A science exchange program was held in February 2017 between Cairo University, Egypt and Helsinki University in Finland. Prof. Naglaa Abdallah of Cairo University and director of Egyptian Biotechnology Information Center (EBIC) participated in the event.

Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is an important oil crop and also a raw material for biofuel. Seed weight and seed size are the main contributors to its seed yield, which directly affect its oil yield. The gene DA1 is known to negatively regulate seed size and downregulation of the DA1 gene in Arabidopsis (AtDA1) leads to larger seeds and organs.

The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) in Australia has issued a license to the Queensland University of Technology, allowing the limited and controlled release (field trial) of potato genetically modified (GM) for disease resistance.

Mankind's future ability to feed itself is in jeopardy due to intensifying pressures on natural resources, mounting inequality, and the fallout from a changing climate, warns a new FAO report out today.
 

Australia's gene technology regulator approved the five-year test planting of biotech bananas in the Northern Territory. The research is being conducted by Prof. James Dale and other scientists from the Queensland University of Technology. The researchers will test 200 transgenic lines of Cavendish bananas on more than 6 hectares in the Litchfield region.

Scientists from the University of Illinois investigated the molecular mechanism that enables plants to lessen water loss while facing drought. They focused on a key hormone known as abscisic acid (ABA) which binds to a protein (PYL receptor) and then causes a series of reactions leading to the closing of pores in the plants' leaves. When this happens, there is zero or minimal water loss from the plants.

Plant scientists led by University of Missouri (MU) researchers have found one of the mechanisms that cyst nematodes use to invade and drain life-sustaining nutrients from soybean plants. Cyst nematodes are one of the most economically devastating groups of plant-parasitic nematodes worldwide, damaging root systems and leeching nutrients out of the soybean plant.

Australia's Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has issued a license to Nuseed Pty Ltd., allowing the field trials of Indian mustard (Juncea canola) genetically modified (GM) for altered oil content. The field trials (License Application DIR 149) will be carried out between April 2017 and May 2022, and will take place at a maximum of 4 sites of up to 2 hectares per site in 2017, 10 sites of up to 5 hectares per site in 2018, and 15 sites of up to 10 hectares per site in each subsequent year.

The annual Convocation of OUAT, the second oldest agriculture school in India, was presided over by His Excellency, the Governor of Odisha and Distinguished Honorable Chancellor, Dr. S. C. Jamir. In attendance was the Honorable Sj. Pradeep Maharathy, Pro-Chancellor and Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries & Animal Resource Development

Failure to act now to make our food systems more resilient to climate change will "seriously compromise" food production in many regions and could doom to failure international efforts to end hunger and extreme poverty by 2030, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva warned today.