In the pre-war Liberia era, coffee was a high economic crop, especially Liberica coffee, which is unique to the country. The coffee sector in Liberia produced 5 percent of the world’s coffee. However, the 14-year civil war destroyed coffee production systems. Post-war, Liberian farmers relied on informal seed distribution networks to keep their farms alive, facing a high risk of loss from climate adversities including pests and diseases affecting low-yielding varieties and non-availability of good quality planting materials.

Parasitic plants have evolved independently at least a dozen times across angiosperms, yielding some of the most extreme examples of genomic reconfiguration in plants. Comparative analyses of plastid, mitochondrial, and nuclear genomes reveal striking convergence across lineages such as progressive plastid genome reduction with retention of a minimal core gene set, alongside lineage-specific divergences, including unusual mitochondrial genome architectures, rampant horizontal gene transfer

Researchers from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia, developed two transgenic lines of genetically modified (GM) poplar trees carrying dehydrin genes TaWCS120 and HvDHN5 to improve tolerance to high salinity. The findings of the study offer potential benefits for both the wood industry and agriculture.