AgriTech News Number 39, 15 May 2022

Research Results

1. Researchers boost rice yield by overcoming trait trade-off between panicle number and size

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Crop breeding is largely constrained by trade-offs among different agronomic traits. Since many of these trade-offs are caused by gene pleiotropy, reducing gene pleiotropy may make it easier to overcome these trade-offs for genetic improvement of crops, as exemplified by IPA1 (Ideal Plant Architecture 1), a typical pleiotropic gene in rice, which increases grains per panicle but reduces tillers. However, few effective strategies have yet been developed. Researchers from Li Jiayang’s group at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Innovation Academy for Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, used tiling deletion to edit the cis-regulatory region of the pleiotropic rice gene, IPA1.

By overcoming the trade-off in yield component traits, researchers provided an effective strategy for overcoming a bottleneck in rice yields. To balance the trade-off between panicle size and the number of tillers, they modified the cis-regulatory region of IPA1 to regulate its expression level in young panicles, stem bases, and other tissues, to specifically regulate different traits. From the genome editing library, they identified IPA1-Pro10, a line which harbours a 54-bp cis-regulatory region deletion that can simultaneously increase tiller number and grain number per panicle. They further investigated the IPA1 cis-element’s molecular mechanism for regulating panicle traits and found that An-1, a key transcription factor for domestication, can bind to the GCGCGTGT motif in the 54-bp cis-regulatory region and specifically regulate the expression of IPA1 in young panicles, which in turn regulates panicle traits. Targeting gene regulatory regions should help remove trade-off effects and provide a rich source of targets for breeding complementary beneficial traits.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-04-boost-rice-yield-trait-tradeoff.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

Access the abstract at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-022-01281-7

2. Scientists discover a new form of pesticide that neutralizes pathogens attacking rice

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Rice is one of the most important staple foods globally, providing one-fifth of the calories consumed by humans. The major areas where rice is grown are blighted by pathogens that cause disease. To date, this problem has been treated with the use of chemical pesticides, which typically target plant-pathogenic fungi. With none of these treatments wholly effective, and many considered unfriendly to the environment, researchers have been seeking alternative solutions. Researchers from China, Austria, and Japan, led by Tomislav Cernavacc, Graz University of Technology, Austria and Mengcen Wang, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, outline a promising solution which uses a compound that has no harmful effects on the environment or humans consuming the rice.

This work is based on an interesting phenomenon that they observed in certain rice fields. In rice plants grown in different and geographically distant locations, the researchers found substantial variations in the bacteria-associated molecules required for a bacterium to cause disease. They were curious to discover what the so-far unidentified factor affecting the pathogen’s virulence was, and whether it was related to the host plant. By implementing metabolic profiling, they identified 5-Amino-1,3,4-thiadiazole-2-thiol, a plant metabolization product of thiazole-class agrochemicals, and confirmed that it lowers a pathogen’s ability to harm without killing or otherwise affecting the pathogen. According to the co-corresponding author of the study, Tomislav Cernava, “this anti-virulence effect triggered by the plant-converted agrochemical is a novel finding and has substantial implications for supporting plant defence systems in counteracting bacterial pathogens.” The findings provide insights into virulence modulation in an important plant-pathogen system that relies on the host’s metabolic activity and subsequent signalling interference. It is particularly important for combatting pathogens endowed with small-molecule virulence factors because plants are typically unable to respond to these when attacked.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-04-scientists-pesticide-neutralizes-pathogens-rice.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=d%E2%80%A6%201/2

Access the full paper at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667325822000383?via%3Dihub

3. Researchers discover bacteria that can kill yield-reducing fungus in sugarcane

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Given the increasing demand for sustainable agricultural practices that would involve minimal or no chemical inputs, the adoption of microbial volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as antagonists against phytopathogens is emerging as an eco-friendly/organic alternative to the use of agrochemicals. A study conducted at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), Campinas, led by Juliana Velasco De Castro Oliveira, has discovered that three strains of Pseudomonas bacteria can inhibit growth, and even cause the death, of the fungus responsible for pineapple sett rot, a disease that attacks sugarcane, especially in the planting season.

