A native Australian millet may carry the genetic fingerprints of thousands of years of Aboriginal harvesting, storage, and plant management. Seen from the air, Channel Country resembles a vibrant and vast tapestry, with a network of waterways crisscrossing the land. Spread across more than 280,000 square kilometers in outback Australia, it is one of the [...]When the United States ratified the 13th amendment in 1865, federal lawmakers very nearly outlawed slavery for good — but not entirely. Tucked within arguably the most important corner of the US constitution is a massive caveat: “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States” (emphasis added.)
In the 160-some years since that amendment, a quieter type of forced servitude has lived on in the US: prison labor. From the debt peonage of the post-Civil War reconstruction era to the privatized contracting of the 21st century, prison labor is a massive money maker, generating $11 billion worth of revenue in 2022 alone.
As horrifying a thought as it is, one of the companies still benefiting from the practice is in the news for another reason: spreading a gut-busting diarrhea parasite through mass-produced shredded lettuce in grocery stores and fast food outlets.
It turns out that Taylor Farms, the agricultural company widely believed to be behind the cyclospora outbreak currently raging throughout the US, is also heavily involved in modern-day forced labor.
In reporting from 2023 that was resurfaced this week on social media, the publication Prison Legal News revealed that Taylor Farms was contracting labor from the Arizona Department of Correction, Rehabilitation, and Reentry for the low, low price of just $4.75 an hour — far below the cost to pay a non-incarcerated worker the federal minimum wage. (And to be clear, that’s not the hourly wage paid to the inmate, which is capped at $1.50 in Arizona.)
Taylor Farms is just one firm involved in the practice in Arizona. Others include Hickman’s Egg Farms, NatureSweet, and Televerde, each of which contracted labor from Arizona DCRR’s for-profit arm, Arizona Correctional Industries. That company’s job is basically to churn out bulk goods for the state of Arizona, like license plates, though it also makes quite a bit of money selling the labor-hours of incarcerated people to private companies.
Worse yet, some of those incarcerated workers may have been here as non-citizens — meaning it would be illegal to employ them in the same low-wage jobs if they weren’t being held in detention. As Prison Legal noted at the time, at least 26 prisoners employed by these companies had been detained by ICE, meaning that outside of incarceration, hiring them would have been illegal. To put it bluntly: their status as prisoners was the only thing that made the arrangement legal.
In all, the DCRR told Prison Legal it had hired out 15,700 “Mexican nationals” between 2008 and 2023, though couldn’t say how many of those workers were undocumented immigrants.
As Ruben Reyes, director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association told the publication at the time: “I’m venturing a guess that a large majority of the people who are labeled a Mexican national by [DCRR] are unauthorized to work here.”
Put into context, the revelation is a horrifying twist in an already nauseating story of corporate greed and deregulation. Though the institution of slavery may have been formally abolished, its legacy lives on — fully embraced by the for-profit companies pumping our food supply full of parasites.
Taylor Farms didn’t respond to a request for comment.
More on incarceration: Prisoners Alarmed to Discover That a Startup Is Training an AI Based on Their Phone Calls
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Consumers and agricultural workers rejoice: the Trump administration has killed a key regulation meant to keep toxic human and industrial waste sludge from our food supply, because toxic sludge is apparently not a threat to public health.
On Monday, the Guardian reported that the Environmental Protection Agency is tossing out a major body of research that formed the basis for regulations which would have effectively limited the amount of sewage byproduct we’re allowed to spray into the environment.
The research, published not even two years ago, was conducted in order to study the consequences of toxic PFAS “forever chemical” compounds in treated sewer sludge — called “biosolids” in the wastewater treatment industry. The findings showed that any amount of PFAS above 1 part per billion in sewer sludge used as fertilizer represents an increased cancer risk for farmers, as well as consumers.
That’s a problem, because previous EPA tests have found PFAS levels as high as 9.4 parts per billion in sludge used for agricultural purposes.
The Trump administration, however, says that’s not a problem, because it’s not like we’re spraying biosolids on everything — and so what if a few farm workers get cancer? In a nine-page draft memorandum released by the agency’s Office of Water, the EPA justified the decision by blasting previous EPA research, saying that earlier study created a “misconception” that “all biosolids and sewage sludge use and disposal practices will negatively affect the public.”
