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”.

All the cells in an organism have the exact same genetic sequence. What differs across cell types is their epigenetics—meticulously placed chemical tags that influence which genes get expressed in each cell. If epigenetic changes regulate our genetics, what is regulating them? Salk scientists have now used plant cells to discover that a type of epigenetic tag, called DNA methylation, can be regulated by genetic mechanisms. Prior to this study, scientists had only understood how DNA methylation was regulated by other epigenetic features, so the discovery that genetic features can also guide DNA methylation patterns is a major paradigm shift. Their findings could inform future epigenetic engineering strategies aimed at generating methylation patterns predicted to repair or enhance cell function, with many potential applications in medicine and agriculture.

Whether you’re a home gardener or an industrial farmer, you might be familiar with mulching films — plastic sheets laid over the soil to protect seedlings and promote crop growth. But like many other plastic materials, these films can release damaging microplastics and don’t have any insect-repelling power. So, a team reporting in ACS Agricultural Science & Technology has developed an alternative biodegradable mulching film that also naturally repels pests using citronella oil.

Higher yields, greater resilience to climatic changes or diseases – the demands on crop plants are constantly growing. To address these challenges, researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are developing new methods in genetic engineering. In cooperation with other German and Czech researchers, they succeeded for the first time in leveraging the CRISPR/Cas molecular scissors for changing the number of chromosomes in the Arabidopsis thaliana model organism in a targeted way – without any adverse effects on plant growth. This discovery opens up new perspectives for plant breeding and agriculture. The results have been published in the Science journal. (DOI: 10.1126/science.adz8505)

Researchers have unveiled a new generation of sustainable carbon materials poised to revolutionize environmental protection and energy technologies. The study highlights advanced forms of carbon, including graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carbon dots (CDs), biochar, and aerogels, showing that these materials play essential roles in removing harmful pollutants, cleaning water, storing energy, and catalyzing chemical reactions with minimal environmental impact.

Anthocyanins are major pigments responsible for the vivid colors of ornamental flowers.