Research Results
1. Scientists reboot 50 years of plant advice to solve one of nature’s biggest challenges
There is widespread agreement on the need to grow our food more sustainably without depleting our natural resources. Now scientists from the University of Portsmouth and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have come up with a formula to help plant breeders and farmers around the world grow crops more sustainably, using crop wild relatives (CWR). “Scientists are now looking at wild crop relatives to see what traits can be improved to make crops better adapted to the current environmental challenges” says Dr Rocio Perez-Barrales, University of Portsmouth and senior author of the study. Juan Viruel and colleagues (including Pérez-Barrales) used a combination of phylogenetic distance metrics, cytogenetic compatibility data (e.g., chromosome number and ploidy), and information about breeding systems to predict interspecific cross-compatibility between crop and wild species, which helps identify crop wild phylorelatives (CWPs) (i.e., CWRs that can breed with the crop) and have developed a list of such cross-compatible combinations. Breeders would benefit from an updated list of CWRs based on the CWP concept proposed here, in addition to existing tools.
The study assumes importance on account of rapid climate change in recent decades, altering the way crops behave. Genetic diversity has thus gained greater relevance for plants to cope with changes in the environment, without an application of external inputs, such as pesticides. CWRs remain underexploited in plant breeding programmes, mostly because of the lack of knowledge of their cross-compatibility with crops. Plant breeders can use CWR and use the natural genetic variation in those species to protect cultivated plants, and the new information provided by the study can considerably aid those efforts.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-09-scientists-reboot-years-advice-nature.html and https://www.tunisiesoir.com/science/scientists-help-reboot-50-years-of-plant-advice-to-solve-one-of-natures-biggest-challenges-24158-2020/
Access the full paper at https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/195/1/1/5903667
2. The plant hormone auxin may promote disease by regulating virulence gene expression
Scientists have long known that the plant hormone, auxin, controls many aspects of the plant’s growth and development, as well as its responses to the environment. Pathogens are known to modify host hormone biology to promote disease. For example, Barbara Kunkel and colleagues discovered an increased concentration of auxin in leaves inoculated by the bacterial pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae, which causes bacterial spot and speck diseases on many plants. “To test if host auxin signalling is important during pathogenesis, we took advantage of Arabidopsis thaliana lines impaired in either auxin signalling or perception.” But more recently, they have begun to understand that there is also a link between auxin and leaf spotting diseases. Researchers found that host auxin signalling was required for normal susceptibility to the strain P. syringae DC3000 (PtoDC3000) and is involved in suppressing Salicylic acid (SA)-mediated defences. “Our data led us to propose a working model in which auxin acts as a signal to the pathogen to switch from an early stage of infection to a later stage that requires expression of the second set of virulence genes,” Kunkel said.
Scientists also investigated the hypothesis that Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) promotes PtoDC3000 virulence through a direct effect on the pathogen; they found that IAA modulates the expression of virulence genes, both in culture and in plants. Thus, in addition to suppressing host defences, IAA acts as a microbial signalling molecule that regulates bacterial virulence gene expression. This work provides another example of how plant hormones can be used by microbes as an environmental cue, which seems to be emerging as a common strategy for scientists to learn more about how pathogens and parasites sense their plant hosts.
Access the full paper at https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/MPMI-02-20-0047-R
3. The relationship between plant traits and ecosystem function
Are the relationships between plant traits and ecosystem functions dynamic, and do they change from year to year? The question was explored in a recent study. “We found that over the longer term, the links between plant traits and ecosystem functions were indeed very weak, as we could only explain about 12% of the variance in ecosystem functioning,” says Fons van der Plas, the team leader from the Institute of Biology at Leipzig University, working with colleagues from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and others. The team found patterns different from those in previous studies, which had focused on short-term links between plant traits and ecosystem functions.
The relationships between plant traits and ecosystem functions did change from year to year: some species became locally extinct, while others replaced them. The team discovered that plant biomass production was maximized in plant communities dominated by species with thick roots in some years, and by completely different plant communities in others. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to predict exactly how changes in plant communities affect the functioning of ecosystems over long periods, says van der Plas.
