Recently, the research team led by WANG Huabing from the Zhejiang University College of Animal Sciences published an open-access article entitled “Horizontal gene transfer and gene duplication of β-fructofuranosidase confer lepidopteran insects metabolic benefits” in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. This article analyzed the molecular evolution and functional differentiation of β-fructofuranosidase and revealed that lepidopteran insects can ingeniously regulate sucrose metab...

Wearable sensing technology is an essential link to future personalized medicine through seamlessly monitoring heart rate, body temperature, and physical activities of human body. Recently, a wearable electronic sensor for plants has been jointly developed by LIU Xiangjiang and YING Yibin from the College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, WANG Xiaozhi from the College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering and HU Zhongyuan from the College of Ag...

Of the approximately 1,200 plant virus species that have been described to date, nearly one-third are single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) viruses, and all are transmitted by insect vectors. It is therefore of immense significance to investigate the insect transmission of plant ssDNA viruses.In January, Prof. WANG Xiaowei from the Zhejiang University College of Agriculture and Biotechnology co-published a review with Stéphane Blanc from the University of Montpellier in the journal Annual Revie...

Prevalence of seed-borne bacterial diseases poses a severe threat to rice production due to a drastic rise of toxin-producing Burkholderia pathogens, which lead to destructive damage to yield, quality and even resilience of paddy ecosystem. Manipulating disease resistance of the host plant is deemed to be a promising alternative and a more environmentally friendly approach in modern agricultural practices. However, is disease resistance related to the microbiota of the host plant? Is it her...

Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that can later be released to fuel the organisms’ activities. It is largely responsible for producing and maintaining the oxygen content of the Earth’s atmosphere, and supplies most of the energy necessary for life on the Earth. The reaction center (RC)—the core of the photosynthetic apparatus where charge separation occurs—is thought to have originated a single time and diverged, yieldi...

Insects are the largest and most diverse species of organisms on the earth. They are the only species of invertebrates that can fly. However, insects are marked by their remarkable plasticity. Most of them have one or two pairs of wings, but under special circumstances, siblings may even develop two or several different wing morphs. Planthoppers are a typical insect with wing morphism. Prof. XU Haijun from the Zhejiang University College of Agriculture and Biotechnology has commit...

October 17 marks China's National Poverty Relief Day, also the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This year is special, as China aims to realize the poverty eradication goal of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the end of 2020, ten years ahead of schedule.With the commitment to social service, ZJU faculty and students have been dedicating their work to alleviating poverty in underdeveloped areas across China. Here are some prime examples of how ZJUers hav...

The research team led by Prof. LOU Yonggen from the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology engaged in groundbreaking research in induced plant defenses for pest control. Their latest research findings are published in the May 20 issue of the journal of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.  When subjected to attack from pests, crops will make specific defense responses via the recognition of damage- and herbivore-associated molecular patterns and modify def...

Understanding large-scale crop growth and its responses to climate change is critical to yield estimation and prediction. Remote sensing provides timely and cost-effective monitoring of crop progress on a large scale based on the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and plant material.  Identifying and understanding the cumulative and nonlinear relationships between meteorological factors and corn yield is critical to learning how weather change affects agricultural production. How...

Cotton is the most widely-used natural fiber and raw material for the textile industry in the world. As a fabric, cotton is very popular among people due to its remarkable breathability, comfort and warmth. At present, there are two cultivated allotetraploidspecies: G. Hirsutum(a.k.a upland cotton) and G. Barbadense(a.k.a extra-long staple cotton). Upland cottonproduces a higher fiber yield and is better able to survive harsh environments. Globally, about 90% of all cotton production is of culti...