The three strains of Pseudomonas were found to inhibit in vitro up to 80% of the mycelial growth of Thielaviopsis ethacetica, a fungus that lives in the soil and penetrates sugarcane stalks through cuts or wounds. The compound involved in inhibiting fungal growth disrupts the fungal DNA. Transcriptomic analysis showed that VOCs hampered fungal growth and could lead to cell death. Every year, Brazil imports more than 330,000 tonnes of insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides, according to data from the Economy Ministry. This study represents the first demonstration of the molecular mechanisms involved in the antagonism of sugarcane phytopathogens by VOCs, and it reinforces that VOCs can be a sustainable alternative for use in phytopathogen biocontrol, thus reducing the dependence on expensive pesticides.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-04-bacteria-capable-fungus-yield-reducing-disease.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%E2%80%A6%201/4

Access the abstract at https://sfamjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1462-2920.15876

4. Heat and drought slow down tropical tree growth

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It has been observed that the stem growth of tropical trees is reduced in years when the dry season is warmer and drier than normal. This year-to-year variability in the global land carbon sink is strongly related to variations in tropical temperature and rainfall. This association suggests an important role in moisture-driven fluctuations in tropical vegetation productivity, but empirical evidence is missing. Evidence can be obtained from tree-ring data that quantify variability in a major vegetation productivity component: woody biomass growth. In recent decades, the formation of growth rings has been proven for hundreds of tropical tree species.

Prof Pieter Zuidema of Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands, and colleagues compiled a pantropical tree-ring network to show that annual woody biomass growth increases primarily with dry-season precipitation and decreases with dry-season maximum temperature. The study is based on 14,000 tree-ring data series from 350 locations across the tropics. Researchers found that drier and hotter years are larger in more arid or warm regions. This suggests that climate change may increase the sensitivity of tropical trees to climatic fluctuations. The study fills an important data gap in tree-ring data. The authors were surprised by the finding that climate had a stronger effect on tree growth during the dry season than in the wet season. Global warming is expected to increase the temperature at the study sites by 0.5°C per decade in the future. If slower growth increases the risk of tree death, tropical vegetation may more frequently become a source of CO2 instead of absorbing it.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-03-drought-tropical-tree-growth.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

Access the abstract at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-00911-8

5. A single gene controls species diversity in an ecosystem

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More than a half-century ago, on the shoreline of a rocky tide pool, the US ecologist Robert Paine discovered that the removal of a single species from an ecosystem could dramatically alter its structure and function. Such species have been referred to as “keystone” species. Now, a team of ecologists and geneticists at the University of Zurich and the University of California, Davis, led by Matthew Barbour of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, has found that a mutation in a single gene can also dramatically alter the structure and function of an ecosystem. The study suggests that a gene not only encodes information that determines an organism’s fitness, but it can also influence the persistence of interacting species in an ecological community.

Researchers found that, of three plant genes that control the plant’s natural arsenal of chemical defences against herbivores, the predators were more likely to survive on plants with a mutation in a single gene called AOP2. Similar to a keystone species, such as the starfish in the tidal zone or fig tree in the tropical forests, AOP2 acts as a “keystone gene” that is critical to the survival of the experimental ecosystem. “We’re only just beginning to understand the implications of genetic change on how species interact and coexist. Our findings show that the current loss of genetic diversity may have cascading effects that lead to abrupt and catastrophic shifts in the persistence and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems,” says Barbour. The discovery of a “keystone gene” illustrates the need to bridge between biological scales, from genes to ecosystems, to understand community persistence.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-03-gene-species-diversity-ecosystem.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter and https://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=19393

Access the abstract at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abf2232

6. Gene that controls self-pollination in plants identified

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Self-incompatibility (SI) plays a pivotal role in regulating fertilization in higher plants through recognition and rejection of “self” pollen. Researchers at the Ghent University, Ghent 9052, Belgium, led by Zongcheng Lin, used Arabidopsis thaliana lines that were engineered to be self-incompatible by expression of Papaver rhoeas SI determinants for an SI suppressor screen. They found that the “Highlander” gene, which regulates self-incompatibility, has the potential to allow plants to self-fertilize, creating opportunities to breed stronger, more resilient crops for sustainable agriculture.

