Research Results
1. A fungal pathogen of dicots adopts an endophytic lifestyle on cereal crops and protects them from major fungal diseases
Cereal crops provide a major food source for human beings and animals. Many fungal pathogens that damage cereals also produce mycotoxins (e.g., ergotamine) that further threaten human and livestock health. Hence, developing resistant cereal cultivars is very important for food security. A study by Tian and colleagues at the Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China, in collaboration with researchers in the USA and Australia, found that Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, a common pathogen of dicotyledonous plants can grow endophytically in wheat, rice, barley, maize, and oat, protecting against Fusarium head blight, stripe rust, and rice blast. Protection is also provided by disabled S. sclerotiorum strains harbouring a hypovirulence virus.
The disabled strain DT-8 promoted wheat yields by 4–18% in the field, and it consistently reduced Fusarium disease by 40–60% across multiple field trials. This host-dependent trophism of S. sclerotiorum, destructively pathogenic or mutualistically endophytic, is termed schizotrophism. As a biotroph (i e., a fungal plant pathogen that establishes a long-term feeding relationship with host cells without killing the plant), S. sclerotiorum modified the expression of wheat genes involved in disease resistance and photosynthesis and it increased the level of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). The study shows that a broad-spectrum pathogen of one group of plants may be employed as a biocontrol agent in a different group of plants, where they can be utilized as beneficial microorganisms while avoiding the risk of in-field release of pathogens. It also raises provocative questions about the potential role of schizotrophic endophytes in natural ecosystems.
For more, see https://www.nature.com/articles/s41396-020-00744-6
2. Scientists identify an enzyme that facilitates grafting between plants of different families
Grafting is a common horticultural technique that joins plants together through tissue regeneration, combining the desirable characteristics of both plants. Nevertheless, it is unclear as to how exactly grafts are established, and grafting is considered difficult between different family species. A team of scientists from Nagoya University, Japan, led by Michitaka Notaguchi, recently conducted a study on grafting between different family species. They found that the tobacco plant Nicotiana benthamiana promotes adhesion of tissue and can maintain grafts between a broad range of species; for example, using tobacco as an intermediary, the upper part (scion) of a tomato plant grafted onto the lower part (rootstock) of a Chrysanthemum morifolium (widely known as Florist’s daisy) successfully bore fruit.
The team conducted grafting experiments using plants of seven Nicotiana species and their partners from 84 species in 42 families. Using Nicotiana as an intermediate, researchers also achieved other grafts in which the scion, interscion, and rootstock all belonged to different plant families. “Our latest results regarding the key molecules involved, not just interfamily grafting itself, could help improve plant grafting techniques so that the variety of root systems available to aid crop production can be increased with minimal destruction of ecosystems,” says Notaguchi, the corresponding author of this study. They hypothesized that β-1,4 glucanases (enzymes involved in cell wall digestion) are integral to this process. These findings demonstrate that the process of cell-cell adhesion is a potential target to enhance plant grafting techniques.
Access the abstract at https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6504/698
3. New study identifies wheat varieties that resist the destructive stripe rust disease
Stripe rust is one of the most destructive wheat diseases in the world. To avoid the use of chemicals to control it, farmers would prefer to grow wheat varieties that resist stripe rust. The development of such varieties is thus a top priority for many wheat breeding programmes. To help develop resistant varieties, scientists from the US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service and Washington State University, recently studied stripe rust resistance genes in 616 spring wheat varieties, using the genome-wide association study approach. The results have been published recently by Lu Liu and colleagues. “We tested the wheat varieties with five predominant strains of the wheat stripe rust pathogen under controlled greenhouse conditions and in field locations under natural infection of the pathogen, and characterized (them), using a genotype by multiplex sequencing technique and molecular markers linked to previously reported stripe rust resistance genes,” explained Xianming Chen, corresponding author of the publication.
The frequencies of the resistance genes or quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in various nurseries were determined, indicating different intensities of these genes or QTLs used in breeding programmes of different regions. It is expected that the resistance loci identified and the information on their markers, effectiveness, and distributions would be useful for improving stripe rust resistance in wheat cultivars. These resistant varieties can also be used by wheat breeders to develop new varieties with improved stripe rust resistance and other desirable agronomic traits.
