https://phys.org/biology-news/agriculture/ en-us Agriculture, livestock, farming and food processing news Decaying matter shapes life in soil, but it can also create hostile zones for growing roots. Professor Jiří Friml of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and international collaborators have now identified "saprotropism," a root response that guides plants away from decaying plant-derived matter—but not animal-derived decay. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-newly-saprotropism-roots-decaying-animal.html Ecology Thu, 09 Jul 2026 14:00:09 EDT news702793687 A smartwatch can tell us the level of oxygen in our blood, when our sleep is restless or the number of steps we take in a day. Now imagine that kind of tracking ability for plants. By the time farmers see curling leaves or stunted growth in their fields, their crops may already have spent days under stress. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-wearables-track-health-farmers-real.html Biotechnology Thu, 09 Jul 2026 10:20:07 EDT news702807380 Maize (corn) is a major dietary staple in Maya communities past and present because of its reliability, potential for surplus, and suitability as both food and fodder. It became so important to ancient Mesoamerican communities that it even became central to many of their religious beliefs, and arguably, they built their societies on it. Yet maize has a major nutritional limitation. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-maize-fed-animals-maya-farmers.html Ecology Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:10:01 EDT news702741654 Research has shed intriguing new light on the genetics underlying the diverse plant organ shapes seen in agriculture and nature. Despite more than a century of scientific investigation into the role of inner and outer tissues, there is still much to learn about how leaves, stems, fruits and grains get their genetically determined shapes. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-uncover-story-growth.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:00:09 EDT news702638397 The U.S. is the fourth-largest wine-producing country by output volume, and approximately 80% of its production occurs in California. Ever since the 19th century, California's premier wine-growing regions have been the Napa Valley and Sonoma County, thanks to their favorable microclimate. But grape yield and quality are very sensitive to the local environment, which means the climate crisis could shake up California's wine industry. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-global-wildfire-threaten-viability-california.html Agriculture Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:03 EDT news702570941 A new genetic analysis of hundreds of cacao trees representing traditional Amazonian varieties grown on farms across Peru has revealed four previously unidentified, genetically distinct groups. Lambert Motilal, with colleagues from the Cocoa Research Center, The University of the West Indies, and Martha S. Calderon and Danilo E. Bustamante, with their colleagues from the Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza, partnered to explore Peru's untapped cacao diversity. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-groups-indigenous-cacao-varieties-peru.html Ecology Mon, 06 Jul 2026 14:00:05 EDT news702287213 Diseases spread by insects in the Brazilian Amazon are not randomly distributed but form distinct regional patterns linked to land use, rural economies and environmental change, according to new research led by the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) at the University of Oxford. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-insect-borne-diseases-amazon-linked.html Ecology Fri, 03 Jul 2026 20:40:01 EDT news702290375 Scientists have grown wheat containing supersized starch granules—a leap forward in biological engineering with potential benefits for our daily diets and a raft of industrial applications. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-giant-wheat-starch-granules-biological.html Biotechnology Fri, 03 Jul 2026 14:00:10 EDT news702286264 Researchers at National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), in collaboration with researchers from The University of Electro-Communications (UEC) and Akita Prefectural University, have discovered a new insect pathogen that invades the gut symbiotic organ of stink bugs by mimicking their symbiotic microorganism, ultimately killing the host bugs. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-trojan-horse-microorganisms-exploit-symbiotic.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:00:02 EDT news702222902 Many fungi lead triple lives—acting as deadly insect pathogens, decomposers in the soil, and helpful partners living inside and transferring insect-derived nitrogen to plant roots. Scientists have long wondered what allows a single species to pull off these very different roles. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-broader-fungus-diet-insects.html Ecology Thu, 02 Jul 2026 15:40:01 EDT news702216721 Worker bees are the first line of defense when it comes to removing contamination in honeybee colonies, but a queen has her ways, too. A honeybee queen facing chronic exposure to pesticides will take up that contamination and pass it along to her eggs, a process researchers call maternal offloading. