Bionema Launches New Range of Biofertilizers in the UK. Bionema Group Ltd. is launching four biofertilizers comprising living microbes that enhance plant nutrition by mobilizing or increasing nutrient availability in soils and substrates. The BioNFix range and Rhizosafe include Paenibacillus azotofixans BNL1913, Azospirillum lipoferum BNL714, Bradyrhizobium japonicum BNL1061, and Rhizophagus irregularis BNL2414 encapsulated in a novel Incapsulex technology platform. This technology effectively encapsulates naturally derived microorganisms and delivers them on target, safely and effectively. These biofertilisers restore the soil’s natural nutrient cycle and build soil organic matter, enhancing plant growth while avoiding the use of synthetic fertilisers that can pollute the world’s waters and its atmosphere. go to NotA

BASF and Vivagro, an innovative French company focused on agroecological solutions, signed a distribution agreement for the product Essen’ciel for the Italian and Spanish market. Essen’ciel is a natural fungicide, insecticide and acaricide based on sweet orange essential oil. It is approved for organic uses, including vine grapes, vegetable crops, berries, ornamental crops, industrial crops and arboriculture. Especially for pip fruits such as apples, pears, and quinces, Essen’ciel represents an alternative biocontrol product in light of scarcity of insecticide solutions. Essen’ciel will be distributed within the portfolio of BioSolutions by BASF in Spain and Italy. “Biological crop protection is an important step forward to further support sustainable agriculture,” said Marco Moorfeld, Vice President Market Management Europe at BASF Agricultural Solutions. Essen’ciel is one of Vivagro’s core products. It is a contact curative treatment with a unique mode of action: it desiccates soft-bodied insects and the aerial organs of pathological fungi. Furthermore, it is a fundamental tool for integrated pest management (IPM), to complete spray programs as it takes into account waste management without neglecting efficiency. “We are proud of our biological innovations. Bringing these to the market with the support of BASF is an important milestone to further expand our business, and meet the expectations of farmers and agricultural industries”, explained Alain Petersen, Export Manager from Vivagro. go to NotA

Brazil is expected to harvest a record 317.5 million tons of grains in the 2022-23 agriculture cycle. According to the 10th Grain Harvest Survey by Conab, the country’s food supply and statistics agency, the planting area in Brazil shows a growth of 4.9% compared to the 2021/22 cycle, reaching 78.2 million hectares. Productivity has also seen a rise of 11.1%, averaging 4,060 kg per hectare. Soybeans continue to dominate and an estimated harvest of 154.6 million tons. Corn production is also expected to achieve a new record, reaching 127.8 million tons. Cotton production is forecasted at 3 million tons, reflecting an increase of 30,000 tons compared to the previous projection in June. The rice harvest, on the other hand, is expected to reach 10 million tons. Among the winter crops, wheat leads with an estimated production of 10.4 million tons. go to NotA

Engineering the utilization of non-native substrates, or synthetic heterotrophy, in proven industrial microbes such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae represents an opportunity to valorize plentiful and renewable sources of carbon and energy as inputs to bioprocesses. We previously demonstrated that activation of the galactose (GAL) regulon, a regulatory structure used by this yeast to coordinate substrate utilization with biomass formation during growth on galactose, during growth on the non-native substrate xylose results in a vastly altered gene expression profile and faster growth compared with constitutive overexpression of the same heterologous catabolic pathway. However, this effort involved the creation of a xylose-inducible variant of Gal3p (Gal3pSyn4.1), the sensor protein of the GAL regulon, preventing this semi-synthetic regulon approach from being easily adapted to additional non-native substrates. Here, we report the construction of a variant Gal3pMC (metabolic coordinator) that exhibits robust GAL regulon activation in the presence of structurally diverse substrates and recapitulates the dynamics of the native system. go to NotA

Finalists announced for the 2023 EU Organic Awards. The finalists of the 2023 edition of the EU Organic Awards have been announced today. The three best projects have been selected for each of the 8 individual awards, with a total of 24 finalists from 11 EU countries. The finalists were selected from a pool of close to 100 applications from all over Europe, with a higher presence of Central European and Baltic entries compared to last year. The winners will be announced at the official award ceremony to be held in Brussels on 25 September. The EU Organic Awards were first launched in 2022 as part of a commitment made in the Action Plan for the Development of Organic Production with the objective of recognising excellence all along the organic value chain, from farmers to restaurants, from SMEs to bio-districts. The finalists in each category are as follows: Best organic farmer (female) Małgorzata Pucer (Pasiekapucer) - Barciany, Poland Céline Clenet (La Casseline) - Cassel, France Clara Benito Pacheco (Entrelobas) - Serrada de la Fuente, Spain Best organic farmer (male) Roberto Giadone (Natura Iblea) - Ispica, Sicily, Italy Thomas Moschos (Moschos Farm) – Kastoria, Greece Mikhaylo Haliv (Tomelloso) - Ciudad Real, Spain Best organic region Dordogne, France Centre-Val de Loire, France Burgenland, Austria Further information about the candidates, the selection criteria, and the awards in general can be found on the EU Organic Awards webpage. go to NotA

