News & Events
ISAAA is monitoring the progress of research on COVID-19 treatments using plant-based technologies such as genetic engineering and genome editing, as well as other related techniques. We also keep track of the pandemic's effect on food security and agriculture. This is our effort to provide science-based information that can help the public make decisions and actions to mitigate and recover from the impact of COVID-19. We have summarized all publications and articles related to COVID-19 in the COVID-19 Resource page of the ISAAA website.
It has been commonly accepted that soybean domestication originated in East Asia. Although East Asia has the historical merit in soybean production, the USA has become the top soybean producer in the world since 1950s. Following that, Brazil and Argentina have been the major soybean producers since 1970s and 1990s, respectively. China has once been the exporter of soybean to Japan before 1990s, yet she became a net soybean importer as Japan and the Republic of Korea do.
Cas12b/C2c1 has been identified as class 2 endonuclease that can be used for targeted genome editing in rice and mammals. To elucidate its potential applications in dicots, CRISPR-Cas12b system was tested in Arabidopsis thaliana. Researchers from Hebei University of Science and Technology in China selected BvCas12b and BhCas12b v4 for analysis
Cassava researchers in Kenya have asked the Government to approve a disease-resistant genetically modified (GM) cassava which can protect the farmers cultivating the crop from devastating losses. An application by Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) for environmental release and commercialization of brown streak disease (CBSD) resistant cassava line 4046 has been submitted to the National Biosafety Authority (NBA).
Adverse environmental stress is the main influencing factor affecting plant growth and reproduction, which poses tremendous threats to sustainable agriculture development and crops productivity worldwide. Among various abiotic stress factors, drought is the most vital adversity with the characteristics of frequent occurrences, long duration, and globality. Maize (Zea mays L.) is a major source of food supply for human being and livestock and recently for biofuel. Maize is the crop that is highly susceptible to drought stress. Drought stress tolerance in plants is quite complex, and it is not ideal to improve crop drought tolerance through a single resistant gene.
Double yields from improved varieties, access to storage facilities and timely credit through the warrantage system has kept sorghum farmers in Mali from selling their harvest at throwaway prices during a glut, helping them earn 50% more income. Farmers are now able to think beyond sustenance and for most of them who had been school dropouts, the education of their children is a priority. Impacts like these, coupled with case studies, were shared with a high-level USAID project delegation that visited Mali recently.
Two billion people around the world are suffering from protein and micronutrient deficiencies. The results of a new study by the ICRISAT may be able to significantly reduce those deficiencies, through a combination of millets and legumes that creates a highly digestible, complete protein that is packed with nutrients.
In this study, we employed deep sequencing to identify both conserved and novel miRNAs from salinity-exposed sweet potato cultivars and its untreated control. Twelve small non-coding RNA libraries from NaCl-free (CK) and NaCl-treated (Na150) sweet potato leaves and roots were constructed for salt-responsive miRNA identification in sweet potatoes. A total of 475 known miRNAs (belonging to 66 miRNA families) and 175 novel miRNAs were identified. Among them, 51 were significantly up-regulated and 76 (61 known miRNAs and 15 novel miRNAs) were significantly down-regulated by salinity stress in sweet potato leaves;
An economic slowdown is now on the horizon due to the COVID-19 crisis. A recent World Bank report tells us that an economic slowdown in 2020 is inevitable, as suggested by its revised lower global growth forecast. This dark outlook deepens the hardship of people who have lost income due to the lockdown and economic stoppage. While an economic slowdown has many negative impacts, one of the most important is the fall in real income.
Biopharmaceutical company Medicago announced on May 14, 2020, that its vaccine candidate for COVID-19 induced a positive antibody response only 10 days after a single dose in mice. In early March, the company produced a Virus-Like Particle (VLP) of the coronavirus just 20 days after obtaining the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence and quickly initiated pre-clinical testing. Medicago uses proprietary plant-based technology to develop protein-based therapeutics. Instead of traditional vaccine development, the company uses VLPs that mimic the shape and dimensions of a virus.
Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in the regulation of complex cellular processes, including transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression relevant for development and stress response, among others. Compared to other important crops, there is limited knowledge of cassava lncRNAs and their roles in abiotic stress adaptation.
An international team of scientists has provided a sweeping new analysis of the benefits of conservation agriculture for crop performance, water use efficiency, farmers’ incomes and climate action across a variety of cropping systems and environments in South Asia. The analysis, published today in Nature Sustainability, is the first of its kind to synthesize existing studies on conservation agriculture in South Asia and allows policy makers to prioritize where and which cropping systems to deploy conservation agriculture techniques. The study uses data from over 9,500 site-year comparisons across South Asia.