Access the abstract at https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/pdf/10.1094/PDIS-11-19-2402-RE
4. Scientists predict economically important traits of crops
There is a plethora of methods for genome-wide association studies. However, only a few of them may be classified as multi-trait and multi-locus; i.e., they consider the influence of multiple genetic variants on several correlated phenotypes. Researchers from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) developed a new mathematical model to predict the economic performance of crops. Researchers propose a multi-trait multi-locus model, which employs structural equation modelling (SEM) to describe complex associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and traits —multi-trait multi-locus SEM (mtmlSEM). “We have developed a new mathematical model for predicting crop phenotypic traits as a function genotype,” notes Maria Samsonova, head of the Laboratory of Mathematical Biology and Bioinformatics at SPbPU. She added that such models in agriculture are called genomic selection models. Scientists applied the model to predict phenotypic traits of an important crop, soybean.
“For breeders, it is very important to select parental plants able to produce offspring of high quality,” says Anna Igolkina, engineer at the Laboratory of Mathematical Biology and Bioinformatics at SPbPU. “Due to the small number of parameters in our model, we can rank breeding pairs according to offspring quality and selected advanced parental pairs representing new potentially interesting donors of desired traits.” Researchers analyzed 16 phenotypic traits, which were organized into five groups. The model demonstrated high accuracy in predicting trait values when it was applied to Vavilov’s collection of 404 chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) accessions, with 20-fold cross-validation. However, the applicability of mtmlSEM models in genomic selection studies requires further investigation. In collaboration with the “Soybean Complex” LTD, SPbPU scientists have already obtained a patent for a method of assessing crops based on the developed model.
For more, see https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/ptgs-spe091820.php
Access the full paper at https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12864-020-06833-2
5. E. coli bacteria offer a path to improving photosynthesis
Cornell University scientists have engineered a key plant enzyme and introduced it in Escherichia coli bacteria to create an optimal experimental environment for studying how to speed up photosynthesis to improve crop yields. Scientists have known that crop yields would increase if they could accelerate the photosynthesis process, where plants convert carbon dioxide, water, and light into oxygen and eventually into sucrose, a sugar used for energy and for building new plant tissue. In plants, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase–oxygenase (Rubisco) catalyses the first step in carbon fixation and is a strategic target for improving photosynthetic efficiency. Along with CO2, Rubisco sometimes catalyses a reaction with oxygen from the air, and when it does, it creates a toxic by-product and wastes energy, thereby making photosynthesis inefficient. It is thus necessary to see that Rubisco does not interact with oxygen, so that no toxins are produced and the process is speeded up.
To achieve that, the researchers took Rubisco from tobacco plants and engineered it into E. coli. The advantage of using E. coli is that since bacteria reproduce so rapidly, researchers may test an altered Rubisco in it and get results the next day. Led by Myat Lin, a postdoctoral research associate in Maureen Hanson’s lab in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA, the researchers were able to break down the process and express a single type of large subunit and a single type of small subunit together in E. coli, to understand the enzyme’s properties. By doing this, they attained expression of the enzyme in E. coli that matched what was found in plants. “We now have the ability to engineer new versions of plant Rubisco in E. coli and find out whether the properties of an enzyme are better,” Hanson said.
Access the abstract at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-020-00761-5
6. Researchers find a new way to protect plants from fungal infection
Widespread fungal disease in plants can be controlled with a commercially available chemical, acetohydroxamic acid, which has been primarily used in human medicine (for use with antibiotics and/or surgery to treat types of bladder infections that are caused by certain bacteria) until now. In a comprehensive experiment, a team at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute for Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Halle (Saale), Germany, has uncovered a new metabolic pathway which can be disrupted with this chemical, thus preventing many known plant fungi from invading the host plant. “The only option they (i.e., pathogens, for example, Colletotrichum graminicola, which infects maize, causing anthracnose) have is to break down some of their own nitrogen-containing molecules, for instance, purines, the building blocks of DNA or RNA,” explains plant pathologist, Professor Holger Deising.