Access the abstract at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-01316-9
4. Hungry plants rely on their associated bacteria to mobilise unavailable iron
Coumarins alter the root microbiota and improve plant growth in iron-limiting soil, and the microbiota improve plant iron nutrition via a coumarin-dependent mechanism. Plants benefit from associations with a diverse community of root-colonizing microbes. Deciphering the mechanisms underpinning these beneficial services is of interest for improving plant productivity. Christopher Harbort of Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Germany, and colleagues report a plant-beneficial interaction between Arabidopsis thaliana and the root microbiota under iron deprivation, which is dependent on the secretion of plant-derived coumarins. They found that disrupting this pathway alters the microbiota and impairs plant growth in iron-limiting soil. Furthermore, the microbiota improves iron-limiting plant performance via a mechanism dependent on plant iron import and secretion of the coumarin fraxetin.
This beneficial trait is strain-specific, yet functionally redundant across phylogenetic lineages of the microbiota. These results show that coumarins improve plant performance by eliciting microbe-assisted iron nutrition. Faced with limiting iron, plants direct their microbiota to mobilize this essential nutrient for optimal growth. The authors propose that the bacterial root microbiota, stimulated by secreted coumarins, are an integral mediator of plant adaptation to iron-limiting soils.
For more, see https://www.mpipz.mpg.de/pr-psl-2020
Access the full paper at https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fulltext/S1931-3128(20)30507-2?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1931312820305072%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
5. Massive-scale genomic study reveals wheat diversity for crop improvement
Researchers working on the Seeds of Discovery initiative, which aims to facilitate the effective use of genetic diversity of maize and wheat, have genetically characterized 79,191 samples of wheat from the germplasm banks of the International Maize and 
Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The findings of the study are described as “a massive-scale genotyping and diversity analysis” of the two types of wheat grown globally—bread and pasta wheat—and of 27 known wild species. “The analysis of the bread wheat accessions reveals that relatively little of the diversity available in the landraces has been used in modern breeding, and this offers an opportunity to find untapped valuable variation for the development of new varieties from these landraces,” said Carolina Sansaloni, of CIMMYT, the research team leader.
The researchers mapped the genomic data obtained from the genotyping of the wheat samples to pinpoint the physical and genetic positions of molecular markers associated with characteristics that are present in both types of wheat and the crop’s wild relatives. The analysis reveals landraces with unexplored diversity and genetic footprints defined by regions under selection. This provides fertile ground to develop wheat varieties of the future by exploring specific gene or chromosome regions and identifying germplasm that conserves allelic diversity missing in current breeding programs.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-09-massive-scale-genomic-reveals-wheat-diversity.html
Access the full paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18404-w
6. Good candidate gene identified for crop improvement
Optimizing plant architecture is an efficient approach to improve crop plant yields. Plant height and branching affect the plant’s architecture, which are mainly regulated by phytohormones, including brassinosteroids (BRs) and gibberellins (GAs). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the control of axillary bud outgrowth by GAs in Medicago truncatula (a model legume species used commonly by researchers) remain largely unknown. Results by Xiaojia Zhang, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Kunming, China, and his colleagues report the identification and characterization of the dwarf and increased branching 1 (DIB1) mutant in M. truncatula, which exhibits extreme dwarfism and an increased number of lateral branches. The exogenous application of GA3 rescued the mutant phenotypes, indicating that DIB1 was necessary for GA biosynthesis in M. truncatula.
