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Their research is part basic science, investigating the bacterium's resilience in a hostile environment – coffee leaves – and part biotech, seeing whether the bacterium inhibits the development of a pathogen that causes severe losses to coffee growers. A study supported by FAPESP analyzed the potential of a bacterium for biological control of the fungus Hemileia vastatrix, which causes coffee rust, a major challenge for Brazilian coffee growers. An article on the study is [...]

If you look at a net full of pacus (Piaractus mesopotamicus), you cannot distinguish with the naked eye which individuals will have descendants with higher filet yield or faster weight gain. Their growth can be monitored with a tape measure, and they can be weighed on a scale. The data can be tabulated and compared. But to breed an entire population with the right characteristics, some 2,000 fish per generation must be measured and weighed, and the task can take days. In Brazil, [...]

Researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (CENA-USP) in Brazil, collaborating with colleagues in Canada, France, Italy and Spain, reviewed 1,154 original scientific articles published between 2009 and 2022 on the effects of nanomaterials in 1,374 plants belonging to 253 species. The metadata review assembled and organized quantitative information on the experimental parameters used in the scientific literature of the past decade. With [...]

October 19, 2022 by Ricardo Muniz, FAPESP A Brazilian study published in Scientific Reports shows that artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to create efficient models for genomic selection of sugarcane and forage grass varieties and predict their performance in the field on the basis of their DNA. In terms of accuracy compared with traditional breeding techniques, the proposed methodology improved predictive power by more than 50%. This is the first time a highly efficient genomic [...]

Developing countries around the globe face a challenge that pits economic growth against environmental protection. As they expand their agricultural production, they often convert forest into cropland and pasture. But the large-scale removal of trees weakens the world’s ability to prevent further climate deterioration and biodiversity loss. Brazil presents a key example. The country is home to the world’s largest area of rainforest—some 1.2 million square miles, an area [...]

The banana borer Cosmopolites sordidus and the disease Fusarium wilt, caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum, are among the most harmful pests that threaten the livelihoods of banana growers, who face major challenges in attempting to control them. The former is a species of weevil that bores into the plant's rhizome (the underground stem that produces roots and shoots), weakening its root system, reducing nutrient absorption and significantly lowering yield. The adult insect [...]

A study conducted at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) has discovered that three strains of Pseudomonas bacteria can inhibit growth, and even cause the death, of the fungus responsible for pineapple sett rot, a disease that attacks sugarcane, especially in the planting season. The results are reported in an article published in Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the United Kingdom’s Society for Applied Microbiology, and could serve as a basis for [...]