The researchers on Deising’s team have found a way to impede this transitional phase which the fungus relies on. “The acid prevents the harmful fungi from penetrating the plants and from becoming infectious,” and “then we inoculated the different fungal mutants onto the plants to see which ones were no longer infectious,” says Deising. To check whether the mutants’ failure to infect the plant was caused by a lack of nitrogen, the researchers then applied nitrogen to the plants. Data generated by Perino, the first author, and colleagues strongly suggest that inhibition of the purine degradation pathway might represent a novel approach to control plant pathogenic fungi and oomycetes (including those that infect other plants such as Vicia faba).
For more, see https://pressemitteilungen.pr.uni-halle.de/index.php?modus=pmanzeige&pm_id=5103
Access the abstract at https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/pdf/10.1094/PHYTO-04-20-0114-R
7. New resistance gene to devastating potato disease that caused Irish Famine
Late blight is the most important pathogen in potato, and it causes devastation worldwide. The disease, caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, was the trigger for the Irish Famine and is still one of the most serious threats to potato production, which causes significant economic losses. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, in collaboration with those at the James Hutton Institute, have identified a diploid wild potato with high resistance to P. infestans. They discovered novel R genes in this potato using dRenSeq analysis (dRenSeq is a new diagnostic tool, developed at the James Hutton Institute, which allows Resistance Gene sequences to be rapidly and confidently detected in all types of Solanum species), and further transcriptional analysis revealed the essential role of multiple signal transduction pathways and secondary metabolic pathways in plant immunity in the wild potato.
“We found that the observed resistance in this wild potato was due to previously uncharacterized novel resistance genes,” explained Guangcun Li, one of the scientists involved in the study. “We also discovered that photosynthesis was inhibited to promote the immune response”, he added. It is a discovery that photosynthetic inhibition exists in potatoes. The scientists also found that the physical barrier of leaves was very important. The study revealed the pattern of resistance-related gene expression in response to a super race strain of potato late blight, and it provides a theoretical basis for further exploration of potato disease resistance mechanisms, the discovery of new late blight resistance genes, and disease resistance breeding.
Access the abstract at https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/full/10.1094/PHYTO-09-19-0331-R
8. Genetic adaption to climate change is swift in crop pests
Fruit flies have the uncanny ability to wake up from months-long hibernation right when their food of choice—say, the fruit from apple or Hawthorn trees—is at its peak. They are active for a couple of weeks, eating and mating, before going dormant for the rest of the year. How this synchronization and remarkable timing happens has long been a mystery. In a world where global change is shifting the growing seasons, somehow the fruit flies keep up. In a new study, Edwina Dowle, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, and her colleagues have found many genes responsible for setting the flies’ internal alarm clock; they also found that an imperceptibly slow development during dormancy is key to their rapid genetic adaption.
“In addition to the 24-hour circadian clock that we all have, many fruit flies have an internal seasonal timer,” says study co-author Gregory Ragland, also from the University of Colorado Denver. “Though it’s a fly larva, this is the proverbial ‘worm’ in the apple that has evolved into a major crop pest by adjusting its timing to coincide with the early fruiting time of apple,” says Ragland. Sampling from the fly brains, researchers can compare snapshots of the RNA composition to measure developmental differences in the nervous system over long periods. By comparing genetic variants differing in the two fly populations, researchers found that polygenic traits led to the quickness of adaptation; many genes, each with very small effects, worked together to determine the rate of development. The study shows how complex genetics can facilitate adaptation while also leveraging a rapid shift in phenology to understand the developmental regulation of dormancy, a fundamental life-history trait in seasonal environments.
Access the full paper at https://www.pnas.org/content/117/38/23960
9. Inheritance in plants can now be controlled specifically
At Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Fritz-Haber-Weg, Karlsruhe, Germany, a team of researchers, led by
molecular biologist Holger Puchta, have succeeded in modifying the sequence of genes on a chromosome, using CRISPR/Cas. For the first time worldwide, they took a known chromosome modification in the thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) model plant and demonstrated how inversions of the gene sequence can be undone and inheritance can thus be controlled specifically. On chromosome 4 of the plant, a so-called inversion occurred: The chromosome broke at two points and was reassembled again. (Editors’ note: Chromosomal inversions occur between different plant isolates or cultivars. Such inversions may lead to reproductive isolation in evolution and represent a major obstacle for classical breeding) “In inverted sections, genes cannot be exchanged between homologous chromosomes during inheritance,” Puchta explains. Inversions do not only affect thale cress, but many crop plants carry inversions, which have occurred naturally over time as a result of erroneous repair processes.
