Counter crop patents by freeing seeds to feed the world

Today, just three companies – Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta – account for about half of all commercial seed sales. More and more, agricultural patents are used to increase the control these and similar companies wield ...

Saving seeds the right way can save the world's plants

Exotic pests, shrinking ranges and a changing climate threaten some of the world's most rare and ecologically important plants, and so conservationists establish seed collections to save the seeds in banks or botanical gardens ...

Seeds keep vital much longer when stored without oxygen

If seed breeding companies, gene banks and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on Spitsbergen should store plant seeds under oxygen-poor conditions, it would be possible to store them for much longer while still maintaining their ...

Plants with dormant seeds give rise to more species

Seeds that sprout as soon as they're planted may be good news for a garden. But wild plants need to be more careful. In the wild, a plant whose seeds sprouted at the first warm spell or rainy day would risk disaster. More ...

Researchers describe mechanism for plant virus resistance

(Phys.org) —Scientists have described a mechanism conferring resistance in brassica plants to Turnip mosaic virus, a discovery which it is hoped will lead to durable resistance being introduced into food crops, including ...

Research shows how plants depend on ants

Temperature, rainfall, soil composition, and sunlight may not be the only contributors to a plant's success. Ants, in their role as seed dispersers, may play an equally important part in determining whether a plant species ...

A route for steeper, cheaper, and deeper roots

Plants with thinner roots can grow deeper, a trait which could be exploited in lands affected by drought and nutrient deprivation. New research, to be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on July 5, shows ...

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