Study reviews detection methods beyond DNA in genome-edited plants - Darwin As genome editing technologies continue to evolve, there is a growing need for methods capable of detecting and characterising the changes they introduce in crops.

This latest study reviews strategies based on metabolomics, proteomics, microRNA, methylation, and glycosylation profiling.

These #non-genomic approaches are presented as relevant tools for the detection of new plant varieties, as well as for supporting regulatory compliance.

Learn more:

🛰️ Our European Service Module has successfully separated from Orion's crew module!
🚀 After propelling the spacecraft over 1 million km in deep space, it will now burn up in Earth's atmosphere, as the astronauts continue their journey home 🌍

Coevolution of plant–microbe interactions, friend–foe continuum, and microbiome engineering for a sustainable future

Microbiome eavesdropping: root-knot nematodes decode rhizosphere volatile dialogues Root-knot nematodes navigate the underground chemical landscape to find their hosts. Building on Wu et al.’s discovery that plant metabolites shape microbial cues guiding nematode behavior, this commentary explores how rhizosphere chemical communication integrates plant, microbial, and parasite interactions within a shared ‘information network’.

Microbiome eavesdropping: root-knot nematodes decode rhizosphere volatile dialogues #plantscience

How Should Policymakers Respond to Rising Fertilizer Prices? The Iran war has driven up the cost of fertilizer, squeezing farmers in the developing world. Prof. Kevin Donovan says that governments can respond most effectively by shifting from broad subsidies to...

Good article making the point of why we need alternatives to synthetic nitrogen fertilizers like biological nitrogen fixation for smallholder farmers:
insights.som.yale.edu/insights/how...

The 2025 numbers are really striking.

www.kielinstitut.de/fileadmin/Da...

Rational reduction of a sorghum SynCom that preserves growth promotion reveals flavonoid-mediated plant microbe interactions | bioRxiv

Avec « La Société du factice. Journal d’un complotiste », Didier Raoult continue sa descente dans le conspirationnisme Dans son essai, le microbiologiste controversé reprend la plupart des grands récits complotistes contemporains, et y ajoute des suspicions de son cru.

Didier Raoult est l'archétype de la star co-produite par la politique de concentration des moyens dans les mains de P.I. qui deviennent bureaucrates à plein temps, et par l'hebdomadaire confusionniste Le Point.
www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeur...

Two #PestSurveyCard are now available on nematodes of the Xiphinema americanum group:
➡️ link.europa.eu/jQk6pY
➡️ link.europa.eu/DYQBTB

These pests can transmit #viruses that are also regulated, see: bsky.app/profile/efsa...

@son-nemaweb.bsky.social
@eurl-ppns.bsky.social
@agricoedu.bsky.social

Celebrating Women in STEM: The Legacy of Elizabeth Roemer - Lowell Observatory Discover the incredible journey of Elizabeth Roemer, a pioneering female astronomer who recovered lost comets, made groundbreaking asteroid discoveries, and fought for gender equality in STEM.

Celebrating Women in STEM: the legacy of Elizabeth Roemer, a trailblazer in Astronomy

lowell.edu/celebrating-...

🔭🧪

Group picture - EFSA and SSUFSCP Delegations

SSUFSCP representative and EFSA's Executive Director shaking hands

🇪🇺 🤝 🇺🇦 | SSUFSCP delegation visits EFSA

We had the pleasure of welcoming a delegation from the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety & Consumer Protection (SSUFSCP) to EFSA.

Discussions focused on current priorities and potential future cooperation to support food safety and consumer protection

Artist impression of Vega-C rocket soaring over Earth with the Smile logo on its fairing.

This is what #VV29 will look like in space 🚀

Smile, the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, is a joint mission between @science.esa.int and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Europe’s Vega-C rocket can launch 2300 kg into space, like small scientific and Earth observation spacecraft.

Notre tribune de scientifiques pour alerter sur les dangers de la nouvelle loi d'urgence pour l'agriculture: la science montre que l'urgence est au contraire de transformer le système agricole pour préserver notre santé, la fertilité des sols, une eau disponible et non polluée, et la biodiversité.

