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Installing rooftop vegetable gardens for sustainable cities

From producing food to regulating water runoff, urban agriculture has a lot to offer. Scientists from INRA and AgroParisTech have shown that rooftop vegetable gardens are an interesting way to recycle urban waste, produce food, and retain rainwater. Their findings were published in 19 December 2017 issue of Agronomy for Sustainable Development.

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Exploiting the diversity of grape varieties to adapt to climate change

At a global scale, just 12 grape varieties (or 1% of cultivated varieties) occupy up to 80% of vineyards in some countries. Scientists from INRA and Harvard University in the USA have suggested that one of the levers that could be operated to adapt wine-growing to climate change is to exploit the diversity of other cultivated varieties by planting those that are less well known, and thus encouraging winegrowers and consumers to adopt new practices. Their study is published in Nature Climate Change on 2 January 2018.

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The genome of vascular plants bears witness to the evolution of viruses of the family Caulimoviridae

Endogenous viral elements of plants, which are integrated into the genome of their host, have not yet given away all their secrets. As part of an international collaboration, researchers from INRA and CIRAD revealed the presence of sequences of viruses of the family Caulimoviridae, including several new genera, in a large number of vascular plants, from lycopods to flowering plants. That presence proves their very ancient origins, some 320 million years ago. These results were published in the journal Scientific Reports on 12 January 2018.

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A new look at the evolution of Citrus

An international study involving CIRAD and INRA, published in the journal Nature on 7 February 2018, has revolutionized the botanical classifications of citrus fruits. The work revealed ten true Citrus species, four of which are behind modern cultivated varieties such as oranges, mandarins, grapefruits, pummelos, citrons, lemons and limes. This information paves the way for new varietal breeding strategies for these fruits, which are amongst the most widely grown worldwide.

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