Waitrose working to encourage sustainable food production
A new facility to assist advances in crop science is taking shape in the Norfolk countryside. The field experimental station at Church Farm, Bawburgh, will allow scientists at the John Innes Centre to carry out ground-breaking research in crop improvements. Bringing together lab and field research in one location will further research in understanding how […]
Pioneering new technology is set to accelerate the global quest for crop improvement in a development which echoes the Green Revolution of the post war period. The speed-breeding platform developed by teams at the John Innes Centre, University of Queensland and University of Sydney, uses a glasshouse or an artificial environment with enhanced lighting to […]
Tighter controls on timber and plant movements into Europe are necessary to prevent further disastrous effects of plant diseases, a new study of the ash dieback pathogen advises. The call to action follows detailed investigations carried out in British woodlands into the population makeup of the Hymenoscyphus fraxineus fungus that causes ash dieback.
New research is set to change the textbook understanding of how plants breathe. In research published in Plant Journal, a team led by Professor Richard Morris from the John Innes Centre, Norwich, Professor Silke Robatzek of The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, and collaborators from the University of Madrid, developed the first ever full 3D model of a […]
Traffic jams are the curse of the commute, the scourge of the school run and the bane of Bank Holidays. But gridlocked motorists and students of traffic flow may soon be relieved and enlightened thanks to new research into plants. It has emerged that plants have it sorted when it comes to going with the […]
A sophisticated mechanism that allows plant roots to quickly respond to changes in soil conditions has been identified by an international research team. Scientists from the John Innes Centre and Sapienza University, Rome, combined mathematical and computer modelling with molecular genetics to show how roots can regulate their growth via the interactions of two antagonistic […]
Scientists at the John Innes Centre have discovered how plants send internal warning signals in response to attack by aphids. They found that when the insect feeds on a leaf it triggers the plant to admit calcium into the damaged cells. This small flux of calcium prompts the plant to signal that an attack is […]
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has announced funding for the creation of a new Cambridge Centre for Crop Science (3CS), developed by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with NIAB. The new centre will provide a major boost to the University and NIAB’s existing research initiatives around global food security.
Scientists at the John Innes Centre have identified a unique mechanism that the soil dwelling bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens uses to effectively exploit nutrients in the root environment. The breakthrough offers multiple new applications, for the study of human pathogens, for synthetic biology, and for the productions of biosensors which help detect biological changes in plants and their environment.
An international scientific alliance to fast track-crop improvement in sub-Saharan Africa is launched today. The Alliance to Accelerate Crop Improvements in Africa (ACACIA) supports African scientists to find solutions to local food security challenges – and maximise the impact of the John Innes Centre’s cutting-edge science in Africa.
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