BULLETIN 1

FAO welcomes new treaty on safeguarding marine biological diversity in international waters

Figure: Fishing off the Maldives.©FAO/Giulio Napolitano

FAO News - 19/01/2026

Rome - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has welcomed the entry into force of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), and looks forward to contributing to its implementation.

Following two decades of negotiations, the BBNJ Agreement, which so far has 145 signatories and 81 Parties, came into force on 17 January 2026. It is a binding global treaty, aimed at ensuring the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity in ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction. The Agreement covers four main issues: marine genetic resources; area-based management tools; environmental impact assessments; and capacity building and technology transfer.

The BBNJ Agreement requires a cross-sectoral approach that integrates and builds on existing arrangements to manage human activities in ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), such as fishing, shipping, mining and research exploration. The BBNJ Agreement also stipulates that the benefits of marine genetic resources – often used in pharmaceuticals, food supplements and cosmetics – are fairly and equitably shared.

“The BBNJ Agreement is an important next step in addressing critical gaps in the governance of areas beyond national jurisdiction. FAO is equipped with the know-how to assist parties and institutions to implement the Agreement, and has expertise, data and systems that will be critical to achieve its goals,” said FAO Assistant Director-General and Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Manuel Barange.

The ABNJ cover roughly two-thirds of the world’s oceans and close to a majority of the total living space of the planet. Fishing in these waters is regulated through an existing network of rules and regional fisheries management organizations, with some geographical gaps. Around 11 million tonnes of aquatic animals are caught by fisheries per year in the ABNJ, mostly tunas, bonitos, billfishes and elasmobranchs taken from the epipelagic zone.

Regional fisheries management organizations put in place binding rules to manage fishing in many ABNJs, including setting observation and monitoring systems, science-based catch limits, allocation and bycatch rules, and when needed, closures to reduce pressures on marine resources, They have decades of experience managing and conserving marine biodiversity and will be critical to the success of the BBNJ Agreement, through capacity development, science-based management systems, data collection, and monitoring, Barange noted.

“Just as healthy and biodiverse ecosystems are the foundations of sustainable fisheries, the institutions designed to govern the latter can contribute greatly to ensuring human use can coexist with and support biodiversity,” he said.

How FAO can help

Data will be critical to the BBNJ, making FAO’s fisheries data, including production, trade, employment, fleet capacity and consumption of aquatic resources, as well as FAO’s regular assessment on the state of marine fishery resources, and the Fisheries and Resources Monitoring System (FIRMS), particularly valuable.

Capacity building is essential for all international treaties. In this area FAO has long supported countries, for example in building the capacity to implement and comply with the Agreement on Port State Measures to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing, and in using compliance-related tools like the Guidelines on Transshipment and the Global Record of Fishing Vessels, all of which are applicable and relevant in the ABNJ ocean areas. Through the Common Oceans Program, funded by the Global Environment Facility, FAO and its partners have proven with practical solutions on how global and cross-sectoral collaboration can support the effective and sustainable management of the ABNJ areas, with demonstrable success for tuna stocks and the survival of vulnerable species such as the albatross and sharks.

FAO has worked for decades with the approximately 50 regional fisheries bodies, establishing a networking model that will be critical for the new treaty. FAO is already supporting countries and regional fishery bodies in their preparations to implement the BBNJ Agreement. Although the details of how the BBNJ Agreement will operate are still being developed, FAO’s data and networking systems, technical expertise and capacity-building activities will be essential for its implementation.

“Marine biodiversity underpins sustainable fisheries and global food security. The BBNJ Agreement presents a unique opportunity to enhance global oceans governance and improve outcomes for everyone,” Barange said.
See https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/fao-welcomes-new-treaty-on-safeguarding-marine-biological-diversity-in-international-waters/en

 

BULLETIN 2

Researchers Develop Glyphosate-tolerant Rice BriA15-38

January 21, 2026

 

  

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences reported the successful development of a glyphosate-tolerant rice, BriA15-38. Their findings are published in GM Crops and Food.
Glyphosate is a highly effective and popular herbicide among farmers because of its safety and effectiveness. However, when it is applied to rice fields, both the weeds and rice plants die. To address this concern, the researchers inserted a specific gene in rice (aroAA150) to confer resistance to glyphosate.
Results showed that the GM rice has robust glyphosate resistance and could survive even very high doses of glyphosate, while maintaining its normal healthy growth. This breakthrough provides a helpful tool for farmers, making it easier and more efficient to manage weeds in large-scale rice fields.
Read more findings in GM Crops and Food.

