UC Davis plant scientists have identified an enzyme that appears to play a key role in the insect-transmitted bacterial infection of grapevines with Pierce's disease, which annually costs California's grape and wine industries more than $100 million.
The genome of California's legendary sugar pine, which naturalist John Muir declared to be "king of the conifers" more than a century ago, has been sequenced by a research team led by UC Davis scientists.
Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have for the first time sequenced the genome of a commercial walnut variety. The information should accelerate the rate of breeding and variety improvement in walnuts and help breeders select for desired traits such as insect and disease resistance, and drought tolerance.
A new effort to provide California growers with seeds for tomato, bean, pepper and other crop varieties that are specially bred for organic farming has been launched at UC Davis. The organic plant-breeding project was developed in direct response to California organic growers, who have reported that the scarcity of seeds.
Nearly all of the tomatoes grown in the U.S. for tomato sauce, paste, ketchup, juice, and other processed foods are harvested by Hanna and Lorenzen's once-scorned machine.
