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Building a Better Forest Tree With CRISPR Gene Editing

Author: Mick Kulikowski

Researchers with poplar trees in a greenhouse.

Oct 18, 2024

Finding Could Help Turn Trees Into Affordable, Greener Industrial Chemicals

Specific molecular property of lignin in trees determines difficulty of using microbial fermentation to turn trees and other plants into industrial chemicals. 
Ants on a plant in Peru.

Oct 14, 2024

Study Finds Mutualistic Relationships Changing With Climate

As temperatures heat up, the beneficial relationship between certain ants and plants in Peru cools down. 
Picture of corn plant against the sky.

Aug 28, 2024

Diverse Crop Rotations Reduce Risk of Crop Loss Under Poor Growing Conditions

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are responding to the increasingly uncertain climate with a closer look at crop rotations. 
Historic potato plant affected by pathogen.

Aug 5, 2024

Study Analyzes Potato-Pathogen ‘Arms Race’ After Irish Famine

Researchers examine both the pathogen’s effector genes and the plant’s resistance genes simultaneously in a first-of-its-kind analysis. 
A bed bug works its way through a bed net.

Jul 23, 2024

The Unintended Consequences of Success Against Malaria

Bed nets and insecticide sprays kept targeted mosquitoes at bay for decades, and those practices also killed household pests. Until they didn’t. 
Workers hang hemp plants to dry.

Jul 1, 2024

Commercial Stock Photos of Farmworkers Found Lacking

Publicly available photos of farmworkers fail to represent workers and the tasks they perform, sometimes resulting in health and safety materials that lack relevance. 
A food scientist hydrates a protein for use in a food formulation.

May 31, 2024

Bezos Earth Fund Grant Creates Sustainable Protein Research Hub at NC State

Research will engage academic and industry partners to create and commercialize new technologies to shape the future of sustainable food production. 

Apr 18, 2024

2 CALS Faculty Included in New Class of AAAS Fellows

Plant and Microbial Biology professors Qiuyun Xiang and Jose Alonso are among six NC State faculty elected as the newest Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
Researcher works with carrots to study pigmentation, domestication

Sep 28, 2023

What Makes a Carrot Orange?

Three recessive genes are required to give carrots their orange color – and the beneficial precursor of vitamin A. 
Photo of CRISPR-modified and wild trees in an NC State greenhouse.

Jul 13, 2023

Building a Better Forest Tree With CRISPR Gene Editing

Researchers reduce lignin levels and improve wood properties in poplar trees using the increasingly popular gene-editing system.