{"id":23213,"date":"2025-07-26T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T09:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23213\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T09:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T09:00:07","slug":"farming-study-aims-to-avoid-genetic-modification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23213\/","title":{"rendered":"Farming study aims to avoid genetic modification"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"A stock image of a small plant with four green leaves.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"498\" height=\"280\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/cemKWMknDnRobfVboPtBJQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/fa6d086d809f5968618745f00817013c\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The study will focus on a type of bacteria found in plant cells [Durham University]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A new research programme will look into the ability to &#8220;temporarily programme plants&#8221; to support sustainable farming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Durham University has announced it will study a type of bacteria found in plant cells called Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This would be used to introduce traits to certain crops to tackle common challenges such as heat, drought and disease, and reduce the need for chemical pesticides.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The technique could allow farmers to enhance plant performance, resilience and nutritional value without permanent genetic modification,&#8221; a university spokesman said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They added the project aimed to tackle &#8220;some of agriculture&#8217;s most pressing challenges&#8221;, including climate change, rising demand for food and the overuse of chemicals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It will take place across Durham and York and involve plant trials and the development of genetic and cell-biology tools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The project is part of the UK&#8217;s Advanced Research and Invention Agency&#8217;s Programmable Plants initiative and is in collaboration with Azotic Technologies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow BBC North East on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BBCNEandCumbria\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">X<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bbcnortheast\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/bbc.in\/3yyMYUI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Nextdoor;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Nextdoor<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbcneandcumbria\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>More on this topicRelated internet links<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The study will focus on a type of bacteria found in plant cells [Durham University] A new research&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[64,63,23332,23335,336,23333,128,23336,23334],"class_list":["post-23213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-durham-university","tag-genetic-modification","tag-genetics","tag-plant-cells","tag-science","tag-sustainable-farming","tag-type-of-bacteria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}