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A road map toward self-fertilising cereal crops

17 March 2023

If crop science continues to advance at the pace it has over the last two decades, we hope secure, sustainable and affordable food could be only a further decade away. This is according to a research review by scientists at the Crop Science Centre, which has summarised the last ten years of dramatic advances on the topic...

100 questions for plant sciences graphic representation of the issues covered

Tip of the Apex: 100 important questions for future Plant Scientists

16 March 2023

Tip of the Apex: 100 important questions for future Plant Scientists Updated list shows striking prominence of climate change and its effects. The Department’s Dr Cerian Webb has contributed to a study to identify 100 important questions facing plant science research, published today in New Phyologist ( here and here ) The...

Members of staff and students do the womens day hug

Embracing Equity - celebrating International Womens Day 2023

8 March 2023

Embracing Equity - celebrating International Women's Day 2023 Head of Department Professor Julian Hibberd shares his thoughts on Embracing Equality #Embraceequity For International Women’s Day 2023 , I want to take the opportunity to celebrate and amplify the achievements of some of the remarkable women associated with the...

Virus infection helps make tomato plants more successful fathers

27 February 2023

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-...

Predicting threats to food security

22 February 2023

Predicting threats to food security How mathematical modelling can prevent crop devastation and preserve livelihoods

C4 plants slower than C3 plants to engage photosynthesis as light levels increase

17 February 2023

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...

Drought treated plants in pots under the new remote sensing system

New imaging protocol to help identify drought-tolerant plants

6 February 2023

Standardised, low-cost, widely-applicable protocol eliminates common methodological error and improves data quality and reproducibility. A new protocol for monitoring water stress in pot-grown plants has been develop by Daniel Ginzburg, PhD student and scientist in the department and at the Carnegie Institution for Science...

Cambridge-led consortium receives $35m to boost crop production sustainably in sub-Saharan Africa

31 January 2023

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)...

Low-cost sensor enables continuous monitoring of pH in tomato xylem sap

23 January 2023

Precision agriculture enables farmers to closely monitor the status of their crops (such as nutrients, pests and diseases, and water stress) in real time, and use that information to apply just the right amount of management input in the right place to ensure the plant grows optimally. Such practices help ensure resources...

Vegetation vertical line shift in the Himalaya graphic

New model increases vegetation prediction accuracy in Himalayan glacier melt zones

16 January 2023

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...

A road map toward self-fertilising cereal crops

Tip of the Apex: 100 important questions for future Plant Scientists

Embracing Equity - celebrating International Womens Day 2023

Virus infection helps make tomato plants more successful fathers

Predicting threats to food security

C4 plants slower than C3 plants to engage photosynthesis as light levels increase

New imaging protocol to help identify drought-tolerant plants

Cambridge-led consortium receives $35m to boost crop production sustainably in sub-Saharan Africa

Low-cost sensor enables continuous monitoring of pH in tomato xylem sap

New model increases vegetation prediction accuracy in Himalayan glacier melt zones

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