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[前沿资讯 ] The Future of Potatoes: True Seeds, Hybrid Breeding and a New Commercial Era 进入全文
seedworld
Today, Solynta is entering a bold new chapter: moving from innovation to implementation, from research to real-world impact. Solynta has developed a proprietary hybrid breeding platform that brings precision, speed, and resilience to potato cultivation. Its hybrid TPS varieties offer consistent performance, higher yields, and robust resistance to key threats like late blight, drought, and heat. This level of genetic control has long been common in crops like corn and tomatoes — but achieving it in potatoes is a significant scientific milestone. Now, with a strong foundation of elite parental lines and a growing pipeline of hybrids, Solynta is shifting gears to commercialize its innovations at scale. We have identified several essential resistance genes, and incorporated those in our breeding activities,” said Edwin van der Vossen, Solynta head of research & development. “Many of our newest NON-GMO varieties now have a very high tolerance to late blight. Currently, we are continuing to focus on new traits that will provide additional beneficial characteristics to the future potato varieties. That is the big advantage of our non-GMO hybrid potato breeding technology: we can quickly breed new varieties, very focused and data-driven. Our focus will be on developing new varieties, that are tailored to specific regional climatical zones and fit the market demands”.Peter Poortinga, Solynta CEO. Photo: Solynta. TPS also offers flexibility in how it’s used: direct sowing, transplanting seedlings, or replanting harvested tubers, depending on local needs. This adaptability makes Solynta’s technology suitable for a wide range of environments — from large-scale commercial operations to smallholder farms.
[前沿资讯 ] Protein design and optimization for synthetic cells 进入全文
Nature Reviews Bioengineering
Proteins are essential components in synthetic biology, providing multiple functions at the nanoscale. Newly developed protein optimization and design tools allow the generation of proteins with desired properties, offering new opportunities for the engineering of protein-based biological systems. In this Review, we explore how bottom-up synthetic biology, with its aim to construct synthetic cells, can use these tools to devise complex biological functions and functional systems from scratch. We provide an overview of current capabilities in protein optimization, de novo protein design and iterative system optimization, and discuss their potential in synthetic cell science with regard to standardization, the generation of missing functionality and integration. We conclude with the outline of an integrated pipeline that combines protein engineering, automated synthetic cell generation and active learning, which might allow the design of entirely new biological systems that do not rely on naturally evolved protein components.
[前沿资讯 ] Programmable gene insertion in human cells with a laboratory-evolved CRISPR-associated transposase 进入全文
science
The ability to install large DNA sequences into specified locations in the human genome has far-reaching implications, including paving the way for single-drug treatments of mutationally diverse loss-of-function genetic diseases. CRISPR-associated transposases (CASTs) are naturally occurring systems that support RNA-programmable insertion of gene-sized DNA but have shown minimal activity in human cells. Witte et al. developed a continuous evolution platform to improve CAST activity, yielding an evolved CAST with more than 200-fold increased activity in human cells. This enzyme enables efficient gene integration across a variety of therapeutically relevant genomic sites in multiple human cell types, representing a versatile new platform for mammalian cell genome editing.
[前沿资讯 ] Leaving synthetic pesticides behind 进入全文
science
"Mitigating pesticide effects will require multiple approaches. Chemical pesticides should be progressively replaced with agroecological measures such as invertebrate biological control agents and biopesticides, many of which are cost-effective, environmentally sound, and practicable (5). Preventative pest management without chemical pesticides can include planting pest-tolerant varieties (6); using light, pheromone, or sticky traps (7); removing pest resources, such as harvest residues and alternative host plants; and altering sowing dates (8). Other strategies include diversifying crops through intercropping or cover cropping; mulching or organic manuring; establishing flower strips that provide food for predators and parasitic wasps; and raising aquatic animals, such as fish, ducks, or frogs, in cropping fields, where they can prey on insect herbivores or weeds (9). Precision agriculture and digital tools could also decrease pesticide use. Robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), artificial intelligence–based computer vision, and data-driven forecasting or advisory systems can all enable timely, targeted interventions (10). Tractor-pulled or autonomous camera–equipped mechanical weeders, for instance, can surgically remove weeds from a standing crop, and UAVs can “precision-drop” natural enemies or deliver biopesticide patch sprays on infestation hotspots. However, the funds and training required to use such technologies limit their accessibility and impact."
[学术文献 ] Chromatin loops are an ancestral hallmark of the animal regulatory genome 进入全文
Nature
In bilaterian animals, gene regulation is shaped by a combination of linear and spatial regulatory information. Regulatory elements along the genome are integrated into gene regulatory landscapes through chromatin compartmentalization1,2, insulation of neighbouring genomic regions3,4 and chromatin looping that brings together distal cis-regulatory sequences5. However, the evolution of these regulatory features is unknown because the three-dimensional genome architecture of most animal lineages remains unexplored6,7. To trace the evolutionary origins of animal genome regulation, here we characterized the physical organization of the genome in non-bilaterian animals (sponges, ctenophores, placozoans and cnidarians)8,9 and their closest unicellular relatives (ichthyosporeans, filastereans and choanoflagellates)10 by combining high-resolution chromosome conformation capture11,12 with epigenomic marks and gene expression data. Our comparative analysis showed that chromatin looping is a conserved feature of genome architecture in ctenophores, placozoans and cnidarians. These sequence-determined distal contacts involve both promoter–enhancer and promoter–promoter interactions. By contrast, chromatin loops are absent in the unicellular relatives of animals. Our findings indicate that spatial genome regulation emerged early in animal evolution. This evolutionary innovation introduced regulatory complexity, ultimately facilitating the diversification of animal developmental programmes and cell type repertoires.
[学术文献 ] Overexpression of StTCP10 Alters Tuber Number and Size in Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) 进入全文
Plants
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), cultivated worldwide for its nutrient-rich underground tubers, represents a crucial staple crop whose yield is primarily determined by both tuber number and tuber size. TCP transcription factors, especially TCP containing miR319 binding sites, play pivotal roles in plant growth and development, yet their functions in potato tuber number and size remain largely unexplored. In this study, we systematically identified 32 TCP genes in potato harboring the conserved TCP domain, among which six were predicted to contain binding sites for Stu-miR319. Semi-quantitative experiments revealed that StTCP10 exhibited the highest expression levels in stolons, swollen stolons, and tuber tissues compared to other StTCP genes containing miR319 binding sites. To elucidate its biological function, we generated StTCP10-overexpressing transgenic potato lines through Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation. Phenotypic analysis demonstrated that overexpression of StTCP10 reduced tuber number per plant while enhancing tuber size, with no significant change in total yield. These findings reveal that StTCP10 with Stu-miR319 binding sites plays a critical role in tuber size and mediates the trade-off between tuber size and number, providing novel insights into the molecular breeding aimed at improving tuber size.
