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Virus infection helps make tomato plants more successful fathers Gene flow boost may aid development of virus-susceptible plant populations Dr Alexandra Murphy and her colleagues in the Virology and Molecular Plant Pathology group have discovered that bumblebees can preferentially boost the transfer of male genes in virus-...

C4 plants slower than C3 plants to engage photosynthesis as light levels increase Photosynthesis is the fundamental basis of life on land – plants use the process to convert light and carbon dioxide into energy for their growth, and produce oxygen as a byproduct. Some plants, mostly in tropical and subtropical regions...

A Cambridge-led consortium has received US$35m (£28m) over five years to develop sustainable solutions to increasing the yields of small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, without the need for costly and polluting inorganic fertilisers. The grant, from Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations (Gates Ag One)...

New model increases vegetation prediction accuracy in Himalayan glacier melt zones Greening dominated by grasslands as vegetation line shifts upwards by 7 – 28 m each year. Climate warming has long been known to cause glaciers to melt and ‘retreat’ up the mountain to higher altitudes, leaving land that had been under ice...