Despite years of extensive cancer genome sequencing, very little is known about the extent of somatic mutation and selection in normal tissues. To address this, we recently performed a sequencing study of 234 small biopsies of normal skin from four middle-aged healthy individuals (1). This study revealed that cells from sun-exposed skin carry many thousand somatic point mutations, a similar number to many cancers.

Plant shoot to root communication has been established previously, but little has been understood about the molecular basis of the long-distance shoot-root coordination. A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Oxford and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China shows that communication is achieved through a moving agent from shoot to root. The agent is a protein known as HY5, a transcription factor that activates, or "switches on" genes.

FAO 26 February 2016, Kuala Lumpur -  - A growing number of pollinator species worldwide are being driven toward extinction by diverse pressures, many of them human-made, threatening millions of livelihoods and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of food supplies, according to the first global assessment of pollinators.

Researchers from Texas A&M AgriLife Research Dr. Shuyu Liu are about to close the knowledge gap on the location of key traits in the wheat genome and how to access them. The study included three wheat populations from two popular AgriLife Research cultivars, TAM 111 and TAM 112, and other diverse wheat crops.

Transgenic crops expressing resistance to the herbicide glyphosate (GR) have been commercialized and planted widely across the U.S. for two decades. Claims have been made that glyphosate and transgenic traits have made corn plants more susceptible to crop diseases, linking the rise of corn diseases like Goss's wilt, which causes leaf blight and systemic wilt, to the adoption of transgenic corn across the U.S.

Genetically engineering any organism requires first getting its cells to take in foreign DNA through electroporation, in which they expose cells to an electric field. If the field is just right, it will open up pores within the cell membrane, and the DNA can flow. However, it can take months or years to figure out these exact electric field conditions.

More than 1,000 scientists from nonprofit, corporate, academic, and private institutions say public doubts about genetically modified (GM) food crops are hindering the next Green Revolution. In a recent petition, six researchers from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and Carnegie Institution for Science in the US and Laboratorio Nacional de Genómica para la Biodiversidad in Mexico explain their support of science-based criteria in guiding the safe and effective use of GM technology.

As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the mid-2000s, Rie Takahashi became so enthralled by science that she shelved her hopes of becoming a professional pianist. But she did have mixed feelings. “I was torn,” the contest-winning musician recalls. “I grew up with classical music and piano, and wanted it to be an active part of my life. So I thought, wouldn’t it be great to tie these two together?”

A study commissioned by Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) confirms that no residues of the pesticide glyphosate are detectable in human breast milk. The BfR commissioned renowned research laboratories in Europe to develop two independent analytical methods with high sensitivity to test 114 breast milk samples from Lower Saxony and Bavaria.

For centuries, this tiny striped helper has labored the world’s fields without winning much recognition for its many contributions to food production. Wild bees, in particular, seemed doomed to slog in the shadow of their more popular cousin – the honeybee – whose day job of producing golden nectar has been far more visible and celebrated.