The results suggested that DIB1, a GA biosynthetic gene, might positively regulate the expression of MtBRC1, a key integrator of numerous signals, to control axillary bud outgrowth via influencing the biosynthesis of bioactive GAs in M. truncatula. “Our findings thus shed light on the control of axillary bud outgrowth by GAs in legumes. DIB1 could be a good candidate gene for breeders to optimize plant architecture for crop improvement,” said Prof. Chen Jianghua, principal investigator.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-10-good-candidate-gene-crop.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the full abstract at https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article-abstract/71/20/6355/5910386?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Potential Crops/Technologies/Concepts
1. Pollinator monitoring more than pays for itself
Monitoring schemes to count bees and other pollinating insects provide excellent value for money, and they could help save species and protect food security, researchers in UK have found. A study led by Tom Breeze, at the University of Reading, the UK, shows that large-scale and long-term pollinator monitoring schemes can be cost effective and add tremendous value to food security, as well as encourage wider scientific research. The UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme was found effective in inspiring people to take action to protect pollinators (and thus ensure crop yields). “Our pollinators may be small, but they play a key role in our ecosystem, and this scheme creates world-leading evidence, helping us to better understand their status,” says Breeze.
Of course, there is a cost involved in monitoring pollinator activity; for example, the costs calculated ranged from UK £6,000/year (for a volunteer scheme collecting counts of insects visiting flowers) to UK £300,000/year (for a scheme involving both volunteers and professionals to collect and process the data). But the research has demonstrated that long‐term systematic monitoring can be a cost‐effective tool for both answering key research questions and setting action points for policymakers. Careful consideration must be given to scheme design, the logistics of wider‐scale implementation, and the resulting data quality when selecting the most appropriate combination of surveyors, methods, and site networks to deliver a successful scheme.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-10-pollinator.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the full paper at https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.13755
2. Tree planting has the potential to increase carbon sequestration capacity
UUSDA Forest Service scientists, led by Grant Domke, have demonstrated the potential value of tree planting as a means of offsetting carbon emissions in the United States. An analysis based on publicly available data from more than 130,000 forested plots in the Forest Service’s Forest Inventory & Analysis Program found that fully stocking non-stocked and poorly stocked forests would result in an annual increase of 20% in the amount of carbon sequestered by forests.
The study suggests that concentrating tree planting on understocked forest land, particularly in western states, Florida, and the Northeast, may substantially increase carbon sequestration capacity in the United States. The results provide context and estimates from the United States to inform assessments of the potential contributions of forests in climate change mitigation associated with tree planting. There is a need for similar studies in other countries, to assess the potential of afforestation in offsetting carbon emissions.
Access the full paper at https://www.pnas.org/content/117/40/24649
3. CRISPRing trees for a climate-friendly economy
Researchers led by Wout Boerjan (VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, Gent, Belgium) have discovered a way to stably fine-tune the amount of lignin in poplar by applying CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Lignin is one of the main structural substances in plants, and it makes processing wood into paper, for example, difficult. The presence of lignin hinders the processing of wood into bio-based products. A few years ago, Boerjan and colleagues engineered poplars to make wood that contained less lignin. Many of the engineered trees showed large improvements in processing efficiency, but the downside was that the reduction in lignin content was unstable on account of RNA interference in the technology previously available. Now, they employed the recent CRISPR/Cas9 technology in poplar to lower the lignin amount stably, without causing a reduction in biomass yield.
Barbara De Meester, senior author of the study, said that using CRISPR/Cas9, specific changes in both copies of a gene that is crucial for the biosynthesis of lignin were introduced. “We inactivated one copy of the gene, and only partially inactivated the other. The resulting poplar line had a stable 10% reduction in lignin amount while it grew normally in the greenhouse. Wood from the engineered trees had an up to 41% increase in processing efficiency”, she said. The mutations that were introduced through CRISPR/Cas9 are similar to those that spontaneously arise in nature. The applications of this method are not only restricted to lignin but might also be useful to engineer other traits in crops, providing a versatile new breeding tool to improve agricultural productivity.
Access the full paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18822-w
4. New technology accelerates crop improvement with CRISPR
Researchers know how to make precise genetic changes within the genomes of crops, but the transformed cells often refuse to grow into plants. The success rate is often low; depending on the crop, 100 attempts may yield only a handful that turn into full-grown plants. Scientists have now devised a solution, a new tool that helps ease this process by coaxing the transformed cells, including those modified with the gene-editing system CRISPR-Cas9, to regenerate new plants. Using two genes that already control development in many plants, an international team of scientists led by Jorge Dubcovsky, Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, USA, dramatically increased the formation of shoots in modified wheat, rice, citrus, and other crops.
