News by Subject Agriculture

An important part of plant genetic resources is crop wild relatives. These are closely related to crop species but have not been domesticated by humans. This plant genetic materials and those who care for them are vital for human survival.

New research finds that 500 years of over-exploitation has halved mammal populations in South America's once majestic Atlantic Forest. A new analysis of mammal populations reveals the devastating effects of human disturbance since the area was first colonised in the 1500s. They found that apex predators and large carnivores, such as jaguars and pumas, as well as large-bodied herbivores, such as tapirs, were among the groups whose numbers had suffered the most.

New findings show that a micro RNA from the shoot keeps legume roots susceptible to symbiotic infection by downregulating a gene that would otherwise hinder root responses to symbiotic bacteria. These findings help us understand what it takes to make nitrogen-fixing symbiosis efficient, and what we need to do to exploit it agronomically.

Polyploid plants have a duplicate set of chromosomes. As a result, large-scale genetic changes are therefore possible in the new species, making it more adaptable in comparison with the parental species, as has now been proven by UZH researchers with rockcress.

In plants, to fertilize the egg, the pollen tube (which is between 1/20 and 1/5 of the width of a human hair) has to navigate through a maze of tissue, no matter what obstacles it encounters. Thanks to the lab-on-a chip technology scientists were able to actually see and measure exactly what was going on within the pollen tube as it grew.

In a paper published Sept. 24 in the journal Nature Plants, an international team of researchers has discovered that the gene FT -- the primary driver of the transition to flowering in plants each spring -- does something unexpected in Arabidopsis thaliana plants grown in natural environments, with implications for the artificial growing conditions scientists commonly used in the lab.

Barely heard of a couple of years ago, quinoa today is common on European supermarket shelves. The hardy plant thrives even in saline soils. Researchers from the University of Würzburg have now determined how the plant gets rid of the excess salt.