Novel wheat hybrids increase resistance to major fungal disease by up to 70%

Society for Experimental Biology

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A new experimental study has identified a novel genetic locus in a common agricultural weed, Elymus repens, that provides significant resistance to the destructive fungal disease Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) and has now been successfully transferred into wheat to produce FHB resistant hybrids.

FHB is a virulent fungal disease that poses a serious threat to global food security and is regarded as one of the world’s most economically harmful cereal diseases. FHB reduces grain yield and produces mycotoxins that cause gastrointestinal issues in humans and livestock, requiring infected crops to be destroyed.

E. repens, more widely known as coach grass or common coach, is a wild relative of cultivated wheat, allowing for the two species to breed together and create genetic hybrids.

“Both research and breeding practice have shown that developing and deploying resistant wheat cultivars is the fundamental solution to FHB,” says study author, Fei Wang. “However, current efforts are limited by a scarcity of major resistance sources, narrow genetic backgrounds and inefficient use of resistance genes.”

Dr Yinghui Li and Houyang Kang's research team’s new study, published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, outlines how they successfully hybridised E. repens and cultivated wheat to transfer FHB-resistant genes from E. repens into the wheat.

When testing for the presence of FHB from deliberately infected plants, hybrid genotypes containing the resistance genes, labelled as 1StL, showed a 69% reduction in diseased plant spikelets under greenhouse conditions compared to the control wheat, and a 60% reduction under field conditions.

The researchers found no presence of genetic markers from previously identified alien FHB resistance genes in the hybrids, indicating that 1StL carries a novel resistance locus, which the team has named Fhb.Er‑1StL.

Notably, this is the third resistance locus that Dr Yinghui Li and Houyang Kang group has identified from Elymus repens, following their earlier discoveries of QFhb.Er‑7StL and Fhb.Er‑3StS. The new locus represents an additional, valuable source of resistance that can now be used in wheat breeding.

“We believe this work is of practical importance for accelerating the breeding of resistant, high-yielding wheat varieties and breaking the bottleneck in FHB resistance breeding,” says Dr Yinghui Li.

This study was conducted by researchers from State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Exploration and Utilization in Southwest China, Sichuan and Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.

The Journal of Experimental Botany is a partially open access journal published on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology by Oxford University Press. The aim of the Journal of Experimental Botany is to publish papers that advance our understanding of plant biology.

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Journal

Journal of Experimental Botany

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Identification of a novel Fusarium head blight resistance locus Fhb.Er-1StL from Elymus repens introgressed into wheat

Article Publication Date

4-May-2026

Scientists unlock new way to engineer next generation glass

University of Birmingham

Scientists have adapted a centuries-old principle of chemistry to fine-tune a new type of glass made from metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) - metal atoms connected by organic molecules - that efficiently trap gases like CO₂ and hydrogen and even capture water.

Publishing their findings today (4 May) in Nature Chemistry, an international research team, including scientists from TU Dortmund and the University of Birmingham, reveals that MOF glasses can be tuned and engineered in the same way as traditional glasses.

Researchers discovered that adding small chemical compounds containing sodium or lithium to the glass changes its behaviour and structure. The chemicals lower the temperature at which the glass softens and change how easily it flows when heated, which makes manufacturing easier.

The discovery provides a new design framework for making customised MOF glasses for advanced technological applications. The process could unlock new possibilities for high performance materials used in gas separation, chemical storage, and advanced coatings.

Dr Dominik Kubicki, from the University of Birmingham, said: “Glass has been part of human civilisation for millennia. From ancient Mesopotamia to modern fibre-optic cables, small amounts of chemical modifiers make it easier to process glass and change its functional properties.

“However, MOF glasses soften only at high temperatures - above 300 °C - close to their degradation temperature, making manufacturing challenging and limiting broader use. This discovery unlocks new possibilities for future high-performance materials.”

One of the best-known examples of MOF glass is ZIF-62, a porous material that can be melted and cooled into a glass while retaining part of its internal porosity; which makes it attractive for applications in gas separation, membranes and catalysis.

Professor Sebastian Henke, from TU Dortmund University, said: “Our approach is inspired by how conventional silicate glasses have been modified: disrupting the network structure to tune melting behaviour and mechanical properties.

“Our study shows the same principle can be transferred to hybrid metal-organic glasses. This advance brings MOF glasses a step closer to real-world manufacturing and applications in gas separation, storage, catalysis and beyond.”

