Scientists discover mechanism plants use to control 'mouths'

Because breathing is generally involuntary, we sometimes forget how complicated it is. But biologists are gaining new insight into the intricate process in plants, with big implications for how to feed the world in the future.

Increasing crop yields by breeding plants to cooperate

A simple breeding experiment, combined with genetic analysis, can rapidly uncover genes that promote cooperation and higher yields of plant populations, according to a new study published November 29 in the open access journal ...

Breedbase software to help speed crop improvement

To help plant breeders speed crop improvement around the world, Lukas Mueller of the Boyce Thompson Institute worked with an international team of 57 people to create Breedbase, a database software that was described in the ...

Fighting climate change with heat-tolerant plants

Climate change is causing major challenges especially for plant breeders. An intelligent field robot and X-ray technology are helping them selecting heat-tolerant plant varieties. The sensors in the high-tech machine were ...

Latin American rice breeding gets a boost from genomic tools

How do you like your rice? Sticky, fluffy, brown, or white? These qualities, in addition to grain length, width, appearance, and other traits, are hugely important predictors of rice sales and consumption worldwide. And region ...

Tracking wild peanut genes to improve crop resilience

A decade ago, University of Georgia plant scientists David and Soraya Bertioli were living and working in Brazil when they began to wonder about peanut plants they encountered in different corners of the world with an astounding ...

Measuring nitrogen in green manures

Both chemical fertilizers and cover crops can help build the nitrogen content in soil. But cover crops come with many other benefits, like improving soil structure and boosting beneficial microbes.

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