https://phys.org/biology-news/agriculture/ en-us Agriculture, livestock, farming and food processing news Crop production faces threats from plant pathogens. Traditional disease-resistance breeding relies heavily on natural plant resistance genes that encode immune receptors adapted to particular pathogens. However, rapidly evolving pathogens frequently overcome these natural defenses, and the limited diversity of naturally occurring immune receptors makes it difficult to develop crops with durable resistance. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-programmable-platform-enables-demand-immune.html Biotechnology Thu, 23 Jul 2026 18:30:04 EDT news704044381 Plant diversity has long been regarded as key to stable and resilient ecosystems. However, until now, little has been understood about why it has different effects in agricultural areas than in grasslands or forests. An international research group, in which the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB) played a leading role, has now investigated this question for the first time on a global scale. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-diversity-boosts-natural-pest-farms.html Ecology Thu, 23 Jul 2026 18:10:02 EDT news704044141 Scientists at the University of Lincoln have discovered a promising new way to help protect crops from one of climate change's growing threats to global food production—increasing soil salinity. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-microbes-soils-impacts-climate.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 23 Jul 2026 12:40:07 EDT news704022061 Five minutes. That was the amount of time that Oso Grande strawberries remained in contact with the Ctx(Ile21)-Ha peptide—a molecule isolated from a frog native to the Brazilian Cerrado—in experiments conducted in Brazil by scientists at the Tupã campus of São Paulo State University (UNESP). It was enough to demonstrate the molecule's potential to extend the shelf life of the fruit, which is highly perishable. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-peptide-isolated-cerrado-frog-strawberry.html Biotechnology Thu, 23 Jul 2026 11:20:07 EDT news704018941 Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have developed a new way to add large pieces of genetic information to plants, overcoming a challenge that has limited plant biotechnology for decades. The advance could help scientists build more complex traits into plants in the future, supporting research into areas such as crop resilience, sustainable agriculture, biotechnology and the use of plants as scalable platforms for producing therapeutics and biologics. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-genome-tool-large-genetic-sequences.html Biotechnology Wed, 22 Jul 2026 19:40:01 EDT news703949461 According to United Nations projections, global food demand could increase by around 60% by 2050, while only about 2% of additional agricultural land is expected to become available. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are therefore exploring new approaches to safeguard food security. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-solar-powered-protein-amino-acids.html Biotechnology Wed, 22 Jul 2026 13:00:06 EDT news703937401 A team of scientists led by researchers at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and Texas A&M University recently uncovered genetic traces of ancient migration in DNA from avocados growing in Nicaragua. They found evidence that, around 5,000 years ago, people migrating north from South America carried the oversized seeds of one of their favorite fruits—avocados. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-genetically-distinct-avocados-nicaragua.html Plants & Animals Wed, 22 Jul 2026 11:00:01 EDT news703850725 Factors such as erosion, dehydration and soil compaction are jeopardizing food supplies for broad swaths of the world's population, according to a study by the University of Bonn, the University of Minnesota, the University of Basel and Hamburg University of Technology. If human-made soil degradation were reversed by 10%, Earth's arable land could feed an extra 70 million or so people in purely mathematical terms. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Food. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-reversing-soil-degradation-million-global.html Agriculture Wed, 22 Jul 2026 05:00:01 EDT news703852321 Earth remains full of undiscovered species and unexplored interactions that continue to fascinate us, including, in the most ordinary places, the fields where our food is grown. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-wasp-species-ernest-hemingway-efforts.html Ecology Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:40:06 EDT news703844882 Traditional and Indigenous knowledge could play a vital role in addressing some of the world's most pressing challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss and poor health and nutrition, according to a new review of current research. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-indigenous-knowledge-key-healthier-sustainable.html Agriculture Tue, 21 Jul 2026 05:00:03 EDT news703748625 Scientists have successfully edited the genome of biting midges, opening the door to new research on how these insects transmit disease. Culicoides biting midges are small blood-feeding insects responsible for spreading important vector-borne viruses such as bluetongue virus (BTV), Schmallenberg virus (SBV) and epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV), which cause major losses to livestock production worldwide. Despite their importance as disease vectors, Culicoides are among the smallest blood-feeding insects, just 1–4 mm (0.04–0.16 inches) long, making them difficult to study in the laboratory. