Food and Agricultural Sciences News and Research

Latest Food and Agricultural Sciences News and Research

Microplastics Reshape Soil Microbial Genes and Ecosystem Functions

Microplastics are now widely recognized as pollutants in oceans and waterways, but a growing body of research suggests they may pose equally serious risks on land.

24 Feb 2026

Precision Gene Editing Redefines Fruit Color in Polyploid Strawberry

Strawberry fruit color is primarily determined by anthocyanins, pigments synthesized through a tightly regulated metabolic pathway.

24 Feb 2026

Two-Step Fermentation Eliminates Unpleasant Plant Protein Odors

Off-putting smells can make even the healthiest of foods unpalatable.

16 Feb 2026

Complete Flax Genome Assembly Advances Fatty Acid Research

Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) is one of the richest plant sources of alpha-linolenic acid, an essential omega-3 fatty acid linked to human health benefits ranging from cardiovascular protection to metabolic regulation.

13 Feb 2026

Plant Scientists Tackle Major Threat to UK Wheat

A fungus known as yellow rust can destroy wheat, reducing harvests and driving up prices, which in turn can affect the price of staple foods like bread and pasta.

13 Feb 2026

Study Reveals Planet-Wide Network of Interconnected Microbiomes

In a new study published in Cell, scientists in the Bork Group at EMBL Heidelberg reveal that microbes living in similar habitats are more alike than those simply inhabiting the same geographical region.

10 Feb 2026

Genome Shock Breaks Reproductive Barriers in Plant Hybrids

In the plant world, when two different species mate, their offspring often don't survive. The reason lies in their DNA: incompatible genes often mix in their offspring, triggering a fatal breakdown known as hybrid lethality that acts as a reproductive barrier to keep species separate.

4 Feb 2026

Selective Mitophagy Enables Invasive Growth of Anthracnose Pathogen

Anthracnose is one of the most damaging fungal diseases affecting woody oil crops and many other plants, causing severe yield losses worldwide.

4 Feb 2026

Sugar Molecules Point to a New Weapon Against Drug-Resistant Bacteria

Australian researchers have developed a powerful new way to target deadly, drug-resistant bacteria by designing antibodies that recognize a sugar found only on bacterial cells – an advance that could underpin a new generation of immunotherapies for multidrug resistant hospital-acquired infections.

4 Feb 2026

Melbourne Scientists Use AI to Tame CRISPR

Last year a ten-month old baby in the US was the first person in the world to have their rare genetic disease effectively cured through the use of CRISPR gene editing technology.

27 Jan 2026

Novel Epigenetic Regulator Enhances Downy Mildew Resistance in Brassica rapa

Downy mildew is a major constraint on Brassica crop production worldwide, especially during early developmental stages when plants are highly vulnerable to infection.

27 Jan 2026

Bioinformatic Framework Reconstructs Evolutionary History of Complex Polyploid Genomes

Whole-genome duplication has repeatedly reshaped plant genomes and driven evolutionary innovation, ecological adaptation, and crop diversification.

24 Jan 2026

Global floating algae are rapidly expanding across Earth’s oceans

Recent AI-driven satellite studies show a significant increase in floating algae, highlighting shifts in ocean ecosystems and implications for climate change.

22 Jan 2026

Yeast-Based Platform Achieves Animal-Free High Quality Chondroitin Sulfate

By systematically redesigning multiple metabolic modules inside Komagataella phaffii, the researchers achieved both high product yield and high sulfation quality, two goals that have long been difficult to reach at the same time.

21 Jan 2026

Engineering Escherichia coli for Sustainable Biosynthesis of Lauryl Glucoside

By reconstructing a non-natural metabolic route in Escherichia coli, the researchers demonstrated that simple sugars can be biologically converted into lauryl glucoside through the coordinated production of its fatty alcohol precursor and a final glycosylation step.

21 Jan 2026

Rigid Protein Molecular Rulers Enable Precise Control of Antibody Conformation

By extending a naturally rigid bacterial protein by 50% while preserving geometry and stability, the study introduces protein-based "molecular rulers" that could probe antibody shape, limit unwanted motion, and support safer, more effective antibody drug design.

21 Jan 2026

Synthetic RNA Platform Converts Viral Replication Into Detectable Cellular Signals

The technology, called the Viral-Engineered RNA-based Activation System (VERAS), hijacks the virus's own replication machinery to switch on reporter or therapeutic genes precisely in infected cells.

9 Jan 2026

Deep Learning–Based Codon Optimization Framework Boosts Protein Expression in E. coli

By combining Transformer-based sequence modeling with a novel conditional probability strategy, the approach overcomes long-standing trade-offs between maximizing expression metrics and maintaining translational features critical for proper protein folding.

9 Jan 2026

Ancient WUS Genes and Expression Thresholds Shape Shoot Regeneration

Unlike animals, plants generate most organs after embryogenesis through stem cell–driven meristems, enabling lifelong growth and regeneration.

9 Jan 2026

Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering Drive Microbial L-Tryptophan Biomanufacturing

This review synthesizes progress in pathway optimization, regulatory rewiring, and microbial cell factory design that has driven L-Trp titers to industrially relevant levels while enabling the biosynthesis of downstream products ranging from neurotransmitters and plant hormones to dyes and complex alkaloids.

8 Jan 2026