Related News

plants with an auto chamber

First-Ever Conceptual Model Explains Variations in Agricultural N2O Emissions

Nitrous oxide (N2O) has long been agriculture’s sustainability Achilles heel. While only making up 6% of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, N2O has 300 times the heat-trapping ability ofcarbon dioxide (CO2) and stays in the atmosphere for about...
A headshot of Marianne Alleyne and Yutao Chen

Entomology researchers have cicada research featured in Science publication

At this year’s Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology (SICB) Conference, Entomology Assistant Professor Marianne Alleyne and graduate student Yutao Chen showcased their research on the...
Headshots of James O'Dwyer and Kenneth Jops

Quantifying life history difference in tropical plant communities can help in predicting changes in population size

A University of Illinois team recently published new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences based on their ongoing work on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), a key research site...
A field of two-foot-tall sorghum plants at sunset. The sky has streaks of pink and blue.

Rubisco's role in global food security

As global food demand continues to grow, researchers are exploring multiple strategies to boost crop productivity. While engineering plant enzymes and biochemical pathways that are more efficient remains a transformative goal, this review highlights another promising approach: increasing Rubisco...
man and a woman in white lab coats hold containers with young green plants in a lab setting.

Climate-ready crop: RIPE team shows increase in food mass through photorespiratory bypass in elevated temperatures

A team from the University of Illinois has engineered potato to be more resilient to global warming, showing 30% increases in tuber mass under heatwave conditions. This adaptation may provide greater food security for families dependent on potatoes, as these are...
A man and a woman working in a field together

Study: Mesophyll conductance doubles in soybean domestication, providing opportunity to be enhanced through selective breeding

 CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – In a new study conducted by the Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) project, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looked back in time at soybean growth and...
A man looking up at a camera smiling

Thin skin significantly blunts injury from puncture, study finds

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Thin, stretchy skin — like that of a pig or human — significantly lessens the underlying damage that occurs when it’s punctured. Pig skin even outperforms synthetic materials that are designed to mimic skin, a new study finds. Its special qualities, in particular its ability to...
A photo of a man with a machine standing next to a corn field

Carl Bernacchi helping raise the bar for agriculture climate research at Illinois

When Carl Bernacchi was completing his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois some 20 years ago, Illinois was globally referred to as a “photosynthesis powerhouse.” Today, thanks to Bernacchi and other world-class researchers...
Two men standing in a field holding bees

Study: Good nutrition boosts honey bee resilience against pesticides, viruses

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign tackled a thorny problem: How do nutritional stress, viral infections and exposure to pesticides together influence honey bee survival? By looking at all three stressors together, the scientists found that...
two men standing in front of plants.

CABBI team designs efficient bioenergy crops that need less water to grow

Drought stress has long been a limiting factor for crop production around the world, a challenge exacerbated by climate change.For more than a century­, scientists have targeted a key plant trait known as water use efficiency (WUE) to help crops grow with less water and avoid suffering from drought...