Plant geneticists develop a new application of CRISPR to break yield barriers in crops

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), USA have harnessed the still untapped power of genome editing to improve agricultural crops. Using tomato as an example, they have mobilized CRISPR/Cas9 technology to rapidly generate variants of the plant that display a broad continuum of three separate, agriculturally important traits: fruit …

New oat variety helps reduce cholesterol

Researchers from the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) have created a new oat variety with high yield and increased beta glucan content. The new Kowari variety is of a dwarf-type, with an increased content of beta-glucan compared to other varieties. Beta glucans are natural sugar compounds that help …

Uncovering genetic network underlying important traits in soybean – a way towards accelerated breeding

Correlations between different traits and interactions between genes represent a major challenge to modern breeding. In a number of cases, traits of yield and quality are controlled by complex networks consisting of multiple loci. As a result, there is a close correlation among many complex traits resulting in heritable covariance …

A knockout mutation of SaF /SaM in rice overcomes male sterility in hybrids between indica and japonica

Development of hybrids between indica and japonica usually leads to male-sterile plants, making it difficult to use the heterosis effect for breeding. The locus Sa consists of two adjacent SaF and SaM genes that interact with each other and lead to pollen abortion in plants bearing the japonica allele in …

Genetic engineering tool generates antioxidant-rich purple rice

Researchers in China have developed a genetic engineering approach capable of delivering many genes at once and used it to make rice endosperm (seed tissue that provides nutrients to the developing plant embryo) produce high levels of antioxidant-boosting pigments called anthocyanins. The resulting purple endosperm rice holds potential for decreasing …

European Researchers’ Night 2017

  Date: 29.09.2017 Time: 17-22h Venue: Agrobioinstitute, 8 bul. Dragan Tzankov, Sofia, Bulgaria Topic: Plants-biodiversity and use You can meet scientists from: Agrobioinstitute (ABI), Sofia, Agricultural Academy Institute of cryobiology and food technology (ICFT), Sofia, Academy Institute of ornamental plants (IOP), Negovan, Agricultural Academy Biological faculty(BF), Sofia University PROGRAM Scientific …