Press releases

Some 800 million people around the world suffer from malnutrition, and 2.6 billion lack satisfactory sanitary conditions. If urine and feces are separated and rendered free of contagion, they can be used to fertilize crops. Harvests would increase, and both hygiene and the living environment would benefit.

Scientists at the Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) report today about a breakthrough in our understanding of how the growth and development of forest trees is controlled. In an article published in the international journal Science, they show that the FT gene that was previously shown to control the flowering time of annual plants, also controls tree flowering. With the help of this gene poplar trees can be stimulated to flower after a few weeks instead of after the normal 10-15 years. The scientists also show that the same gene not only controls the flowering time of trees, but also the timing of when the trees stop growing and set bud in the fall. That the same gene was involved in all these processes was highly unexpected.

Scientists from Uppsala University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and the US have identified a genetic mechanism that regulates growth in chickens. The study is based on two chicken selection lines, where one is bred for high growth and the other one for low. The researchers show that a network of four interacting genes explains half of the difference in body weight between the lines. The results may be of great significance for genetic studies of complex diseases such as obesity and diabetes. The study is being published ahead of print on the home page of Nature Genetics on March 12.

Rainmakers and civil servants, specialists and farmers understand water policies in markedly different ways. This is why international policy instruments for managing water resources do not succeed, and the consequence is water shortage. This is shown in a dissertation in political science from Göteborg University in Sweden.

Experiments with intensive fertilization show that a spruce forest in Västerbotten, northern Sweden, can more than triple its growth if the trees have access to all plant nutrients. This favorably affects the function of the forest as a carbon sink.

Swedes eat on average twice as much meat, and considerably more fruit and vegetables in the early 21st century than in the 1870s. Nevertheless, the surface area required to produce our food has decreased, measured per person. But this decrease is largely based on non-sustainable use of resources.

Researchers at the Umeå Plant Science Centre at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Sweden, report about a breakthrough in our understanding of how plants control their flowering. In an article published in the international journal Science, Thursday 11th, they show how a small molecule that is formed in the plant leaves is transported to the shoot tips where it induces the formation of flowers. This knowledge can lead to the development of new tools that can be used to control the timing of plant flowering, something that is of central importance in both agriculture and forestry.

In the face of tough competition, Skogforsk (the Forestry Research Institute of Sweden) has landed the role of coordinator for one of the EU’s biggest ever research projects in the forestry and forest-based sector. The project, entitled Eforwood, has been set up to develop a tool for sustainability impact assessment of the European forestry and forest-based sector. The project is scheduled to run for four years and will involve 35 organizations in 18 countries, with a planned total budget of €19 million (US$24.5m).

The EU is now entering an agreement with Lund University regarding research into the desertification. The background is that 40 research organizations from 16 countries recently gathered in Madrid to launch an EU project (DeSurvey) about land degradation and desertification in Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. The EU funding is about SEK 75 million. Lund University will be taking part as the only Scandinavian unit, in the person of Professor Ulf Helldén at the Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Analysis and the Center for GeoBiosphere Science.

Bacteria that produce lactic acid have been used for thousands of years to preserve food. Some lactic acid bacteria also produce several other mold-inhibiting substances and are therefore of special interest to agriculture and the foodstuffs industry. This is demonstrated in a dissertation by Jörgen Sjögren from the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences, SLU. One of the bacteria strains studied has been patented and will be part of a new biological conservation preparation.