All Soil & Plant Science articles – Page 15
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Microbes bingeing on burned soil could return land to life after wildfires
Researchers have identified bacteria and fungi that not only survive but thrive during the first year after a wildfire, findings that could help bring land back to life after fires that are increasing in both size and severity. The Holy Fire burned more than 23,000 acres ...
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Deadly Keanu-inspired bacterial compound delivers excellent anti-fungal protection to plants
Researchers have proved that an antimicrobial natural product produced by Pseudomonas - and named after Keanu Reeves - is effective against both plant fungal diseases and human-pathogenic fungi.
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Scientists discover how plastic-eating bacteria digest complex carbons
Researchers have deciphered the metabolic mechanisms that enable the bacterium Comamonas testosteroni to digest complex wasste from plants and plastics, potentially leading to novel biotechnology platforms that harness the microbe to help recycle plastic waste.
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Biorefinery uses microbial fuel cell to upcycle resistant plant waste
Researchers have developed a sustainable, inexpensive two-step process that can upcycle organic carbon waste - including lignin - transforming it into antioxidant flavonoids for nutrition and medicine. .By processing waste through a microbe-driven biorefinery, the researchers turned lignin into carbon sources that could be used in high-value, plant-derived pharmaceuticals and ...
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Nanobodies spur Nod factor receptors into forming root nodules
Engineering root nodule symbiosis into cereals has come a step closer with the use of nanobodies to spur Nod factor receptors into initiating nodule formation.
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Hundreds of newly discovered microbes could be used as natural fertilizer for poor soil
The discovery of hundreds of previously unknown microbes in a Brazilian ecosystem could potentially form a basis for the development of biological substitutes for the chemical fertilizers used by farmers, especially those containing phosphorus.
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Soil organisms are key to high functioning of city parks and gardens
A new global study highlights the fundamental role of soil biodiversity in maintaining the functioning of the world’s parks and gardens.
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Sugar cane pathogen delivers promising new antibiotic candidate
A potent plant toxin with a unique way of killing harmful bacteria has emerged as one of the strongest new antibiotic candidates in decades.
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Long-term projects reveal how warming planet will impact microbe carbon cycling
A team of researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has helped to untangle one of the knottiest questions involving soil microbes and climate change: what effect does a warming planet have on the microbes’ carbon cycling?
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Scientists develop novel bioimaging method to explore plant-microbe interactions
Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have been awarded funding from DOE’s Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research (BER) bioimaging program to understand plant-microbe communication and how it facilitates plant growth and health.
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Enzyme mechanism discovery in filamentous fungi could usher in efficient biomass energy production
Scientists discover new regulatory mechanisms in moulds, potentially enabling a comprehensive high production method for various enzymes that degrade plant biomass.
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Iron-scavenging endophyte could be newest weapon against resistant TB
An iron-scavenging endophytic bacterium could be the latest class of weapon in the fight against multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, researchers have found.
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Two fungi join forces to rampage through fig trees
Researchers have identified a fungus, Fusarium kuroshium, which is harmless by itself, but ravages fig trees when found together with Ceratocystis ficicola, which is transmitted by an ambrosia beetle, Euwallacea interjectus.
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Researchers patent synthetic arsenic-based antibiotic originating in soil bacteria
Florida International University researchers have moved a step closer to producing synthetic arsenic-based drugs in their quest to solve an urgent worldwide health problem ―the growing number of infections that have become antibiotic-resistant.
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Almost half of Europe’s wheat crops contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxin
Almost half of wheat crops across Europe are impacted by Fusarium Head Blight, according to a study led by fungal biologist Dr Neil Brown from the UK’s University of Bath, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Exeter.
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Study reveals how bioenergy crop microbiomes change as you dig deeper
A new study casts fresh light on how bioenergy crop microbiomes change in deeper soil, helping scientists to understand how plant microbiomes can be used to provide environmental services and support greener agricultural systems.
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Researchers develop silicone sponge that sucks up microbial dark matter
A team of researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has developed a “sponge” made of porous, formable silicone embedded in a chip, which can suck up unknown microorganisms in the environment for further research.
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Common fungus eradicates toxic mercury from soil and water
Researchers have found that the fungus Metarhizium robertsii removes mercury from the soil around plant roots, and from fresh and saltwater, and have genetically engineered the fungus to amplify its mercury detoxifying effects.
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Duplicate genes play key role in formation of legumes’ nitrogen fixing structures
Researchers have found that a duplication of the genes plays a key role in the processes governing the formation of symbiotic structures between nitrogen-fixing bacteria and leguminous plants.
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Humps and bumps provide home for microbes jumpstarting soil formation in glacial moraine
Scientists have discovered how topographical irregularities in barren substrates exposed by a melting Himalayan glacier are driving the formation of a variety of pioneering microbial communities that will pave the way for soil formation.