Chickpea Genes May Give New Life To Brassica Against Fungal Blight

There are, always, too many pathogens in the world. Often too many to catalog and keep track of and they are constantly changing, whether bacterial, viral, fungal, or even other options. When it comes to plants and agricultural output, the worst kinds of pathogens are those that can infect a variety of important crops grown […]

Plants Copy Nematode Pheromones To Repel Infestations

Plants never cease to reveal their unique and astonishing methods of protecting themselves from pathogens. Here on Bioscription we’ve previously discussed the topic of the pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) system and how it allows plants to uptake and conserve important foreign molecules for future immune system response. It is, in many ways, similar to the […]

Planthopper (Fulgoroidea) (8686208002)

Plant Sugar Levels Found To Determine Wing Size In Planthopper Pests

Interactions between hosts and their pathogens are numerous and come in so many forms that we continue to categorize them to this day. A unique example often seen in insects is the capability known as polyphenism, where two or more different phenotypes, or physical traits, can emerge from the same genome. This is commonly seen […]

Intercropping maize and beans

RNA Interference: Current Research in Plant Biotechnology

Once upon a time, scientists thought genetics and genomes were fairly straightforward. A gene encodes a protein and that protein carries out the actions that cause physical, metabolic effects and even phenotypic effects visible to others. It was a direct and simple system, a functional way for something formed through natural selection to be built. […]

Ripatella 4644

Combating A Bacterial Scourge And Its Assault On Global Vineyards

Some pathogens are content to focus on their one host and live in their niche of evolutionary propagation. They go about their ongoing generational fight to one-up their host, just as their host works to outperform and prevent infection by the pathogen. Occasionally, one of these sorts of pathogens will branch off and appropriate one […]

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 […]

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 […]

CSIRO ScienceImage 2818 Group of Nematodes

Global Transportation Raises Biosecurity Concerns With Plant Pathogens

With an ever increasing population and global interaction, trade between nations and people moving to and fro poses distinct risks to biosecurity concerns. Human diseases are obviously top of the list, but because they involve direct contamination by humans themselves with other humans, most medical organizations around the world have numerous measures in place to […]

Five weed mix

The Mechanics of Plant and Weed Mimicry: An Overview

Plant mimicry has always been a rather select field, both in nature and in scientific study, though not necessarily uncommon in the former. This selectivity is due to the fact that it serves no direct benefit in the battle between different plants for sunlight or other sorts of land superiority. Instead, before humans, mimicry of […]

Mycena inclinata, Clustered Bonnet, UK

Fungi Parasitism: The Ins And Outs Of Biotechnology and Biocontrol

The modern world has a multitude of issues it is facing, most of which filter through and incorporate agriculture in some fashion. Whether speaking of climate change, overpopulation, deforestation, or any number of other topics, the food supply and how we produce it is involved. For a significant chunk of the countries in the world, […]