifically CRISPR-Cas gene editing, applied to Kuras – a widely grown European starch potato variety supplied to the project by Agrico.
“Only last year we created the first seedlings and cultivated them in greenhouse to produce seed-tubers, and have now grown these so-called mini-tubers in the field during the 2025 growing season,” said Hans Berggren, secretary of Project Oppotunity.
“I’m very optimistic that by 2026 and onwards, we can show stakeholders the power of NGTs in the field via enhanced potato genotypes tolerant to a plant disease as severe as late blight. We have proven the speed this technology brings to adapt potatoes to urgent and changing environmental requirements.”
In parallel with the initial field plots, seed multiplication was carried out to produce more and larger seed potatoes. This will allow dedicated multi-location trials in 2026 focused on measuring how strongly the edited lines resist late blight and how they perform agronomically under commercial-style conditions.
Late blight pressure
Late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, remains one of the most economically important diseases of potato worldwide. Growers in many regions apply frequent fungicide sprays each season to keep the disease in check, and new pathogen strains continue to emerge, challenging existing chemistry and resistance genes.
Against that backdrop, industry-driven projects such as Oppotunity are positioning gene-edited resistance as a way to reduce fungicide use and strengthen the resilience of starch potato production in Europe – provided that EU rules for new breeding methods are clarified and implemented in a practical way.
Eight to ten years faster than traditional breeding
While the early signals from the 2025 field season are encouraging, Oppotunity stresses that several more years of testing and selection will be needed before a commercial product could be released.
“It will still take some years to verify the effects and select the single event that will deliver an appropriate increased late blight tolerance so that it contributes to a more sustainable starch potato cultivation,” said Sjefke Allefs, potato breeder at Agrico and a partner in the project.
“It needs to be stressed that the overall process is probably 8–10 years faster than what can be achieved with traditional breeding.”
By editing a specific resistance trait directly into an already established starch variety such as Kuras – rather than relying solely on repeated crossing and selection – the Oppotunity partners argue that they can keep familiar agronomic and processing characteristics largely intact while adding a targeted improvement in late blight tolerance.
Next steps: larger field trials in 2026
With seed stocks now increased, the consortium plans more extensive field trials in 2026 to quantify late blight pressure and resistance levels, assess yield and starch quality, and compare fungicide requirements against standard Kuras and other commercial checks. Results from those trials will help determine which single edited event, if any, moves forward toward potential commercialisation.
If the performance data stay on track and the evolving EU regulatory framework for NGTs provides a clear path to approval and market access, Oppotunity believes that gene-edited late blight-resistant starch potatoes could reach growers significantly faster than through conventional breeding alone – and provide a template for similar traits in other varieties.
More information about Project Oppotunity and its activities is available on the initiative’s website, oppotunity.eu.
See https://www.potatonewstoday.com/2025/11/14/project-oppotunity-completes-first-crispr-cas-field-trials-of-late-blight-resistant-starch-potatoes-in-sweden-and-denmark/
SCIENTIFIC NEWS
Goldilocks zone of lignin: Two extremes of valve lignification lead to silique indehiscence in Brassicaceae
Justin B. Nichol, Logan A. Skori, Muhammad Jamshed, Neil Hickerson, Mendel Perkins, and Marcus A. Samuel
PNAS; December 22 2025; 122 (52) e2512939122; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2512939122
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Significance
The canola industry significantly contributes (C$43.7) billion to the Canadian economy. However, a major challenge persists with pod shattering at maturity, leading to an average annual seed loss of 3% (C$1.31 billion to the economy) due to spontaneous pod shatter. This loss can surge to 50% under harsh weather conditions. While shatter-tolerant canola varieties are available, their high seed costs often burden farmers. Our research offers a promising solution by exploiting canola pod lignification-a process of secondary cell wall deposition that reinforces the pod structure-to develop strong, shatter-tolerant canola lines. This innovation not only mitigates seed loss in canola but also holds potential for application in other agricultural crops, such as soybean and field peas.
Abstract
The spring-loaded spontaneous seed dispersal mechanism known as dehiscence, has been a critical plant feature for the successful colonization of land by angiosperms. Although advantageous for seed dispersal, spontaneous dehiscence is largely an unfavorable agronomic trait which historically was selected against during selective breeding of crops to increase seed retention. In canola (Brassica napus), a major global oil seed crop, spontaneous or harsh weather-induced fruit shattering at maturity could lead to yield losses from 3 to 50%. Here, we show an extraembryonic role for the ABA-responsive transcription factor, ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE-3 (ABI3) in controlling seed dispersal through mediating lignification of the endocarp b (enb) layer and the lignified layer (LL) of the valves. The resistance created by these lignified layers is critical for valve opening at maturity as the tensile forces generated during silique drying converge on these fortified cell layers to trigger shatter. We further show that ABI3 functions independent of the patterning genes and functions through transcriptional regulation of NAC-domain transcription factors, NST1 and NST3, to mediate lignin biosynthesis. Our results show that both excessive and complete absence of lignification could prevent the tensile drying forces from breaking open the pod, leading to fruit indehiscence. As a proof-of-concept, we show that BnABI3 overexpression in canola results in highly lignified, robust siliques that are shatter tolerant. Besides uncovering an extraembryonic role for ABI3, this study has identified spatial distribution and abundance of lignin in the silique valve tissue as the key determinants for silique dehiscence.
See https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2512939122
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Figure: Overview of canola and A. thaliana cross-sectional silique anatomy. (A) The external features (replum, valve) of the canola silique. The highlighted region in red on the silique represents the outline of the two valves which fuse with the central replum to form an enclosed structure. Cross-section of the canola silique highlighting the organization of replum, valve, and septum tissues is shown on the Right. The highlighted region of the canola cross-section in red represents the boundary of the valve tissue. (B) Cross-section of Arabidopsis silique focused on anatomical features of the dehiscence zone. V- valve, L- lignified layer, S- separation layer (nonlignified layer), R- replum.