They have used the technique to create wheat plants with larger grains, plants with resistance to fungal infection, design novel plant architectures in tomato, and engineer other traits in new plant varieties. Scientists start with plant cells or pieces of tissue, into which they introduce the CRISPR machinery and a small guide to the specific genes they would like to edit. Caroline Roper, a plant pathologist at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the work, plans to use the new technology to study citrus greening, a bacterial disease that kills trees and renders oranges hard and bitter.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-10-technology-crop-crispr.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the abstract at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-020-0703-0
5. Sweet potato biodiversity can help increase the climate-resilience of small-scale farming
Sweet potato biodiversity can help increase the climate resilience of small-scale farming, according to the findings of a study undertaken by a multi-institutional collaborative team of researchers. Identifying resistant crop varieties is crucial to ensuring people’s food security and farmers’ resilience. Few studies have examined intraspecific diversity, which is defined as the degree of genetic variation that exists within the same species. Traditional local varieties of sweet potato perform well under heat stress. As part of CGIAR’s research program on roots, tubers, and bananas, researchers assessed the heat-stress tolerance of 1,973 varieties of sweet potato from the CIP’s sweet potato gene bank. The collection of cultivars from 50 countries comprised modern and traditional varieties, as well as breeding lines, developed in vitro and then planted in fields irrigated under controlled conditions on a 2.5 ha test site in the coastal desert region of northern Peru.
Analysis of the roots and foliage data enabled the researchers to measure the effect of repeated exposure to extreme temperatures (greater than 35oC). The result: “132 cultivars, of which 65.9% were traditional local varieties, demonstrated good heat tolerance. These are, therefore, promising candidates for selection as high-yield, heat-tolerant varieties,” explains Bettina Heider, a researcher with CIP and lead author of the study. The authors recommend that this knowledge be shared with farmers so that they adopt high-yield varieties with heat tolerance, which also offer higher nutritional value.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-10-sweet-potato-biodiversity-climate-resilience-small-scale.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaig%E2%80%A6%201/3 And https://www.technologynetworks.com/tn/news/biodiversity-key-to-sweetpotato-crop-resiliance-341622
Access the abstract at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-00924-4
6. Crop researchers harness artificial intelligence to breed crops for the changing climate
Until recently, the field of plant breeding looked a lot like it did in centuries past: time consuming. Now, with the global population expected to swell rapidly and plant breeders needing to speed up their efforts, it is becoming clear that they need to harness artificial intelligence (AI). Using computer science techniques, breeders can rapidly assess which plants grow the fastest in a particular climate, which genes help plants thrive there, and which plants, when crossed, produce an optimum combination of genes for a given location, opting for traits that boost yield and stave off the effects of a changing climate.
Traditionally, plant breeding “wasn’t geared toward dealing with large amounts of data and making precise decisions,” says Steve Tanksley, professor emeritus at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. The breeder must decide which lines to breed together to optimize yield, disease resistance, protein content, and other traits. “Plant breeders need operations research to help them make better decisions,” says William Beavis, a plant geneticist and computational biologist at Iowa State in Ames, who also develops operations research strategies for plant breeding. “That’s where operations research is going to have the biggest impact,” he says, because “local breeding companies are producing for regional environments, not for broad adaptation.” Plant breeding has “entered the engineered phase,” adds Tanksley, and with little time to spare. “The environment is changing,” he says. You have to have a faster breeding process to respond to that.” This new concept needs to be followed up, so that, using AI, local-specific plant varieties can be bred, taking less time to do so.
For more, see https://www.pnas.org/content/117/44/27066
News:
1. The best farming practices for soil health vary by region
Farmers can use a variety of practices to keep their soils healthy. Some of these practices include not tilling the land, planting cover crops between growing seasons, and rotating the type of crop grown on each field. Soil health improvement is often a lengthy process, which depends on things like soil type, climate, cropping system, and available tests. “Meeting future global food demands while responsibly caring for the land is a grand challenge before us,” says Grace Miner, a member of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America. “There are important questions to answer in terms of soil health, crop production, and nutritional quality. By investing time, energy, and funding into these questions at the regional scale, we can determine the benefits of soil health management practices for farmers.”