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-honeybee-queens-pesticides-eggs-offspring.html Ecology Thu, 02 Jul 2026 11:00:05 EDT news702201061 Before a leaf dies, plants recover nutrients that the rest of the plant can reuse for growth and survival. Researchers at Umeå Plant Science Center have now identified a metabolic "point of no return" linked to the amino acid arginine. The study suggests that plants use arginine as a signal to determine whether recovery remains possible or whether cells should commit to death, a discovery that could eventually help improve crop resilience under environmental stress. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-amino-acid-dying.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 01 Jul 2026 14:40:05 EDT news702125581 Plants need nitrogen to grow. Many legumes meet this need through a symbiotic relationship: They harbor bacteria that fix atmospheric nitrogen and make it available to the plant. Until now, it was largely unclear how a perennial plant regulates this symbiosis without destroying its bacterial partners. An international team led by TU Braunschweig has now described a previously unknown mechanism: The black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) employs a newly discovered family of small proteins that specifically "reprogram" its symbiotic bacteria for nitrogen fixation while keeping them alive. The findings are published in Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-black-locust-deploys-peptides-root.html Plants & Animals Tue, 30 Jun 2026 18:00:03 EDT news702042901 Researchers report some corn plants are genetically predisposed to develop longer, less constricted water-conducting tissues and deeper roots, which helps them deal with drought. That's the conclusion of a team led by Penn State researchers that conducted a study of the plant's xylem tissue, which moves water upward from the roots to the leaves. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-newly-corn-trait-crop-drought.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 30 Jun 2026 17:20:01 EDT news702042223 For millennia, farming in Switzerland did not reduce plant diversity but helped increase it, University of Basel researchers have shown in a detailed reconstruction covering the past 7,000 years. Only recent decades paint a different picture. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-human-biodiversity.html Ecology Tue, 30 Jun 2026 11:40:02 EDT news702031622 Forecasters expect the El Niño now underway in the tropical Pacific to strengthen into a strong or very strong climate driver later this year. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-severe-el-nio-threaten-essential.html Ecology Tue, 30 Jun 2026 10:20:05 EDT news702030661 Marine sponges may play an important, previously underestimated role in reducing methylmercury contamination in marine food webs. In a new modeling study, researchers at Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon showed that sponges can significantly influence the spread of this environmental toxin through ecosystems. The findings suggest that the animals' unique feeding behavior helps reduce methylmercury levels and may lower contamination in fish. The study is published in the journal Biogeosciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-sponges-methylmercury-contamination-marine-food.html Ecology Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:40:04 EDT news701598782 Researchers at the University of East Anglia have helped uncover a hidden ally in the fight against one of agriculture's greatest threats—salty soil. Led by Chinese collaborator Dr. Yanfen Zheng, the team's new study shows how naturally occurring soil bacteria can dramatically boost plants' ability to survive in salty conditions. The work is published in the journal Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-pseudomonads-boost-crop-growth-salty.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:50:04 EDT news701539861 The Netherlands is a major agricultural exporter. But look beyond euros to land, animal feed, calories and protein, and a different picture emerges. In a study published in Nature Food, researchers at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) conclude that the Dutch contribution to the global food supply through net food exports is far more limited than is often assumed. The study shifts the focus from gross exports to the Netherlands' net contribution to food supply. It looks not only at the products the Netherlands exports, but also at the food, animal feed and agricultural land the country uses through imports from abroad. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-netherlands-world-familiar-view-dutch.html Agriculture Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:20:04 EDT news701517841 Bumblebees are only an inch long, but they help power the global food system. Roughly one-third of the food we grow depends on pollinators like bees—and those bees are regularly decimated by pesticides. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-generation-pesticide-disrupts-bumblebee-reproduction.html Ecology Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:00:06 EDT news701437083 Gene editing of plant DNA has the potential to produce crops with increased performance and resilience, but it can take a long time to achieve these gains. To shorten this process, scientists often use screening tools to determine where and how edits to the plant genome can be most effective. