Netherlands Launches Advanced Crop Phenotyping Facility

The Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre (NPEC) has secured €5.4 million in funding to launch a five-year infrastructure upgrade, NPEC 2.0. The project, supported by the Dutch Research Council, Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Utrecht University (UU), and the Jan IngenHousz Institute, will integrate AI, high-throughput X-ray imaging, and drone technology to accelerate climate-resilient crop research. … Read more

Advancing Gene Editing with Plant Viruses

Plant scientists are repurposing potyviruses to deliver CRISPR genome-editing tools into crops, potentially bypassing the slow, lab-intensive tissue culture processes previously required for genetic modification. According to research published January 20, 2026, in Horticulture Research, this method uses a diverse group of RNA viruses to move editing instructions through plant tissues, offering a more flexible … Read more