“Currently data does not indicate that there are widespread impacts to the food supply from biosolids containing PFOA and PFOS at the national level, and the general public is not likely to be exposed to sewage sludge-impacted foods,” the new draft insists. “The EPA estimates that sewage sludge is applied to less than 1 percent of America’s farmland annually.”
As with any data coming out of the Trump administration, these factual claims should be taken with a hefty grain of salt. Even assuming that basic assertion is correct, it still leaves the farmers and agricultural workers laboring on that farmland exposed.
“It’s shocking for the EPA to take a scientific assessment and simply throw it out,” Laura Dumais, an attorney with the non-profit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility told the Guardian. “Basically, they’re saying: farmers’ lives don’t matter.”
It’s also a particularly grim decision in light of the cyclospora outbreak currently roiling the US. Though cyclospora is a parasite and not a type of PFAS, studies have identified agricultural biosolids as a potential source of the gut-busting organism in the food supply. (Also noteworthy is the fact that the company broadly suspected to be responsible for the outbreak, Taylor Farms, made a substantial donation to Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc just days after the FDA pushed back a major regulation on food traceability.)
And as the Trump administration strips regulations that would clamp down on sewer sludge contamination in industrial agriculture, it acknowledges that “approximately 20 percent of sewage sludge managed each year is sold directly to the public or applied to sites where the public might be exposed.”
Rather than continuing with regulations that would make the public safer, the new EPA memorandum advises Americans to “research the supplier of the sewage sludge” and avoid “application of sewage sludge in locations where children may have access to the soil.”
For public health advocates like Dumais, the move amounts to a complete dereliction of the EPA’s duty to the public.
She told the Guardian that “it’s shocking that the EPA is willing to throw all of these people under the bus and the EPA’s solution here is ‘do your own research — we’re not going to regulate anything, so if you think it’s dangerous then figure it out for yourself.'”
More on Trump: Trump Administration Scrapping Nuclear Energy Rules Requiring Plants to Keep Radiation Levels “As Low as Reasonably Achievable”
The post Trump Administration Declares Toxic Sewer Sludge Not a Threat to Public Health appeared first on Futurism.
Cadmium (Cd) contamination is a growing threat to food safety, and rice is one of the most vulnerable crops. Because rice plants can accumulate cadmium from contaminated soils more readily than many other staples, Cd can become a major dietary exposure route for large parts of the world’s population. Yet attempts to lower cadmium often create trade-offs—reducing uptake of essential nutrients or weakening plant performance.
A new study from Okayama University, Japan, and collaborating researchers in China reports a precision-editing strategy designed to avoid those trade-offs. The team focused on the rice metal transporter gene OsNramp5, which is known to move metals such as manganese and cadmium, and used base-editing to search for a beneficial point mutation within the gene rather than disabling it.
Using adenine and cytosine base editors, the researchers generated more than 1,600 genome-edited rice lines and screened them for reduced cadmium accumulation. Their saturation mutagenesis approach targeted OsNramp5 to identify variants that kept normal plant physiology while limiting Cd buildup in grain.
The key breakthrough was the I441T substitution: changing isoleucine to threonine at amino acid position 441. This single change reduced cadmium levels in both shoots and brown rice without altering gene expression, protein abundance, or the subcellular localization of the transporter.
Importantly, the mutation did not come at the cost of micronutrients. Field trials on cadmium-contaminated soil showed a 48% decrease in cadmium concentration in brown rice, from 0.14 mg/kg in wild type to 0.07 mg/kg in the edited plants, while iron, manganese, and zinc levels remained essentially unchanged.
The researchers then explored the mechanism behind the selective effect. Although OsNramp5 transports multiple metals, the I441T mutation shifted its selectivity—enhancing zinc transport preference. Increased zinc accumulation in root cells promoted competitive inhibition against cadmium during root-to-shoot movement.
Instead of completely blocking cadmium uptake, the edited transporter selectively limited cadmium translocation, reducing grain contamination while preserving essential mineral delivery. The team supported these conclusions with physiological assessments, gene and protein analyses, yeast transport assays, and agronomic evaluation.
