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Agriculture news
Optimizing tomato plant growth with microbes
Plants are home to a diverse array of microorganisms that support their growth and help them adapt to environmental stress—of which there has been an abundance lately. High temperatures and drought caused by human-induced ...
Cell & Microbiology
9 hours ago
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7
Can what we feed farm animals directly benefit our own health?
Several chronic diseases—obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers—have been linked to lifestyles and diets high in calories, based on processed foods and lacking diversity and nutritional value.
Plants & Animals
19 hours ago
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8
What can a pair of underpants tell you about your vegetable garden?
This summer, 115 participants in Leiden and The Hague worked with scientists from Leiden University to investigate the soil life in their community garden plots. With mangetout peas, a taste test, a buried pair of underpants ...
Ecology
Sep 7, 2026
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Organic farming outperforms wildflower strips on profits while both improve farm biodiversity
What makes more sense when farming wheat—strips of wildflowers along fields or organic farming? Both options provide financial support via the European Union as environmentally friendly and sustainable farming practices. ...
Ecology
Sep 7, 2026
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Bats show promise as a form of biological pest control in South African macadamia plantations
Labor-intensive harvesting and complex processing make macadamias among the most expensive nuts in the world. This makes it all the more important to protect the trees from pests.
Ecology
Sep 4, 2026
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Divergent molecular mechanisms for fungal plant biomass conversion
Fungi are major degraders of plant biomass, including leaves, stems and roots. Investigating the molecular mechanisms that control this process is essential for identifying ways to degrade and use lignocellulose, a recalcitrant ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 4, 2026
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Microbes—dead or alive—can be early indicators of soil health under regenerative farming
Researchers have demonstrated a series of biological tests that could serve as "proxies" for measuring how different regenerative agriculture practices could improve soil carbon—years before it would be possible to measure ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 3, 2026
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11
'Green thumb' molecule helps leaf stalks grow in crowded conditions
Potassium (K) is one of the three essential nutrients for plants. It plays a critical role in a wide range of processes, including cell growth, photosynthesis and regulation of water balance. Plants take up K from the soil ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 3, 2026
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How a plant's refusal to self-pollinate could help India grow more of its own cooking oil
Most people assume plants reproduce through whatever pollen happens to land on them. This is not true. A collaborative research initiative involving the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) has mapped and functionally ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 3, 2026
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245
Farming experts tout 'conscious' food systems to fix agriculture woes
Farmers around the world are struggling with the impact of climate change, financial pressures and depleted soil—and industry experts say bringing consumers closer to the people who produce their food could provide a solution.
Agriculture
Sep 3, 2026
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11
Trees use a 'muscle' to correct their posture—a newly discovered role for tension wood
A research team from INRAE and the University Clermont Auvergne has shown that trees are capable of correcting a curvature they detect in their stems through a specific biological process. In the study, young trees with bent ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 2, 2026
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183
Animal-bone records reveal how cattle and sheep fueled medieval England's changing economy
As populations expanded in medieval England, key changes occurred in the uses of cattle and sheep to produce food and materials, according to a study published Sept. 2, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Matilda Holmes of the ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Sep 2, 2026
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Health record analysis of one million cattle identifies early prevention as key to reducing feedlot respiratory deaths
New research involving more than 1 million Australian feedlot cattle has found that the strongest predictors of death from bovine respiratory disease (BRD) are established before animals even enter the feedlot, highlighting ...
Veterinary medicine
Sep 2, 2026
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Bio-based plastic turns into fertilizer after use
Plastic waste is one of the world's fastest-growing environmental problems. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Global Plastics Outlook: Policy Scenarios to 2060 report, global plastic ...
Biotechnology
Sep 2, 2026
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11
DNA testing shows what's really in Western Australian fish and chip shop 'shark' filets
Shark products sold at Western Australian fish-and-chips shops are often labeled too ambiguously or, in some cases, mislabeled, leaving consumers unsure which species they are buying, new Murdoch University research shows.
Ecology
Sep 2, 2026
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Beneficial bacteria support tomato growth and suppress disease
Bacterial canker, a vascular infection, can wreak havoc on tomato plants, with symptoms ranging from wilted leaves to the collapse of an entire plant. Clavibacter michiganensis, the seedborne pathogen that causes the disease, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 2, 2026
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11
Bovine stem cells offer new approach to future cultivated steak research
Cultivated meat aims to produce meat from animal cells in the laboratory without needing to raise a living animal for meat production. It has been proposed as a potentially more sustainable alternative to conventional meat ...
Biotechnology
Sep 2, 2026
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Agentic AI accelerates search for crops that can harvest critical minerals
For too long, the United States has relied on foreign sources for most of the raw materials powering its technological future: the essential minerals in every smartphone, battery pack and semiconductor. What if one answer ...
Biotechnology
Sep 1, 2026
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Higher cutting could reduce annual bluegrass contamination in tall fescue seed
Harvesting tall fescue above annual bluegrass seed heads could help reduce contamination and seed-cleaning costs. Preliminary Oregon research found that cutting at 28 centimeters (11 inches) rather than 5 centimeters (2 inches) ...
Agriculture
Aug 31, 2026
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Cover crops could ease the shift from perennial seed to annual crops
Transitioning an aging perennial forage seed stand into annual cropping can be difficult, particularly when the original crop persists or weeds establish after termination. Preliminary Canadian research suggests cover crops ...
Agriculture
Aug 31, 2026
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9
More news
Protecting the peanut: Sensors help fend off fungus
Plant hormones may offer a way to balance crop yield and disease resistance
Farm-based nanopore sequencing study reports reliable genetic testing results
Drones take farming to new heights
Tomatoes get flavor boost from green bin compost
Mixture of traditional edible plants inhibits fungus growth in corn, study shows
Other news
One of the oldest known 3D animal fossils found in Norwegian sheep field
Researchers rewire ribosomes to specialize in one protein
Untangling the meta-biomaterial puzzle one property at a time
Helium-3 lifts new quantum computing concept with faster tunneling rates
Waterlogged seeds reveal melons' ancient journey
A crystalline sponge reveals structures of large 'beyond rule of 5' molecules