Researchers identified HLD1/AtPGAP1, an ortholog of the human GPI-inositol deacylase PGAP1, as a critical component required for the SI response. This ability to control whether or not a plant can self-fertilize has the potential to help breeders develop plants that are self-fertile and do not need to depend on climatic conditions or vectors for pollination. The plant underwent genetic screening to identify a new gene that is critical for regulating self-incompatibility. The researchers then developed an engineered self-incompatible Arabidopsis plant line to identify the “Highlander” gene, which, when removed, abolished self-incompatibility and made a self-incompatible plant completely self-fertile. The gene also encodes the PGAP1 protein that is found in yeast and humans, and now in plants as well. This is the first time that a function for it has been identified in plants.

For more, see https://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=19385 and https://seedworld.com/new-gene-cracks-the-code-for-self-pollination-in-plants%ef%bf%bc/

Access the abstract at https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)00342-6?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982222003426%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

7. Unwinding the secrets of stress in plants could help feed the world during the climate crisis

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Transcriptional reprogramming, chromatin remodelling, and crosstalk between phytohormone signalling pathways modulate plant adaptation to the environment. Jasmonates (JAs) are oxylipins (oxygenated fatty acids) originating from linolenic acid, essential in mediating responses to pathogens and wounding. JAs regulate fertility, seed germination, reproduction and defence, and drastic phenotypic alterations have been observed in planta linking JA to cell cycle and developmental processes. Researchers led by Motoaki Seki of the Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN, Kanagawa, Japan, and Alessandra Devoto from the Royal Holloway University of London, UK, have discovered how natural responses to stress in plants modify the way DNA is wrapped up in the cell to help it withstand the adverse effects that climate change has on its growth.

Researchers used the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana treated with the plant hormone Jasmonate to stress out the plant’s internal mechanism. The understanding of such mechanisms could lead to improved plant survival to adverse environmental conditions, such as drought, resulting in a stronger plant capable of withstanding climate changes. Researchers performed high-throughput ChIP-Seq on the HDA6 mutant, axe1-5, and wild-type plants with or without methyl Jasmonate (MeJA) treatment to assess changes in active H4ac and repressive H3K27me3 histone markers. Results show that changes in the natural modifications of the proteins binding the plant DNA could lead to durable, inherited traits to make future plant generations more robust against other stresses, such as cold or pathogen attacks. “This is very important data in light of the climate change crisis, as growing crops to feed the world will become increasingly difficult,” says Alessandra. Stacey Vincent, the first author, added: “Being able to generate plants which can resist adverse environments would be a real game-changer”.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-04-unwinding-secrets-stress-world-climate.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwl%E2%80%A6%201/3

Potential Crops/Technologies/Concepts

1. Research elucidates benefits derived from intercropping and cover crops

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Although intercropping and cover crops have been practiced for decades/centuries in different regions of the world, experimental evidence on their multiple benefits and effects on crops and soils has accumulated only in recent years. For example, intercropping is an agricultural practice that involves growing two or more plant species on the same ground at the same time. This practice enables growers not only to increase crop productivity, but also to improve soil quality. It also brings advantages, such as reduced pests and diseases and a greater diversity of microbes and beneficial insects. Results of a cowpea/melon intercrop study by Jessica Cuartero and colleagues at the University Campus of Espinardo, Spain, show a significant increase in total nitrogen levels, available phosphorus, and total organic carbon, as well as in the melon yield in the first year of intercropping, irrespective of the intercropping patterns followed.