Understanding how the sodium additives alter the internal structure of the glass required advanced characterisation techniques. University of Birmingham researchers - led by Drs Dominik Kubicki and Benjamin Gallant - contributed essential atomic-level analysis of the modified glass structure, as well as performing high-temperature solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy experiments at the UK High-Field Solid-State NMR Facility.

This work allowed the team to understand precisely how sodium ions integrate into the glass network and how they disrupt its connectivity.

Birmingham researchers, led by Professor Andrew Morris and Dr Mario Ongkiko, used AI-driven computational modelling to interpret complex NMR data. Using machine-learning-assisted simulations revealed how sodium interacted with the glass structure - a critical validation of the experimental observations.

The experimental and computational insights revealed that sodium does not just fill empty spaces, but takes the place of some zinc atoms, which gently loosens the structure.

Now that it is known how to tweak these glasses in powerful ways, the study recommends that more research is required to learn how to make the materials more stable, predict their behaviour better, and test how useful they are in real‑world technologies.

ENDS

For more information, please contact the Press Office on +44 (0) 121 414 2772 or pressoffice@contacts.bham.ac.uk

‘Alkali-Ion-Modified Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework Glasses’ - Pascal Kolodzeiski, Benjamin Gallant, Lennard Richter, Mario Antonio Ongkiko, Carlo Franke, Aleksander Kostka, Wen-Long Xue, Chinmoy Das, Jan-Benedikt Weiß, Elena Kolodzeiski, Thomas Kress, Gregor Kieslich, Tong Li, Andrew Morris, Dominik Kubicki, Sebastian Henke is published in Nature Chemistry.

Notes for editors:

As well as being ranked among the world’s top 100 institutions, the University of Birmingham is the most targeted UK university by top graduate employers. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, educators and more than 40,000 students from over 150 countries.

Participating institutions: Technische Universität Dortmund, University of Birmingham, Ruhr-University Bochum, SRM University-AP, Technical University of Munich, and University of Cambridge.

 

 

 

 

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Journal

Nature Chemistry

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Alkali-Ion-Modified Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework Glasses

Article Publication Date

4-May-2026

Economic insecurity linked with frailty in later life, study finds

Older people who experience unstable finances, poor housing and fuel poverty are at increased risk of more rapid physical and mental decline as they age, a study suggests

University of Edinburgh

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Older people who experience unstable finances, poor housing and fuel poverty are at increased risk of more rapid physical and mental decline as they age, a study suggests.

Research following more than 15,000 people in England has found that living in precarious social or financial circumstances is a key predictor of frailty in later life.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh, Harvard Medical School and the University of Strathclyde made the discovery using data from men and women aged over 50 taking part in a long-term study of ageing.

The research received funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council.

The team analysed information on individuals’ finances, employment, pensions, housing, caregiving and relationships collected over a 14-year period as part of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

They used this data to develop a Later Life Precarity Index to assess the social risks that can lead to frailty in older adults.

The team then combined this with data on each adult’s cognitive and physical health, ability in carrying out everyday activities, chronic conditions, and psychological and general health to measure their frailty over time.

Findings from the study suggest people living in socially vulnerable conditions are at greater risk of developing frailty, in some cases this might be decades earlier, than those with more stable circumstances, and can go on to accumulate higher levels of frailty as they age, the researchers say

As well as low income and limited wealth, factors such as renting in later life, food insecurity, fuel poverty, homelessness, and poor housing quality were identified as having substantial impacts on frailty risk.

This was the case even after accounting for a range of factors, including age, sex, and overall financial circumstances.

In terms of relationship status, being widowed or living alone was associated with small increases in frailty risk, while being divorced showed no significant effect.

While the study cannot prove that social inequalities directly cause frailty it provides robust evidence that exposure to multiple forms of social precarity is likely a driver of frailty in later life.

The study is among the first to capture the cumulative impact of precarious circumstances across multiple areas of life in older adults.

Researchers say the findings build on their previous research that showed increases in frailty during a period of austerity policies which involved cuts to social services supporting older adults.  

Laurence Rowley-Abel, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science, said: “This research demonstrates the substantial health impacts of the precarious social circumstances that many face as they age. We know from our previous research that frailty levels worsened during a period of austerity policies, and this study starts to show us why. In terms of social policy, the research suggests that cuts to social support and services for older people may bring unanticipated costs by driving greater exposure to social precarity in later life which may impede healthy ageing and the capacity for independent living.”

The research was carried out within the Social Policy subject area at the University of Edinburgh as part of the work of the Advanced Care Research Centre, funded by Legal & General.

