Articles on Plant breeding
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The lupin bean is a nutritional marvel, but its bitter taste has so far made it only a niche food.
They’re beautiful in bloom, but Callery pear trees crowd out native plants and turn productive open land into woody thickets.
Plant breeding, informed by genetic analysis, could be critical to the future of one of the world’s oldest crops.
A regulatory approach will place an unnecessary burden on bio-innovators. This will discourage local investment for in-house R&D, as well as projects in the public sector.
Pinpointing the chemical compounds that make a fruit tasty to consumers can help producers breed for even more flavorful crops.
Apple breeders have created crisp, juicy and tasty fruits, but the limited varieties leave crops vulnerable to diseases, pests and climate change. Introducing new traits could improve crop resilience.
Through genetic detective work, scientists have identified missing links in the tomato’s evolution from a wild blueberry-sized fruit in South America to the larger modern tomato of today.
Bigger penalties for pirating plants could help encourage growers to develop new varieties.
Australian wheat growers need to boost yields to stay competitive in the face of climate change. They could do this by sowing earlier, but need new varieties of wheat to help them do it.
Sequencing the tea plant’s genome could help scientists breed new varieties that thrive in the degrading soil of tea farms.
Every single Cavendish banana plant worldwide is genetically identical. This vast monoculture sets them up for disastrous disease outbreaks. But researchers have ideas on how to protect the crop.
Smarter plant breeding practices are crucial in a world where climate change, deforestation and species reduction are an increasing problem.
People have been changing plant genomes ever since agriculture got started thousands of years ago. Here are the high-tech ways researchers insert new genes into plants now.
Today, just three companies – Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta – account for about half of all commercial seed sales. More and more, agricultural patents are used to increase the control these and similar…
Extensive studies on mustard seeds have revealed the evolutionary path of Indian mustard. Mustard has been cultivated in…












