Gene technology regulators receive applications seeking permission for the environmental
release of genetically modified (GM) plants, many of which possess beneficial traits such as …

Efforts to increase genetic gains in breeding programs of flowering plants depend on making
genetic crosses. Time to flowering, which can take months to decades depending on the …

The extent to which horizontal gene transfer (HGT) has shaped eukaryote evolution remains
an open question. Two recent studies reported four plant-like genes acquired through two …

Plant viruses cause yield losses to crops of agronomic and economic significance and are a
challenge to the achievement of global food security. Although conventional plant breeding …

Lateral gene transfer (LGT) is well known as an important driver of genome evolution in
bacteria and archaea, but its importance in eukaryote evolution has yet to be fully …

The efficient delivery of CRISPR reagents into plants is a significant bottleneck hindering the
application of genome editing technologies. Viral vectors are an attractive alternative to …

Theobroma cacao is one of the most economically important tropical trees, being the source
of chocolate. As part of an ongoing study to understand the diversity of the badnavirus …

Advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatic analyses are accelerating the
quantity and quality of data from all domains of life. This rich resource has the potential to …

Cocoa, Theobroma cacao, is an important tropical perennial crop grown widely in the humid
tropics. The exchange of cocoa germplasm between germplasm collections and breeding …

Cassava mosaic disease (CMD), which is caused by single-stranded DNA begomoviruses,
severely limits cassava production across Africa. A previous study showed that CMD …