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-leaf-based-fluorescence-gene.html Biotechnology Mon, 22 Jun 2026 19:40:03 EDT news701362681 In a rapidly changing climate landscape, the plants we rely on for food, textiles and more face a multitude of challenges, including rising temperatures, drought and disease. Caltech's Gözde Demirer, the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, uses genetic engineering tools to make crops more resilient to such threats and enhance plant health. Now, she and a team of Caltech researchers have found a new solution to an old problem in an unlikely source: the zebra finch. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-bird-derived-gene-tool-inserts.html Biotechnology Mon, 22 Jun 2026 18:30:06 EDT news701368321 New research suggests the microbiome near the surface of a plant's roots, known as the rhizosphere microbiome, may play a role in helping crops respond to heat stress. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-microbial-partners-maize-sorghum-higher.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:40:02 EDT news701088411 Many young adults are familiar with common species such as dandelions or sparrows. In contrast, plants and birds typical of fields, meadows and other agricultural habitats are significantly less well known. This is shown by a new study from the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) published in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. For the study, the research team surveyed 463 adults of various age groups in an agricultural region of Germany. The results suggest that knowledge of typical agricultural landscape species is declining, particularly among younger generations. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-younger-adults-overlook-nearby-biodiversity.html Ecology Fri, 19 Jun 2026 11:30:01 EDT news701086275 Scientists have demonstrated a noninvasive technique that uses light to reveal the hidden contents of chicken eggs, potentially helping to curb the meat industry's practice of killing billions of male chicks at birth. The study, published in Newton, found that when light enters an intact bird eggshell, it bounces back and forth many times, with photons traveling as far as 2 meters (6.6 feet) within a chicken egg's tiny, 4-centimeter (1.6-inch) interior. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-unhatched-eggs-chicken-gender-reveals.html Biotechnology Fri, 19 Jun 2026 11:00:01 EDT news700990332 Oils from crops such as coconut, palm oil and soybean are used in a range of applications, from cosmetics and makeup to margarine and spreads, and from medicines to animal feed. These oil crops, as they are known, are increasingly consumed and cultivated. This has an impact on the environment. But what exactly is that impact? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-palm-oil-coconut-soybean-species.html Ecology Fri, 19 Jun 2026 05:00:05 EDT news700988941 Global climate change has increased the frequency of regional cold spells, causing substantial yield losses and even crop failure. Meanwhile, excessive nitrogen fertilizer use in agriculture has increased non-point-source pollution. Improving both stress resilience and nitrogen use efficiency has therefore become a major challenge for sustainable crop production. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-rice-gene-rebound-cold-nitrogen.html Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 18 Jun 2026 17:30:03 EDT news701018761 The cause of future food shortages may not be a lack of farmland, but a shortage of agricultural workers. Amid low birth rates and rural decline, a joint international research team from KAIST has developed a new data-driven model that incorporates the decline in the agricultural workforce into analysis of future food security (the ability to stably produce and supply food required by the public). https://phys.org/news/2026-06-farm-scientists-reveal-hidden-future.html Agriculture Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:20:10 EDT news700994582 Researchers have developed a simpler, more cost-effective method to measure a biologically important form of phosphorus in soils, providing new insights into nutrient cycling that could help improve sustainable agricultural management. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-uncover-hidden-phosphorus-reservoir.html Agriculture Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:20:05 EDT news700922402 Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have uncovered a mechanism that helps plants continue photosynthesizing under extreme heat and dry air conditions—a finding that could improve how scientists predict the effects of climate change on crops and ecosystems. The study is the first to successfully separate the effects of heat and air dryness on photosynthesis across different carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, which could have significant practical implications for agriculture by helping improve crop management strategies and strengthen food security. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-photosynthesis-hotter-drier-climates-biochemical.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 17 Jun 2026 08:40:08 EDT news700902481