The grass has never been greener for engineering plant immunity and resilience
Posted 18th March 2020 by Liv Sewell
Scientific research is always working at the frontiers of knowledge, but plant genomics technologies have had a dramatic impact on plant science even by our standards. The wide availability of sequencing technologies has been a rare step-change that has unlocked knowledge in a way nobody in the field could have imagined twenty years ago. Knowledge which could make a considerable contribution to food security in the face of changing climates.
New Breeding Techniques: cloning major resistance genes in cereals
Posted 13th March 2020 by Liv Sewell
Advances in breeding techniques for cereal crops will be a focus at the 8th Plant Genomics and Gene Editing Congress: USA. We asked Burleigh Dodds, an agricultural science publisher, to share an extract from one of their recent publications, ‘Advances in breeding techniques for cereal crops’.
Plant biotech in Europe: Present and future
Posted 4th March 2020 by Liv Sewell
Marcel Kuntz is a panellist for the panel discussion on the regulatory landscape for plant biotechnology at the 8th Plant Genomics & Gene Editing Congress: Europe. Here he provides us with some background for the discussion.
Using genome editing technology within a systems biology approach to understand plant immunity
Posted 2nd March 2020 by Liv Sewell
Interested in systems biology, omics technology, and plant bioinformatics? Catch up with one of our speakers from the 8th Plant Genomics and Gene Editing Congress: Europe, Professor Kristina Gruden…
The case for biosynthesis: 5 problems with cannabinoids derived from plant cultivation
Posted 25th February 2020 by Joshua Sewell
As we look at the current and future market demands for cannabinoid ingredients, large consumer buyers are focused on purity, consistency and stability of supply. For a host of reasons, cannabinoid suppliers will find it extraordinarily difficult to meet this demand with plant-based production systems.
Wild wheat, plant genomics, and food security
Posted 24th February 2020 by Liv Sewell
Wheat is the most widely grown crop in the world, providing 20% of the calories and proteins consumed by humankind. More than one fifth of the projected yield is lost every year to disease. Dr Brande Wulff, Group Leader at the John Innes Centre, and speaker at the 8th Plant Genomics and Gene Editing Congress, Europe, is leading research aiming to reduce the proportion of wheat lost to pathogens and increase global food security…
5 key requirements for unleashing innovation in the cannabis industry
Posted 21st February 2020 by Joshua Sewell
The cannabis industry faces a systemic problem where the legal nomenclature used to distinguish varietals of Cannabis Sativa is known to be unrelated to the genetic identity of the plant.1 Cannabis plants being bought and sold under any specific trade name can be genetically unrelated and may not even have a shared cultivation history.
11 ways to enable more UK patients to benefit from medicinal cannabis
Posted 14th February 2020 by Joshua Sewell
Medicinal cannabis was legalised in the UK in November 2018, yet there have been fewer than ten new prescriptions made through the NHS. Most of the prescriptions made have been private, and are financially out of reach for most patients, costing up to £2000 per month.
