Water scarcity has become a critical constraint on global agricultural production. Particularly in tropical and subtropical regions, major crops such as maize frequently face the dual threats of drought and high temperatures.

In agricultural production, microplastics have become environmental pollutants that cannot be ignored. They may not only enter the food chain through the soil-plant system, threatening food safety, but also alter the physical and chemical properties of soil, interfere with microbial functions, and thereby affect soil health and crop growth.

Chili is a vital cash crop in many countries, and Sri Lanka is no exception. As one of the pillar industries of the country’s agriculture, chili not only meets domestic consumption needs but also is exported to markets such as India, the Middle East, and Europe in the form of processed products like dried chili and chili powder, supporting the livelihoods of numerous smallholder farmers.

As a crucial agricultural yield-increasing technique in arid and semi-arid regions, plastic film mulching (PFM) has significantly enhanced crop yield and quality by increasing soil temperature, reducing water evaporation, and optimizing nutrient cycling. However, with the increasingly prominent issue of farmland microplastic pollution caused by residual plastic films, this "white revolution" is now facing severe challenges to sustainable development.

American College of Cardiology President Christopher M. Kramer, MD, FACC, issued the following statement on the release of new Dietary Guidelines for Americans by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Inducible promoters provide remarkable utility when sustained transgene expression compromises plant development or agronomic performance. In this study, four different plant heat shock protein (HSP) promoters were characterized in the vegetative tissues of stably transformed sugarcane to evaluate their efficacy and spatial expression profiles when directing the expression of a uidA reporter gene. This study produced new quantitative knowledge on the temporal and spatial expression of HSP promoters in sugarcane, expanding the promoter toolbox for crop biotechnology to support gene function studies and biotechnology applications, including precision gene editing and complex metabolic engineering.

The CRISPR “gene scissors” have become an important basis for genome-editing technologies in many fields, ranging from biology and medicine to agriculture and industry. A team from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg has now demonstrated that these CRISPR-Cas systems are even more versatile than previously thought. In cooperation with the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and Utah State University (USU) in Logan (USA), the scientists have discovered a novel CRISPR defense mechanism: Unlike known nucleases, Cas12a3 specifically destroys transfer ribonucleic acids (tRNA) that are vital for protein production to shut down infected cells. The team published its findings today in the journal Nature.