Could legumes be the key to food production sustainability and climate change resilience? They consume less than half the non-renewable energy of traditional cereals, they can survive harsh conditions like drought and they improve soil health by fixing nitrogen. On this, World Pulses Day, February 10, Dr Christopher Ochieng Ojiewo, principal scientist at ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) in Nairobi, Kenya, asks the question “What lessons can we learn from legume farmers in Africa?”

An international team of researchers has identified a new gene that provides potatoes resistance to all races of Phytophthora infestans, the organism responsible for the serious potato disease late blight which caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s. Researchers from The Sainsbury Lab in the United Kingdom, Wageningen University & Research (WUR), and their co-workers from other institutions explored the diversity of resistance genes in a wide range of wild Solanum plants related to potato

Japan is stepping up funding for FAO in three key areas, Vice-Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) Makoto Osawa told Director-General QU Dongyu, as the two officials met virtually today. Osawa went on to list the strengthening of agricultural supply chains in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; the promotion of traditional healthy diets; and statistical capacity.

World-leading plant scientists collaborate to identify new disease resistance genes to fight Asian soybean rust, devastating airborne disease of soybean that can cause yield losses of up to 80 percent. Experts at The 2Blades Foundation will search for cell-surface receptors to soybean with the objective of developing soybean plants with improved resistance to Asian soybean rust.

The team of scientists discovered an evolutionarily conserved protein that plays a unique role in regulating stress responses and key developmental transitions such as seed germination and flowering. The scientists then applied sugar modification of this protein which gives nutrient availability to plants to adjust its adaptation to environmental stress and control its seed germination and flowering time.

An international team of scientists has successfully developed cassava with high-level resistance to cassava mosaic disease (CMD), cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), as well as higher levels of iron and zinc. This is the first time that disease resistance and multiple biofortification traits have been stacked in this manner in a non-cereal crop.

Australian scientists tested a method using a new nanopore technology that was developed for molecular characterization of genetically modified (GM) plants. They documented that the process from extracting the DNA to analyzing the results only took a week, rendering their method faster, simpler, and more cost-effective compared to laborious conventional techniques.

Research conducted by scientists from the University of California Riverside (UC Riverside) has identified that a unique peptide found in an Australian plant can destroy Huanglongbing (HLB) or citrus greening, the top killer of citrus trees worldwide. The UC Riverside research could possibly provide the most effective way of treating the disease through the antimicrobial peptide found in Australian finger lime, a close relative of citrus plants.

The global CRISPR gene editing market was valued at $846.2 million in 2019 and is projected to reach $10,825.1 million by 2030, registering a compound annual growth rate of 26.86% during the forecast. This is according to the forecast report of Research and Markets. The report, titled Global CRISPR Gene Editing Market: Focus on Products, Applications, End Users, Country Data (16 Countries), and Competitive Landscape - Analysis and Forecast, 2020-2030, highlights the answers to the key questions raised about CRISPR including:

Japanese researchers from Nagoya University, in partnership with Nanjing Agricultural University, developed a method to increase simultaneously the nutrient uptake through the roots and the stomatal opening of rice to increase its yield with less use of fertilizer. The researchers created a new variety of field-grown rice paddy with an overexpression of the plasma membrane proton pump gene OSA1. Plasma membrane proton pump is also responsible for the opening of stomata in plants thereby increasing its photosynthetic rate.