The study is published in Ageing and Society. 

 

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Journal

Ageing and Society

DOI

10.1017/S0144686X26100543 

Article Title

Later life precarity and longitudinal frailty trajectories in older adults

 

Multi-pronged plan to address childhood obesity crisis

Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

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Heart health, diet, exercise and sleep will be targeted under a multi-pronged strategy by child health experts to address Australia’s obesity crisis. 

GenHEART, spearheaded by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), is a coordinated plan over 10 years to improve long-term wellbeing and reverse alarming obesity trends among children and their parents.

Health experts across cardiometabolic health, sleep, obesity, nutrition, physical activity, behavioural science and health economics from Victoria, Western Australia, NSW and Tasmania have come together under the bold vision.

With funding, the multifaceted intervention, initially involving four trials, will start in 2027. The trials will draw on data and participants from Generation Australia, which brings together two of the largest, most detailed projects of their kind – Generation Victoria (GenV), involving 50,000 children, and ORIGINS, which follows 10,000 children and their families in Western Australia. 

MCRI Professor Melissa Wake, who will help oversee Generation Australia, said GenHEART was a once in a generation opportunity to finally the shift the dial on rising obesity rates.

In Australia, cardiovascular diseases affect one in 15 people. Cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney conditions cost over $23 billion each year in healthcare spending.

“Good heart health in childhood is crucial to reducing the risk of chronic disease across a person’s lifetime,” Professor Wake said.

“We know the risk factors underlying cardiometabolic diseases such as unhealthy weight gain, high blood pressure, low physical activity and poor sleep often begin in the primary school years.

“These early warning signs predict the likelihood of heart attacks, stroke, type 2 diabetes and kidney disease in adulthood and are also key drivers of dementia, cancer and poor mental health.

“Sadly, once established, these patterns are hard to reverse. Prevention programs have failed to make a difference largely due to either being too small, short-term or narrowly focussed. But GenHEART is designed to address all these issues, simultaneously, via a suite of coordinated prevention trials at whole population scale, using Generation Australia’s reach and infrastructure.”

The four trials, each answering a key prevention question, include:

GenSLEEP. Can bringing a child’s bedtime forward by 30 minutes reduce unhealthy weight gain and improve mental health?

GenWEIGHT. Can weight loss drugs for parents with obesity reshape a household’s food habits, helping to break intergenerational cycles of obesity?

GenPRESSURE. Can blood pressure checks at primary school reduce the risk of stroke and heart disease?

GenMOVE. Can changing school physical activities to focus on strength and lean-mass development lead to better heart health?

Research led by MCRI in 2025 found that half of children and adolescents in Australia are forecast to be overweight or obese by 2050. But it noted with significant increases predicated within the next five years, urgent action now could turn the tide on the public health crisis. 

Megan, a mum of three, has her youngest son, Teddy, 2, enrolled in GenV. She said as a nurse she understood the importance of comprehensive and interlinked data to help researchers explore the best clinical practices.

“Having two of my three children with food allergies, I know how vital research is towards making a difference and improving treatments,” she said. “If we can also instill healthy habits in our children early, the benefits will stay with them for a lifetime.”

The Generation Australia cohort will be progressively invited to take part in GenHEART as their child enters primary school.

“The four trials will be carefully sequenced across childhood,” Professor Wake said. “This approach allows interventions to be introduced at developmentally appropriate stages, while insights from earlier trials inform those that follow.

“Children and families may be assigned to receive one or more interventions or to continue with usual health advice. This will enable researchers to determine which approaches are most effective and at what stages of development.

“While all interventions are designed to be scalable and feasible at a population level, they extend beyond child-focused programs. Some target parents, others focus on family routines and environments, and some involve screening and broader health system responses. This approach reflects the many factors that shape lifelong heart health.”

GenHEART research partners include The Kids Research Institute Australia in Perth, UNSW Sydney, University of Melbourne, Edith Cowan University in Perth, Deakin University, University of Tasmania, Monash University and the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney.

*The content of this communication is the sole responsibility of MCRI and does not reflect the views of the NHMRC.

Available for interview:

Professor Melissa Wake, MCRI Group Leader, Prevention Innovation 

Associate Professor Jonathan Mynard, MCRI Team Leader, Heart

Megan, whose son Teddy, 2, is enrolled in GenV

Emalka, whose son Shahan, 3, is enrolled in GenV

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Subject of Research

People

Shedding light on how hydrogen cyanide formed on early Earth

Researchers identify a mineral-mediated chemical pathway for hydrogen cyanide production, compatible with our current understanding of Earth’s history

Institute of Science Tokyo

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This study identified a chemical pathway promoted by naturally occurring minerals that explains how hydrogen cyanide might have formed on early Earth.

