Wolfb Frommer News Today

A new study has found that CRISPR technology can be used to edit genes in some strains of rice, developing resistance. Rice is a key staple crop in

Rice is one of the most important crops in sub-Saharan Africa. However, it is particularly at risk from disease. A new study has found that CRISPR technology can be used to edit genes in some strains of rice, developing resistance.

The so-called Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (for short: RYMV) is responsible for high crop losses in Africa, particularly among small-scale farmers. A research team from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) has now produce

<p>The so-called Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (for short: RYMV) is responsible for high crop losses in Africa, particularly among small-scale farmers. A research team from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) has now produced rice lines that are resistant to the disease by means of genome editing. The rice varieties, the development of which the team describes in Plant Biotechnology Journal, are a preli...

Plants show enormous variety in traits relevant to breeding, such as plant height, yield and resistance to pests. One of the greatest challenges in modern plant research is to identify the differences in genetic information that are responsible for this variation.

Credit: HHU / Margaret Bezrutczyk Maize has a significantly higher productivity rate compared with many other crops. The particular leaf anatomy and special form of photosynthesis (referred to as C4) developed during its evolution allow maize to grow considerably faster than comparable plants. As a result, maize needs more efficient transport strategies to distribute the photoassimilates produced during photosynthesis throughout the plant. Researchers at HHU have now discovered a phloem loadin...