Scientists have develop healthier sorghum varieties containing significant concentrations of provitamin A carotenoids while also increasing mineral absorption to meet the nutritional needs of mothers and children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Generating haploid plants for the purpose of obtaining pure double haploid lines is widely recognized as one of the most efficient breeding strategies in modern agriculture. Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), an important fruit crop known for its nutritional value and flavor, has undergone long-term artificial selection resulting in genetic narrowing. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a haploid induction system to enhance traditional breeding methods and facilitate the development of valuable lines.
An international research consortium is developing disease-resistant rice varieties. In the scientific journal eLife, the authors now report on the discovery of a recent bacterial outbreak in Tanzania – and describe how they modified an African rice variety to make it resistant to the pathogen.
Adding silicon to soil could help protect canola from clubroot. Treatment may also help crops weather drought and extreme heat, researchers find.
Hybrids — common in agriculture as well as in nature — have chromosomes from two or more parent species. In some cases, including strawberries, goldfish and several other species, these disparate parental chromosomes become doubled, a condition known as allopolyploidy. A recent article outlines a way to trace these genomes back to the polypoid hybrid’s parent species.
Worldwide, farmers are being challenged with a variety of issues, including growing populations, a changing climate and soil degradation, among many others. To combat these challenges, researchers are looking for solutions and have begun to focus their work on the viability of sustainable agriculture practices, like cover crops.
Researchers have discovered that the green color of soybean pods is due to chlorophyll, which plays a crucial role in the plant’s photosynthetic process. The study found that pod and seed photosynthesis contribute significantly to soybean yield, challenging conventional notions about the importance of leaves. This finding offers new insights for optimizing plant productivity and increasing food production.
New knowledge of ancient grain may enable breeding for climate change adaptation. An international team of researchers has unlocked a large-scale genomic analysis of Setaria or foxtail millet, an important cereal crop. The study advances our understanding of the domestication and evolution of foxtail millet, as well as the genetic basis for important agricultural traits.
Corn leaves on the lowest rung of a plant’s stem spend much of the day shrouded in shade. A gust of wind can crack the window to photosynthesis, and growth, for those leaves, but they typically can’t adjust in time to seize the moment. Research is identifying genes that could open the way to breeding plants better at capitalizing on yield-boosting sunlight.
In a comprehensive review of breeding salinity tolerance in plants, researchers argue that the main reason research advances have not been translated into commercial salt-tolerant crop varieties for farmers is that this has not been a priority for plant breeders. However, with increasing impacts of climate change due to sea-level rise and storm surges forcing seawater further inland, the need to increase crop salinity tolerance is becoming more urgent, and so priorities will change.
