Microbes growing on flowers have adverse effects on their yields. This is why plants are quick to shed their flowers, reveals a new study involving both field experiments and plant microbiome analysis.
In a new paper researchers concluded the eucalypt, currently known as Eucalyptus sp. Cattai, should be formally described, after confusion over whether it was a distinctive new species or a peculiar population resulting from the hybridization of two already described species.
Plants face constant attack by diseases, insect swarms, and fungi, resulting in crop losses that threaten global food security. Discovering new ways to help the plant defend itself against attack is an enormous challenge for scientists.
Strawberry losses from Fusarium wilt could become less of a threat after researchers discovered genes that are resistant to the deadly soil-borne disease.
Scientists have discovered how to design cereal roots able to continue growing in hard soils by altering their ability to penetrate, enabling roots to access sources of water deeper in soil, and helping ‘climate-proof’ vital crops in response to changing rain fall patterns.
Host-killing by hemiepiphytes is an endemic phenomenon in the tropics. Many fig species—keystone plants in tropical forests—have evolved the hemiepiphytic ecotype. However, the benefits and adaptive strategies of their special life history remain poorly understood.
Increased demand for water will be the No. 1 threat to food security in the next 20 years, followed closely by heat waves, droughts, income inequality and political instability, according to a new study which calls for increased collaboration to build a more resilient global food supply.
The effects of drought on major crops that are crucial to achieve both food and energy security. A global, more robust vision of this complex issue to advance the existing knowledge and support better informed, science-based decisions in the future, like fine-tuning crop calendars or implementing other measures as alternative cultivars, additional irrigation, and crop migration.
International research team aims to significantly reduce the threat of cassava mosaic disease and improve cassava yields, an important crop in the tropics.
Research could allow agriculturists to optimize productivity and explore the viability of ‘virgin fruits’