AM fungi challenge a core assumption of cell biology. They can lose a core DNA polymerase (Polɛ) and survive for 360 million years! This blew my mind this weekend!
Reductive evolution of the DNA replication machinery in endosymbiotic fungi | bioRxiv
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Commission launches task force to strengthen import controls on food safety The European Commission today established a Task Force to maintain and reinforce the EU\'s ability to ensure imports meet Union standards, while supporting the competitiveness of EU producers.

#Europe / La Commission met en place un groupe de travail pour renforcer les contrôles à l'importation en matière de sécurité alimentaire.

Close-up of several yellow-green pears with natural blemishes. A blue overlay at the bottom reads “FOOD SAFETY – Task force to strengthen import controls,” with the European Commission logo in the corner.

We have created a task force to strengthen import controls on food safety.

It will focus on ensuring that imports meet EU standards, while supporting the jobs and growth of EU producers.

Read more: link.europa.eu/8MPMB7

European labs get aligned at CERN

Eleven laboratories came to CERN to measure the same object using their state-of-the-art equipment, in order to establish a common definition of alignment uncertainty in their measurements.

Black-and-white historical photograph of Dr. Maria Telkes, the Hungarian-American biophysicist and solar energy pioneer known as the "Sun Queen." She is seated indoors in a laboratory or office setting, smiling warmly with a friendly, confident expression. Dr. Telkes has short, wavy hair styled in soft curls, and she wears a light-colored lab coat over a patterned blouse or dress. Her hands are resting on a table or desk in front of her. Behind her is a plain paneled wall with partially visible art hanging on the wall. The image captures her in mid-to-late career, conveying intelligence, approachability, and dedication to her groundbreaking work in solar energy research. #MariaTelkes #SunQueen #SolarEnergy #RenewableEnergy #WomenInScience #Inventors

Biophysicist & inventor Dr. Maria Telkes (the Sun Queen) was a pioneer in solar energy research & considered a founder of solar thermal storage systems. She developed the 1st solar-powered home heating system & a solar-powered desalination kit. #WomenInSTEM

It's International Day of #CleanEnergy! ☀️

🛑OLAF coordinated a cross-border investigation into the suspected circumvention of EU sanctions against Russia relating to the export of 766 trucks from the EU to Russia. Find out more about our actions in our press release 👓 link.europa.eu/bkTtgR

The multifunctional roles of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in soil health and nutrient dynamics Agricultural sustainability is becoming increasingly threatened by climate change and anthropogenic activities. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) provide an important solution through their symbiotic associations with plant roots, enhancing nutrient acquisition, improving soil structure, mitigating stress effects, and contributing to carbon sequestration through glomalin production. AMF improves the bioavailability of essential nutrients by extending hyphal networks and activating nutrient transporter genes. They also aid in heavy metal detoxification by sequestering metals within hyphae, reducing plant uptake, and safeguarding tissues, while supporting carbon sequestration by stabilizing soil aggregates. Across diverse taxa, AMF exhibit species-specific adaptations to different soil types and agroecosystems, contributing to phosphorus solubilization, nitrogen use efficiency, and metal sequestration. Molecular insights revealed that AMF symbiosis activates genes related to nutrient exchange and stress adaptation, including the Ca2⁺ signaling pathways. Advanced inoculation techniques, such as high-efficiency spore propagation, seed pelleting, and bioreactor-based production, provide scalable and contamination-free applications that reduce reliance on synthetic fertilizers and promote sustainable cropping systems. Future research should focus on integrating molecular tools, precision agriculture, and real-time monitoring to optimize AMF application strategies, enhance nutrient cycling, and strengthen soil health, thereby advancing sustainable food systems and addressing global agricultural challenges.

The multifunctional roles of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in soil health and nutrient dynamics | Biology and Fertility of Soils

Today, we are presenting a decisive €90 billion support package combining military assistance and budget support.

It will fund the military support Ukraine needs to defend itself against Russia’s invasion, while keeping Ukrainian hospitals, schools, and public services running. (1/2)

Never Out of Date: How Hannah Arendt Helps Us Understand Our World Fifty years after her death in New York, Hannah Arendt has become the most popular philosopher of our time. For good reason: Her views are just as timely as ever.

