Feature Channels: Plants

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Crops like mustard, cabbages, can help heal infected soils

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Dr. Seth Murray may have more than a casual interest in National Bourbon Day on June 14.

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New research from Washington University in St. Louis reveals the molecular machinery behind the high-intensity sweetness of the stevia plant. The results could be used to engineer new non-caloric products without the aftertaste that many associate with the sweetener marketed as Stevia.Although the genes and proteins in the biochemical pathway responsible for stevia synthesis are almost completely known, this is the first time that the 3D structure of the proteins that make rebaudioside A — or RebA, the major ingredient in the product Stevia —has been published, according to the authors of a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Emissions of methane from the industrial sector have been vastly underestimated, researchers from Cornell University and Environmental Defense Fund have found.

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Until recently, New York onion farmers had just two insecticide options for controlling onion thrips, a pervasive insect pest, and neither was good. One was short-lived, the other was dangerous to work with – and both were losing effectiveness. Enter Cornell entomologist Brian Nault, who spent a decade testing less toxic, more effective chemicals, which nearly all New York onion farmers now use.

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Climate change-induced heat stress will play a larger role than drought stress in reducing the yields of several major U.S. crops later this century, according to Cornell University researchers who weighed in on a high-stakes debate between crop experts and scientists.

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Benson Hill Biosystems, a crop improvement company unlocking the natural diversity of plants, and RiceTec, a leader in hybrid rice seed technologies, announced prior to the kick off of the Plant and Animal Genome (PAG) Conference at Shenzhen, China, the licensing agreement for the use of Benson Hill’s technologies as part of RiceTec’s rice research and development operations.

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An international study has revealed new evidence to help understand the consequences of habitat loss on natural communities.

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It provides a natural food coloring. It gives nurseries another ornamental to grow and sell, and it might provide health benefits to those who eat it with their food.

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Although pollen has covered cars for weeks and allergy sufferers have been sneezing, we think of sex as being the realm of animals. But plant sex can be quite interesting, especially in species that can have male or female flowers. In a study in the journal Annals of Botany, Rutgers University–New Brunswick researchers found that striped maple trees can change sex from year to year. A tree may be male one year and female the next, and while male trees grow more, female trees are more likely to die.

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Researchers may be able improve corn yields and nutritional value after discovering genetic regulators that synthesize starch and protein in the widely eaten grain, according to a Rutgers-led study. The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could benefit millions of people who rely on corn for nutrition in South America, Africa and elsewhere.

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“We are eager to expand our relationship with Benson Hill and use CropOS to advance breeding for farmers across Latin America.” said Cleber Soares, executive director for Innovation and Technology of Embrapa. “Our work together has demonstrated their commitment to collaboration and appreciation for the power of genetic diversity to help solve big global challenges in a sustainable way.”

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Imagine a technology that could target pesticides to treat specific spots deep within the soil, making them more effective at controlling infestations while limiting their toxicity to the environment. Researchers at the University of California San Diego and Case Western Reserve University have taken a step toward that goal. They discovered that a particular plant virus can deliver pesticide molecules deeper below the ground, targeting places normally beyond their reach. The work could help farmers manage infestations deep in the soil with less pesticide.

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The abundance of bird species living in agricultural environments has decreased both in Finland and elsewhere in Europe.

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An open-source RNA analysis platform has been successfully used on plant cells for the first time – an advance that could herald a new era of fundamental research and bolster efforts to engineer more efficient food and biofuel crop plants. The technology, called Drop-seq, is a method for measuring the RNA present in individual cells, allowing scientists to see what genes are being expressed and how this relates to the specific functions of different cell types.

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Plants are not passive actors in the soil environment

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Scientists recycle phosphorus by combining dairy and water treatment leftovers

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In 2017, the group from the Optics of Photosynthesis Lab (OPL) developed a new method to measure a small but important signal produced by all plants

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The Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2), a technology incubator and platform funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), today announced it has selected five early-stage companies for the program’s first agtech cohort.

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Tomato breeders have traditionally emphasized traits that improve production, like larger fruits and more fruits per plant. As a result, some traits that improved other important qualities, such as flavor and disease resistance, were lost.

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For more than a decade, a team of international researchers led by Berkeley Lab bioscientists has been studying Photosystem II, a protein complex in green plants, algae, and cyanobacteria that plays a crucial role in photosynthesis. They’re now moving more quickly toward an understanding of this three-billion-year-old biological system, thanks to an integrated superfacility framework established between LCLS, ESnet, and NERSC.

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Close genetic analysis of 480 blue mallee eucalyptus plants provides clues to modify cultivars for greater yield, whether for essential oils or jet fuel.