The relevance of intercropping, where two or more crop species are simultaneously grown on the same land space, is growing. However, the actual growth of intercropped species may differ from sole crops, resulting from the idiosyncratic effect of crop diversity, and with this, the realized benefits from intercrops are found to depend critically on the cultivar, species, management, and environmental conditions. James Ajal and colleagues from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Uppsala, Sweden, have demonstrated that individual species responded to intercropping compared to sole cropping through the plasticity of traits. The findings are important in illustrating the plastic responses of arable crops, which are relevant for understanding the productivity of species grown in intercrops as compared to sole crops.

Conservation agricultural practices, like no-till and cover crops, help protect annual crops from insect pests by supporting populations of resident arthropod predators. Most field crop producers are also using more insecticides, including neonicotinoid seed coatings, as insurance against early-season insect pests. This tactic may disrupt benefits associated with conservation practices by reducing the arthropods that contribute to biological control. Elizabeth Rowen and colleagues at the Pennsylvania State University, USA, have concluded that, as part of a conservation-based approach to farming, cover crops can promote natural-enemy populations that can help provide effective biological control of insect pest populations.

Thus, the potential benefits from upscaling crop diversification, intercropping, and the practice of cover crops are amply demonstrated. Since the focus is shifting to an ecological approach to farming in much of the world, such practices not only help to combat the ill effects of climate change, but they also ensure food and nutritional security.

For more on intercropping, see https://phys.org/news/2022-03-intercropping-melon-cowpea-soil-nutrients.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-%E2%80%A6%201/3

Access the full papers at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880922000056?via%3Dihub

And https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179122000317

For more on cover crops, see https://phys.org/news/2022-04-crops-effective-insecticides-pests.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

Access the abstract at https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eap.2598

2. Study shows potential to reduce reliance on non-renewable fertilizers in agriculture

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At several locations across the globe, agricultural production is becoming limited by inorganic phosphate availability. A major fraction of the total phosphorus pool exists in organic form, requiring mineralization to phosphate by enzymes (phosphatases), known as phosphatases, before incorporation into cellular biomolecules. Phosphatases are typically synthesized in response to phosphate depletion, assisting with phosphorus acquisition. Researchers led by Ian Lidbury at the School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, describe an enzyme that can help release phosphorus from its organic forms, a unique bacterial phosphatase, PafA, which is widely distributed in the biosphere and has a distinct functional role in carbon acquisition, releasing phosphate as a by-product. The enzyme has the potential to help reduce the consumption of phosphate chemical fertilizers, which global food production systems now rely on, but which are produced by the mining of non-renewable and increasingly expensive inorganic sources of rock phosphate.

Agriculture is the biggest consumer of non-renewable phosphorus, so its limited supply has important implications for global food security, biodiversity, and climate regulation. The study used a Flavobacterium model to look at the PafA function in vivo and showed that it can rapidly mineralize naturally occurring organic phosphate independently of phosphate level, a process which was found to be inhibited with other common enzymes, such as PhoX and PhoA phosphatases, especially if there are already residual levels of phosphate around. PafA, which is constitutively synthesized by soil and marine flavobacteria, rapidly remineralizes phosphomonoesters, releasing bioavailable phosphate, which can be acquired by neighbouring cells. The pafA gene is highly diverse in plant rhizospheres, and it is abundant in the global ocean, where it is expressed independently of phosphate availability. PafA, therefore, represents an important enzyme in the context of global biogeochemical cycling, and it has potential applications in sustainable agriculture.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-04-potential-reliance-non-renewable-fertilizers-agriculture.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_camp%E2%80%A6%201/3

Access the full paper at https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2118122119

