News & Events
A study conducted by researchers at New York University (NYU) together with their colleagues from National Taiwan University, Purdue University, and the University of Illinois has found genes, through machine learning, that help crops grow with less fertilizer and predict additional traits in plants and disease outcomes in animals.
Researchers from Michigan State University describe genetic tools to develop potato varieties with improved resistance to the devastating Colorado potato beetle.The research team explored the wild relatives of domesticated potatoes for their natural defenses against these beetles as these wild plants make their own beetle-killing compounds.
The size and weight of edible organs have been strongly selected during crop domestication. Concurrently, human have also focused on nutritional and cultural characteristics of fruits and vegetables, at times countering selective pressures on beneficial size and weight alleles. Therefore, it is likely that novel improvement alleles for organ weight still segregate in ancestral germplasm. To date, five domestication and diversification genes affecting tomato fruit weight have been identified, yet the genetic basis for increases in weight has not been fully accounted for.
To "produce more with less", stakeholders in the agri-food systems were urged to level up science and innovation and seek effective and long-lasting solutions to support biodiversity. This was emphasized by Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), during a session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA).
The United Kingdom, through Environment Secretary George Eustice, has announced on September 29, 2021, plans to unlock the power of gene editing to help farmers grow more resistant, more nutritious, and more productive crops, published as part of the government response to the gene editing consultation. Leaving the European Union has allowed the UK to set its own rules, opening up opportunities to adopt a more scientific and proportionate approach to the regulation of genetic technologies.
Micronutrients regulate the metabolic processes to ensure the normal functioning of the biological system in all living organisms. Micronutrient deficiency, thereby, can be detrimental that can result in serious health issues. Grains of graminaceous crops serve as an important source of micronutrients to the human population; however, the rise in hidden hunger and malnutrition indicates an insufficiency in meeting the nutritional requirements.
A group of students from the Leiden University in The Netherlands developed a "lock" to decrease the chances of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) turning into invasive species when released into the environment. The technology is their entry to this year's iGEM biology competition.The Double Plasmid Lock (DOPL LOCK) was created with the idea of distributing the foreign genetic material of the GMO between two separate DNA plasmids.
The fourth edition of the Africa Biennial Biosciences Communication Symposium (ABBC 2021) has concluded with the launch of the African Coalition for Communicating about Genome Editing, a platform that will foster open and transparent dialogue on genome editing on the continent. The launch was presided over by Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Industrialization and Trade Hon. Betty Maina.
Brassica carinata [A.] Braun (BBCC, 2n = 34) is a climate-resilient oilseed. Its seed oil is high in erucic acid (> 40%), rendering it well suited for the production of biofuel and other bio-based applications. To enhance the competitiveness of B. carinata with high erucic B. napus (HEAR), lines with super-high erucic acid content were developed through interspecific hybridization. To this end, a fad2B null allele from Brassica juncea (AABB, 2n = 36) was introgressed into B. carinata, resulting in a B. carinata fad2B mutant with erucic acid levels of over 50%. Subsequently, the FAE allele from B. rapa spp. yellow sarson (AA, 2n = 20) was transferred to the fad2B B. carinata line, yielding lines with erucic acid contents of up to 57.9%.
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has been awarded the 2021 Africa Food Prize, for work that has improved food security across 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.ICRISAT, a CGIAR Research Center, is a non-profit, non-political public international research organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world.
ICRISAT is the flagship of international agriculture research in Niger and its research work plays an important role in the country’s development,” said Dr Alambedji Abba Issa, Minister of Agriculture, Niger, during a meeting with Dr Malick Niango Ba, Country Representative – Niger, ICRISAT. Dr Ba paid a courtesy visit to congratulate the Minister on his appointment, wish him success in his mission and present ICRISAT’s work in Niger. This was the first meeting between Dr Ba and Minister Abba lssa, since the new Administration commenced in April 2021.
The timing of reproduction is an adaptive trait in many organisms. In plants, the timing, duration, and intensity of flowering differ between annual and perennial species. To identify interspecies variation in these traits, we studied introgression lines derived from hybridization of annual and perennial species, Arabis montbretiana and Arabis alpina, respectively. Recombination mapping identified two tandem A. montbretiana genes encoding MADS-domain transcription factors that confer extreme late flowering on A. alpina. These genes are related to the MADS AFFECTING FLOWERING (MAF) cluster of floral repressors of other Brassicaceae species and were named A. montbretiana (Am) MAF-RELATED (MAR) genes.