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-world-gene-culicoides-midges-door.html Biotechnology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:40:12 EDT news703771621 What if the plants growing in a field could one day produce the same proteins that give milk its nutrition, texture and cheese-making properties? A new study brings that possibility a step closer by revealing an unexpected way plant seeds can manufacture and store one of milk's most important proteins. The discovery could help overcome a major hurdle in producing real dairy proteins without cows, paving the way for more sustainable dairy ingredients and alternative food production. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-real-dairy-protein-scientists-unexpected.html Plants & Animals Sun, 19 Jul 2026 08:00:01 EDT news703340372 As sulfur becomes increasingly scarce in soils worldwide, scientists are studying how plants decide whether to invest limited resources in growth or defense. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-dimmer-immune.html Plants & Animals Fri, 17 Jul 2026 12:20:01 EDT news703497759 Seen from the air, Channel Country resembles a vibrant, vast tapestry, with a network of waterways crisscrossing the land. Spread across more than 280,000 square kilometers (108,000 square miles) in outback Australia, it is one of the world's last free-flowing desert river systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-aboriginal-people-harvested-native-grass.html Ecology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 09:20:01 EDT news703488661 Cadmium (Cd) contamination poses a serious threat to global food safety. As a toxic and carcinogenic heavy metal, cadmium can accumulate in agricultural soils through industrialization and urbanization before entering the human food chain. Rice is especially vulnerable because it absorbs more cadmium than other major cereal crops, making it one of the largest dietary sources of cadmium exposure for nearly half the world's population. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-tiny-gene-cadmium-rice-yields.html Biotechnology Thu, 16 Jul 2026 08:20:03 EDT news703405327 Due to artificial irrigation and rising temperatures, the concentration of salts (including sodium chloride, or "table salt") is increasing in soils worldwide. This is not only an environmental problem but also a challenge for agriculture. For example, increased salinity can disrupt the water balance of most plants (known as glycophytes) or even lead to their death, including crops. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-epigenetic-mechanism-cope-salt-stress.html Plants & Animals Wed, 15 Jul 2026 16:40:01 EDT news703340984 There is a clear need to shift toward healthier and more sustainable food systems. According to the 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission Report, global adoption of a flexitarian Planetary Health Diet could prevent around 15 million premature adult deaths per year. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-healthier-sustainable-diets-reshape-global.html Agriculture Wed, 15 Jul 2026 11:00:08 EDT news703325664 Plants do not wait hours to respond to intense sunlight—they react within minutes. Researchers at Bielefeld University and the Australian National University have discovered a new signaling pathway that enables plants to directly adjust their protein production before genes in the cell nucleus change their activity. The findings open new perspectives for climate-resilient crops. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-mechanism-rapidly-intense-sunlight.html Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:20:03 EDT news703245753 A new study tracking soil microbial communities across six years of experimental drought in a tallgrass prairie finds that prolonged water stress diminishes biodiversity, pushing communities toward less predictable, harder-to-reverse configurations. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-years-drought-reshape-soil-microbiomes.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 14 Jul 2026 10:20:01 EDT news703233013 Researchers have discovered that a group of viruses known to infect an agriculturally important plant pathogen has remained genetically stable for an astonishing four decades. The discovery of a disease-fighting virus that doesn't mutate at a rapid rate points the way toward new tools for fighting crop disease—and highlights how little is known about viruses that infect bacteria in agricultural settings. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-family-tree-viruses-grew-paves.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:40:03 EDT news703167019 If we want to dismiss something as irrelevant, we'd say that it's "as boring as watching the grass grow." And yet grasses—including corn, wheat and rice—make up most of the plant-based calories humans eat, as well as most of the calories fed to livestock. Perhaps we should have been paying attention to such an important plant, because we now know, thanks to new research led by biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and published in Current Biology, that grasses grow according to temperature—not light, like other plants. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-grasses-world-calories.html Plants & Animals Sat, 11 Jul 2026 09:00:01 EDT news702737612 Researchers at the Center for Crop and Food Innovation (CCFI) have made a significant contribution to a landmark study, uncovering tens of thousands of previously hidden structural variations influencing agriculturally important traits in the mung bean. The study, published today in Nature Genetics, presents the world's first graph-based pan-genome for the pulse crop, offering a comprehensive resource for understanding the genetic basis of key agronomic traits and accelerating crop improvement. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-genetic-secrets-mung-bean-crops.html Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 10 Jul 2026 12:20:03 EDT news702896259 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