The enigmatic millipede Xystocheir bistipita has been rediscovered after a half-century. The rediscovery unexpectedly reveals that the species is bioluminescent. By reconstructing its evolutionary history, we show that X. bistipita is the evolutionary sister of Motyxia, the only bioluminescent millipede genus in the order Polydesmida

Climate change causes several abiotic stresses in crops affecting their productivity. In a study led by researchers from Monash University, they discovered the gene responsible for plant growth during warmer temperatures.

The Muller F element (4.2 Mb, ~80 protein-coding genes) is an unusual autosome of Drosophila melanogaster; it is mostly heterochromatic with a low recombination rate. To investigate how these properties impact the evolution of repeats and genes, we manually improved the sequence and annotated the genes on the D. erecta, D. mojavensis, and D. grimshawi F elements and euchromatic domains from the Muller D element.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is widely cultivated in West Africa (WA) on soils with low phosphorus (P) availability. Large genetic variation for grain yield (GY) under low-P conditions was observed among WA sorghum genotypes, but information is lacking on the usefulness of P-tolerance ratios (relative performance in –P [no P fertilizer] vs. +P [with P fertilizer] conditions) and measures of P-acquisition and internal P-use efficiency as selection criteria for enhancing GY under low-P conditions

The composition of 170-y-old champagne samples found in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea constitutes a remarkable and unprecedented example of long-term combinatorial chemistry, which can occur in such sealed 750-mL microlaboratories. Multiple analytical tools, including metabolomics, metallomics, and sensory analysis, were combined to characterize the molecular diversity of these champagnes having aged in close-to-perfect conditions at the bottom of the sea.

A defining characteristic of living organisms is dynamic alignment of cellular responses to stress through activation of signal transduction pathways essential for fine-tuning of interorgannellar communication. Uncovering these communication signals is one of the prime challenges of biology. We have identified a chloroplast-produced retrograde signal, methylerythritol cyclodiphosphate (MEcPP), as a trigger of unfolded protein response (UPR) required for restoration of protein-folding homeostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER).

University of Illinois geneticist Ram Singh has managed to cross a popular soybean variety, Dwight (Glycine max) with a related wild perennial plant that grows like a weed in Australia, producing the first fertile soybean plants that are resistant to soybean rust, soybean cyst nematode, and other soybean pathogens.

Late blight of potato (Solanum tuberosum), caused by Phytophthora infestans, can effectively be managed by genetic resistance. The MaR9 differential plant provides durable resistance to a broad spectrum of late blight strains. This resistance is brought about by at least seven genes derived from S. demissum including R1, Rpi-abpt1, R3a, R3b, R4, R8 and, so far uncharacterized resistance gene(s).

Cassava ranks fifth among the starch producing crops of the world, its annual bioethanol yield is higher than for any other crop. Cassava cultivar KU50, the most widely grown cultivar for non-food purposes is susceptible to Sri Lankan cassava mosaic virus (SLCMV). The objective of this work was to engineer resistance to SLCMV by RNA interference (RNAi) in order to increase biomass yield, an important aspect for bioethanol production. Here, we produced transgenic KU50 lines expressing dsRNA homologous to the region between the AV2 and AV1 of DNA A of SLCMV.

We communicate the rather remarkable observation that among 291 tested accessions of cultivated sweet potato, all contain one or more transfer DNA (T-DNA) sequences. These sequences, which are shown to be expressed in a cultivated sweet potato clone (“Huachano”) that was analyzed in detail, suggest that an Agrobacterium infection occurred in evolutionary times. One of the T-DNAs is apparently present in all cultivated sweet potato clones, but not in the crop’s closely related wild relatives, suggesting the T-DNA provided a trait or traits that were selected for during domestication.