Kyoto, Japan -- It's astonishing to realize how innovative our ancestors were in food and beverage production before modern science and technology. Without understanding or isolating them, ancient peoples made use of yeasts like Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the primary species behind the fermentation process that creates alcohol, though there are some non-Saccharomyces yeasts that can also produce alcohol with different characteristics.

While modern wineries typically use cultured S cerevisiae, it is thought that ancient wine production relied on the natural fermentation process of storing crushed grapes in jars. However, research has revealed that S cerevisiae rarely colonizes grape skins, casting doubt on the use of fresh grapes for alcohol fermentation.

This inspired a team of researchers from Kyoto University to investigate the humble raisin's ability to ferment into wine. In a previous study, the team had found that S cerevisiae was abundant on raisins, indicating that in ancient times they could have been used for wine production.

Estimating the multigenerational effects of chiral pesticide metabolites is essential for fully understanding their ecological impacts. This study demonstrated that S-o,p'-DDD accumulated preferentially in adult zebrafish and transferred more efficiently to their offspring compared to the R-enantiomer, leading to pronounced developmental defects and endocrine disruption across both generations. Molecular docking against key thyroid-related proteins provided a mechanistic explanation for this stereospecific toxicity. These findings suggest that evaluating only racemic mixtures may underestimate real-world hazards.

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture recently entered a five-year agreement with the Indian National Horticulture Board and Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to help farmers in India improve agricultural production by limiting spread of pathogens. Ioannis Tzanetakis, director of the Arkansas Clean Plant Center and professor of plant virology for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, has been working on the Indian Clean Plant Program for almost three years. The project’s goal is to establish nine clean plant centers in India. The Arkansas Clean Plant Center is a part of the experiment station, the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.

As part of an effort to better evaluate how pre-weaned calf and stocker calf treatments influence feedlot performance, Daniel Rivera, associate professor of animal science with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and Paul Beck, a professor and extension specialist for beef nutrition with Oklahoma State University’s department of animal and food sciences, published a summary of research on the topic in a special issue of Applied Animal Sciences, the American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists' official journal.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Union (EU) strengthened controls in the timber sector to prevent sanctioned raw materials from entering the market from Russia and Belarus. Yet recent studies reveal that a significant amount of this timber still reaches the EU – often through intermediary countries. Estimates suggest that since sanctions were introduced, more than 1.5 billion euros worth of restricted timber may have entered Europe, while nearly half of the tested samples did not match their declared country of origin.

Bats such as the common noctule consume pest insects over intensively managed arable land and thereby support sustainable agriculture. A new study led by scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) and the University of Potsdam shows that 23 percent of the insect species consumed by common noctules in north-eastern Germany are pests. Yet, agriculture can only benefit from this free service provided by bats if there are sufficient near-natural habitats in the vicinity of agricultural land. This is where common noctules hunt disproportionately often; only in combination with near-natural habitats can bats find sufficient prey in an intensively farmed landscape, according to the scientists in a paper just published in the journal “Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment”.