Access the full paper at https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ael2.20023
2. Cultural and linguistic diversities are underappreciated pillars of biodiversity
Alongside climate change, the current rapid loss of biodiversity is one of the biggest threats that humanity faces to its survival. With up to a million species at risk of disappearing within decades, human activities are reshaping life on Earth with no precedent in recent history. Natural parks, national reserves, protected areas, and other measures for preserving the natural world are concerned first and foremost with the protection of biodiversity. Making the transition from a system that often monetizes nature to one that takes into account biodiversity, as well as cultural and linguistic diversity, as important pillars to society is not easy, but it is vitally important.
For more, access the full paper at https://www.pnas.org/content/117/43/26539
3. Future of food rests on community seedbanks
Contrary to the scientific perception that high-tech gene banks alone hold the future of flora in its vaults, tomorrow’s plants for food and medicine are also in jars in many obscure rural villages globally, awaiting their turn to be planted for humanity’s needs. Broadly speaking, community seed banks are local, mostly informal institutions whose core function is that of collectively maintaining seeds for local use. Countries that pioneered various types of community seed banks include Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe.
For more, see https://www.eurasiareview.com/06102020-future-of-food-rests-on-community-seedbanks-oped/
4. Transforming food and agriculture to achieve the SDGs
Agriculture—covering crops, livestock, aquaculture, fisheries, and forests—is the world’s biggest employer and the largest economic sector for many countries, while providing the main source of food and income for the extreme poor. 
The FAO has recently published a guide to decision-makers, called “Transforming Food and Agriculture to Achieve the SDGs”. The guide presents a set of actions to speed up the transformation to sustainable food and agriculture, which are based on evidence, experience, technical expertise, and collective knowledge within FAO. These actions embrace the 2030 Agenda’s vision of sustainable development in which food and agriculture, people’s livelihoods, and the management of natural resources are addressed not separately but as one; a future where the focus is not solely on the end goal but also on the means used to achieve it.
For more, see http://www.fao.org/3/I9900EN/i9900en.pdf
5. Nations commit to reverse nature loss by 2030
Dozens of countries, representing more than a quarter of global GDP, recently released a fresh set of pledges for “urgent and immediate” action to halt nature loss and protect Earth’s crucial biodiversity. The pledge came after the UN’s periodic review of existing global conservation plans found that nations were set to miss all the 20 targets, which they had set themselves back in 2010, to halt nature loss. Signatories to the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature said that nature loss was wreaking “irreversible harm” to life on Earth, aggravating inequality and contributing to climate change, while increasing the future risk of pandemics, such as Covid-19. Campaigners are hoping for a Paris-style agreement for protecting nature to be adopted next year, with nations agreeing to a global framework to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
6. Coloured cotton from India on the cusp of commercial release in 2021
After over three decades of research, an Indian variety of coloured cotton may be commercially released by 2021. A decision will be taken once the last phase of the agronomy trials is completed by next year, according to A.H. Prakash, project coordinator of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research-All India Coordinated Research Project on Cotton (ICAR-AICRP).
For more, see https://india.mongabay.com/2020/10/coloured-cotton-from-india-on-the-cusp-of-commercial-release-in-2021/
7. Ending hunger: science must stop neglecting smallholder farmers
An international research consortium, called Ceres2030, has been examining the ways in which agricultural research can help to end hunger. The results of its 3-year effort, which reviewed more than 100,000 published articles, were published recently across the Nature Research journals. A majority of the publications revealed several significant issues, even where they did not have serious back-up evidence. The study found that, worldwide, over 690 million people go hungry every day, of whom two-thirds live in rural areas. Of some 570 million farms in the world, more than 475 million are smaller than 2 hectares. And, in low-income countries, more than two-thirds of workers are employed on the land. Rural poverty and food insecurity go hand in hand, and yet the Ceres2030 researchers found that the overwhelming majority of studies they assessed—more than 95%—were not relevant to the needs of smallholders and their families. The findings bring out the urgent need for research-based information on issues that affect smallholders, such as crop diversification, advisory services, water management, and farmers’ organisations.
