Cotton boll nearly ready for harvest

Transgenic Cotton and Phosphite May Replace The Need For Herbicides

In order to promote healthy and vibrant crops, we have to deal with all the stresses and competition this entails for our burgeoning plants. Farmers do their best to help reduce limitations on growth by applying fertilizers, nutrients, water, and overall using mixed soils and crop rotation in order to create the best possible living […]

Syngonium auritum- Bacterial leaf blight

Plant Pathogenic Bacteria: An Overview of Genetic Engineering Solutions

Tracking plant pathogens is no simple matter. Due to their possible environmental hidey holes being in the soil, the air, other plants, or the host plants themselves lying dormant, any and every possibility must be accounted for. And the triggers that begin active pathogenicity and harm to the plant is connected to a convoluted system […]

Medicago italica root nodules 2

Phylogenetics Shows Nitrogen-Fixing Plant Symbiosis Was Lost Repeatedly

Nitrogen fixation is a crucial part of plant growth and agriculture. Because the element nitrogen is a critical ingredient for proper development of plants, they need a steady supply of it in order to grow healthy and have a high yield of offspring seeds. For most plants, this is done by relying on nitrogen already […]

Oryza sativa Ear rice Stugaru roman rice IMG 3971

Key Gene Discovered For Resistance Against Fungal Rice Blast

Learning about plant immune systems is one of the first steps toward finding ways to improve their defenses against pathogen attack. The difficulty is that, much like the immune system found in animals, the processes involved are highly complex and also completely different from other kingdoms of life. Finding out about the human immune system […]

Cacao

Providing Pathogen Resistance To Cacao Trees Using CRISPR-Cas9

When it comes to growing niche products, any sort of harm to the plants could prove disastrous to the overall yield itself. This is especially so if that plant is only grown in certain regions due to soil and weather requirements. That is the case for the subject of chocolate, a billion dollar industry that […]

Drosophila-melanogaster-Nauener-Stadtwald-03-VII-2007-10

The Origins of Model Organisms and Their Impact on Biotechnology

From the start of things, science has always relied on the organisms that can be made to be a representation of more complex systems. They were a model for either humans themselves or to show in their own simplicity how life builds up to larger formations of cells and processes. That has long been the […]

Spotted-wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) male (15359228246)

Medea Gene Drive Developed To Target The Summer Fruit Fly

The worldwide migration of insect pests has only become more of a concern as plants, animals, and materials have begun being shipped or flown to places around the globe. Ways to control these pests through providing resistance to plants or by killing off the insects directly has proven effective, but only to a point. Many […]

Ipomoea_batatas_006

The Sweet Potato Migrated To Polynesia Before Early Human Arrival

Defining the history of early mankind has long been a desire for archaeologists and others who study ancient artifacts of civilization. How we spread over time and to where and how our cultures interacted with each other proves a source of fascination and knowledge on when we developed technologies and especially agricultural techniques. The trip […]

Corn earworm

New Hybrid Swarm Combines Deadly Agricultural Pests Into Mega-Pests

Protecting farmers and their agricultural output around the world is a daunting task. Each region has its own trials and tribulations related to their temperature, rainfall, soil consistency, and of course, their pathogens. An unfortunate side effect of the otherwise hugely beneficial impact of international trade is that the pathogens faced in one corner of […]

Samphire salt marsh - St Kilda South Australia

Plant Salt Tolerance: Recent Research in Biotechnology

The health of plants is paramount for farmers, gardeners, and scientists alike. They not only provide the food we need to survive, but their overall well-being is a marker for the strength of the environmental conditions around them. And there are many things, much like with us humans, that can be a cause for alarm. […]