"50 years after Hannah Arendt's death, the ideologies are back. On a global scale, but also in the everyday life of each individual. The globe is being redistributed, and it's not entirely clear how it will turn out. Arendt can teach us how to confront this world."

www.spiegel.de/internationa...

Lost and found: Rediscovering microbiome-associated phenotypes that reshape agricultural sustainability Rewilding corn with ancestral traits helps crops shape soil microbiomes, reduce fertilizer use, and supports sustainable farming.

Lost and found: Rediscovering microbiome-associated phenotypes that reshape agricultural sustainability | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Putin is banking on our failure to act.
We cannot afford to do him that favour.

The Reparations Loan is the most clear-cut option for sustained funding for Ukraine.

My doorstep ahead of today’s #EUCO ↓

Next‐Gen Bioinoculants: Bacterial, Yeast, and Mycorrhizal Consortia for Drought‐Tolerance in Lettuce Drought is a key factor that affects food production and represents one of the major challenges to global food security, especially with the increasing human population. One of the main strategies to...

Lettuce be friends... with microbes 🤣

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Causes and consequences of experimental variation in Nicotiana benthamiana transient expression Infiltration of Agrobacterium tumefaciens into Nicotiana benthamiana has become a foundational technique in plant biology, enabling efficient delivery of transgenes in planta with technical ease, robu...

Causes and consequences of experimental variation in Nicotiana benthamiana transient expression
Sophia N. Tang et al. doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🚨 Researchers have just found the presence of sugars, including ribose, lyxose, and glycose, on samples of Asteroid Bennu, which now has all of the ingredients for life as it exists on Earth.
In 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touched down on Bennu—a carbon-rich asteroid drifting hundreds of m...

Induced endosymbiosis between a fungus and bacterium reveals a shift from antagonism to commensalism Endosymbioses represent dynamic relationships between organisms that may involve antagonistic phases during their emergence. Here, we induced cell-in-cell interactions between the free-living bacterium Ralstonia pickettii and an endosymbiont-free strain of the fungus Rhizopus microsporus using fluidic force microscopy to investigate the early phase of endosymbiosis formation. Following the implantation of bacteria into the cytosol, the rapid proliferation of R. pickettii compromised host fitness, as evidenced by reduced fungal viability, and triggered immune responses characterized by upregulated expression of stress-related defense genes. Vertical transmission of bacteria across fungal generations enabled repeated rounds of selective passaging, ultimately resulting in transcriptional relaxation of the fungal defense response. High-throughput-imaging revealed that the propagated system accommodated higher bacterial loads within viable spores, with a corresponding reduction in fungal growth. The observed physiological changes and comparative fungal transcriptomic profiles indicated adaptive resilience and a shift from antagonism to commensalism. This transition was characterized by attenuated expression of genes involved in cell wall remodeling and reactive oxygen metabolism. Our experimental system provides insights into the early processes of endosymbiosis, supporting the hypothesis that facultative intracellular pathogens can serve as intermediates toward stable endosymbiotic relationships.

Induced endosymbiosis between a fungus and bacterium reveals a shift from antagonism to commensalism

Genome modeling and design across all domains of life with Evo 2 All of life encodes information with DNA. While tools for sequencing, synthesis, and editing of genomic code have transformed biological research, intelligently composing new biological systems would ...

Genome modeling and design across all domains of life with Evo 2
Garyk Brixi, et al. bioRxiv 2025.02.18.638918; doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Graphic resembling a rebus puzzle. On the left is a yellow Uno ‘reverse’ card labeled ‘REVERSE.’ In the center are several pollinators—including a bat, butterfly, wasp, bumblebee, and monarch butterfly—labeled ‘POLLINATOR.’ On the right is a red downward-zigzag arrow labeled ‘DECLINE.’ In the bottom-right corner is the flag of the European Union. The full message reads: ‘Reverse pollinator decline.’

80% of our food crops and wild flowering plants depend on pollination.

Yet one-third of bee, butterfly and hoverfly species is in decline.

Our new EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme aims to help reverse this trend by 2030.

More info: link.europa.eu/Jb7pBQ