Gene that controls ozone resistance of plants could lead to drought-resistant crops – One of today’s top environmental concerns is how global warming effects the environment. Researchers from the University of California – San Diego and the University of Helsinki in Finland have now shed some light on this tough concern. Perviously, scientists surmised that increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would help increase photosynthetic activity and increase carbon sequestration. These new findings suggest plants close their pores to avoid taking up ozone in the atmosphere, thereby avoiding the damaging effect of ozone on photosynthetic machinery. Image shows guard cells surrounding a pore. Published in Nature.

Agriculture News:
Researchers Map Corn Plant’s Genome – Following the rough draft of the human genome, scientists have focused on mapping out as many genomes as possible. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have now added corn to the lengthening list of mapped organisms. With this massive breakthrough, scientists hope to increase corn yield and fitness.

New high-throughput method of genetic modification in peas
One major challenge to the genetic modification of pea plants is that current techniques commonly used in other crops are simply unsuited for peas. But, all that is slated to change as researchers from the INRA Plant Genomics Research Unit at Evry have developed a mutant strain of a pea plant using a high throughput method called TILLING.

Earlier Plantings Underlie Yield Gains in Northern Corn Belt- A new study finds that planting corn earlier in the season leads to increased crop yields. While climate changes have been positive for this earlier growing period, it is uncertain whether this positive trend will continue.