Crop improvements can help us to meet the challenge of feeding a population of 10 billion,
but can we breed better varieties fast enough? Technologies such as genoty**, marker …

Plants host distinct bacterial communities on and inside various plant organs, of which those
associated with roots and the leaf surface are best characterized. The phylogenetic …

Grain cereals such as wheat, barley, rice, and maize are the nutritional basis of humans and
animals worldwide. Thus, these crop plants are essential in terms of global food security. We …

The tropics contain the overwhelming majority of Earth's biodiversity: their terrestrial,
freshwater and marine ecosystems hold more than three-quarters of all species, including …

Plants respond to the changing seasons to initiate developmental programmes precisely at
particular times of year. Flowering is the best characterized of these seasonal responses …

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is among the world's earliest domesticated and most important
crop plants. It is diploid with a large haploid genome of 5.1 gigabases (Gb). Here we present …

The extent to which pre-Columbian societies altered Amazonian landscapes is hotly
debated. We performed a basin-wide analysis of pre-Columbian impacts on Amazonian …

Background The rhizosphere microbiome, which is shaped by host genotypes, root
exudates, and plant domestication, is crucial for sustaining agricultural plant growth. Despite …

Domestication is a good model for the study of evolutionary processes because of the recent
evolution of crop species (< 12,000 years ago), the key role of selection in their origins, and …

Microorganisms colonizing plant surfaces and internal tissues provide a number of life-
support functions for their host. Despite increasing recognition of the vast functional …