Researchers have demonstrated that there is no need for molecular scissors, not only for exchanging arms between chromosomes but also for recombining genes on a single chromosome. “For the first time, we have now demonstrated that it is possible to directly control inheritance processes. We can achieve genetic exchange in an area in which this has been impossible before. With this, we have established chromosome engineering as a new type of crop cultivation” says Puchta. The strategy of somatic chromosome engineering for breaking genetic linkage has huge potential for application in plant breeding.
For more, see http://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2020_075_inheritance-in-plants-can-now-be-controlled-specifically.php
Access the full paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18277-z.pdf
10. Short cut to breed better non-GMO crops
Breeding better crops is a constant endeavour to ensure global food security. However, breeding improved cultivars is a long-drawn, tedious process of manipulating genes in crop plants. By engineering the genes of bacteria that surround the plants, the scientists obtained the same outcome as adjusting genes from the plant itself. In a recent breakthrough, a team of Utrecht University scientists, led by Mohammadhossein Ravanbakhsh, Institute of Environmental Biology, Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Utrecht, the Netherlands, have discovered a shortcut to breed better crops by genetically engineering the microorganisms naturally living in and around plants. To date, plant breeding has focused on the genes carried in the plant itself, but paid little attention to those encoded in plant-associated bacteria which are present inside the plants.
The team, for example, investigated whether they could increase the plant nutritional value. “We, therefore, compared the manipulation of altered ethylene synthesis gene ETO1, in the plant itself, with the manipulation of the associated microbial gene acdS. Both mutations yielded a similar plant phenotype, with increased ethylene production and higher shoot micronutrient concentrations,” says Ravanbakhsh. Researchers have demonstrated that plant and bacterial genes build an integrated plant-microbe regulatory network amenable to genetic improvement from both the plant and microbial sides. “This work is a major breakthrough,” says last author Alexandre Jousset from Utrecht University. “It has far-reaching implications, as it shows that microbiome engineering may become a fast-forward way to increase plant characteristics at a fraction of the costs associated with traditional breeding.”
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-09-short-non-gmo-crops.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the full paper at https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.16867
11. Research shows the potential of gene editing in barley
An international team of plant scientists—consisting of researchers from the University of Adelaide’s Waite Research Institute, working with the James Hutton Institute in Scotland and other colleagues in the UK and Melbourne—have shown the potential to rapidly improve the quality of barley grain through a genetic tool known as CRISPR or gene editing. They describe how the levels of beta-glucan in barley grain can be influenced through gene editing. Joint senior author and Associate Professor Matthew Tucker, Deputy Director of the Waite Research Institute, says: “Barley grain is comparatively rich in beta-glucan, a source of fermentable dietary fibre that protects against various human health conditions. The results of the research provide further insight into key genes responsible for barley grain composition and, by using CRISPR gene editing, plant breeders will have been able to accelerate plant breeding and deliver new crop varieties that are best suited to their target growing areas and markets.”
Researchers used a reverse genetics approach, using CRISPR to generate changes in members of the gene superfamily responsible for making beta-glucan. The results led to specific differences in grain quality, composition, and content of beta-glucan. “This study has brought real immediate benefit in terms of understanding how gene editing can help improve the quality of barley crops” Tucker says. “And it’s part of our overall ongoing efforts to apply the latest genetic techniques to deliver improvements for the food and feed industries.”