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Credit: Institute of Science Tokyo

Manganese dioxide can convert amino acids into hydrogen cyanide (HCN) without requiring methane, solving a long-standing puzzle about the origin of this key prebiotic molecule on early Earth, as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. Although HCN is central to origin-of-life theories, recent evidence suggests early Earth's atmosphere didn’t contain sufficient methane needed for classic HCN-producing reactions. The newly found chemical pathway shows that HCN could instead have been continuously supplied from abundant amino acids.

The question of how life first emerged on Earth has been the subject of intense scientific research for decades. At the center of many origin-of-life theories lies hydrogen cyanide (HCN), a small but highly reactive molecule that can give rise to a wide range of biological building blocks. Several laboratory studies, such as the landmark Miller-Urey experiment in 1953, have shown that HCN can produce various amino acids, nucleobases, and sugars under methane-rich conditions with reducing atmosphere, providing the chemical ingredients needed for life on early Earth.

However, recent geological evidence has cast doubt on a long-standing model regarding the origin of HCN itself. Scientists have found that early Earth’s atmosphere most likely did not contain abundant methane, which is a key ingredient in classic HCN-producing reactions. If methane levels were indeed low, it raises an important question: Where did HCN on early Earth come from?

Seeking to address this puzzle, a research team led by Professor Ryuhei Nakamura and Dr. Yamei Li from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), Japan, investigated alternative ways that HCN might have formed on our planet over 3 billion years ago. Their findings, made available online on March 23, 2026, and published in Volume 123, Issue 13 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on March 31, 2026, describe a previously unrecognized chemical pathway that generates HCN in a way that is compatible with our modern understanding of Earth’s history.

The researchers theorized that minerals present on early Earth might have helped transform amino acids into HCN in water. To explore this possibility, researchers screened 38 naturally occurring minerals to test whether they could convert glycine—the simplest and likely the most abundant amino acid in prebiotic environments—into HCN under oxygen-free or non-reducing conditions. The results revealed that one mineral in particular, manganese dioxide (MnO2), strongly promoted the reaction. In fact, MnO2 produced cyanide concentrations up to two orders of magnitude higher than any other mineral tested.

Further experiments showed that this reaction was highly versatile, proceeding under a wide range of conditions resembling those of early Earth. Specifically, HCN formation occurred in water across a broad pH range, from acidic to strongly alkaline environments, and at temperatures between 6 and 60 °C. The reaction also occurred at extremely low amino acid concentrations.

Using isotope-labeling techniques, the researchers confirmed that HCN forms directly from the carbon backbone of glycine; MnO2 effectively oxidizes the amino acid, breaking a carbon–carbon bond and releasing HCN along with byproducts such as ammonia and formate. Importantly, the team also found that several other protein-forming amino acids and even short peptides could generate HCN through the same mineral-mediated pathway. “Together, our results demonstrate that HCN could have been continuously supplied on early Earth without invoking methane-rich air, instead arising from abundant amino acids produced by methane-independent prebiotic pathways or delivered by meteorites,” explains Nakamura.

Beyond identifying a new source of HCN, this discovery also hints at deeper connections between prebiotic chemistry and modern biology. “Because modern biological systems also generate HCN from amino acids through similar intermediates, the newly identified reaction provides a striking chemical parallel between prebiotic processes and contemporary life-evolution pathways, offering a fresh perspective on chemical evolution,” remarks Li.

Overall, this work broadens our understanding of how key prebiotic molecules may have formed, opening new avenues for exploring the chemical steps that ultimately led to life on Earth.

 

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About Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo)
Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) was established on October 1, 2024, following the merger between Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), with the mission of “Advancing science and human wellbeing to create value for and with society.”

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2515805123 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Mineral-facilitated aqueous synthesis of hydrogen cyanide from prebiotically abundant amino acids for chemical evolution

 

It’s complicated: New research reveals more about the social networks of baboons and African monkeys

New database provides groundbreaking information about primate social structures

Arizona State University

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A band of geladas grazes in the Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia. Photo by Elizabeth Tinsley Johnson, assistant professor at Michigan State University.

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Credit: Photo by Elizabeth Tinsley Johnson, assistant professor at Michigan State University.

