News & Events
The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) of Switzerland has given permission to the University of Zurich to conduct field trials of genetically modified (GM) barley under strict conditions on June 12, 2019.The FOEN approved the application and set out the measures that the university had to take to prevent GM material from spreading outside the experimental area
Biocontrol of the mycotoxin aflatoxin utilizes non-aflatoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus, which have variable success rates as biocontrol agents. One non-aflatoxigenic strain, NRRL 35739, is a notably poor biocontrol agent. Its growth in artificial cultures and on peanut kernels was found to be slower than that of two aflatoxigenic strains, and NRRL 35739 exhibited less sporulation when grown on peanuts. The non-aflatoxigenic strain did not greatly prevent aflatoxin accumulation
Bt eggplant or brinjal (Solanum melongena) as it is more commonly known in Bangladesh, has revived the country's eggplant industry by increasing fruit yield and reducing insecticide use, according to a study led by scientists from Cornell University and the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI).
New research at The University of Queensland (UQ) debunks the myth that modern wheat varieties are heavily reliant on pesticides and fertilizers. According to Dr. Kai Voss-Fels of UQ's Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), modern wheat varieties have out-performed older varieties in adjacent field trials under both optimum and harsh growing conditions.
Transmission of plant viruses by aphids involves multitrophic interactions among host plants, aphid vectors, and plant viruses. Here, we used small RNA (sRNA) sequencing to visualize the sRNA response of Myzus persicae to two plant viruses that M. persicae transmits in different modes: the nonpersistent Potato virus Y (PVY) versus the persistent Potato leafroll virus (PLRV)
Around 1,500 farmers gathered in a field in Maharashtra to plant Bt brinjal and herbicide tolerant cotton seeds, which are not approved for planting in India. They planted the seeds because they believe that the seeds could improve their livelihoods and help decrease pesticide use in the farms. Bt brinjal has been planted by thousands of farmers in Bangladesh, where it is approved for planting since 2013.
Flood has an important effect on plant growth by affecting their physiologic and biochemical properties. Soybean is one of the main cultivated crops in the world and the United States is one of the largest soybean producers. However, soybean plant is sensitive to flood stress that may cause slow growth, low yield, small crop production and result in significant economic loss. Therefore, it is critical to develop soybean cultivars that are tolerant to flood.
An international team of researchers from Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, and Italy has sequenced the first complete almond genome. The sequence represents almost 95 percent of the genes, or nearly 28,000 genes and roughly 246 million base pairs. The sequencing project sought to find the genetic differences between bitter and sweet almonds.
To help researchers identify high yielding crop traits, a team from the University of Illinois have stacked together six high-powered, machine learning algorithms that are used to interpret hyperspectral data. The team showed that the technique improved the predictive power of a previous study by up to 15 percent, compared to using just one algorithm.
In this study, a novel drought stress-related bZIP transcription factor, OsbZIP62, was identified in rice. This gene was selected from a transcriptome analysis of several typical rice varieties with different drought tolerances. OsbZIP62 expression was induced by drought, hydrogen peroxide, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatment. Overexpression of OsbZIP62-VP64 (OsbZIP62V) enhanced the drought tolerance and oxidative stress tolerance of transgenic rice, while osbzip62 mutants exhibited the opposite phenotype.
Speed breeding, together with other state-of-the art technologies such as gene editing, is the best way to develop a pipeline of new crops. This is according to an article in Nature Biotechnology authored by geneticists from the University of Queensland, Australia. "We face a grand challenge in terms of feeding the world. If you look at the stats, we're going to have about 10 billion on the planet by 2050 and we're going to need 60 to 80 percent more food to feed everybody.