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-09-potential-gene-barley.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the full paper at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/tpj.14977
Potential Crops/Technologies/Concepts
1. Could breadfruit be the next superfood?
A fruit used for centuries in countries around the world is getting the nutritional thumbs-up from a team of British Columbia researchers. Breadfruit, which grows in abundance in tropical and South Pacific countries, has long been a staple in the diet of many people. However, according to Ying Liu of the University of British Columbia, Kelowna, Canada, there have been hardly any detailed and systematic studies of the health impacts of a breadfruit diet. There was thus a need for developing breadfruit as a sustainable, environmentally-friendly, high-production crop. “The objective of our current study was to determine whether a diet containing breadfruit flour poses any serious health concerns,” explains Liu, who conducted her research with colleagues from British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Natural Health and Food Products Research Group and the Breadfruit Institute of the National Tropical Botanic Garden in Hawaii. Mice fed the breadfruit diet had a significantly higher growth rate and body weight than mice fed the standard diet.
”Our data showed that a breadfruit diet does not impose any toxic impact,” says Liu. “Fundamental understanding of the health impact of breadfruit digestion and diets is necessary to the establishment of breadfruit as a staple or as a functional food in the future.” “Overall, these studies support the use of breadfruit as part of a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet,” Liu adds. No negative health outcomes were observed in studies with in vitro or in vivo models, and breadfruit flour is a healthy alternative to other starches in modern foods.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-09-breadfruit-superfood.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the full paper at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0236300
2. Farmer knowledge is key to finding more resilient crops in the climate crisis
Although the importance of combining the knowledge harboured by farmers of diverse crop varieties is well recognized in conservation circles, it is often overlooked by scientists focusing on high-tech breeding in laboratories. Authors of a new study argue that farmers’ knowledge and high-tech breeding to improve crops can be effectively combined to unlock more resilient and nutritious food supplies in the face of climate threats. Combined with farmer selection of varieties, which can cope in field conditions, the result is a better-adapted food supply, more resilient to the impacts of the impending climate crisis, say a team of international researchers led by Carlo Fadda of Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. Matteo Dell’Acqua, a co-author and geneticist at the Institute of Life Sciences, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, in Pisa, Italy, adds: “This approach shows the value of combining the most advanced genomics approaches with the traditional knowledge of farmer communities. In this framework, modern breeding and crowd-sourcing methods can complement each other in supporting the local adaptation of farming systems to the impacts of climate change.”
With the advent of digital tools, the researchers say farmer ‘citizen scientists’ can provide adequate, reliable information identifying varieties with superior traits tolerant to climate-induced stress. In Ethiopia, two wheat varieties bred using the ‘Seeds for Needs’ approach have already been released four years faster than the average time required to release new varieties. Authors propose that this new combination of high-tech, centralized and participatory, decentralized methods can provide a coherent and effective approach to breeding for climate adaptation; this presents a way forward for future research.
Access the full paper at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.559515/full
3. Automated image processing could aid crop evaluation
Sunlight allows crops to engage in photosynthesis and produce the yields that become food, feed, fibre, or fuel. When light gets captured by leaves, more upright leaves allow plants to use light more efficiently while casting less shade on neighbours, thus allowing growers to fit more plants into a field. Leaf angles change when crops are deprived of water, making them a useful telltale for comparing how different lines respond to drought. However, measuring leaf angles is a labour-intensive and time-consuming task. Nebraska’s James Schnable and colleagues developed an image-processing framework, Leaf Angle eXtractor, that quantifies leaf angles from time-lapse photography of plants.
Natural variation for leaf angle has been identified in maize and sorghum, using multiple mapping populations. Experiments with maize and sorghum plants showed that Leaf Angle eXtractor could discern minute-to-minute shifts in individual leaves,even from medium-resolution photos, which corresponded with rolling, wilting, and other common signs of water deprivation. The framework could accelerate and reduce the cost of comparing how genetic lines respond to water stress in greenhouses, along with which varieties of maize and sorghum boast desirable leaf angles. These advances in high‐throughput leaf angle measurements are critical in understanding plant response to water limitation. They will also assist breeders in tapping the diversity in leaf angle to develop hybrids with drought tolerance and desirable ideotypes for future increases in planting densities.
Access the full paper at https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aps3.11385
4. Crop diversity is key to increased profits for Brazilian farmers
The adage “variety is the spice of life” can also be true on the farm. Planting the same crop over and over, year after year, can quickly deplete the soil of valuable nutrients. The crops eventually won’t produce as much, and the farmer will lose profits. Researchers in Brazil wanted to test crop diversification practices to help their farmers produce more and grow their profits. Soybean has been grown in cropping systems with low crop diversity in Brazil. However, these systems are becoming less efficient and sustainable. The need for identifying more diverse crop systems that have better economic returns is now recognized.
