PNAS Journal Club

Spectral assessment of plant traits: can we assess what we do not see?

The Plant Sensing Laboratory (PSL) was established in 2018 and its main focus is at early stress detection and identification, and yield prediction based on sensing plant trait assessment. We are using spectral sensors (i.e., multi- and hyper- spectral cameras and spectro radiometrs) mounted on ground, airborne and spaceborne platforms to acquire spectral data.

We might refer to someone’s personality as “mousy,” but in truth, mice have a range of personalities nearly as great as our own. ...A quantitative understanding of the traits that make each animal an individual might help answer some of the open questions in science concerning the connections between genes and behavior. The findings of this research were published in Nature Neuroscience. Dr. Oren Forkosh, then a postdoctoral fellow who led the research in Prof. Chen’s group in Germany, explains that understanding how genetics contribute to behavior has remained an open question. Personality, scientists hypothesized, might be the “glue” that binds the two together: both genes and epigenetics (which determines how the genes are expressed) contribute to personality formation; in turn, one’s personality will determine, to a great extent, how one behaves in any given situation.

The secret to better equine wound healing might have been with us all along, thanks to bees.

"When field practitioners applied MGH to horses’ wounds prior to suturing, the defects were more likely to have complete wound healing within two weeks, before suture removal, than horses that didn’t receive MGH, said Gal Kelmer, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, ECVS, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, in Beit Dagan, Israel.

Microscopic droplets on the surface of leaves give refuge to bacteria that otherwise may not survive during the dry daytime, according to a new study published today in eLife. Understanding this bacterial survival strategy for dry conditions may enable scientists to develop practices that support healthy plant microbiomes in agricultural and natural settings. 

A special issue of Agri Magazine in collaboration with The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment

Decoding the genetic basis of floret fertility in wheat - A high grain yield is undoubtedly a desirable trait in cereal crops. Floret fertility is a key factor which determines the number of grains per inflorescence of cereals such as bread wheat or barley. Nonetheless, until recently little was known about its genetic basis. Whilst investigating floret fertility, a group of researchers have now discovered the locus Grain Number Increase 1 (GNI1), an important contributor to floret fertility. A writeup from Science Daily of an international collaboration, including researchers from the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, to decode the genetic basis of floret fertility in wheat.

I24 News Story about the first academic course in Israel in wine-making - the next step in growing the local wine industry

Jerusalem Post covers Food Tech Nation Conference at the Faculty - The future of healthy eating drew crowds Thursday at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot. About 300 people came to an event celebrating the institution’s 75th anniversary and giving students the opportunity to showcase their work. It featured some of the latest developments in Israeli food technology ranging from 3D printed meals to protein powder made from fly larva.

Nanotech pioneer Prof. Oded Shoseyov has already founded 11 companies based on his inventions. Now he’s on his next: a 4D printing platform to create customized meals.

in Israeli-UC Davis Vet Team-up - From jweekly: Three decades of joint research at the Faculty and UC Davis vet schools, supported by Koret grants.: A list of the collaborative work between the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the Koret School of Veterinary Medicine — the only veterinary school in Israel — reads something like a “who’s who” of the animal kingdom....

Faculty scientists Professors Ido Braslavsky and Oded Shoseyov develop technique to print food according to pre-defined criteria in a process that will serve a variety of special-needs populations.

Journal club article in PNAS about BitterPredict, a machine learning tool that predicts whether a chemical tastes bitter. BitterPredict was developed by members of Prof Masha Niv's lab.