Overall, the work demonstrates how precision genome editing can address a long-standing breeding challenge: lowering toxic metal accumulation without disrupting nutrient homeostasis. The researchers propose that the OsNramp5I441T allele could accelerate development of safer rice varieties for mildly contaminated regions.
Subject of Research: Not applicable
Article Title: Genome-edited rice variety with low-cadmium accumulation in the grain
News Publication Date: 18-Jun-2026
Web References: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2610609123
References: DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2610609123 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
Image Credits: Credit: Professor Jian Feng Ma from Okayama University, Japan
Keywords: cadmium, rice, OsNramp5, base editing, genome editing, metal transporters, food safety, micronutrients, zinc competition, plant breeding
Nitrogen is an essential building block of proteins, amino acids, and DNA. Without nitrogen, cells can’t function or reproduce. Nitrogen is abundant in the atmosphere as dinitrogen gas, but plants and animals can’t access atmospheric nitrogen. Instead, we rely on biologically available forms like ammonia and nitrate.
Specialized microbes can transform atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia via a process called biological nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria have a unique protein complex, the nitrogenase complex, that facilitates this nitrogen transformation. The nitrogenase complex is activated by a group of genes known as nif genes.
Legume plants like peanuts, peas, and beans have nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil zone around their roots, called the rhizosphere. The symbiotic relationship between nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria and legume plants supplies most of the biologically available nitrogen to life on Earth.
Bacteria attached to plant roots “feed” nitrogen to plants through the soil, and in turn receive organic acids for energy from plants performing photosynthesis. Source: Wikimedia Commons
However, one piece of the puzzle remains unexplored: the role of soil viruses in these nitrogen transformations, referred to as the nitrogen cycle. Viruses are microscopic particles made up of genetic material and proteins, but they can’t reproduce without a host cell. Scientists consider viruses to be biological entities that are halfway between living and non-living.
To reproduce, viruses contact a host cell and inject their genetic material into it. The virus’s genetic material takes over the host cell’s genome and forces the cell to produce proteins that assemble into new viruses. As new viruses are created, they can incorporate genes from the host cell into their own genetic material. Genes that are transferred from a host cell to a virus are known as auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs). Viruses can carry AMGs and pass them to other hosts or use them to increase their own ecological fitness.
Scientists from China, Spain, and the Czech Republic set out to investigate whether viruses from legume roots could increase local soil nitrogen fixation by expressing nif AMGs or by transferring nif genes to other bacteria. First, they determined the global distribution of viral nitrogen-fixing genes by analyzing about 8.6 million viral genomes from the Integrated Microbial Genomes/Virus database. They looked for the DNA sequences of known nitrogen-fixing genes and the locations where the viruses were sampled. They found that only 0.003% of the viruses in the database had at least 1 nitrogen-fixing gene, but they clustered in the same locations as nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
The team also found 3 types of viruses that most commonly carried nitrogen-fixing genes: Kyanoviridae, Nudiviridae, and Bronfenbrennervirinae. Kyanoviridae viruses carried a nif gene called nifU. The researchers used a computer program called DRAM-v to confirm that nifU was a fully functional gene and a real tool that viruses could use.
Next, the team collected soil samples from a cowpea field in Nanjing, China, to test whether the cowpea roots influenced the abundance of viruses using nitrogen-fixing genes. They collected soil from the cowpea rhizospheres and soil away from the plants. They analyzed both viral and bacterial RNA in the soil samples to identify active genes, using a sequencing process called metatranscriptomics. They found that the viral nifU gene was actively expressed in the cowpea rhizosphere samples more than in the non-crop soil. Although about 96% of nifU genes were being expressed by bacteria, viruses contributed about 4%.
The researchers then assessed whether rhizospheric viruses changed the amount of nitrogen being fixed in these soils. They set up small, enclosed containers of sterile soil and added either bacteria or a mixture of bacteria and viruses extracted from the cowpea rhizospheres. They found that soil with viruses had higher total nitrogen (36 milligrams per kilogram, or mg/kg) than soil without viruses (17 mg/kg).