For more, access the full paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02849-6
Also see: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-020-00795-9.pdf
And the Nature Portfolio: https://www.nature.com/collections/dhiggjeagd
Events
1. International Conference on Biofertilizers and Sustainable Agriculture (ICBSA), 19-20 July 2021, Helsinki, Finland.
For more, see https://waset.org/biofertilizers-and-sustainable-agriculture-conference-in-july-2021-in-helsinki
2. International Conference on Agricultural, Biotechnology, Biological and Biosystems Engineering (ICABBBE), 19-20 July 2021, Copenhagen, Denmark.
For more, see https://waset.org/agricultural-biotechnology-biological-and-biosystems-engineering-conference-in-july-2021-in-copenhagen
3. International Conference on Agricultural Sustainability and Plant Breeding Strategies (ICASPBS), 05-06 August 2021, Vancouver, Canada.
For more, see https://waset.org/agricultural-sustainability-and-plant-breeding-strategies-conference-in-august-2021-in-vancouver
4. International Conference on Agricultural Productivity and Productive Farming Systems (ICAPPFS), 09-10 August 2021, Lagos, Nigeria.
For more, see https://waset.org/agricultural-productivity-and-productive-farming-systems-conference-in-august-2021-in-lagos
Other Topics of Interest
1. Argentina becomes the first country to approve genetically modified wheatFor more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-10-argentina-country-genetically-wheat.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
2. Rapeseed has the potential to replace soybean in plant-based meat production
3. Wheat researchers progress quest for better-adapted cultivarsFor more, see https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/Wheat-researchers-progress-quest-for-better-adapted-cultivars–31524270/
4. Post-pandemic recovery plans fail to address biodiversity loss
5. Plant diversity in Yunnan: Current status and future directions
6. Do weeds matter for Biodiversity?
For more, see https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-10-14/do-weeds-matter-for-biodiversity/
7. Research finds biodegradable alternatives are no better for the environment
8. Tapping into farmers’ bounty to meet the Sustainable Development Goals
For more, see https://sustainabilitycommunity.springernature.com/posts/tapping-into-farmers-bounty-to-meet-the-sustainable-development-goals
9. Farmers are facing a phosphorus crisis. The solution starts with the soil
For more, see https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/farmers-are-facing-a-phosphorus-crisis-the-solution-starts-with-soil
10. Scientists develop a model to identify best lentils for climate change impacts
Access the full paper at https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppp3.10158
11. Sustainable bioeconomy vital for freshwater resources
12. Plant genetic engineering to fight ‘Hidden Hunger’
13. Removal of dairy cows from the United States may reduce essential nutrient supply with little effect on greenhouse gas emissions
For more, see https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/e-rod100820.php
14. How breeders bring out the best in new apples
For more, see https://in.mashable.com/science/17718/how-breeders-bring-out-the-best-in-new-apples
15. Addressing micronutrient malnutrition with plant genetic engineeringFor more, see https://www.technologynetworks.com/tn/news/addressing-micronutrient-malnutrition-with-plant-genetic-engineering-341749
16. A diversified field produces a higher yield
18. The place of Europe in the new plant breeding landscape: evolution of field trials
Access the full paper at https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/features/the-place-of-europe-in-the-new-plant-breeding-landscape-evolution-of-field-trials/
19. Forest margins may be more resilient to climate change than previously thought
Access the full paper at https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.3258
20. Pesticides and food scarcity dramatically reduce the wild bee population
Access the abstract at https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.1390
21. Phosphorus deficit may disrupt regional food supply chains
Access the full paper at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211912420300808?via%3Dihub
22. Nature should be at the heart of the economy, say, researchersFor more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-10-nature-heart-economy.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the full paper at https://efi.int/sites/default/files/files/publication-bank/2020/EFI_K2A_02_2020.pdf
23. Can your diet help protect the environment?
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2020-10-diet-environment.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the full paper at https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/env.2020.0018