News

Three new wheat varieties released this year by the University of Georgia’s wheat breeding program are the product of more than a dozen years of work by breeders on the UGA Griffin campus.

Antibiotic resistance – one of the biggest threats to global health, according to the World Health Organization – occurs when germs learn how to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. The problem of resistance threatens the efficacy of antibiotics, making simple infections untreatable.

A unique study conducted by University of Georgia entomologists led to the discovery of a distinctive supergene in fire ant colonies that determines whether young queen ants will leave their birth colony to start their own new colony or if they will join one with multiple queens. Researchers also found that ants were more aggressive toward queens who don’t possess the supergene, causing colony workers to kill them. This critical finding opens the door to new pest control methods that may be more efficient in eradicating problematic fire ant colonies. 

This fall, the University of Georgia recognized nine undergraduates in its 2020-21 incoming class as CURO Honors Scholars, the university’s top undergraduate research scholarship. Three students in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences were selected for the award.

Organic fruit and vegetable growers want to meet the recent uptick in national consumer demand, but they need additional tools to battle pests and diseases that often accompany organic crop growth.

A new multistate project will bring together researchers from the University of Georgia and partner universities to fight Alternaria leaf blight and head rot in broccoli, a plant disease that thrives in warm temperatures and humidity.

The Stripling Family Foundation of Camilla, Georgia, has been recognized with the Epsilon Sigma Phi National Friend of Extension award for their many years of philanthropic and personal support of agriculture programs in Georgia.

While weeds and plant parasites are a concern for all agricultural producers, organic producers are doubly challenged to combat these problems without chemical solutions. Through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a University of Georgia researcher is working to discover and integrate biological products and cover crops to control nematodes and weeds in organic vegetable production.

With increased electronic communication leaving many members of older generations behind, a partnership between the Microsoft Corporation and the National 4-H Council has mobilized an energized group of 4-H Technology Changemakers to help provide resources and training to level the playing field.