A study led by scientists from Rutgers University that could help improve crop production sheds new light on the evolution of photosynthesis in plants and algae. The scientists reviewed research on the photosynthetic amoeba Paulinella, and published their results in New Phytologist. Paulinella is a model used to explore eukaryote evolution and answer the fundamental question of the single origin of algae and plants

A team of researchers at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) report that they have discovered sources of resistance to anthracnose leaf blight. The researchers tested more than 150 germplasm lines of the plant for resistance to the fungus and conducted a three-part experiment to evaluate anthracnose problems in sorghum and identify plants that might resist the disease.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and partners used CRISPR-Cas9 technology to engineer broad-spectrum disease resistance on rice. The results of their study are published in the Journal of Integrative Plant Biology. Rice blast and bacterial blight are two of the most destructive diseases of rice caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae and the bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), respectively.

Scientists at the University of California San Diego have developed the first CRISPR-Cas9-based gene drive in plants. The research, led by postdoctoral scholar Tao Zhang and graduate student Michael Mudgett, is published in the journal Nature Communications. Gene drive technology has been developed in insects to help stop the spread of vector-borne diseases. Researchers in Professor Yunde Zhao's lab, along with colleagues at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide the Republic of Guinea with a grant to improve the resilience of more than 2,123 poor farming households trying to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, by ensuring rapid access to inputs, information, markets and cash. Despite its rich natural resources, Guinea is among the poorest countries in Africa. Low agricultural productivity, lack of wage employment, lack of access to financial services and poor rural infrastructure are all factors.

It has always seemed likely that viruses originated early in the history of life. However, until the identification of endogenous viral elements (EVEs), there was little if any direct evidence for most virus groups ever having existed in the distant past (1). EVEs are virus-derived DNA sequences found in the germline genomes of metazoan species. Uniquely, they preserve information about the genomes of viruses that circulated tens to hundreds of millions of years ago.

A once in a century new viral outbreak, COVID-19, has caused unfathomable numbers of deaths, toward 4 million. Yet an ancient disease, malaria, endemic to the residents of more than half of Earth, is even more devastating than this pandemic over time: It caused about 12 million deaths in the last 20 y alone, with estimates of tens of millions of deaths in the preceding three decades (1). Arguably the “most successful human pathogen,” the unicellular malaria parasites of the Plasmodium species are a medical and socioeconomic scourge in the zones of their transmission by female Anopheles mosquitoes

The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu today met Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, the Supervisor General of KSrelief at FAO Headquarters to discuss ongoing collaboration and avenues of strengthening and scaling it up in the future. The Director-General welcomed the Supervisor General and expressed appreciation for the excellent cooperation between FAO and KSrelief in supporting the most vulnerable.

For centuries, rice has played a central role in Asia’s rice-based economies, so central that the crop has become a symbol for wealth, power, and food security. “White gold,” it has often been called. This label is slowly taking on its own meaning in Africa, where rice is increasingly being seen as a strategic crop, a pathway out of poverty, and for women, a significant opportunity.

The 42^nd Session of FAO Conference, the supreme decision-making body that brings together all FAO Members – 194 countries plus the European Union, concluded last week with an endorsement of the Strategic Framework 2022-31. The document sets out the roadmap of FAO for the next decade: to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems for Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life, leaving no one behind.