Breeding more resilient soybeans may come down to test site selection
In the quest to optimize crop productivity across environments, soybean breeders test new cultivars in multiple locations each year. The best-performing cultivars across these locations are selected for further breeding and eventual commercialization.
Researcher calls on Illinois landowners to participate in historic soil analysis
Illinois landowners could be eligible for $5,000 in free soil analyses and consultation with a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research team in exchange for participating in a historic project seeking to learn how soils have changed over 120 years.
Addressing societal concerns of genetic determinism of human behavior
It has long been known that there is a complex interplay between genetic factors and environmental influences in shaping behavior. Recently it has been found that genes governing behavior in the brain operate within flexible and contextually responsive regulatory networks. However, conventional genome-wide association studies (GWAS) often overlook this complexity, particularly in humans where controlling environmental variables poses challenges.
New study finds corn genome can gang up on multiple pathogens at once
In a changing climate, corn growers need to be ready for anything, including new and shifting disease dynamics. Because it’s impossible to predict which damaging disease will pop up in a given year, corn with resistance to multiple diseases would be a huge win for growers.
From snack to science: Innovative grant brings popcorn into the classroom
In a few years, popcorn could become a standard element in science classrooms across Illinois and the nation.
New genetic vulnerability to herbicide found in nearly 50 sweet and field corn lines
When a sweet corn breeder reached out in 2021 to report severe injury from the herbicide tolpyralate, Marty Williams hoped it was a fluke isolated to a single inbred line.
The silver bullet that wasn't: Glyphosate's declining weed control over 25 years
It has been a quarter century since corn and soybeans were engineered to withstand the withering mists of the herbicide glyphosate. Initially heralded as a “silver bullet” for weed control, the modified crops and their herbicide companion were quickly and widely adopted across corn and soybean-growing regions of North America. In the years that followed, though, weeds targeted for eradication quietly fomented a rebellion.
In TED Talk, Long describes three photosynthetic changes that boost crop yields
In a newly released TED Talk, Stephen Long a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor of plant biology and crop sciences, detailed his and his colleagues’ efforts to boost photosynthesis in crop plants. He described three interventions, each of which increased crop yields by 20% or more.