Recent Posts

ARF19 affects seed size in biofuel plant jatropha

Jatropha curcas is a perennial woody plant with high seed oil content that has potential to be used in biofuel production.  However, there is limited knowledge about the biology of seed oil production in Jatropha spp.  Sun. et al., used a genetic approach to identify a J. curcas QTL that controls seed…

MATRILINEAL, a sperm-specific phospholipase, triggers maize haploid induction ($)

Sexual reproduction, with all that recombination and independent assortment, is an excellent way to generate genetic diversity and increase the likelihood that some progeny will survive. However, the seed industry strives to produce genetically uniform seeds. Although there are various ways to circumvent…

Review: Cyanobacterial metabolites as a source of sunscreens and moisturizers

The cosmetic industry uses a lot of different chemicals to produce the seven or so skin care products used by the average American every day. Efforts are underway to develop renewable sources for some of these. Derikvand et al. review the chemistry and potential applications behind compounds used by…

Jay Keasling. Engineering Microbes to Solve Global Challenges

Filmed for iBiology 2016 Talk Overview Dr. Jay Keasling discusses the promise of biological systems to create carbon-neutral products for a range of applications, including fuels, chemicals and drugs. Keasling discusses the application of these principles to the development of a microbial platform…

Robert Zeigler. Importance of rice science and world food security

Filmed at the 2011 Gatsby Plant Summer School Abstract: Rice is the most important food crop of the developing world and the staple food of more than half of the world’s population, many of whom are also extremely vulnerable to high rice prices. In developing countries alone, more than 3.3 billion…

Giles Oldroyd. Engineering the nitrogen symbiosis for smallholder farmers in Africa

Filmed at the Gatsby Summer School, University of Cambridge 2015 Western agricultural systems are reliant on the application of inorganic nitrogen fertilisers to greatly enhance yield. However, production and application of nitrogen fertilisers account for a significant proportion of fossil fuel usage…

Beverley Glover. Flowering plant diversity: development, function and evolution

Filmed at the Gatby Summer School, University of York, 2013 http://www.tree.leeds.ac.uk/tree.2.0/view_lecture.php?permalink=MTA2Nw Abstract: The enormous species diversity of the flowering plants has puzzled evolutionary biologists since Darwin’s day. The rapid radiation of the flowering plants…

Jane Langdale. Radical Ag: C4 Rice and Beyond

Filmed at the Long Now Foundation, March 2016. Revolutionary rice Feeding the world (and saving nature) in this populous century, Jane Langdale began, depends entirely on agricultural efficiency—the ability to turn a given amount of land and sunlight into ever more food. And that depends on three…

Transgenerational biocontrol against root-knot nematode following priming by biocontrol fungus

Root-knot nematodes including Meloidogyne javanica are major agricultural pests. Previous studies have shown that biocontrol agents including species of the fungal genus Trichoderma interfere with root-knot nematode pathogenicity, directly through effects on the nematode, and indirectly through a stimulation…