2019-09-30
- As their Latin name indicates, pineapples are truly “excellent fruits”—and thanks to a freshly completed genome sequencing project, researchers have gained a new understanding of how human agriculture has shaped the evolution of this and other crops.
2019-09-24 - Climate change is already having a negative impact on our food supply.
2019-09-20 - A single protein has been identified to play a role in improving photosynthesis under high concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a study published in in silico Plants. The protein, known as Gm-GATA2, is predicted to overcome limitations imposed by photosynthetic acclimation under elevated CO2 levels—and is a promising candidate for research into how we can better...
2019-08-30 - Trelease Woods, a centuries-old forest on the cusp of Champaign-Urbana, offers lessons to students and professors alike at the University of Illinois. A fragment of a once much larger forest around the city of Urbana, the woods contain trees that are 400 years old and tell a story of the history of the area.
2019-08-01 - A new computer model incorporates how microscopic, mouth-like pores on leaves (pictured) may open in response to light—an advance that could help scientists create virtual plants to predict how higher temperatures and rising levels of carbon dioxide will affect food crops.
2019-06-18 - Plant biology professor Evan DeLucia and his colleagues found that hotter conditions expected by midcentury will lead to a need for crop irrigation in the Midwest, a region that relies primarily on rainfall to grow crops.
2019-06-03 - Conroy was awarded the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate past patterns of the water cycle in the tropical Pacific.
2019-05-15 - Dr. Andrew Miller, affiliate of Plant Biology, was presented with the Distinguished Research Scientist award from the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois during a Celebration of Excellence held to honor the outstanding achievements of its employees.
2019-05-01 - University of Illinois scientists have linked historical crop insurance, climate, soil and corn yield data to quantify the effects of excessive rainfall on corn yield.
2019-04-30 - University of Illinois plant biology and crop sciences professor Stephen P. Long is one of 100 new members elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
2019-04-08 - Daniel Raudabaugh, Plant Biology grad student in Andrew Miller's lab received a highly prestigious Schmidt Science Fellowship - after passing through several rounds of interviews.
2019-03-15 - The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Crops in silico (Cis) project has received a $5 million grant from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) to continue building a computational platform that integrates multiple models to study a whole plant virtually.
2019-01-23 - Elizabeth Ainsworth, USDA Agricultural Research Service, also an adjunct professor at Illinois and a member of the IGB Genomic Ecology of Global Change research theme, will receive the 2019 NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences.
2019-01-16 - Scientists Don Ort (left), Paul South (center) and Amanda Cavanagh (right) study how well their plants modified to bypass photorespiration perform beside unmodified plants in real-world conditions. They found that plants engineered with a synthetic shortcut are about 40 percent more productive
2019-01-04 - This summer, a new exchange program allowed nine interns from the University of Oxford the opportunity to conduct research alongside highly qualified researchers and experience a different culture at the University of Illinois.