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IMAGE: Using a chronosequence of corn lines, University of Illinois researchers found decades of breeding and reliance on chemical fertilizers prevents modern corn from recruiting nitrogen-fixing microbes. view more
Credit: Alonso Favela, University of Illinois.
URBANA, Ill. - Corn didn t start out as the powerhouse crop it is today. No, for most of the thousands of years it was undergoing domestication and improvement, corn grew humbly within the limits of what the environment and smallholder farmers could provide.
For its fertilizer needs, early corn made friends with nitrogen-fixing soil microbes by leaking an enticing sugary cocktail from its roots. The genetic recipe for this cocktail was handed down from parent to offspring to ensure just the right microbes came out to play.
Published: Friday, December 18, 2020
Walking rows of soybeans in the mid-summer heat is an exhausting but essential chore in breeding new cultivars. Researchers brave the heat daily during crucial parts of the growing season to look for plants showing desirable traits, such as early pod maturity.
But without a way to automate detection of these traits, breeders can t test as many plots as they d like in a given year, elongating the time it takes to bring new cultivars to market.
In a new study from the University of Illinois, researchers predict soybean maturity date within two days using drone images and artificial intelligence, greatly reducing the need for boots on the ground.
Mark and Tammy Allen rescued feral bees from a downed tree and took them in to pollinate their permaculture field, despite having minimal experience with beekeeping.
URBANA â Walking rows of soybeans in the mid-summer heat is an exhausting but essential chore in breeding new cultivars.
Researchers brave the heat daily during crucial parts of the growing season to look for plants showing desirable traits, such as early pod maturity. But without a way to automate detection of these traits, breeders canât test as many plots as theyâd like in a given year, elongating the time it takes to bring new cultivars to market.