A consortium of researchers from The University of Queensland, the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF Qld) and BGI has discovered that sorghum, a drought-tolerant African crop, holds vastly more genetic variation than previously reported. This study published...

Not only psychologists would be happy to be able to look inside their patients' heads -- a plant's "inner qualities" also supply plant researchers with valuable information. A special camera analyzes the constituents of grapevines, corn and other plants.

New biological insecticides have emerged in recent years which make use of so-called "entomopathogenic" viruses that are harmful to insects, in particular the baculovirus. To identify the virus in this family that will most effectively control the Guatemalan potato moth,...

Pesticides commonly used in California's Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions, have been found in remote frog species miles from farmland. Writing in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, researchers demonstrate the contamination of Pacific Tree Fogs in...

While the other principle features governing the architecture of plants such as the control of the number of branches and positioning around the main shoot are now well understood, scientists have long puzzled over how plants set and maintain the...

A major new technology has been developed by The University of Nottingham, which enables all of the world's crops to take nitrogen from the air rather than expensive and environmentally damaging fertilisers.

Nitrogen fixation, the process by which nitrogen is...

Water is scarce in the West Bank and residents rely on shallow wells to fulfill their needs. Water from these shallow wells often has high salinity levels, and salty water is the enemy of crops like bell peppers, dates, seedless...