Discovery of a gene that controls black-grass resistance offers prospect of better weed control
Chemicals that inhibit this gene can be used to make weed killers effective against resistant weeds. Black-grass and rye-grass are both widespread and serious weed problems in cereal and oilseed rape rotations. Control using weed killers is becoming increasingly problematic, with an estimated 1.2 million ha of UK land now infested with black-grass. Both black-grass […]
£2M for research to protect British strawberries
As Wimbledon reaches its peak this weekend, British scientists are preparing to battle to ensure the tournament classic of strawberries and cream stays on the menu for years to come with a £2M project to research strawberry disease. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) will fund nearly £800,000 of the five-year project into […]
Expansion of Centre’s activity brings gains through partnership
Since its launch in 2011 with seed-funding from food retailer Waitrose, the centre now includes: Aberystwyth University’s Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS); NIAB TAG; Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute of Northern Ireland (AFBI); Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and Harper Adams University. CEUKF delivers briefings and news item for the partners and their projects […]
Research bodies form new alliance to address global challenge on food
The vision is to build an alliance of excellence which brings together researchers from different disciplines to tackle the challenges of sustainable food production, the depletion of natural resources including productive land, water and nutrients, and the impacts of climate change on society. The Scottish Food Security Alliance – Crops draws together expertise from three […]
Ground breaking study finds the offspring of stressed mothers brains develop differently
A ground breaking study has found that prenatal stress negatively affects the development of a lamb’s brain. In the first study of this type to take place not in the lab but in ‘real life’ conditions on a farm, researchers observed structural alterations in the neurons involved in emotional regulation and cognitive processing. The changes […]
Great mystery of a plant defence pathway unravelled
Together with several partners, scientists from Wageningen UR (University & Research centre) have discovered that RLP-receptors located at the outside of plant cells and playing an important role in plant defence, join forces with other proteins present at the same location to warn the plant when a fungus attacks. This finally answers a question that […]
New research into protecting vegetables from disease, naturally
This research collaboration will assess the impact of plant defence elicitors – compounds that induce a natural defence response – on brassica and allium crops such as cabbages, Brussels sprouts and onions. The results will be of interest not only to large commercial growers but also to vegetable growers in gardens and allotments across the […]
Climate change will cause widespread global-scale loss of common plants and animals
Research published today in the journal Nature Climate Change looked at 50,000 globally widespread and common species and found that two thirds of the plants and half of the animals will lose more than half of their climatic range by 2080 if nothing is done to reduce the amount of global warming and slow it […]
Tomatoes with extra vitamin C via LED lamps
This has been proven by research by Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture in collaboration with Philips. The partnership will be continued in a joint facility for research into the application of LED lamps in horticulture (IDC LED), which will be opened in Bleiswijk (NL) on 16 May. Wageningen UR studied several tomato varieties and various intensities […]
