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Researchers have used plasma, a fourth state of matter found in the flash of lightning and the dance of auroras, to create a gas that may trigger plant immunity against contagious illnesses. The research was presented on June 24 in PLOS One by the researchers from Tohoku University in Japan. Sugihiro Ando, associate professor in the Graduate School of Agricultural Science at Tohoku University and the paper's lead author, said that chemical pesticides are currently the mainstay of disease prevention in agriculture but that they can contaminate the soil and destroy the ecosystem. "Technologies for preventing plant diseases must be created if we are to create a sustainable agricultural system. Plant immunity is one of the most efficient ways to prevent disease since it makes use of plants' natural resistance and has no effect on the environment." The researchers created dinitrogen pentoxide, a reactive nitrogen species, using their previously created apparatus that creat...

For the first time, RIPE researchers have demonstrated in field tests that multigene photosynthetic bioengineering boosts the yield of a significant food crop. After more than ten years of effort, a multidisciplinary team led by the University of Illinois has successfully transgenically modified soybean plants to boost photosynthetic efficiency, resulting in higher yields without compromising quality. Results of this importance could not have arrived at a more critical moment. According to the most recent UN report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022, nearly 10% of the world's population experienced hunger in 2021, a problem that has been steadily getting worse over the past few years and is now more severe than all other risks to the world's health combined. More than 660 million people are anticipated to experience food scarcity and malnutrition by 2030, according to UNICEF. Ineffective food supply chains (access to food) and more difficult crop-growin...

According to new research, the Amazon rainforest's ability to grow amid our atmosphere's rising carbon content may be constrained by phosphate deficiency in the soil. Because plants develop more quickly in environments with higher carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, they store more carbon. This storage, particularly in vast forests like the Amazon, aids in containing growing CO2 levels and reducing climate change. However, plants also require nutrients to develop, and a recent study indicates that the availability of phosphorus in particular may limit the Amazon's potential to boost productivity (growth rate) as CO2 levels rise. The researchers caution that this might also reduce the rainforest's ability to withstand climate change. An international team led by the University of Exeter and Brazil's National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) conducted the study, which was published in the journal Nature. Lead author Hellen Fernanda Viana Cunha from INPA stated that ...