Finally, they adjusted the air in each container to have a different form of dinitrogen gas. Atoms of the same element that have different atomic masses are known as isotopes. Nitrogen has 2 stable isotopes: lighter nitrogen-14 and heavier nitrogen-15. Bacteria or viruses that fix nitrogen at natural isotope abundances will take up nitrogen-14. But scientists can track who in the population fixes nitrogen by adding nitrogen-15 to the air, a process called nitrogen-15 stable isotope probing. Nitrogen-fixers will incorporate the heavy nitrogen-15 into their biomass over time and increase their weight, allowing researchers to separate and identify them.
The team grew the bacteria and viruses with nitrogen-15 for 35 days, then used stable isotope probing to separate the nitrogen fixers. They detected viral nifU AMGs among the heavier biomass, confirming that rhizospheric viruses were fixing nitrogen.
The team concluded that rhizospheric viruses and the viral nifU AMG can increase nitrogen fixation in cowpea soils. The team suggested that although viruses with nitrogen-fixing genes are rare, they can influence the soil nitrogen cycle. They recommended that future researchers further test the contribution of viral nifU genes to plant nitrogen fixation with controlled infection experiments.
The post Viruses help plants obtain nitrogen appeared first on Sciworthy.
Corn sweat is moisture released by cornfields during summer heat, particularly in the central United States. The scientific term for corn sweat is evapotranspiration. This process combines evaporation and transpiration. Those are both ways that water moves from the land into the air during Earth’s water cycle.
Evaporation happens when liquid water turns into water vapor and rises into the air. In the case of corn sweat, water evaporates from the surface of the soil in farm fields.
Transpiration is the movement of water from a plant’s roots to its surfaces. There, water vapor escapes through tiny holes on the stems and leaves. These tiny holes are known as stomata. Releasing water vapor through transpiration is an essential function for plants.
The amount of water that plants add to the atmosphere varies. But in places with lots of cornfields, corn sweat can cause a spike in local humidity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that corn sweat releases about 13,000 to 19,000 liters (3,500 to 5,000 gallons) of water per acre per day. That’s about a quarter of the water held in most swimming pools.
Corn sweat is often blamed for muggy summer weather. But the water released by crops during heat waves is only an estimated 2 to 5 percent of the total humidity.
Humidity from crops is often attributed to corn sweat, but soybeans transpire too.
Check out the full list of Scientists Say.
Salty soil, one of the greatest threats to agriculture, may have a new remedy in the form of naturally occurring soil bacteria that allow plants to thrive under harsh conditions.
An international team led by Dr. Yanfen Zheng at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences presented their findings on increasing plant survivability in inhospitable environments in a recent paper published in Science Advances.
In their research, the international team demonstrated that maize, tomato, and rapeseed thrived in soil that would typically be unusable due to a previously unknown mechanism in these microbes, in a breakthrough for agriculture.
“The build-up of salt in farmland is a major and worsening problem – driven by climate change, irrigation and rising sea levels,” said co-author Prof Jonathan Todd, from the University of East Anglia’s School of Biological Sciences and the Quadram Institute on the Norwich Research Park. “Salt chokes plant growth, damages roots, and severely impacts entire harvests – putting global food supplies at risk.”
Agricultural scientists have long known that root microbiomes, the community of microbes living among a plant’s roots, are important for dealing with environmental stresses, yet they remained uncertain of the mechanics involved.
“We found that plants appear to recruit beneficial bacteria in salty soil conditions, which in turn trigger internal changes that strengthen their physical structure and resilience,” Todd continued. “If scientists can harness this natural process, it could mark the beginning of a new era in climate-resilient agriculture.”
The international team examined a variety of plant root microbiomes across different soil types and plant species, identifying pseudomonads, a type of naturally occurring soil bacterium, that are drawn to the roots of maize, tomato, and rapeseed in heavily salted environments. By noting the commonality of high salt content across a variety of crops, the researchers concluded that this was more than a mere coincidence and decided to analyze the genetic mechanisms behind the bacterium’s behavior.
“Compared to other microbes, pseudomonads carry specialised genes that help them tolerate high salt levels, including sodium transport systems and other stress resistance mechanisms,” Todd said.
Next, the researchers introduced various pseudomonad strains to soybean plants in laboratory and real-world soil experiments and observed that the bacteria colonized plant roots, resulting in increased growth in harsh, salty environments. Those soybean plants that received the bacteria demonstrated stronger root systems, more advanced development, and higher yields than those without.
