News by Subject Agriculture

Plant-derived chemicals called cardenolides - like digitoxin - have long been used to treat heart disease, and have shown potential as cancer therapies. But the compounds are very toxic, making it difficult for doctors to prescribe a dose that works without harming the patient. Researchers now show that the wormseed wallflower could be used as a model species to elucidate how plants biosynthesize cardenolides, knowledge that could aid the discovery and development of safer drugs.

Using existing data from controlled experiments and computer simulations, researchers with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture have found that host contact rates and habitat structure affect transmission rates of Bsal among eastern newts, a common salamander species found throughout eastern North America.

Less nutrition, less productivity, less development: the changing climate hinders poor rural areas of developing countries. A new study with contribution from the CMCC Foundation shows the impacts of climate change on the labor supply in 21st century, and how decision makers should act today to prevent the potential negative outcomes.

In a way, plants are energy wasters: in order to protect themselves from excessive electron transport, they continuously quench light energy and don't use it for photosynthesis and biomass production. A mutation can make them work more efficiently, as was discovered by a team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU).

Working on the reefs around Moorea in French Polynesia, an international team of scientists exposed 40 pairs of clownfish to recordings of natural reef sounds or motorboat noise for up to two days. Motorboat noise caused clownfish to hide in the protective tentacles of their host anemone, move less into open water to feed and to be more aggressive towards domino damselfish that also reside in the anemone.

It is known that crown of thorns starfish lie in wait as algae-eating young before attacking coral. But new research from the University of Sydney shows the starfish that devastates reef habitats can remain in its juvenile vegetarian state for at least 6.5 years. This has big implications for how the coral predator is managed on the Great Barrier Reef.