News & Events

Food loss and waste (FLW) can be a reservoir and even an accelerator for anti-microbial resistance (AMR), highlighting that it should be integrated into AMR surveillance and management strategies, according to experts at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Discarding FLW into landfills or open dumps intensify AMR risks, while some food waste processes such as composting can if done properly reduce antimicrobial resistance genes, according to “Risk of antimicrobial resistance spreading via food loss and waste,” a new scientific review paper published in Infectious Diseases of Poverty, an open access, peer-reviewed journal.

Background: The coordinated improvement of yield, quality and resistance is a primary goal in rice breeding. Gene editing technology is a novel method for precise multiplex gene improvement. Methods: In this study, we constructed a multiplex CRISPR/Cas9 vector targeting yield-related genes (GS3, OsPIL15, Gn1a), fragrance gene (OsBADH2) and rice blast resistance gene (Pi21) to pyramid traits for enhanced yield, quality, and disease resistance in rice.

University of Exeter scientists have created the world's first genetically engineered wax moths, a development that could drastically reduce the use of mice and rats in medical testing. These "sensor moths" are specifically designed to help combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), currently one of the most significant threats to global human health. By adapting genetic tools originally used for fruit flies—including CRISPR-Cas9—researchers produced moth larvae that glow when responding to infection or antibiotics.

Director-General QU Dongyu led Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations at FAO headquarters, emphasizing that the Organization would draw inspiration from the Year of the Horse to advance its efforts toward accelerated progress in achieving its objectives. In his address to the ceremony, Qu said FAO finds in the Year of the Horse's spirit a powerful message aligned with the Organization’s shared mission.

Mitochondrial crosstalk between tumor cells and components of the tumor microenvironment (TME) is a critical yet underexplored mechanism driving hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression. Here, we demonstrate that in HCC, mitochondria can be transferred from hepatic stellate cells to cancer cells via tunneling nanotubes (TNTs), supplying essential energy for tumor growth. Simultaneously, cancer cells offload damaged mitochondria to macrophages through extracellular vesicles (EVs), facilitating their clearance and promoting tumor development.

Regulatory bodies, the media, and the public are now exhibiting a growing acceptance of gene-edited crops, according to Dan Jenkins, vice-president of Pairwise, who delivered a talk on gene editing in a webinar hosted by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). “Things are progressing really well around the world,” Jenkins said, and provided an overview of the status of regulations for gene-edited crops.

Plants activate pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) through key immune components, including pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases (RLCKs), and transcription factors (TFs), to combat pathogens. However, a comprehensive transcriptional overview of these immune regulators at the subfamily level during biotic stress in rice is currently lacking. The aims of this study were to characterize the expression profiles of OsPRRs, OsRLCKs, and OsTFs and establish a robust pipeline for selecting novel candidate genes involved in plant immunity.

ISAAA is regarded as the top authoritative source of information about biotech crop adoption globally through the Global Status of Commercialized GM/Biotech Crops released from 1996 to 2020, authored by ISAAA Founder and Chair Emeritus Dr. Clive James and ISAAA Inc. Executive Director Dr. Rhodora Romero-Aldemita. ISAAA will launch its next report, including 2024 adoption data and analysis, on February 27, 2026, via Zoom.

Fish fraud, in a variety of guises, is widespread in markets around the world, and there are a growing number of tools to combat it, according to a new report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). “Food fraud in the fisheries and aquaculture sector,” produced by FAO through cooperation between its Fisheries and Aquaculture Division and the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, offers an incisive portrait of the complex field of fraud and a review of how novel analytical techniques can help detect it.

Ability to accurately predict multiple growth-related traits over plant developmental trajectories has the potential to revolutionize crop breeding and precision agriculture. Despite increased availability of time-resolved data for multiple traits from high-throughput phenotyping platforms of model plants and crops, genomic prediction is largely applied independently to a small number of traits, often neglecting their dynamics.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Guangxi University have identified a gene that could significantly improve the commercial potential of Jatropha curcas, a drought-tolerant shrub widely seen as a promising source of biodiesel and bio-jet fuel. A new study reports that targeted genetic modification can increase both seed yield and oil content in Jatropha.