Experiments were conducted in Paraná state, Brazil, over 6 years, under no‐tillage, with crop rotation systems that included soybean, wheat, and combinations of tropical forage crops, either planted independently or intercropped with maize in the winter. Diversified crop rotation systems increase crop yields and profit compared with the maize-soybean system. “It is possible that the benefits of crop diversity in crop production systems will increase even more over time,” says Santos Telles, the corresponding author at the Instituto Agronômico do Paraná, Londrina. He adds, “This information can be useful in making farmers aware of the benefits of adopting these crop systems.”
Access the abstract at https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/agj2.20308
News:
1. Cavendish banana faces extinction. Can scientists save this staple before it’s too late?
Over 50% of Central and East Africa’s permanent cropping area is given over to banana cultivation, which currently represents around half of the total agricultural area dedicated to bananas across Africa. Bananas provide up to one-fifth of total per capita calorie consumption in the region and, according to data from the international research project, Accelerated Breeding of Better Bananas (ABBB), bananas are a ‘major source of income’ for smallholder farmers in the area, with the region’s yearly banana crop valued at US$4.3 billion. Pests and diseases are threatening Cavendish bananas with extinction in this region and elsewhere in the world, with negative impacts on economies, as well as individual livelihoods. The ABBB is coordinated by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). It aims to achieve a 50% higher resistance to at least three of the major pests and diseases, while at the same time developing a more efficient breeding platform for bananas.
2. Quinoa is a beacon of hope for the Andean communities in a time of global crisis
It’s been 7,000 years since indigenous rural communities of the Andes first grew quinoa. Among these deserted highlands, recognized by the United Nations as “globally important ingenious agricultural heritage systems” (GIAHS), farmers have always faced drought, frost, and intense solar radiation. Peru leads the quinoa export from the Andean countries, accounting for 60% of the global trade in 2018. Before the quinoa boom, black and yellow quinoa were also produced in the Andes, but these traditional varieties have small grains. Today, however, the ability of traditional varieties to grow in scarce water conditions enables them to better withstand climate change. This advantage provides small farmers with food security, and it also respects the role of the community in maintaining traditional varieties.
3. The fourth agricultural revolution is coming, but who will benefit?
In the case of farming, some researchers, business people and politicians think the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies are so great they are spurring a “Fourth agricultural revolution”. The first agricultural revolution occurred when humans started farming around 12,000 years ago. The fourth agricultural revolution, much like the fourth industrial revolution, refers to the anticipated changes from new technologies, particularly the use of AI to make smarter planning decisions and power autonomous robots. In the context of the fourth agricultural revolution, this could also mean farmers not owning or being able to fully access the data gathered on their farms by new technologies.
Also, see https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2018.00087/full
4. One of the biggest threats to the world’s forests and biodiversity is farming
Global biodiversity is in steep decline, the World Wildlife Fund has warned in its flagship Living Planet Report 2020. It has been noted that humans produce food, albeit one of the most essential needs, with almost total disregard for the environment entrenched in the current economic model, leading to the present dire situation. “This study shows the world may still be able to stabilize and reverse the loss of nature. But to have any chance of doing that as early as 2030, we will need to make transformational changes in the way we produce and consume food, as well as bolder, more ambitious conservation efforts,” said Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at World Wide Fund United Kingdom and a co-author of the study. “The Anthropocene could be the moment we achieve a balance with the rest of the natural world and become stewards of our planet,” David Attenborough said, in Voices for a Living Planet.