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Researchers from Xavier University used neutrons at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor to observe how plants communicate via underground networks of fungal hyphae. Insights gained could lead to improved agricultural applications that enable farmers to tactically introduce pesticides into an environment so that unwanted weeds are destroyed while valuable crops remain unharmed.

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Tree and shrub genetics can be used to produce more accurate predictions of when leaves will burst bud in the spring, according to a Canada-US study.

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The predicted costs arise from clearing up dead and dying trees and in lost benefits provided by trees

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Climate change has raised the risk of a fungal disease that ravages banana crops, new research shows.

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Working to understand the genetics of peanut disease resistance and yield, researchers led by scientists at the University of Georgia have uncovered the peanut’s unlikely and complicated evolution.

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Improving cotton quality can have ramifications for $12B U.S. cotton trade industry

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This story is part of a series, called Georgia Groundbreakers, that celebrates innovative and visionary faculty, students, alumni and leaders throughout the history of the University of Georgia—and their profound, enduring impact on our state, our nation and the world.

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A University of Florida agricultural engineer who uses crop models to help farmers adapt to warmer, more erratic weather, will unite scientists to better deal with the impacts of an increasingly changing climate.

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Biochemists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered two ways that autophagy, or self-eating, controls the levels of oils in plant cells. The study describes how this cannibalistic-sounding process actually helps plants survive, and suggests a way to get bioenergy crops to accumulate more oil.

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For the first time since the USDA began keeping statistics in 1840, farmers from several Northeast states, including New Hampshire, are reporting kiwifruit production operations. The news comes six years after the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire launched a kiwiberry research and breeding program.

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In recent years, seaweeds have been notorious for washing up and fouling beaches on Long Island. Now, a collaborative team of scientists and marine farmers have demonstrated that the seaweed, sugar kelp, can be cultivated in the shallow estuaries of Long Island, a breakthrough that may unlock a wealth of economic and environmental opportunities for coastal communities.

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New research details how the process of domestication affected the genomes of corn and soybeans. The study looked at sections of crop genomes and compared them to the genomes of ancestor species. The results shed new light on what makes a species a good candidate for domestication.

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Michigan State University researchers believe pesticide use could be reduced by taking cues from wild plants. The team recently identified an evolutionary function in wild tomato plants that could be used by modern plant breeders to create pest-resistant tomatoes.

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Researchers have worked for four years, growing grapefruit under protective screens on a 1-acre experimental plot of trees at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, and they’re seeing encouraging results.

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A new study reveals the surprising way that family quarrels in seeds drive rapid evolution. Researchers in Arts & Sciences discovered that conflict over the amount of resources an offspring receives from its parent seems to play a special role in the development of certain seed tissues. The study is published the week of April 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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A simple change in the choice of grass varieties for many lawns in the United States could be a key tool for fending off fall armyworm infestations

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Cover crop investments protect environment

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The Phytobiomes Alliance announces the appointments of Emmanuelle Maguin (INRA, France) and Angela Sessitsch (AIT, Austria) to the Board of Directors.

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Pollen genes mutate naturally in only some strains of corn, according to Rutgers-led research that helps explain the genetic instability in certain strains and may lead to better breeding of corn and other crops.

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Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory developed a new algorithm to bolster what once were static models of root dynamics, providing researchers a clearer picture of what’s really happening beneath the soil. The work, published in the January 28 issue of the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, describes the dynamic root model and its use with the Energy Exascale Earth System Land Model (ELM), a component of the DOE’s larger Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM).

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Scientists developed a new version of a gene drive that spreads favorable genetic variants, also known as “alleles,” throughout a population. The new “allelic drive” is equipped with a guide RNA that directs CRISPR to cut undesired variants of a gene and replace them with a preferred version.

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Scientists studying plant cell walls have discovered mechanistic details of a protein involved in the assembly of lignin, a key cell-wall component. The protein acts as a targeted "electron shuttle," delivering the "fuel" that drives the construction of one specific lignin building block. Controlling the flow of electrons by targeting shuttle proteins could be a new strategy for guiding plants to make desired products.

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The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center announces the formation of an all-star line-up of agricultural experts to advise the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) as it deploys up to $2.25 million in technical assistance for agtech startup companies.

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CRISPR technique brings hope for greater food security

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From the rooftops of New York City to the sidewalks of inner-city Buffalo, urban farms are sprouting vegetables, fueling businesses and helping grow vibrant communities across the Empire State. Working these small plots are farmers young and old, from backgrounds as diverse as their agricultural needs and challenges.

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A team of biologists and computer scientists has mapped out a network of interactions for how plant genes coordinate their response to nitrogen, a crucial nutrient and the main component of fertilizer.