A new study reveals how the duplication of the salivary amylase gene may not only have helped shape human adaptation to starchy foods, but may have occurred as far back as more than 800,000 years ago, long before the advent of farming.

A new study led by The University of Buffalo and The Jackson Laboratory showcases how early duplications of gene that allows us to begin breaking down complex carbohydrates the stage for the wide genetic variation that still exists today, influencing how effectively humans digest starchy foods.

Foreign animal diseases are a global threat to swine production with the potential for detrimental economic implications. Recently, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign received a three-year grant of $650,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop sensitive, rapid, low-cost, and portable point-of-use biosensors to improve on-farm detection and surveillance of African swine fever virus.

Researchers at the University of Toronto have cracked the code of plant-to-fungi communication in a new study published in the journal Molecular Cell. Using baker’s yeast, the researchers discovered that the plant hormone strigolactone (SL) activates fungal genes and proteins associated with phosphate metabolism, a system that is key to growth. This insight into how fungi respond to chemical signals at the molecular level could lead to new strategies for cultivating hardier crops and combatting disease-causing fungi.

In a landmark report, the Global Commission on the Economics of Water says the water crisis puts at risk more than half of the world’s food production by 2050. It also threatens an 8% loss of GDP in countries around the world on average by 2050, with as much as a 15% loss in lower-income countries, and even larger economic consequences beyond.