News by Subject Agriculture

In future, it will be increasingly important to be able to predict the yields of individual varieties of cereals such as wheat as accurately as possible in a given environment. An international research team led by the IPK Leibniz Institute has compiled, processed and analyzed extensive data sets for this purpose. Ultimately, Big Data was able to double the prediction accuracy for yield.

3D tumors that disintegrate within a few days thanks to the action of a well-known omega-3 (DHA, found mainly in fish) -- this is the exceptional discovery by University of Louvain researchers. Hungry for fatty acids, tumor cells in acidosis gorge themselves on DHA but are unable to store it correctly and literally poison themselves. The result? They die.

Plants are constantly exposed to microbes: pathogens that cause disease, commensals that cause no harm or benefit, and mutualists that promote plant growth or help fend off pathogens. For example, most land plants can form positive relationships with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to improve nutrient uptake. How plants fight off pathogens without also killing beneficial microbes or wasting energy on commensal microbes is a largely unanswered question.

Researchers at the University of Central Florida have published a first- of-its-kind study that shows that near-infrared (NIR) spectrum cameras can help python hunters more effectively track down these invasive snakes, especially at night.

Global ecosystem restoration efforts are often measured by billions of trees planted or square kilometers of land restored. But there is a critical void in the agenda: the social and political dimensions that make restoration a success.

In a new study, an international team of plant researchers including the Institute of Botany at TU Dresden has discovered an unusual and previously unknown reproductive strategy in plants: the Greek pipevine species 'Aristolochia microstoma' produces a unique mixture of volatiles that resembles the smell of dead and decaying insects to attract the pollinating fly genus 'Megaselia' (also known as 'coffin flies') to its trap-flowers. The study was recently published in the open-access journal 'Frontiers'.