genetics

The corn earworm is a widespread crop pest, particularly in the U.S. South, and adept at quickly developing resistance to genetically engineered crops. Over time, researchers looking at lab-selected strains of earworm have identified 20 genes that harbor mutations conferring resistance to pest-killing proteins in so-called Bt crops, which have been genetically engineered to produce bacteria that repel the earworm.

As the climate warms and the world’s oceans take up more carbon dioxide, those waters are becoming increasingly acidic, causing damaging corrosion to the shells of many marine species, including oysters.

The supermarket tomato, bred to resist bruising, could gain improved flavor thanks to Chinese and U.S. scientists who found a genetic roadmap to the genes that determine the taste of tomatoes, says the Wall Street Journal. Tomatoes are not native to China but the Asian nation has been the world’s largest grower of them since 1995.

A team of scientists from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Spain has deciphered the genome of the Mesoamerican common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), according to Spain's Center for Genomic Regulation. The findings are reported in the current issue of the journal Genome Biology.

A federal judge has decided that the bulk of lawsuits by thousands of farmers against Syngenta over a genetically engineered corn variety will proceed to trial, reports DTN.

Reporter Lisa Hamilton traveled to a remote corner of Australia to shadow a team of researchers looking to “collect, decode, and define” a hardier strain of wild rice that could help them save what Hamilton calls “the daily sustenance of the world’s poor.”

The Justice Department's use of a secretive national-security court to prevent the theft of hybrid corn seed developed by U.S. companies indicates the gravity of Sino-U.S. competition, says the The New Republic.

Biologist William Powell says the best way to revive the American chestnut tree, one of the most common trees in the country until a fungal blight effectively erased it from the landscape, could be genetic engineering.

"The solution to avian flu" could be a genetically modified chicken that doesn't infect other fowl when it's hit by the deadly virus, says a National Geographic blog post.

Rice is a staple of half the world's population and also a potent emitter of greenhouse gases. But the Los Angeles Times reports that scientists say genetic engineering may help solve the grain's methane problem.

The administration launched an update of its multi-agency system of regulating food and agricultural biotechnology with a goal of writing the new version of its "coordinated framework" by July 2016.

A variety of wheat genetically engineered to emit a pheremone to ward off aphids "failed to show any effect" during a field trial in England, says Science Magazine.

Wheat scientists will borrow genes from wild ancestors of the staple grain to give it stamina to withstand the stresses of climate change, says the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known by its Spanish abbreviation CIMMYT.

A collaboration between researchers in Australia and China identified a gene that allows the soybean plant to better tolerate soil salinity, says the University of Adelaide.

A report from the National Academy of Sciences suggest four priorities for research to assure an adequate meat supply for a world population that could reach 10 billion by 2050.

There are about 1,500 Black Welsh Mountain sheep, a small and completely black sheep breed, in the United States and possibly 10,000 worldwide, says a story at Harvest Public Media.

A research team led by Florida State University identified four-stranded elements of DNA in corn that could affect thousands of genes, says an FSU release.

An international team of scientists published the genome of canola, the second most-widely grown oilseed in the world and a source of desirable omega-3 fatty acids.