Category

Agriculture

Nov 08
13

Genetic engineering of chickpea to understand the mystery behind biochemical regulation in flower and seed coat colour of desi and kabuli genotypes

By | Agriculture, Blog, ECRi, Plant Science, Post

Flower and seed coat colour are important agronomic traits in chickpea that influence consumer preference. Based on their cultivation globally, this legume crop is categorized as “desi” or “kabuli”. Seeds of desi-type chickpeas are generally dark brown and angular with a rough seed coat, while the kabuli type produces light-brown coloured and rounded seeds with smooth seed coats. Recently, a group of scientists in India successfully developed a new genetically engineered selection marker-free stable chickpea line.

Read More
Nov 03
2

Documenting and making available the world’s crop diversity

By | Agriculture, Fruits and Vegetables, News, Plant Science

Genebanks play an important role in the long-term conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Out of 1,800 genebank collections worldwide, more than 600 are in Europe. This vast array of crop diversity can be exploited to make our crops more nutritious, productive and resilient to pests, diseases and environmental changes, only if we have information about it.

Read More
Oct 20
6

If not, Winter: How a super-charged “Speed Vernalization” protocol accelerates flowering in winter cereals

By | Agriculture, Blog, ECRi, Plant Science, Post

As days grow colder and shorter, and many of us find ourselves entrenched in winter, you wouldn’t be mistaken for feeling a noticeable reduction in activity around you. However, in certain crops such as winter wheat and barley, this cold season holds the key to flowering in the spring. This well-studied process, called vernalization, requires the plant to sense appropriate conditions – i.e., low temperature and short day-length – usually early in development to “overwinter” through several inhospitable months.

Read More
Oct 10
0

Bigger plants don’t always equal more nutritious ones

By | Agriculture, News

While increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere encourage plant growth, they also reduce the nutritional value of plants, which can have a larger impact on nutrition and food safety worldwide. Researchers discovered a new way plants are adapting to the changing climate — information that can be used to help plants grow strong while also maintaining their nutritional value.

Read More