News & Events

A new project is being pursued by scientists from the University of California Riverside to develop edible plants into mRNA vaccine factories. If successful, plants such as lettuce and spinach can produce the vaccines and be grown in backyards and even entire fields.The mRNA technology is currently being used to produce COVID-19 vaccines in plants. It works by teaching human cells to recognize and protect the body against infectious diseases.

Calls for enhanced scientific collaboration, government/political goodwill and development of public-private partnerships in the biotechnology sector took center stage as biotech stakeholders gathered at this year's Africa Biennial Biosciences Communication (ABBC2021) symposium. Africa's biotechnology sector, the stakeholders opined, is poised to develop faster if all involved parties cooperated in their concerted efforts to address challenges that affect the sector.

Yangmai 158 (Y158) is an elite wheat cultivar widely grown in China with stable Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance. To enrich the genetic basis underlying FHB resistance, QTL mapping was conducted using two recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations derived from crosses of Y158 with susceptible lines Annong 8455 and Veery. Survey with makers linked to Fhb1, Fhb2, Fhb4 and Fhb5 in resistance cultivar Wangshuibai indicated that both Y158 and the susceptible lines do not contain these QTL.

The future of agri-food systems needs to be built on science and innovation if it is to meet the complex challenges facing humanity, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) told Members today. “The transformation of agri-food systems demands innovative systemic changes”, Qu said.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD) today launched an important publication in support of the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021.Vitamin, mineral and fibre-rich, fruit and vegetables are vital for nutritious diets, and the sector contributes to increasing biodiversity and improving livelihoods.

The aerial surfaces of land plants are coated with a cuticle, comprised of cutin and wax, which is a hydrophobic barrier for preventing uncontrolled water loss and environmental damage. However, the mechanisms by which cuticle components are formed are still unknown in Brassica napus L. and were therefore assessed here. BnA1.CER4 and BnC1.CER4, encoding fatty acyl-coenzyme A reductases localizing to the endoplasmic reticulum and highly expressed in leaves, were identified and functionally characterized.

A group of scientists from the University of Maryland, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, and US Department of Agriculture, is developing a system that involves gene-editing technology to kick-start the regeneration or regrowing of plants from edited cells."The limitations of current regeneration methods are throttling the development of enhanced nutritional and agronomic traits," said Jeff Rosichan, director of the Crops of the Future Collaborative.

Vietnamese scientists were able to bring forward transgenic lines of an elite Vietnamese rice variety that exhibited resistance against bacterial leaf blight (BLB) disease using CRISPR-Cas9. Their work supports the potential diversity of Transcription-Activator-Like Effectors (TALEs) in Vietnamese Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae (Xoo) population, the causal agent of BLB.

Aphanomyces root rot (ARR), caused by Aphanomyces euteiches Drechs., is a destructive soilborne disease of field pea (Pisum Sativum L.). No completely resistant pea germplasm is available, and current ARR management strategies rely on partial resistance and fungicidal seed treatments. In this study, an F₈ recombinant inbred line population of 135 individuals from the cross ‘Reward’ (susceptible) × ‘00-2067’ (tolerant) was evaluated for reaction to ARR under greenhouse conditions with the A. euteiches isolate Ae-MDCR1

Researchers at the Pilbright Insitute have used CRISPR-Cas9 to prevent the southern house mosquito from spreading human and animal diseases.The female southern house mosquito largely feeds on birds, resulting in the transmission of avian malaria, an important contributor to the extinction of several avian species. This mosquito species also target mammals, spreading diseases such as lymphatic filariasis, for which there are 50 million human cases worldwide.

Production of the high-value carotenoid astaxanthin, which is widely used in food and feed due to its strong antioxidant activity and colour, is less efficient in cereals than in model plants. Here, we report a new strategy for expressing β-carotene ketolase and hydroxylase genes from algae, yeasts and flowering plants in the whole seed using a seed-specific bidirectional promoter. Engineered maize events were backcrossed to inbred maize lines with yellow endosperm to generate progenies that accumulate astaxanthin

A recent study was conducted to understand farmers' perspectives regarding co-existing biotech and organic methods in the Philippines. The results can help policymakers develop a national agriculture agenda that takes farmers' choice of crop and farming methods into account.Thirty-five biotech farmers and 35 organic farmers from the Philippines were interviewed to explore how farmers view the concept of co-existence and understand their decision-making process and what influential factors affect this process.