3. Improving biodiversity protection through remote sensing and artificial intelligence

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The importance of conservation and sustainable and judicious utilization of natural resources available to us is well recognized, although, without a holistic understanding, we at times fall prey to short-term gains by overexploitation of such resources, including biological resources. Quite often, such practices underestimate the loss of biodiversity they cause. Cavender-Bares and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, St Paul, USA, argue for inclusive integration of remote sensing with field-based ecology and evolution, to fully understand and preserve Earth’s biodiversity. Lowering the barriers to bringing these approaches together will require global-scale collaboration. They examined five key topics in biodiversity science that can be advanced by integrating remote sensing and in situ data collection from field sampling, experiments, and laboratory studies. This shows the potential for integrating different kinds of data for developing and implementing biological diversity conservation policies.

The fact that over a million species face extinction highlights the urgent need for conservation policies that maximize the protection of biodiversity to sustain its manifold contributions to people’s lives. Daniele Silvestro at the University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland, and colleagues present a novel framework for determining spatial priorities for conservation, based on reinforcement learning that consistently outperforms available state-of-the-art software, using simulated and empirical data. The methodology, conservation area prioritization through artificial intelligence (CAPTAIN), quantifies the trade-off between the costs and benefits. They demonstrate that, under a limited budget, CAPTAIN protects significantly more species from extinction than areas selected randomly or naively (such as based on species richness).

For more, see https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01702-5 and https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-022-00851-6

4. The hardy wild grass that could save our bread

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Stem rust, caused by the fungal pathogen Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt), is one of the most important diseases of wheat worldwide. Stem rust outbreaks were once common, but the eradication of its alternate host, the common barberry (Berberis vulgaris), and breeding for disease-resistant wheat cultivars brought it under control in most of Europe and North America by the 1950s. However, it is becoming serious again in Africa and Asia, with the occurrence of a strain commonly known as ‘UG99’. Search for genes for resistance to wheat rust, including UG 99, has found that a wild grass contains “blockbuster” disease resistance that can be cross-bred into wheat to give immunity against one of the deadliest crop pathogens. A collaborative international team of researchers, led by Brian Steffenson of the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, USA, and Brande Wulff of John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK, identified the stem rust resistance gene from the wild goatgrass species, Aegilops sharonensis.

They predict more resistance genes will be identified in and cloned from populations of Aegilops sharonensis and other wild grasses, using their methods of gene discovery and deployment. Professor Steffenson adds: “It is therefore timely and important that efforts were made to collect and characterize accessions of this species before they are lost to urbanization.” The authors hope that “the resistance gene cloned in this research will, when combined with other genes, confer long-lasting resistance in wheat varieties, thereby reducing the threat of the stem rust disease.” The search for resistance against many strains of stem rust has become more urgent as epidemics of the disease are becoming more frequent and climate change threatens to further increase its spread.

For more see https://phys.org/news/2022-03-hardy-wild-grass-bread.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

Access the full paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29132-8

5. Using technology to identify crop types early in the season, without entering the field

Land-cover type identification and classification, using remote sensing, is often difficult due to limited ground truth labels. Incorporating historical ground
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information has the potential to significantly lower the prohibitive cost associated with collecting ground truth and, more importantly, enable early- and in-season mapping that is helpful to many pre-harvest decisions, which is very important in the case of farms with large fields of different crops. A new approach developed by University of Minnesota researchers, led by Zhenong Jin, will allow key stakeholders to identify important crop types earlier in the season than ever before.

With satellite data availability growing rapidly, and with advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, the bottleneck of satellite-based crop type mapping has shifted towards a lack of ground truth labels, which are records of crop types at specific locations. To map crop types in 2022, scientists used labels collected in 2021, 2020, or even earlier, to develop a model that can be used when a new ground survey is not available or not feasible. These generated pseudo-labels have a similar quality to field-collected labels and can be used for the important task of crop-type mapping in the early season. “This is a paradigm-shifting approach that uses computer vision technology to mimic how humans identify different things in photos. This is not only fun but also powerful because it helps to save the time and labor of conducting field surveys and allows us to accurately predict crop types as early as July,” said Zhenong Jin.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-03-technology-crop-early-season-field.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

