News & Events
The scientists used hexapeptide in mouse models that are infected with COVID-19. The peptide was nasally introduced and has shown to be effective in reducing fever, improving heart function, protecting the lungs, and reversing cytokine storm. The peptide is also successful in preventing the progression of the disease. Cytokine storm is the overreacting of the immune system to infection by overflooding the bloodstream with inflammatory proteins. This peptide inhibits cytokines produced by COVID-19.
In many eukaryotic systems during immune responses, mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) link cytoplasmic signaling to chromatin events by targeting transcription factors, chromatin remodeling complexes, and the RNA polymerase machinery. So far, knowledge on these events is scarce in plants and no attempts have been made to focus on phosphorylation events of chromatin-associated proteins.
Modern gene-editing tools such as TALENs and CRISPR-Cas9 can be used to move towards a chemical-free approach for disease resistance while saving the environment. This is according to Krishan Mohan Rai and Harpal Singh's chapter in the book Genome Engineering for Crop Improvement released this month. Crop improvement has been one of the main targets in research due to the rapid increase of world population
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and US Department of Health and Human Services signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) finalizing the joint roles of the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in regulating products derived from animal biotechnology. The MOU was signed on January 13, 2021, and complements USDA's issuance of an Advanced Notice Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on the Movement of Animals Modified or Developed by Genetic Engineering released three weeks prior.
Bananas (Musa spp.) are an important fruit crop worldwide. The fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), which causes Fusarium wilt, is widely regarded as one of the most damaging plant diseases. Fusarium wilt has previously devastated global banana production and continues to do so today. In addition, due to the current use of high-density banana plantations, desirable banana varieties with ideal plant architecture (IPA) possess high lodging resistance
The Agriculture Minister of France Julien Denormandie said in an interview that France sees crops developed using gene editing techniques as different to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and opposes a European Union court decision placing them under strict GMO regulations. In 2018, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that mutagenesis, among so-called new breeding techniques (NBT) based on targeted editing of genes, falls under rules applying to GMOs that incorporate DNA from a different species.
In nominating Dr. Karembu for consideration of the award, Kenya's National Commission for Science, Technology, and Innovation (NACOSTI) cited her strong will to withstand aggressive activism against agricultural innovations by consistently engaging different stakeholders with proven scientific evidence of the technology's potential to improve the socio-economic welfare of farm families.
Agrobacterium spp. are important plant pathogens that are the causative agents of crown gall or hairy root disease. Their unique infection strategy depends on the delivery of part of their DNA to plant cells. Thanks to this capacity, these phytopathogens became a powerful and indispensable tool for plant genetic engineering and agricultural biotechnology. Although Agrobacterium spp. are standard tools for plant molecular biologists
Recent dramatic and deadly increases in global wildfire activity have increased attention on the causes of wildfires, their consequences, and how risk from wildfire might be mitigated. Here we bring together data on the changing risk and societal burden of wildfire in the United States. We estimate that nearly 50 million homes are currently in the wildland–urban interface in the United States, a number increasing by 1 million houses every 3 y.
Globally, soybean is a major protein and oil crop. Enhancing our understanding of the soybean domestication and improvement process helps boost genomics-assisted breeding efforts. Here we present a genome-wide variation map of 10.6 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms and 1.4 million indels for 781 soybean individuals which includes 418 domesticated (Glycine max), 345 wild (Glycine soja), and 18 natural hybrid (G. max/G. soja) accessions. We describe the enhanced detection of 183 domestication-selective sweeps and the patterns of putative deleterious mutations during domestication and improvement.
Reducing rates of deforestation in the tropics is a complex puzzle, and we appear to be missing a few of its pieces, considering deforestation continues to progress at an unsustainable rate. Strategies to reduce deforestation have long recognized the importance of industrial agriculture oriented toward consumption at the global scale. As a result, globally consumed export commodities are flagged as key drivers of deforestation, leading to the proliferation of global initiatives
Rice has been grown as a staple food in South Korea for several millennia. However, its status has not stayed constant as a result of changes in South Korean culture and government policies. Nevertheless, the preference of South Korean consumers for japonica rice has remained consistent over the known history of the country.