For vegetable growers, weeds can mean lost income from reduced yield and foreign plant matter contaminating the harvest. But for many crops, particularly vegetable legumes, weed management options are very limited. A new study shows early-terminated rye could be a promising part of an integrated weed management program for some vegetable legumes, including edamame.
Researchers know how to make precise genetic changes within the genomes of crops, but the transformed cells often refuse to grow into plants. One team has devised a new solution.
Tropical forests may be more resilient to predicted temperature increases under global climate change than previously thought, a study published suggests. The results could help make climate prediction models more accurate, according to the authors.
Planting Parasites: Unveiling Common Molecular Mechanisms of Parasitism and Grafting. β-1,4-glucanase, a cell wall degrading enzyme, is integral for plant parasitism and cross-species grafting in the plant family Orobanchaceae.
Researchers identify a unique version of a photosynthetic enzyme that has been in use for billions of years. A team of scientists has discovered an ancient form of rubisco, the most abundant enzyme on Earth and critical to life as we know it. Found in previously unknown environmental microbes, the newly identified rubisco provides insight into the evolution of the photosynthetic organisms that underlie the planet’s food chains.
Recently discovered interactions between plant and viral proteins open up new avenues for making plants resistant to viruses, thus safeguarding crop yields in changing climate conditions.
Researchers generated genome sequences for nearly 600 green millet plants and released a very high quality reference S. viridis genome sequence. Analysis of these plant genome sequences also led researchers to identify a gene related to seed dispersal in wild populations for the first time.
From pollen forecasting, honey analysis and climate-related changes in plant-pollinator interactions, analysing pollen plays an important role in many areas of research. Microscopy is still the gold standard, but it is very time consuming and requires considerable expertise. Scientists have now developed a method that allows them to efficiently automate the process of pollen analysis.
Cocoa is in great demand on the world market, but there are many different ways to increase production. A research team has now investigated the relative importance of the use of pesticides, fertilisers and manual pollination in a well replicated field trial in Indonesian agroforestry systems. The result: an increase in both cocoa yield and farming income was achieved – not by agrochemicals, but by manual pollination.
A new field of research in microbiology is transforming the way scientists see fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms. Microbiome research is so promising that it has drawn attention from funders and industry as well as scientists. In the United States alone, the market for microbiome-based agricultural products is expected to be worth more than $10 billion by 2025. Research on the human microbiome has surpassed $1.7 billion in the past decade.