Access the abstract at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0034425722001080?via%3Dihub

6. Using gene scissors to specifically eliminate individual cell types

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Using molecular scissors, the DNA—the carrier of genetic information—can be modified in plants. CRISPR/Cas has been mainly used for mutagenesis through the induction of double-strand breaks (DSBs) within unique protein-coding genes, and to specifically insert, exchange, or combine genes. With the help of the CRISPR/Cas molecular scissors, genetic information in a plant can be modified to make the latter more robust to pests, diseases, or extreme climatic conditions. Researchers led by Holger Puchta of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Fritz-Haber-Weg, Germany, have now developed a method to eliminate the complete DNA of specific cell types, and to thus prevent their formation during plant development.

The method co-developed in plants by Puchta has already been used to specifically insert, exchange, or combine genes. “We have studied molecular scissors for plant use for 30 years now. In the beginning, we applied them to modify individual genes. Two years ago, we were the first worldwide to restructure complete chromosomes,” Puchta says. The authors note that, by optimizing CRISPR-Kill methods, an entirely new level of development has been reached: i.e., researchers can eliminate certain plant cell types and prevent the formation of specific plant organs. “By studying what happens when a certain cell type is eliminated, we learn more about the development processes in plants. How does the plant react? How flexible is the plant during development? Can we remove parts of plants that are not necessary in agriculture, for instance?” Puchta adds.

For more, see https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220404105735.htm

Access the full paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29130-w

News:

1. New genetic tricks for boosting crop yield get clues from ancient farmer selections

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Maize and rice are important sources of human calories, and they have been subject to human selection for thousands of years, often for similar traits, such as grain yield. When farmers in ancient times harvested their crops, some saved the seeds produced by the best performing plants and sowed them the following year. Gradually, this selection led to better and better results, such as increasing the size and number of kernels of maize—traits that helped pave the path to modern corn. During the independent process of cereal evolution, many trait shifts appear to have been under convergent selection to meet the specific needs of humans. Identification of convergently selected genes across cereals could help to clarify the evolution of crop species, and to accelerate breeding programmes. Wenkang Chen at the State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry and National Maize Improvement Center of China, China Agricultural University, Beijing, and colleagues examined the genomes of domestic maize and its wild relative, teosinte, for evolutionary signals of selection. They identified a quantitative trait locus in maize which increased the kernel row number. Fine mapping determined that this locus contains a candidate gene, KRN2. Gene-editing experiments of KRN2 and its homolog in rice determined that a similar phenotype, increasing grain number per plant, could be recapitulated in rice, too. Thus, identifying genes under selection in one cereal can provide useful fodder for the improvement of other crops as well.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-03-crispr-genes-corn-rice-crop.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

Access the abstract at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg7985?adobe_mc=MCMID%3D03395222521100124003139735400985306768%7CMCORGID%3D242B6472541199F70A4C98A6%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1648354234

2. Easing of genome-edited crop regulations expected to accelerate genetic improvement

$D:\GRSV Consultancy Service\AgriTech news\39_ATN\Map-of-India-and-gene-edited-plants-in-test-tubes-1200px.jpg$ The Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, in a notification dated 30 March 2022, has exempted site-directed nuclease (SDN) 1 and 2 genomes from Rules 7-11 of the Environment Protection Act, thus allowing it to avoid the long process for the approval of GM crops through the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC). This is expected to lead to wider use of this technology and accelerate genetic improvement of crops in the country. The notification would now allow the Department of Biotechnology to approve and notify the guidelines on genome-edited plants, which had been pending since 2020 (see https://dbtindia.gov.in/sites/default/files/Draft_Regulatory_Framework_Genome_Editing-9jan2020_0.pdf)

Reference: Government of India Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change CS-11 (Biosafety) Division, New Delhi, Office Memorandum Dated 30 March 2022, No. F. No, C-12013/3/2020-CS-IN, Sub: Exemption of the Genome Edited plants falling under the categories of SDN1 and SDN2 from the provisions of the Rules, 1989.

