News & Events
Scientists at The Sainsbury Laboratory, along with partners at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the John Innes Centre, warned that the world is not prepared for the next plant health emergency, including the rise in new epidemics and plant diseases.In a paper published in Science, the scientists propose the creation of a Global Surveillance System (GSS) that will extend and adapt established biosecurity practices and networking facilities
Selection based on genome-wide markers has become an active breeding strategy in crops. Genomic prediction models can make use of pedigree information to account for the residual polygenic effects not captured by markers. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of using pedigree and genomic information on prediction quality of breeding values for different traits in sorghum. We explored BLUP models that use weighted combinations of pedigree and genomic relationship matrices.
The bacterial gdhA gene encodes NADH-GDH enzyme. The gdhA-transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants exhibited high growth performance and enhanced herbicide resistance as well as drought tolerance. In addition, the gdhA gene when expressed in maize plants could increase productivity because of improving stress tolerance.
Scientists at the Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of Sheffield have found that engineering bread wheat to have fewer stomata on their leaves are better able to survive drought and use water more efficiently while maintaining their yields. On average, it takes more than 1,800 liters of water to produce one kilogram of wheat. As water supply becomes more scarce in the face of climate change, farmers will need to produce more food to feed the world's growing population.
The Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance QTL Qfhs.ifa-5A resides in the low-recombinogenic pericentromeric region of chromosome 5A making fine-mapping particularly arduous. Qfhs.ifa-5A primarily contributes resistance to fungal entry with the favorable allele descending from the highly Fusarium resistant cultivar Sumai-3. Fine-mapping a near-isogenic recombinant inbred line population partitioned the Qfhs.ifa-5A interval into 12 bins.
A Eurobarometer survey on food safety reveals that in reality, most Europeans hardly care about genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The survey reports that ‘genetically modified ingredients in food and drink' have a comparatively low level of concern associated with them (27%), being number 8 of the 15 specified concerns on the list. The Special Eurobarometer was commissioned by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to get insights on Europeans' overall interest in food safety.
Steviol glucosides, such as stevioside and rebaudioside A, are natural products roughly 200-fold sweeter than sugar and are used as natural, noncaloric sweeteners. Biosynthesis of rebaudioside A, and other related stevia glucosides, involves formation of the steviol diterpenoid followed by a series of glycosylations catalyzed by uridine diphosphate (UDP)-dependent glucosyltransferases.
CropLife Pakistan conducted a value assessment trial of genetically modified (GM) maize seed technology to exhibit benefits of biotechnology and allow key stakeholders to observe first-hand the performance of the GM maize hybrids in the field. The event emphasized the importance of cultivating GM maize in Pakistan to move from subsistence farming practices to more technologically advanced commercial farming
The Indian farmers' fight to gain access more biotech seeds is not yet over. After over a thousand of farmersconducted a protest in Maharashtra by planting Bt brinjal and herbicide tolerant (HT) cotton seeds, which are not yet approved in the country, a farmer organization known as Shetkari Sangathana is currently collecting support from peasants to seek free access to agri-biotechnology, particularly to use herbicide tolerant seeds.
Brevibacillus laterosporus (Bl), is an insecticidal bacterium recorded as toxic to a range of invertebrates after ingestion. Isolates of Bl, which were initially recovered from surface-sterilised cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) seeds, were able to colonise brassica plants in the laboratory and field. The bacterium was recovered from surface-sterilised leaf, stem and root sections of seedlings after inoculation with Bl vegetative cells under laboratory conditions
Intrexon Corporation has announced that their Non-Browning GreenVenus™ Romaine lettuce is advancing to commercial trials. Data from commercial indoor production showed that GreenVenus™ has improved shelf life up to 2 weeks and has no tip burn. GreenVenus™ has been assessed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and is not to be subject to regulation under 7CFR Part 340 for plants altered or produced through genetic engineering. GreenVenus™ will also help in reducing food waste.