The fabled Silk Road—the 4,000-mile stretch between China and Western Europe where trade flourished from the second century B.C. to the 14th century A.D. - is responsible for one of our favorite and most valuable fruits: ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 2, 2020
0
80
Some 500 million years ago—when our continents were likely connected in a single land mass and most life existed underwater—hornworts were one of the first groups of plants to colonize land. But biologists have never ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 13, 2020
0
390
Nematodes are tiny, ubiquitous roundworms that infect plant roots, causing more than $100 billion in crop damage worldwide each year. New research has found that plants manipulate the worms' pheromones to repel infestations, ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 10, 2020
0
1201
When many people think of watermelon, they likely think of Citrullus lanatus, the cultivated watermelon with sweet, juicy red fruit enjoyed around the world as a dessert. Indeed, watermelon is one of the world's most popular ...
Biotechnology
Nov 1, 2019
0
292
Every day, people are exposed to myriad chemicals, both natural and synthetic. Some of these compounds may affect human physical development, but testing them directly on people would be grossly unethical.
Molecular & Computational biology
Aug 19, 2019
0
27
As genome sequencing becomes cheaper and faster, resulting in an exponential increase in data, the need for efficiency in predicting gene function is growing, as is the need to train the next generation of scientists in bioinformatics. ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 19, 2019
0
159
On July 17, 2014, the world decided it wanted to learn the genomic secrets hidden in the beautiful little, floating water fern, Azolla filiculoides. Not only did they want to know, but they paid for it too—a whopping $22,160 ...
Biotechnology
Jul 2, 2018
1
87
Researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and collaborators in China and France have produced the first high-quality genome sequence for the bottle gourd (Lagenaria ...
Biotechnology
Dec 1, 2017
0
82
For some, pumpkins conjure carved Halloween decorations, but for many people around the world, these gourds provide nutrition. Scientists at Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) and the National Engineering Research Center for ...
Biotechnology
Oct 30, 2017
0
987
Centuries ago, the ancient networks of the Silk Road facilitated a political and economic openness between the nations of Eurasia. But this network also opened pathways for genetic exchange that shaped one of the world's ...
Biotechnology
Aug 15, 2017
0
102