Also see https://www.gmwatch.org/en/106-news/latest-news/20011

3. Getting to the root of corn domestication: Knowledge may help plant breeders

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Corn was domesticated from teosinte, a perennial grass native to Mexico and Central America, more than 5,000 years ago. In the 1960s, American archaeologist Richard MacNeish tried to find the oldest remains of corn in Mexican caves. A unique confluence of archaeology, molecular genetics. and serendipity guided a collaboration of Mexican and US researchers to a deeper understanding of how modern corn was domesticated from teosinte, a perennial grass native to Mexico and Central America. Researchers, led by Ivan Lopez-Valdivia of the Pennsylvania State University, USA, examined two ancient root stalks found in the San Marcos cave at Tehuacán Valley, Mexico, to understand the changes that happened underground during domestication. They used laser ablation tomography to reconstruct the three-dimensional root structure and internal anatomy of two ancient corn root specimens. Anthropologist Ivan Lopez-Valdivia studied ancient maize roots found in caves in Mexico to learn more about the origin of agriculture in Mesoamerica. The results indicate that some traits related to drought adaptation were not fully present in the earliest corn from Tehuacán, providing insight into conditions prevailing during early corn cultivation in the region.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-04-root-corn-domestication-knowledge-breeders.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dai%E2%80%A6%202/3

Access the full paper at https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2110245119

4. Climate-smart policies could see crop yields soar

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Increasing climate uncertainty, evident in global warming and in the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including sudden droughts, contributes to unstable food production. Implementing climate-smart policies. such as irrigation and growing recommended crops, could increase crop production by 50 to 700% in Sub-Saharan Africa, a modelling tool shows, according to a report by Stephen Whitfield at the University of Leeds, the UK, and colleagues. The tool, which was developed using The Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED), was used to examine the escalating climate crisis in Africa and find solutions to mitigate it. Climate change is already having a serious impact on food production in West African countries, such as Sierra Leone, where irrigation is urgently needed.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-04-climate-smart-policies-crop-yields-soar.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwl%E2%80%A6%201/3

Access the full report at https://africap.info/wp-content/uploads/sites/91/2022/03/AFRICAP_FinalReport_WEB.pdf

5. Researchers’ novel tool to help develop safer pesticides

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The majority of commercial chemicals that enter the market in the United States (Editor’s note: So is the case in many other countries) every year have insufficient health and safety data. For pesticides, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses a variety of techniques to fill data gaps to evaluate chemical hazards, exposure, and risk. Nonetheless, public concern over the potential threat that these chemicals pose has grown in recent years. George Washington University researchers, led by Jakub Kostal, have developed a new computational approach to rapidly screen pesticides for safety, performance, and how long they will endure in the environment. The approach will aid in the design of next-generation molecules to develop safer pesticides. In many ways, the new tool mimics computational drug discovery, in which vast libraries of chemical compounds are screened for their efficacy. They found that only 7% of the hundreds of pesticides analysed met the criteria for a safe chemical. The team hopes to augment their model with pesticide design from biobased, renewable chemical building blocks to advance sustainability goals.

For more, see https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/947877

Access the full paper at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn2058?adobe_mc=MCMID%3D03395222521100124003139735400985306768%7CMCORGID%3D242B6472541199F70A4C98A6%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1651639152&_ga=2.12932087.1574155887.1651639128-163885940.1637673214

