A tomato for everyone: 'Sunviva' for the good of all

Plant breeders at the University of Göttingen and Agrecol have launched a joint initiative to protect seeds as common property. Agrecol developed an Open Source Seed Licence, which legally protects seeds as commons (i.e., ...

Should researchers engineer a spicy tomato?

The chili pepper, from an evolutionary perspective, is the tomato's long-lost spitfire cousin. They split off from a common ancestor 19 million years ago but still share some of the same DNA. While the tomato plant went on ...

Researchers discover genes that give vegetables their shape

From elongated oblongs to near-perfect spheres, vegetables come in almost every size and shape. But what differentiates a fingerling potato from a russet or a Roma tomato from a beefsteak? Researchers at the University of ...

Pioneering biologists create a new crop through genome editing

Crops such as wheat and maize have undergone a breeding process lasting thousands of years, in the course of which mankind has gradually modified the properties of wild plants into highly cultivated variants. One motive was ...

Virus inhibits immune response of caterpillars and plants

It is well known that certain wasps suppress the immune systems of their caterpillar hosts so they can successfully raise their young within those hosts. Now researchers at Penn State show that, in addition to suppressing ...

Grow fresh food in your home—vertically

In many places in the world, fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to come by—and not just in the places you'd think. Often, certain areas within cities, called nutritional islands, have the lowest levels of access to these ...

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