Genomic features that make plants good candidates for domestication

highly branched plants of teosinte, a wild relative of corn. Right: tiny pods on the vine of Glycine soja, wild relative of soybean. New research sheds light on how domestication affects the genomes of corn and soybeans.

New research published this week identifies the genomic features that might have made domestication possible for corn and soybeans, two of the world's most critical crop species.

Do additives help the soil?

A UBC researcher is using her latest study to question whether soil additives are worth their salt.

'Exotic' genes may improve cotton yield and quality

Cotton breeders face a "Catch-22." Yield from cotton crops is inversely related to fiber quality. In general, as yield improves, fiber quality decreases, and vice-versa. "This is one of the most significant challenges for cotton breeders," says Peng Chee, a researcher at the University of Georgia.

The hunger gaps: How flowering times affect farmland bees

For the very first time, researchers from the University of Bristol have measured farmland nectar supplies throughout the whole year and revealed hungry gaps when food supply is not meeting pollinator demand. This novel finding reveals new ways of making farmland better for pollinators, benefitting the many crop plants and wildflowers that depend on them.

Pesticide exposure causes bumblebee flight to fall short

Bees exposed to a neonicotinoid pesticide fly only a third of the distance that unexposed bees are able to achieve.

'Right' cover-crop mix good for both Chesapeake and bottom lines

'Right' cover-crop mix good for both Chesapeake and bottom lines

Planting and growing a strategic mix of cover crops not only reduces the loss of nitrogen from farm fields, protecting water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, but the practice also contributes nitrogen to subsequent cash crops, improving yields, according to researchers.

Changing climate may affect animal-to-human disease transfer

Climate change could affect occurrences of diseases like bird-flu and Ebola, with environmental factors playing a larger role than previously understood in animal-to-human disease transfer.

Gene-editing technology may produce resistant virus in cassava plant

The use of gene-editing technology to create virus-resistant cassava plants could have serious negative ramifications, according to new research by plant biologists at the University of Alberta, the University of Liege in Belgium, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Microscopic life in the saline soil of the Marismas del Odiel Natural Park

A University of Seville research group, led by the professor Antonio Ventosa, has, for the first time, studied and described the microbiome of saline soil in the Marismas del Odiel Natural Park. This research opens new perspectives in microbiome study of this type of environment, which can produce data on, among other aspects, possible climate alterations and other environmental factors in microbial populations.

What the wheat genome tells us about wars

Wheat is a globally cultivated plant. It originated about 10000 years ago in the so-called fertile crescent, today's Anatolia and north Iraq, and has since then started its successful march around the world. The illustration shows the distribution routes of wheat based on its genetic similarity patterns. Little surprising is the proximity to human migration routes during this period.

First they mapped the genome of wheat; now they have reconstructed its breeding history. Joining forces with other European researchers, scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum München have examined the genetic diversity of wheat varieties in the WHEALBI study. By doing so, they discovered which cereals our ancestors cultivated, where today's wheat comes from, and what the Cold War has to do with it all. The results were recently published in the journal Nature Genetics.