News & Events
A landmark research survey on grain yield potential and climate resilience has identified genomic regions associated with yield potential and stress-resilience in bread wheat. Scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) based on 100 datasets and 105,000 grain yield observations from 55,568 wheat breeding lines developed by CIMMYT.
Scientists from the University of Sheffield have discovered an ancient Egyptian melon as the closest relative and potential ancestor of watermelon that could possess the key in breeding disease-resistant watermelons and reduce the use of pesticides. The scientists used DNA sequencing technologies, collection-based systematics, and Ancient Egyptian iconography to find the potential ancestor of the domesticated watermelon. They found that Sudanese Kordofan melon has the closest genetic data to the watermelon.
Salinity is a major environmental factor limiting crop growth and productivity. The root is the first plant organ to encounter salt stress, yet the effects of salinity on maize root development remain unclear. In this study, the natural variations in 14 root and 4 shoot traits were evaluated in 319 maize inbred lines under control and saline conditions. Considerable phenotypic variations were observed for all traits, with high salt concentrations decreasing the root length, but increasing the root diameter.
Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have unraveled how plants respond to different light intensities and temperatures that could help create a better adaptation of crops to climate change.The researchers have characterized and compared the biochemical levels of the phytochrome family of Arabidopsis, maize, and potatoes.
The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) in Australia has issued license DIR 175 to BASF Australia Ltd., authorizing the commercial release of MS11 canola genetically modified (GM) for herbicide tolerance and a hybrid breeding system. The release is authorized throughout Australia, and products derived from this GM canola may enter general commerce, including the use in human food and animal feed.
The maturation of green fleshy fruit to become colourful and flavoursome is an important strategy for plant reproduction and dispersal. In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and many other species, fruit ripening is intimately linked to the biogenesis of chromoplasts, the plastids that are abundant in ripe fruit and specialized for the accumulation of carotenoid pigments. Chromoplasts develop from pre-existing chloroplasts in the fruit, but the mechanisms underlying this transition are poorly understood. Here, we reveal a role for the chloroplast-associated protein degradation (CHLORAD) proteolytic pathway in chromoplast differentiation.
The expression of a single protein located in the subcellular organelles of the tomato was found to help speed up or slow down its fruit ripening, providing a novel opportunity for crop improvement. Scientists from the University of Oxford focused on the role of plastids, or the sub-cellular organelles in fruits, in the ripening process of the tomato because the plastids are responsible for giving color to the fruit.
Quebec City-based Medicago and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have announced the positive interim Phase 2 clinical trial safety and immunogenicity data for Medicago's plant-derived COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which was tested in combination with GSK's pandemic adjuvant. These results are part of the ongoing Phase 2/3 study and reiterate the promising profile observed during Phase 1 testing.
Understanding and identifying improved adaptation to abiotic stresses such as heat stress has been the focus of a number of studies in recent decades. However, confusing and potentially misleading terminology has made progress difficult and hard to apply within breeding programs selecting for improved adaption to heat stress conditions. This study proposes that adaption to heat stress (and other abiotic stresses) be considered as the combination of total performance and responsiveness to heat stress.
In South Africa, white maize is the only staple food crop produced using genetically modified (GM) cultivars. From 2001 to 2018, GM white maize has brought welfare benefits amounting to ~US$695 million, according to a study conducted by experts from the University of Arkansas and published in the Global Food Security journal. GM white maize is produced on a widespread commercial basis for direct human consumption in South Africa. To estimate the total welfare benefits of this GM crop in the country, the researchers computed the economic and environmental impact from 2001 to 2018.
Yuan Longping, a Chinese scientist who developed strains of hybrid high-yield rice that helped alleviate famine and poverty around the world, enabling farmers to feed a growing planet with fewer resources, died May 22 at a hospital in Changsha, China. He was 90. The cause was multiple organ failure, according to the state-run People’s Daily newspaper. Mr. Yuan had been hospitalized in March after falling at a rice-breeding center in southern China, and reportedly continued to track the weather and monitor crops from his bed.
Temperate maize (Zea mays L.) breeding programs often rely on limited genetic diversity, which can be expanded by incorporating exotic germplasm. The aims of this study were to perform characterization of inbred lines derived from the tropical BS39 population using different breeding methods, to identify genomic regions showing segregation distortion in lines derived by the DH process using spontaneous haploid genome doubling (SHGD)