6. Earthworms have the potential to replace synthetic fertilizers

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The role of soil decomposer animals in nutrient cycling is commonly seen as indirect, slow, and cumulative, through grazing and engineering effects on soil microbes and their mineralization activities. Research by Olaf Schmidt and colleagues at the University College Dublin, Ireland, shows that nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) move rapidly from soil animals (earthworms) to plants and herbivores (aphids). To demonstrate this, researchers used stable isotope tracers to follow nutrient transfer from earthworms to the soil, wheat seedlings, and aphids. Based on the rapid tracer appearance in a phloem-feeding herbivore (whose principal N source is free amino acids), researchers posit that organic earthworm-excreted compounds, possibly amino acids and acetates, may have been involved; they suggest the need for confirmation through advanced techniques, such as compound-specific isotope analysis or liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry. These results suggest that multitrophic linkages from living decomposers in the soil to plants and aboveground consumers may happen at much shorter time scales than is generally assumed.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-03-earthworms-potential-synthetic-fertilisers.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-n%E2%80%A6%201/3

Access the full paper at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038071722000396

7. New insights gained in selecting traits for heat tolerance in tomato

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Climate change is an important emerging issue worldwide; the surface temperature of the earth is anticipated to increase by 0.3°C every decade. This elevated temperature causes an adverse impact of heat stress on vegetable crops, including tomatoes, and is a crucial limiting factor for global food security, as well as crop production. Hence, strategies for screening and selecting genotypes and developing tomato cultivars with heat stress (HS) tolerance are required, which can then be adopted in breeding programmes in both open-field and greenhouse conditions. Kwanuk Lee and colleagues at the Rural Development Administration, South Korea, discuss previous and recent studies describing attempts to screen heat-tolerant tomato genotypes under HS that have adopted different HS regimes and threshold temperatures, and the association of heat tolerance with physiological and biochemical traits during vegetative and reproductive growth stages. The authors conclude that since the traits related to heat tolerance show quantitative inheritance, the development of molecular markers can be conducted with bi-parental quantitative trait loci mapping and genome-wide association studies, with plenty of sequence information being obtained from whole-genome sequencing, re-sequencing, and genotyping-by-sequencing.

For more, see https://www.hortidaily.com/article/9416284/comprehensive-understanding-of-selecting-traits-for-heat-tolerance-in-tomato/

Access the full paper at https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/12/4/834/htm

8. Climate change demands near-perfect weed control in soybean

Growing crops in a changing climate is tough enough, but when weeds are factored in, crop yields, including that of soybean, take a massive hit. Researchers from the University of Illinois and the USDA Agricultural Research Service, led by Christopher Landau, say that farmers will need to achieve greater weed control than ever to avoid yield loss. Using machine learning techniques on a database of herbicide trials spanning 28 years and 106 weather environments, researchers modelled the most important relationships between weed control, weather variability, and crop
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management on soybean yield loss. They conclude that inadequate late-season weed control was responsible for a colossal 41% yield loss. When drought and heat hit, even high levels of weed control (up to 93%) could not prevent significant yield losses. Prolonged drought during the early vegetative growth stages caused an average 958 kg^-1 ha reduction in yield. The authors suggest the use of late-maturing soybeans might be useful as part of an integrated weed management strategy to reduce the risk of incomplete weed control in a more variable climate.

For more, see https://phys.org/news/2022-04-climate-demands-weed-soybean.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

Access the full paper at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722018575?via%3Dihub

9. Vertical and/or urban farming will play a role in future food production, expert says

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Alternative production systems to provide the growing global population with healthy, nutritious, and sustainably produced foods are currently gaining considerable attention. In an interview, Senthold Asseng, Professor of Digital Agriculture at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), discusses the concept of vertical farming, which will allow agriculture of the future to take place under fully controlled and automated conditions. Crops are grown in spaces ranging in size from small boxes that can be placed in homes or offices to industrial production facilities with several thousand square meters of growing area. Nevertheless, maximum production potential remains to be confirmed experimentally, and further technological innovations are needed to reduce capital and energy costs in such facilities. It is estimated that by 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities and will consume 80% of all food produced. Hence, serious consideration will have to be given to increased cultivation of food in and near urban areas, and the researchers see a major role for vertical farming in such a scenario.