80 / SEEDWORLD.COM FEBRUARY 2019 INDUSTRY NEWS Delivering the people, industry, business and product news you need to know. Submissions are welcome. Email us at news@issuesink.com. New research has discovered how plant roots sense the availability of moisture in soil and then adapt their shape to optimize acquisition of water. The discovery could enable crops to be bred which are more adaptive to changes in climate conditions, such as water scarcity, and help ensure food security in the future. These findings describe a new molecular mechanism discovered by collaborating teams at the universities of Nottingham and Durham. Responsible innovation that considers the wider impacts on society is key to smart farming, according to academics at the University of East Anglia (UEA). In a new journal article David Rose and Jason Chilvers, from UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences, argue that the concept of responsible innovation should underpin the so-called fourth agricultural revolution, ensuring that innovations also provide social benefits and address potentially negative side-effects. A science experiment aiming to demonstrate plants’ capabilities in space has arrived at the International Space Station and is ready to begin relaying data. The experiment, according to University of Utah chemistry professor and project chief scientist Ming Hammond, will assess in real- time whether plants engineered to bio-manufacture specific proteins, in a process called synthetic biology, can do so in space. Cover crops grown in fields during winter may be warming temperatures in the northern United States and southern Canada, according to a new study by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The crops, a land management strategy farmers use between growing seasons, create a darker surface than a snow- covered field, absorbing more heat from the Sun and producing a local warming effect. Researchers from the unit of plant physiology at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) department of animal biology, plant biology and ecology, in collaboration with the University of Nottingham and the John Innes Centre in Norwich, recently identified several modifications in a sodium transporter gene called HKT1;1 with key relevance to the adaptation of natural populations of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana to environments with fluctuating soil salinity. Wild lettuce varieties contain more healthy nutrients and are often more resistant to diseases and pests than commercial varieties. Plant breeders can benefit from this when they seek to breed healthy, tasty and robust lettuce, according to a study from researchers at Wageningen Plant Research. The plant researchers grew 150 lettuce varieties from the gene bank of the Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands (CGN). These included commercial varieties such as Lactuca sativa, and wild varieties such as Lactuca virosa, also known as poison lettuce. This lettuce variety produces a lot of bitter substances, which probably contribute to its resistance to diseases and pests, but it is also slightly poisonous for humans. A new, pioneering forage wheat model could provide a valuable technique to researchers exploring the potential of biomass production for cool- season annual forage grasses, according to model developers. Researchers at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Overton – Monte Rouquette, Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant physiologist, and Prem Woli, AgriLife Research crop modeler, recently published a paper in Agronomy Journal titled “Simulating Winter Wheat Forage Production in the Southern U.S. Using a Forage Wheat Model.” It focuses on annual forage grass modeling with the Decision Support System for