Like people, nonhuman primates live in groups that vary in size and shape depending on the species. Some primate groups are small and simple; others are large and more layered.

Over the decades, primatologists have observed that baboons and other closely related monkeys, the African papionins, typically live in two types of social groups: single-level and multi-level societies.

However, a new study led by Arizona State University reveals it’s more complex than a simple divide — and offers fresh insight into how subgroups form.

“Single-level societies are kind of like soccer leagues,” explained Arizona State University primatologist Jacob Feder. “Everyone is an exclusive member of their unambiguous team, competing against other teams to "win" (access to good food, defend their territory). In general, people have positive feelings and relationships with those who are a part of their team, and are averse to those who aren't.”

“Multi-level societies are more like schools,” Feder explained. “Everyone's divided up into their respective classrooms, but they regularly pass by each other in the hallways, cross paths during lunch breaks and mingle during recess. While relationships within classes are generally stronger, there's no ill will (and sometimes even friendships) between classes and plenty of social glue keeping everyone together.”

So, Feder compiled a new database of 135 years of data from 11 species across 13 field sites to quantitatively show how these groups form and if there is a gray area. Dozens of international scientists contributed to the “Comparative Analysis of Papionin Societies (CAPS)” database.

Why baboons and not chimpanzees, our closest living relative? 

“This dataset focused on baboons and papionins because this group of primates has long been used as a sort of model for human evolution. Baboons, geladas and mangabeys were evolving around the same time as our early human ancestors during the Plio-Pleistocene (roughly 5.3 million to 11,700 years ago),” said Feder, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow with the Institute of Human Origins and School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. 

To map out the societies, Feder used social network analysis and built networks based on grooming behavior. He mapped out how often grooming occurred, how long it lasted and who was grooming whom.

Grooming is unambiguous, and scientists note the behavior the same way. Primates groom to clean each other from lice and bugs, and they groom because it seems to be very relaxing, explained Joan Silk, a research scientist at the Institute of Human Origins and Regents Professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.

What did the new networks show? 

“One thing that we discovered in the data, which we had not previously suspected — it turns out that not all of these single-level societies are actually the same,” said Silk. “In some ways, they are very similar, strong kin biases, etc. However, some are more cliquish and some are more cohesive.” 

 Another interesting find is that some of these differences in the structure of the networks are driven by females. Female primates might drive these changes by strengthening their relationship with dominant males or their preference for family and other closely ranked individuals. 

“Females don’t necessarily have more coercive power, but they are creating social structures,” said Silk. “The ecological reasons of how and why you have these multi-level societies are still a big question. And now that we’ve done this work we can go after that.” 

This collaborative work between scientists incorporates new statistical methods and insights into how these primates live and their social networks.  

The article, “Disparate social structures are underpinned by distinct social rules across a primate radiation,” was published in the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences. 

The full list of authors are: Susan C. Alberts, Elizabeth A. Archie, Małgorzata E. Arlet, Alice Baniel, Jacinta C. Beehner, Thore J. Bergman, Alecia J. Carter, Marie J. E. Charpentier, Kenneth L. Chiou, Catherine Crockford, Guy Cowlishaw, Federica Dal Pesco, David Fernández, Julia Fischer, James P. Higham, Elise Huchard, Auriane Le Floch, Julia Lehmann, Amy Lu, Gráinne M. McCabe, Alexander Mielke, Liza R. Moscovice, Benjamin Mubemba, Megan Petersdorf, Caroline Ross, India A. Schneider-Crease, Robert M. Seyfarth, Noah Snyder-Mackler, Larissa Swedell, Franziska Trede, Jenny Tung, Anna H. Weyher, Roman M. Wittig, Jason M. Kamilar. 

Funding for this project was provided by The National Science Foundation Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE)  Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (SMA-2313739). 

  

A female gelada sits while her groupmates peer at and groom her newborn. Photo by Jacob Feder.

Credit

Photo by Jacob Feder.

 

Some papionin species form cohesive single-level societies that contain multiple males, multiple females, and their dependent offspring. Males disperse from these groups when they reach the age of sexual maturity. Three species of papionin primates form layered multi-level societies in which one-male units (the blue circles) are aggregated into larger social herds. In these species, dispersal patterns are variable. Graphic by Jacob Feder. 

Credit

Graphic by Jacob Feder

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2520774123 

Article Title

Disparate social structures are underpinned by distinct social rules across a primate radiation

Article Publication Date

1-May-2026