How generalist pathogens infect phylogenetically diverse hosts remains a central question in plant-pathogen biology. In particular, the extent to which broad host range is enabled by genetic variation...

Spontaneous parthenogenesis in sunflower has been used to develop a scalable doubled haploid breeding system.

OverviewThe group of Specialized Metabolism, led by Prof. Alain Goossens at the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, and the metabolic engineering researc

Plants have created an immense diversity of specialized metabolites to optimize fitness within a complex environment. Each plant lineage has created n…

From exceptional PhD directly to independent group leader

Zymoseptoria tritici is a cosmopolitan hemibiotrophic wheat pathogen with a high mutation rate and a mixed reproduction system, leading to challenges in traditional farming management. For successful ...

Despite being known to science for over a century thanks to a few early pioneering marine mycologists, most people have never heard of marine fungi.

Here, the authors show that an inverted-repeat transposon located next to the pattern recognition receptor ELONGATION FACTOR-TU RECEPTOR (EFR)-encoding gene in Arabidopsis controls chromatin organizat...

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Be very afraid – if you’re an insect.

With broad genetic diversity and as a source of key agronomic traits, wild grape species (Vitis spp.) are crucial to enhance viticulture’s climatic resilience and sustainability. This review discusses how recent breakthroughs in the genome assembly and analysis of wild grape species have led to discoveries on grape evolution, from wild species’ adaptation to environmental stress to grape domestication. We detail how diploid chromosome-scale genomes from wild Vitis spp. have enabled the identification of candidate disease-resistance and flower sex determination genes and the creation of the first Vitis graph-based pangenome. Finally, we explore how wild grape genomics can impact grape research and viticulture, including aspects such as data sharing, the development of functional genomics tools, and the acceleration of genetic improvement.

Every farm, even the scenic ones with red barns and rolling hills, is a kind of environmental crime scene, an echo of whatever wilderness it once replaced.

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Outbreaks of coffee wilt disease, caused by the fungus Fusarium xylarioides, have severely impacted coffee production. By sequencing and comparing 13 historical strains spanning 60 years and multiple ...

Stomata serve as the battleground between plants and plant pathogens. Plants can perceive pathogens, inducing closure of the stomatal pore, while pathogens can overcome this immune response with their...

The UK and Chile are proposing at the UN’s biodiversity conference COP16 in Colombia that fungi receive the same status to animals and plants. This could help foster and funding research.

Three cross-incompatibility loci each control a distinct reproductive barrier in domesticated maize ( Zea mays ssp. mays ) and its wild teosinte relatives. These three loci, Teosinte crossing barrier ...

Earlier this year, cheese fans panicked following the publication of new research on essential cheesemaking moulds, certain the end was nigh for beloved Brie and Camembert.

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Active travel can help tackle the climate crisis earlier than electric vehicles – even if you swap the car for a bike for just one trip a day.

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Abstract. Ancient whole-genome duplications (WGDs) are believed to facilitate novelty and adaptation by providing the raw fuel for new genes. However, it i