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agriculture Archives - Page 17 of 27 - The Global Plant Council

Scientists take major step in understanding domestication of corn

By | Agriculture, News, Plant Science

Scientists are learning how to peer back through millennia of domestication to learn how a wild grassy plant known as teosinte developed into corn, the modern cash crop grown across the globe. The research allows scientists to compare genes in corn against its wild ancestor, which could help plant breeders identify advantageous traits that may have been bred out of teosinte over the centuries.

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One gene closer to a super sorghum

By | Agriculture, News, Plant Science

Scientists are honing the traits of speed, strength and near invulnerability in sorghum, a very important food crop. Achieving a milestone in their pursuit of the Superman of sorghum plants, scientists identified a single gene that confers broad protection from the fungal diseases anthracnose, rust and target spot. 

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The genetics of flower power: Hidden link between genes and flower formation revealed

By | News, Plant Science

Researchers recently announced that they have discovered the genetic linkages governing the formation of flowers. The revelation solves a long-standing mystery—how are there so many different types of flowers in the world?—and shines a bright light into a dark corner of evolution. The research also demonstrates the power of a technique called “forward genetics” in uncovering the mysteries of nature.

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Leaving gaps in the genome to breed maize plants with low susceptibility to frost and drought damage

By | Agriculture, News, Plant Science

The use of genetic information is now indispensable for modern plant breeding. Even though DNA sequencing has become much cheaper since the human genome was decoded for the very first time in 2003, collecting the full genetic information still accounts for a large part of the costs in animal and plant breeding. One trick to reduce these costs is to sequence only a very small and randomly selected part of the genome and to complete the remaining gaps using mathematical and statistical techniques.

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