Imagine a devastating plant disease that sweeps the land, decimating crops. For Florida’s citrus growers, that apocalyptic vision is not a horror movie, but a reality: since it was first identified in the Sunshine State in 2005, citrus greening disease has reduced Florida’s citrus production by a whopping 70%, and threatened other major citrus producing states such as California and Texas. Without …

Americans are growing old and, sadly, the aging process for many means more than simply turning gray or thinning hair. According to the United States Census, in about a dozen years the number of Americans over 65 will outnumber children. Further, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project the number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) to nearly triple by …

The rhizosphere, defined as the soil environment that surrounds the plant roots, is a rich and diverse habitat for microbes. Some members of the rhizosphere microbiome (or collection of microbes), are good, others bad while many are just there and don’t provide any benefits or harm to the host. One function of the good microbes in the rhizosphere is to …

The Silk Road – the 4,000-mile stretch between China and western Europe where trade flourished from the second century B.C. to the 14th century A.D. – is responsible for one of our favorite and most valuable fruits: the domesticated apple. Snack-packing travelers would pick apples at one spot, eat them and toss their cores many miles away. The seeds grew …

California’s $86 million date industry produces more than half of the nation’s dates. Most of the fruit is grown in the arid Coachella Valley. Despite efforts by growers to conserve water, data was lacking on date palms’ actual water use to refine the best irrigation management for the crop until a recent research project led by Ali Montazar, UC Cooperative …

Dr. Timothy Artlip, a Plant Physiologist with the USDA-ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, WV, was recently interviewed in the USDA-ARS Under the Microscope publication regarding the future of apple breeding. His work encapsulates efforts to improve the breeding and cultivating of apples through genomics research, and he is bullish about the future.  Read the following Q&As from the Under the Microscope (UM): …