For more, see https://scroll.in/article/973268/one-of-the-biggest-threats-to-the-worlds-forests-and-biodiversity-is-farming
5. India hopes digital tech will save its floundering farm sector—but it’s working without evidence
India’s farmers today are trying to run on a technological treadmill of rising input costs, increasing frequency and virulence of insects and pests, along declining levels of groundwater and soil fertility. Ecologically unsustainable practices, brought about by the chemical-driven Green Revolution since the 1960s, as well as increased demand from Indian farmers for high state subsidies (similar to those enjoyed by large farmers in the US and Europe), resulting from the increasing liberalisation of Indian agriculture since the 1990s, has made Indian agriculture largely unprofitable. A recent study conducted in the United States found that digitalisation of agriculture is not solving the social and environmental problems, such as adverse impacts of chemical agriculture in the form of declining fertility of the soil, loss of control over local resources, etc. India must promote inter-disciplinary research to ensure that agriculture does not remain confined to the natural sciences, but that it includes social science disciplines as well.
6. India pushes bold ‘one nation, one subscription’ journal-access plan
The Indian government is pushing a bold proposal that would make scholarly literature accessible for free to everyone in the country. If this move succeeds, India would become the largest country to strike deals that give access to paywalled articles to all citizens—more than 1.3 billion people—say researchers. Under the German ‘read and publish’ deals, researchers can also publish under open-access terms, so that anyone can read their work for free. India is not proposing the same open-access terms for articles that its researchers publish. A central fund would incentivize researchers to submit articles to journals that charge publication fees (or author publishing charges or article processing charges), funnelling more money to publishing companies in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe.
See also https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01717-2
7. Parts of our pea collection characterized in search of plant-based protein sources for the future
NordGen has more than 2 000 seed samples (accessions) from different peas in its collection. This is a very valuable part of our collection, which also includes local varieties, breeding lines, and wild relatives of cultivated peas. A large portion of NordGen’s pea collection was donated in the 1980s by the Swedish plant breeding company, Weibullsholms växtförädlingsanstalt, as their breeding program was shut down. The pea collection is one of a kind and contains pea accessions from all over the world.
Pea is an excellent example of such a plant, and analyses show that some of the pea accessions that were propagated in 2019 have a protein content of up to 29%.
For more, see https://www.nordgen.org/en/parts-of-our-pea-collection-characterized-in-search-of-plant-based-protein-sources-for-the-future/
9. Hand pollination, not agrochemicals, increases cocoa yield and farmer income
Cocoa is in great demand in the world market, and there are many ways to increase production. A research team from the University of Göttingen has investigated the relative importance of the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and manual pollination in a well-replicated field trial in Indonesian agroforestry systems. The result: an increase in both cocoa yield and farming income was achieved, not by agrochemicals, but by manual pollination.
Working together with colleagues and students of the Indonesian University of Tadulako of Palu, the scientists found that hand pollination increased the yield of cocoa trees by 161%. After deducting the costs of manual pollination, this meant a 69% increase in income for smallholder farmers.
Access the abstract at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880920303467?via%3Dihub
10. Can organic plant protection products damage crops?
Protecting crops against pests and diseases is essential to ensure a secure food supply. Around 95% of the world’s food comes from conventional agriculture, which uses chemical pesticides to keep crops healthy. Increasingly, however, organic pesticides are also being used. Some organic pesticides contain live spores of the fungus Trichoderma, which can suppress other pathogens. Researchers at the University of Göttingen have now discovered that one Trichoderma species can cause severe rot in cobs of maize (corn). “Although the investigations carried out so far show that the Trichoderma strains used in organic plant protection products differ from the aggressive forms now found, it is also clear that the risks from the use of living microorganisms in plant protection must be thoroughly investigated,” adds Professor Andreas von Tiedemann, head of the Department of Plant Pathology and Protection at the University of Göttingen.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-10-products-crops.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the full paper at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fagro.2020.547758/full
11. Re-imagining Africa’s food future at the intersection of agriculture and conservation
With more than half of the world’s acutely food insecure people living in Africa, achieving food security is critical to the continent. The key questions to be considered are many: What will Africa’s sustainable food future look like? What are the implications for high-value conservation landscapes, where agriculture and conservation intersect? How can we reduce human-wildlife conflict and biodiversity loss while enabling sustainable agricultural intensification, alongside alternative livelihoods like sustainable tourism, to deliver benefits to both people and nature?