 

SCIENTIFIC NEWS

The transcription factor GsWRKY23 gene from wild soybean confers enhanced salt tolerance by regulating GsPER3 expression via ROS homeostasis

Shile Sun, Bingjun Yu, Jiaxin Yang, Jifeng Jiang, Dan Liang
Plant Physiology and Biochemistry; Volume 231, February 2026, 111035

 

  

 

 

Abstract
The transcription factor WRKYs enable plants to initiate defense responses against multiple adverse conditions by regulating the expression of downstream target genes. The salt-tolerant wild soybean (Glycine soja) represents an important genetic resource for the molecular breeding and genetic improvement of salt-tolerant cultivated soybean (G. max). In this study, we identified GsPER3, a downstream target gene of GsWRKY23, using transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq), combined with promoter cis-acting element analysis and GUS staining. The transcriptional regulation of GsWRKY23 on GsPER3 was further confirmed by yeast one-hybrid (Y1H), electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), GUS activity, and dual-luciferase (DLR) assays. As a member of the peroxidase family, GsPER3 functions in scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS). Using a soybean hairy-root transformation system, we investigated the mechanism by which GsWRKY23 enhances salt tolerance in wild soybean by regulating GsPER3. Results showed that GsWRKY23 specifically binds to the W-box element at position −486 in the GsPER3 promoter, thereby activating its expression. Under salt stress treatment, compared to the empty vector (EV) control, GsWRKY23-overexpressing (GsWRKY23-OE) plants exhibited upregulated root GsPER3 expression, and elevated peroxidase (POD) activity in both roots and leaves. In contrast, GsWRKY23-CRISPR/Cas9 (GsWRKY23-Cas9) plants showed suppressed GsPER3 expression and significantly decreased POD activity. Under salt stress, GsPER3-OE plants displayed enhanced salt tolerance, with superior performance in physiological parameters including plant fresh weight (FW), leaf relative water content (RWC), as well as lower relative electrolytic leakage (REL) level and malondialdehyde (MDA) content in roots and leaves compared to EV plants. Conversely, GsPER3-Cas9 plants showed the opposite trends. Moreover, GsPER3-OE plants exhibited lower ROS accumulation and higher antioxidant enzyme activities. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that GsWRKY23 enhances salt tolerance in wild soybean by activating GsPER3 expression, which in turn increases antioxidant enzyme activity and reduces ROS accumulation, thereby maintaining ROS homeostasis.
See https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0981942826000215

 

  

Fig. The transcription factor GsWRKY23 binds to the W-box cis-acting element at position −486 of the promoter region of GsPER3 gene and activates its expression. (A) Y1H assay demonstrating the binding of GsWRKY23 to the GsPER3 promoter, Y187 yeast strain cotransformed by GAL4-AD and GsPER3pro:HIS as negative control, (SD-Leu) represents a selective medium deficient in leucine, and (SD-Leu-His) represents a selective medium deficient in both leucine and histidine. (B) The pattern diagram of the GsPER3 promoter shows that the sequence between −507 bp and −468 bp is a DNA probe containing a W-box cis-acting element. (C) EMSA experiment confirmed that the GsWRKY23 protein binds to the W-box element in the GsPER3 promoter region in vitro, with “+” indicating the addition of the corresponding protein or probe, and “-” indicating its absence. (D) Verification of GsWRKY23 binding to the GsPER3 promoter to activate a reporter gene by transient expression in tobacco leaves. (E) Determination of GUS activity. (F) Utilization of a plant live-imaging system to observe the transcriptional activation effect of GsWRKY23 on the GsPER3pro in tobacco leaves, where a stronger LUC fluorescence signal indicates a stronger activation effect, and (G) Quantitative analysis of the ratio of LUC to REN activities to determine the binding capacity of GsWRKY23 to the GsPER3pro sequence.