Having a weed-free rice field is ideal, but not at the expense of nature. IRRI, through the Closing Rice Yield Gaps in Asia with Reduced Environmental Footprints (CORIGAP) project, continues to do cutting-edge research to boost rice productivity while safeguarding environmental health. According to Molly Shuman-Goodier, a CORIGAP-supported PhD student from the Northern Arizona University, amphibians species, such as frogs, contribute a number of beneficial ecosystem services to wetlands and irrigated rice fields.

The Los Baños scientific community came out in full force to welcome Sir Richard J. Roberts, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, at his recent conferment of the Degree of Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, by the University of the Philippines (UP) for his contributions in the field of molecular biology on November 21, 2018 at UP Los Baños in Laguna, Philippines.

Australia's Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has issued license DIR 164 to Monsanto Australia Proprietary Limited, for the limited and controlled release (field trial) of canola genetically modified (GM) for herbicide tolerance. The field trial (License Application DIR 164) is authorized to take place on January 2020 to January 2024

"We mustn't do what other countries have already done; we must do what no other country did," said Bioceres CEO, Federico Trucco while presenting the HB4 wheat, a transgenic wheat variety with drought tolerance trait. The development started in mid 1990s when Raquel Chan and her team identified the HB4 gene that confers sunflower seed with drought tolerance. In 2003, Bioceres reached an agreement with Conicet to develop it commercially.

Genes determine the variation in plant traits. Different versions of a gene can lead to different traits. However, genes are not the only determinant of such traits, and researchers are learning more about another contributor: epigenetics. Epigenetic factors are things that regulate genes, altering their expression, and like genes they can be inherited from generation to generation, even though they are independent of the actual DNA sequences of the genes.

Two international agencies have urged countries to remain vigilant about the possible re-emergence of the deadly cattle disease called Rinderpest.

Rinderpest was declared eradicated in 2011, making it the first animal disease to be eliminated in the history of humankind. For centuries, Rinderpest caused the death of millions of cattle, buffalo, yak and wild animals, leading to famine and starvation.

Brassica vegetables are economically important vegetables with high nutritional value. CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing has been demonstrated in several crops but not in Brassica vegetables. For the first time, researcher Haoru Tang from Sichuan Agricultural University in China and colleagues demonstrate the applicability of CRISPR-Cas9 in editing genes in Chinese kale, a Brassica vegetable that has good flavor and high levels of antioxidants and anticarcinogenic compounds, including vitamin C, carotenoids, total phenolics, and glucosinolates.

The European Commission's chief scientific advisors urged the EC to revise the existing GMO directive 2001/18/EC because the recent ruling of the European Court of Justice has revealed that it is not in line with scientific evidence. "There is a need to improve EU GMO legislation to be clear, evidence-based, implementable, proportionate and flexible enough to cope with future advances in science and technology in this area," they said

Scientists from VIB and Ghent University led by Prof. Dr. Jenny Russinova uncovered a novel mechanism in plants that controls an important decision step in stomatal lineage to divide asymmetrically or to differentiate. It has been known that a GSK3-like kinase simultaneously promotes and inhibits stomatal formation, but it wasn't clear how this exists in the same stomatal lineage cell.

Economists Jesse Tack from Kansas State University and Ariel Ortiz-Bobea of Cornell University published a study in Environmental Research Letters that looked at the impact of climate change on corn yields in eight Midwestern states. They paired 35 years of climatic data with United States producers' adoption of genetically engineered (GE) corn to find out if incorporating a new technology can offset the effects of higher temperatures and other weather impacts.