This article provides an up-to-date review concerning from basic issues of polyploidy to aspects regarding the relevance and role of both natural and artificial polyploids in plant breeding programs. Polyploidy is a major force in the evolution of both wild and cultivated plants. Polyploid organisms often exhibit increased vigor and, in some cases, outperform their diploid relatives in several aspects. This remarkable superiority of polyploids has been the target of many plant breeders in the last century, who have induced polyploidy and/or used natural polyploids in many ways to obtain increasingly improved plant cultivars. Some of the most important consequences of polyploidy for plant breeding are the increment in plant organs ("gigas" effect), buffering of deleterious mutations, increased heterozygosity, and heterosis (hybrid vigor). Regarding such features as tools, cultivars have been generated with higher yield levels, improving the product quality and increasing the tolerance to both biotic and abiotic stresses. In some cases, when the crossing between two species is not possible because of differences in ploidy level, polyploids can be used as a bridge for gene transferring between them. In addition, polyploidy often results in reduced fertility due to meiotic errors, allowing the production of seedless varieties. On the other hand, the genome doubling in a newly formed sterile hybrid allows the restoration of its fertility. Based on these aspects, the present review initially concerns the origin, frequency and classification of the polyploids, progressing to show the revolution promoted by the discovery of natural polyploids and polyploidization induction in the breeding program status of distinct crops.

Objective: To evaluate the association between cardiovascular risk factors and the anthropometric values -body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC). Methods:It was studied 231 employees of Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil, 54,1% of them were men (21-76 years old) were measured. Glycemia, total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, blood pressure, BMI, WC, waist-to-hip ratio and body fatness. It was also investigated smoking, alcohol consumption and physical activity. Results:The prevalence of overweight/obesity in this population was high mainly in women. The abdominal obesity was observed in 74% of the women and 46,1% of the men. The average of BMI, body fatness, total cholesterol, HDL and triglycerides were significantly higher in men than in women. (p < 0,05). The sedentary lifestyle was a risk factor for obesity. Smoking and alcohol consumption were more common among men and normal weight volunteers. Most of the correlations between anthropometric indices and risk factors for cardiovascular diseases were significant, but weak and the WC was the index that had the strongest correlation and that associated with the largest number of variables. It was observed that with an increase of the BMI and the abdominal fat, there was also an increase of the glycemia, triglycerides and blood pressure and a decrease of HDL. The metabolic syndrome was more common among men and overweight and obese volunteers. Conclusion:In this study, the frequency of cardiovascular risk factors increased along with BMI and WC. Demographic transition, mainly characterized by a decrease in fecundity and reduction in infant and preschooler mortality, has resulted in an increasingly higher life expectancy in the Brazilian population 1

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Anopheles darlingi is the principal neotropical malaria vector, responsible for more than a million cases of malaria per year on the American continent. Anopheles darlingi diverged from the African and Asian malaria vectors ∼100 million years ago (mya) and successfully adapted to the New World environment. Here we present an annotated reference A. darlingi genome, sequenced from a wild population of males and females collected in the Brazilian Amazon. A total of 10 481 predicted protein-coding genes were annotated, 72% of which have their closest counterpart in Anopheles gambiae and 21% have highest similarity with other mosquito species. In spite of a long period of divergent evolution, conserved gene synteny was observed between A. darlingi and A. gambiae. More than 10 million single nucleotide polymorphisms and short indels with potential use as genetic markers were identified. Transposable elements correspond to 2.3% of the A. darlingi genome. Genes associated with hematophagy, immunity and insecticide resistance, directly involved in vector–human and vector–parasite interactions, were identified and discussed. This study represents the first effort to sequence the genome of a neotropical malaria vector, and opens a new window through which we can contemplate the evolutionary history of anopheline mosquitoes. It also provides valuable information that may lead to novel strategies to reduce malaria transmission on the South American continent. The A. darlingi genome is accessible at www.labinfo.lncc.br/index.php/anopheles-darlingi.