Figs are one of the world’s most recognisable trees and extensively used by First Nations peoples, but until recently a single widespread species, Ficus brachypoda, was the only kind recognised in central Australia.
After a spell of unexpected rain, before the harvest season, a farmer may be faced with the unpredictable problem of untimely sprouting of barley. Sprouted barley fetches considerably low market prices and poses an economic burden on farmers and corporations that are at the mercy of nature to survive in the agriculture industry. The aggravation of climate change has not made this situation any better too.
The problem of pre-harvest sprouting, thus, has kept agricultural researchers occupied for long. Pre-harvest sprouting can be avoided by prolonged grain dormancy through genetic manipulation. However, such dormancy can interfere with malt production, and also cause non-uniform germination upon sowing. Balancing these issues is necessary for high-quality barley production, therefore.
Now, a team of scientists, offers a solution to this age-old problem.
valuable trait. Some major examples of crops with these so-called “transgenes” include disease-resistant cotton and beta-carotene-enhanced golden rice. However, when foreign DNA is introduced into a host organism, a natural defensive response in plants is to repress or silence the expression of the unfamiliar genetic material. This “silencing,” a process known to involve DNA methylation, is a multimillion-dollar problem in the global agricultural improvement industry.
How do you like your rice? Sticky, fluffy, brown, or white? These qualities, in addition to grain length, width, appearance, and other traits, are hugely important predictors of rice sales and consumption worldwide. And region matters. Rice preferences in Latin America, for example, are very different from those in West Africa, Japan, India, and elsewhere.
Plants are master chemists, producing a dazzling array of molecules that are valuable to humans, including vitamins, pharmaceuticals and flavorings. The largest and most diverse group of molecules are known as specialized metabolites. Some metabolites attract beneficial insects and others repel or kill herbivore insects that feed on plants or pathogenic microbes. Some of these metabolites are poised for action at the surface of the plant, being made in trichomes, which are small hairs on stems, leaves and flowers. Unfortunately, these natural defenses are often missing from crop plants, having been lost during domestication or advanced breeding.
Millions of people in Asia are dependent on rice as a food source. Believed to have been domesticated as early as 6000 BCE, rice is an important source of calories globally. In a new study, researchers compared domesticated rice to its wild counterparts to understand the differences in their photosynthetic capabilities. The results can help improve future rice productivity.
The humble quillworts are an ancient group of about 250 small, aquatic plants that have largely been ignored by modern botanists. A group of researchers have sequenced the first quillwort genome and uncovered some secrets of the plant’s unique method of photosynthesis — secrets that could eventually lead to the engineering of crops with more efficient use of water and carbon dioxide.
Genetic detective work has uncovered an obscure ancestor of modern bread wheat, in a finding similar to uncovering a famous long-lost relative through DNA analysis in humans. Researchers have sequenced the DNA from 242 unique accessions of Aegilops tauschii gathered over decades from across its native range – from Turkey to Central Asia.
An international team of researchers has identified genes associated with plant survival in one of the harshest environments on Earth: the Atacama Desert in Chile.
Plants need sunlight to survive. Researchers have discovered that when plants are grown in the shade, they turn on hundreds of stress-related genes. The researchers found that a specific group of proteins called WRKYs are responsible for stunting root growth so the plant can focus on growing taller. They hope that their findings will help other researchers design plants that can still thrive without sunlight, which may help farmers grow more crops in denser fields.