A new report by WWF, Re-imagining Africa’s Food Future, seeks to tackle these questions head-on with a review of the key drivers and challenges facing sustainable agriculture in two high-value conservation areas: the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area and the Southern Kenya Northern Tanzania Integrated Trans-boundary Wildlife Corridor. There is merit in exploring different approaches to sustainable agriculture, such as agroecology, which seeks to optimize the interactions between plants, animals, humans, and the environment, while taking into consideration the social aspects that can help shape a sustainable and fair food system.
Access the full paper at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14735903.2020.1787618?needAccess=true
12. Plant protein discovery could reduce the need for fertilizer
Researchers have discovered how a protein in plant roots controls the uptake of minerals and water, a finding which could improve the tolerance of crops to climate change and reduce the need for chemical fertilizers. This study by Guilhem Reyt and colleagues at the University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, reveals that the molecular machinery required for Casparian strip (which provides an extracellular or paracellular diffusion barrier within the plant roots and control nutrient flow) lignin deposition is highly ordered by forming nano-domains which can have a huge impact on plant nutrition, a finding that could help in the development of crops that are efficient in taking in the nutrients they need.
Access the full paper at https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31154-4?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982220311544%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
Events
1. ICABSCP: International Conference on Agricultural Biotechnology and Sustainability of Crop Production 03-04 Jun 2021, Rome, Italy.
For more, see https://waset.org/agricultural-biotechnology-and-sustainability-of-crop-production-conference-in-june-2021-in-rome
2. ICSASNR: International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture Systems and Natural Resources 07-08 Jun 2021, San Francisco, United States.
For more, see https://waset.org/sustainable-agriculture-systems-and-natural-resources-conference-in-june-2021-in-san-francisco
3. ICABBBE: International Conference on Agricultural, Biotechnology, Biological and Biosystems Engineering 10-11 Jun 2021, Copenhagen, Denmark.
For more, see https://waset.org/agricultural-biotechnology-biological-and-biosystems-engineering-conference-in-june-2021-in-copenhagen
4. ICABBBE: International Conference on Agricultural, Biotechnology, Biological and Biosystems Engineering 24-25 Jun 2021, Oslo, Norway.
For more, see https://waset.org/agricultural-biotechnology-biological-and-biosystems-engineering-conference-in-june-2021-in-oslo
5. ICSAPTFS: International Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Techniques and Farming Systems 24-25 Jun 2021, Oslo, Norway.
For more, see https://waset.org/sustainable-agricultural-techniques-and-farming-systems-conference-in-june-2021-in-oslo
Other Topics of Interest
1. A vital research on a banana virus
For more, see https://www.panaynews.net/a-vital-research-on-banana-virus/
2. Agriculture subsidies can fight climate change and protect food security, according to the World Bank
3. Research links soil nitrogen levels to corn yield and nitrogen losses
Access the full paper at https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/saj2.20117
4. Biodiversity: where the world is making progress—and where it’s not
For more, see https://theconversation.com/biodiversity-where-the-world-is-making-progress-and-where-its-not-146782
5. Why plants in wetlands are highly productive
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-09-wetlands-highly-productive.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the full paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18354-3.pdf
6. Wild cousins may help crops battle climate change
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-09-wild-cousins-crops-climate.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the full paper at https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/csc2.20223
7. Unlocking the secrets of plant genomes in high resolution
Access the full paper at https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13059-020-02158-1.pdf
8. How plants ensure regular seed spacing
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-09-regular-seed-spacing.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the abstract at https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31240-9?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982220312409%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
9. Agricultural economics professor explores the economic impact of gendered labour roles in developing countries
For more, see https://ag.purdue.edu/stories/ag-econ-professor-examines-economic-impact-of-gendered-labor-roles-in-developing-countries/
10. CSIRO study looks at ways to improve biodiversity
For more, see https://www.seymourtelegraph.com.au/rural-news/2020/09/12/1591500/csiro-study-looks-at-ways-to-improve-biodiversity
Access the abstract at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2705-y
11. Agriculture Innovation Agenda, a USDA initiative
For more, see https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2020/02/20/secretary-perdue-announces-new-innovation-initiative-usda
12. Research expected to improve predictions on plant growth
For more, see https://today.tamu.edu/2020/09/16/research-expected-to-improve-predictions-on-plant-growth/