Tag: agriculture
-
Arcadia Awarded U.S. Patent for Longer Shelf-Life Tomato
17 July 2014. Arcadia Biosciences, an agricultural biotechnology company in Davis, California received a patent for its engineered tomato that ripens slower after harvesting. Patent number 8,772,606, “Non-transgenic tomato varieties having increased shelf life post-harvest,” was awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on 8 July to two inventors and assigned to Arcadia Biosciences.…
-
Lab Chip Device Developed to Test Engineered Plant Traits
26 March 2014. Engineers at Iowa State University in Ames created a device about the size of a microscope slide that can quickly test the effects of genetic changes on plant characteristics, rather than growing sample seeds in soil. The team led by electrical and computer engineering professor Liang Dong, with colleagues from Iowa State…
-
Report: Climate Consensus Solid, Sudden Damage Risk Real
18 March 2014. A new report from American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) underscores the the near-unanimous consensus by scientists that human-caused climate change is happening, and the risks of abrupt and unpredictable damage are increasing. A panel of 10 climate scientists, with partners in the business community, issued the report yesterday. The…
-
Biotech Partnership to Develop Non-Ricin Castor Plants
12 March 2014. Precision BioSciences Inc. and Novo Synthetix, biotechnology companies in Durham, North Carolina, are collaborating on a new type of castor bean, without the ricin poison that makes the beans difficult to process and market. Financial and intellectual property aspects of the deal were not disclosed. Beans from castor plants (Ricinus communis) have the potential to…
-
Gene Modified Potatoes Developed with Blight Resistance
24 February 2014. Researchers at The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, U.K. developed and field tested a new type of potato with greater genetically modified resistance to late blight, a long-time scourge of potato growers. The team led by Sainsbury plant biologist Jonathan Jones reported its findings online last week in the journal Philosophical Transactions of…
-
Engineered Hemp Delivers High Volume of Healthy Oleic Acid
10 February 2014. Biologists at University of York in the U.K. developed a new form of hemp plant that produces seeds with oil containing a high volume of oleic acid, a nutritious fatty acid like that found in olive oil. The team led by York’s Ian Graham, who heads the university’s biology department, published its…
-
European Venture Licenses Biotech Drought-Resistant Traits
Genective, a joint venture between German and French seed companies to develop new corn varieties, is licensing engineered gene science from the biotechnology company Arcadia Biosciences Inc. in Davis, California. Arcadia Biosciences will receive initial, milestone, and sales royalty payments under the agreement, but the dollar amount of the deal was not disclosed. Arcadia Biosciences…
-
Genetic Mechanism to Increase Tomato Production Explained
Biologists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York discovered a genetic process underlying a breeding practice that helps improve yields of tomatoes. The Cold Spring Harbor team led by plant biology professor Zach Lippman, with a colleague from Monash University in Australia, published its findings yesterday in the journal PLoS Genetics. The team’s research…
-
Sugar Beet Genome Sequenced, Human Impact on Species Noted
Geneticists and computer scientists in Germany, Spain, and Sweden sequenced the genome of the sugar beet, a plant contributing a large segment of the world’s sugar production. The study offers an analytical reference for advances in biotechnology with implications for agriculture and renewable energy. The team led by biology professor Bernd Weisshaar at Bielefeld University…
-
Engineered Tomato Helps Cut Contributor to Clogged Arteries
Researchers at University of California in Los Angeles found feeding a bio-engineered tomato to lab animals cuts their production of a fatty acid believed to contribute to high cholesterol levels. The team led by Alan Fogelman, director of the atherosclerosis research unit at UCLA’s medical school published their findings in the December issue of the…