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Synthetic biology research shows potential for improved crop yields

Interdisciplinary research by a team including Professor Stuart Conway, the E. P. Abraham Cephalosporin Fellow, has produced a new synthetic plant-microbe signalling pathway.

The study, ‘Engineering transkingdom signalling in plants to control gene expression in rhizosphere bacteria’, published in Nature Communications, “lays the groundwork for synthetic signalling networks between plants and bacteria, allowing the targeted regulation of bacterial gene expression in the rhizosphere for delivery of useful functions to plants.”

The findings ultimately have the potential to improve crop yields by reducing the required quantity of fertiliser.

A summary of the research can be read here.