News & Events
Soybean is one main source of dietary protein; therefore, improving protein content is an important objective in breeding programs. There is a significant negative correlation between protein and oil content, which influenced mapping quantitative trait locus (QTL) and quantitative trait nucleotides for these two traits.
The global market of gene editing tools is estimated to make up over US$258 million in terms of value in 2021. This is according to the Global Gene Editing Tools Market Professional Survey Research Report 2021-2028 released by Report Consultant in April 2021. The report also projects that the market is likely to accrue a compound annual growth rate of over 18% from 2021 to 2018.
More than 30 scientists, including Gustavo MacIntosh, a professor at Iowa State University have put together a comprehensive guide to help plant scientists communicate their work to the world. The guide, "Broadening the impact of plant science through innovative, integrative, and inclusive outreach," a 28-page white paper is published in Plant Direct.
We present the first worldwide study on the apple (Malus × domestica) fruit microbiome that examines questions regarding the composition and the assembly of microbial communities on and in apple fruit. Results revealed that the composition and structure of the fungal and bacterial communities associated with apple fruit vary and are highly dependent on geographical location. The study also confirmed that the spatial variation in the fungal and bacterial composition of different fruit tissues exists at a global level.
Bt brinjal (eggplant) became widely-adopted biotech product in Bangladesh in just seven years. Breeders from Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) are developing two eggplant varieties that can withstand both eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB) and bacterial wilt. Bacterial wilt is found in plants and then lingers in the soil in most parts of Bangladesh and second to EFSB in causing significant crop loss in brinjal. It cannot be controlled by chemical sprays and can only be managed by planting varieties that are resistant to the disease.
CTNBio, Brazil's biosafety regulatory agency, has approved Oxitec's Friendly™ fall armyworm technology on March 9, 2021 for application on farmers' fields. The approval follows an in-depth, independent evaluation of scientific data by CTNBio, permitting the deployment of this solution on commercial crops across Brazil, and validating it as a safe, environmentally friendly, and sustainable crop protection solution.
Humanity depends on biodiversity for health, well-being, and a stable environment. As biodiversity change accelerates, we are still discovering the full range of consequences for human health and well-being. Here, we test the hypothesis—derived from biodiversity–ecosystem functioning theory—that species richness and ecological functional diversity allow seafood diets to fulfill multiple nutritional requirements, a condition necessary for human health.
Economic losses from weather-related shocks have doubled in India over the last three decades, from US$ 20 billion in 1998–1997 to US$ 45 billion in 2008–2017. As climate change continues to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, farmers need to be better prepared or risk losing their livelihoods. But, how can they plan for floods and droughts when long-term seasonal forecasts are unable to pinpoint exactly when a destructive event will take place, and short-term weather forecasts provide information that is too late to be useful?
The first series of peer-reviewed publications on the GR2E Golden Rice field trial data are now available in Nature Scientific Reports and Frontiers in Plant Science journals. These articles focus on the agronomic performance of Golden Rice varieties developed in the Philippines and Bangladesh.These publications were authored by scientists and researchers of the Healthier Rice Program at IRRI, in collaboration with colleagues at the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-Philrice) and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI).
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells have the potential to differentiate to all cell types of an adult individual and are useful for studying development and for translational research. However, extrapolation of mouse and human ESC knowledge to deriving stable ESC lines of domestic ungulates and large livestock species has been challenging. In contrast to ESCs that are usually established from the blastocyst, mouse expanded potential stem cells (EPSCs) are derived from four-cell and eight-cell embryos.
Latin America and the Caribbean "are truly a pillar for world food security," QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said Thursday in an address to more than 30 ministers from the region and North America. Addressing the Third Hemispheric Meeting of Ministers and Secretaries of Agriculture of the Americas, the Director-General hailed the region's contribution to preventing the COVID-19 health crisis from becoming a food crisis. "Now you need to be the architects of recovery, a recovery with transformation," he urged.
The Global Symposium on Soil Biodiversity hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) kicked off yesterday with a call to preserve this vast community of living soil organisms and the vital ecosystem services they provide. Soils are one of the main global reservoirs of biodiversity. They host more than 25 percent of the world's supply of this valued resource from where 95 percent of the food we eat is produced. In addition, more than 40 percent of living organisms in terrestrial ecosystems are connected with soils during their life cycle.