Plant Institute News | Plant Institute | The Huck Institutes (en-US)

Dec 09, 2019

Novel way to ID disease-resistance genes in chocolate-producing trees found

Chocolate-producing cacao trees that are resistant to a major pathogen were identified by an international team of plant geneticists. The findings point the way for plant breeders to develop trees that are tolerant of the disease.

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Dec 10, 2019

Forest farms could create market for ginseng, other herbs

A transition from wild collection of herbs to forest farming needs to occur in Appalachia to make the opaque, unstable and unjust supply chain for forest medicinal plants such as ginseng sustainable, according to a team of researchers who have studied the market for more than a decade.

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Nov 13, 2019

Choosing most cost-effective practices for sites could save in bay cleanup

Using site-specific watershed data to determine the most cost-effective agricultural best management practices — rather than requiring all the recommended practices be implemented across the entire watershed — could make staying below the Chesapeake Bay’s acceptable pollution load considerably less expensive.

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Nov 08, 2019

Global Faculty Fellow will create connections between Penn State and Colombia

Siela Maximova, research professor of plant biotechnology, has been named a Global Faculty Fellow in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences and a Land Grant University U.S.-Colombia Fulbright Scholar.

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Oct 07, 2019

Mackenzie Named Inaugural Director of Plant Institute

Sally Mackenzie sees a unique opportunity for Penn State to address complex global challenges in an unprecedented way.

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Apr 04, 2019

Insect-deterring sorghum compounds may be eco-friendly pesticide

Compounds produced by sorghum plants to defend against insect feeding could be isolated, synthesized and used as a targeted, nontoxic insect deterrent, according to researchers who studied plant-insect interactions that included field, greenhouse and laboratory components.

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Apr 03, 2019

Guiltinan, Maximova receive the 2019 Kopp International Achievement Award

Mark Guiltinan, professor of plant molecular biology, and Siela Maximova, research professor of plant biotechnology, both in the College of Agricultural Sciences, are the recipients of Penn State's 2019 W. LaMarr Kopp International Achievement Award.

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Farmers in Angonia, Mozambique, happy with the performance of new varieties of common bean developed by an international partnership of plant scientists that included researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, pose among plants in a bean field. Plant breeding field trials have been conducted with bean growers in multiple regions of the country in southeast Africa. IMAGE: JIMMY BURRIDGE

Nov 29, 2018

Penn State root research results in breeding of improved bean plants for Africa

In the culmination of more than a decade of research on root traits conducted by Penn State plant scientists, about three tons of seed for common bean plants specifically bred to thrive in the barren soils of Mozambique will be distributed there Dec. 11.

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