The human skeletal form underlies our ability to walk on two legs, but unlike standing height, the genetic basis of limb lengths and skeletal proportions is less well understood. Here we applied a deep learning model to 31,221 whole body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) images from the UK Biobank (UKB) to extract 23 different image-derived phenotypes (IDPs) that include all long bone lengths as well as hip and shoulder width, which we analyzed while controlling for height. All skeletal proportions are highly heritable (∼40-50%), and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of these traits identified 179 independent loci, of which 102 loci were not associated with height. These loci are enriched in genes regulating skeletal development as well as associated with rare human skeletal diseases and abnormal mouse skeletal phenotypes. Genetic correlation and genomic structural equation modeling indicated that limb proportions exhibited strong genetic sharing but were genetically independent of width and torso proportions. Phenotypic and polygenic risk score analyses identified specific associations between osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip and knee, the leading causes of adult disability in the United States, and skeletal proportions of the corresponding regions. We also found genomic evidence of evolutionary change in arm-to-leg and hip-width proportions in humans consistent with striking anatomical changes in these skeletal proportions in the hominin fossil record. In contrast to cardiovascular, auto-immune, metabolic, and other cat go to NotA

Animal venoms are widely acknowledged as rich sources of new molecules with applications in medicine, agriculture, and science. Whereas the venoms of snakes and arachnids have been extensively studied, the venom of many insect taxa remains entirely uncharacterized. Asp caterpillar venoms cause extreme pain, but nothing is known about their production, composition, or mode of action. This study reveals the anatomy of venom production and delivery, the composition of the venom, and its mechanism of inducing pain. The central insight of this paper is that the toxins responsible for causing pain are encoded by genes that have been acquired by horizontal transfer from bacteria, highlighting the role of horizontal transfer in the evolution of animal venoms. go to NotA

LIONESS has developed a technology that uses advances in ultra-high-resolution optical microscopy and advanced information about the structure of the sample using machine learning to overcome the limitations (in 3D resolution, signal-to-noise ratio and illumination) of optical microscopy of living biological objects. samples. LIONESS provides dense reconstruction of living brain tissue and visualization of morphodynamics at the nanoscale. go to NotA

A Future Without Glyphosate Aimpoint Research, a global strategic intelligence firm, released a new report, “A Future Without Glyphosate" exploring the complexities of glyphosate’s impact on our agricultural system, farmers’ livelihoods, the economy, and the environment if the most widely used herbicide in the U.S. was no longer available. Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant. It is used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses that compete with crops. Its herbicidal effectiveness was discovered by Monsanto chemist John E. Franz in 1970. Monsanto brought it to market for agricultural use in 1974 under the trade name Roundup. The main conclusion of the Aimpoint Research if glyphosate were no longer available: 1. U.S. agriculture would see increased tillage and decreased cover crops, potentially leading to the release of up to 34 million tons of CO2. That’s the equivalent of 6.8 million cars or nearly 36.5 million acres of forests. 2. Farmers would see a 2-2.5x increase in input costs due to limited supply and higher prices of alternative products. The increase would disproportionately impact smaller farms. 3. Increasing tillage would raise production costs by over $1.9 billion. 4. Increased production costs would add inflationary pressure on food prices over the long-term for consumers. 5. U.S. agriculture - and U.S. corn in particular - would become less competitive globally. 6. More alternatives would eventually be available over time but would take several years and sign go to NotA

When we need to apply herbicide on corn, 3-, 5- or 8- leaves? On the left part this picture we see wrong answer. We applied the herbicide on the corn when it reached on the stage 8-leaves. On the right part of this photo we applied the herbicide on the corn in 3-leaves stage. Of course, we see small plants on the left part. You can say, what weeds get a big volume elements from the soil and you absolutly right but I have one intrestiong idea. Recently I read some articles about a mycorrhiza which settle on the corn’s roots after the stage 5-leaves. Apparently some weeds can inhibit mycorrhiza and that's why corn is growing very slowly. The main conclusion - you have to apply herbicide on the corn to the stage 5-leaves. go to NotA