News & Events
A group of scientists from the United States and Sweden analyzed peer-reviewed journal articles about genetically modified (GM) crops to determine if they contain language bias affected by social and linguistic factors. Several interesting conclusions were derived, including articles discussing Bt genetic modification corresponded to a positive stance.
Experts from the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) call for remodeling of the regulatory landscape to unleash enormous gains in productivity through gene editing in agricultural animals. They highlighted this call in the AAVMC/APLU Gene Editing in Agriculture Task Force Report.
We investigated resistance to pathotypically variable Phytophthora sojae isolates in the soybean variety Tosan-231, which has broad-spectrum resistance. Mapping analysis using descendent lines from a cross between Shuurei and Tosan-231 demonstrated that a genomic region between SSR markers BARCSOYSSR_03_0209 and BARCSOYSSR_03_0385 (termed “Region T”), confers broad-spectrum resistance in Tosan-231 and contains three closely linked resistance loci.
Scientists from China conducted a review on CRISPR technology and applications on oil crops to determine its prospects in the agricultural and food industry. They are optimistic that genome editing in oil crops would flourish in the near future. The review was conducted to provide references for the better use of CRISPR to modify oil crops for higher yield, citing both the potentials and challenges that the scientists identified.
A genetically engineered nasal spray vaccine for COVID-19 and flu called Delta-19 showed positive preclinical data. Delta-19, being developed by Vivaldi Biosciences, is expected to provide superior protection to both viral respiratory diseases. Studies using the ferret model resulted in 100% immunized animals that generated high amounts of antibodies against the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2.
Heat stress, exacerbated by global warming, has a negative influence on wheat production worldwide and climate resilient cultivars can help mitigate these impacts. Selection decisions should therefore depend on multi-environment experiments representing a range of temperatures at critical stages of development. Here, we applied a meta-genome wide association analysis (metaGWAS) approach to detect stable QTL with significant effects across multiple environments.
Experts from the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) call for remodeling of the regulatory landscape to unleash enormous gains in productivity through gene editing in agricultural animals. They highlighted this call in the AAVMC/APLU Gene Editing in Agriculture Task Force Report.
In a major step towards a new treatment for COVID-19 and future pandemic viruses, scientists at The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac) and The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) in Australia have found a way to stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus from replicating in infected human cells.
Wheat is a staple food crop consumed by more than 30% of world population. Nitrogen (N) fertilizer has been applied broadly in agriculture practice to improve wheat yield to meet the growing demands for food production. However, undue N fertilizer application and the low nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of modern wheat varieties are aggravating environmental pollution and ecological deterioration. In rice, an are1 mutant possesses the increased NUE under nitrogen-limiting conditions, delayed senescence and consequently increased grain yield.
The US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) is soliciting comments on their proposal to exempt some gene modifications in plants from biotech regulations. According to USDA, the three modifications are similar and functionally equal to modifications that can be achieved through conventional breeding.
The potential uses and impacts of gene drive technologies are a topic of growing interest at the international and national levels in many countries. The Gene Drive Webinar Series aims to help promote a productive and balanced conversation on the benefits and risks of possible gene drive applications, providing factual and accurate information that can help place the discussion under the Convention on Biological Diversity in context.
Anthropogenic nutrient enrichment is driving global biodiversity decline and modifying ecosystem functions. Theory suggests that plant functional types that fix atmospheric nitrogen have a competitive advantage in nitrogen-poor soils, but lose this advantage with increasing nitrogen supply. By contrast, the addition of phosphorus, potassium, and other nutrients may benefit such species in low-nutrient environments by enhancing their nitrogen-fixing capacity. We present a global-scale experiment confirming these predictions for nitrogen-fixing legumes (Fabaceae) across 45 grasslands on six continents.