“The most surprising thing was finding out how the bacteria helped plants cope,” Todd said. “For decades, it was thought that plants survive salinity by controlling sodium levels – essentially keeping harmful salt out. But we found no evidence that bacteria influenced sodium transport or ion balance.”
“Instead of helping plants manage salt directly, the bacteria stimulated the plant to produce more of a substance called lignin,” Todd continued. “Roots of bacteria-treated plants showed a significant increase in lignin content, with some measurements rising by over 30 percent under salt stress.”
The tough, wood-like lignin acted as a shield against the salt, strengthening delicate tissues to endure a challenging environment. Unfortunately, in plants that couldn’t produce lignin, the pseudomonads produced no benefit. Building on the discovery, the researchers identified the genes in the plants involved in lignin synthesis and artificially overexpressed them to successfully confer salt resilience.
“We hope this discovery opens up new possibilities for agriculture,” Todd concluded. “With vast areas of farmland already affected by salinity and more under threat, microbial solutions could become an essential tool for maintaining crop yields and ensuring food security.”
The paper, “Pseudomonads Associated with Salt-Stressed Plants Facilitate Stress Adaptation of Soybean through Enhanced Lignin Biosynthesis,” appeared in Science Advances on June 24, 2026.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.
The United States is one of only a handful of countries that allows companies to hold patents on plant varieties. As a result, a small number of corporations can—and do—suppress competition in the seed industry, stifle innovation, and turn taxpayer subsidies intended for farmers into corporate profits.
The US Department of Agriculture has found that two companies control more than 70 percent of US corn and soybean seed sales, and the top four cottonseed companies control nearly 94 percent of that market.
In a May 2026 court filing in a legal dispute between two US seed companies, the Department of Justice said patents on seeds are obstructing competition and research in the agriculture industry.
© wsfurlan via Getty
Coastal farmland in the Mid-Atlantic is being overtaken by rising seas faster than forests, revealing an overlooked rural front in climate-driven marsh migration. Ghost forests, the eerie stands of dead trees left behind when saltwater moves inland, have become a stark sign of sea level rise along the Mid-Atlantic coast. Yet a new Nature Sustainability [...]In a groundbreaking revelation that could reshape our understanding of plant-microbe interactions and agricultural biotechnology, researchers have unveiled a novel chemical communication mechanism between rice roots and beneficial soil bacteria. This newly discovered pathway centers on the secretion of heptadecanoic acid, a specific fatty acid, which effectively recruits Bacillus species to the rhizosphere, the densely populated soil region surrounding plant roots. Such a mechanism not only highlights the intricate biochemical dialogues that underpin plant-microbe symbioses but also opens promising avenues for sustainable crop management through microbiome engineering.
Rice, a staple food that sustains more than half of the world’s population, has long been studied for its interactions with the soil ecosystem. The rhizosphere harbors myriad microbial communities, some of which promote plant health by enhancing nutrient acquisition, defending against pathogens, or improving stress tolerance. Identifying the exact signals that facilitate recruitment of beneficial bacteria has presented a considerable scientific challenge. The recent study by Zeng, Wen, Zhao, and colleagues provides essential insights and fills a critical gap by pinpointing heptadecanoic acid as a chemical attractant secreted by rice roots, which acts as a molecular beacon for Bacillus.
Heptadecanoic acid, also known as margaric acid, is a saturated fatty acid containing 17 carbon atoms. Traditionally, plant root exudates—complex mixtures of organic acids, sugars, amino acids, and secondary metabolites—have been observed to influence microbial colonization, but the specific involvement of fatty acids as signals was less appreciated. The team’s meticulous biochemical analyses have now elucidated that rice roots not only exude heptadecanoic acid but do so strategically when recruiting beneficial Bacillus species. This revelation signifies a refined understanding of the selective microbial recruitment strategies employed by plants.
The team’s research employed an array of advanced techniques—ranging from root exudate profiling through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to microbial chemotaxis assays—to validate that Bacillus species detect and are attracted to gradients of heptadecanoic acid in the rhizosphere. Importantly, not all soil microbes respond equivalently, underscoring the specificity of this fatty acid signal. Functional studies further demonstrated that disrupting rice root production of heptadecanoic acid diminished Bacillus colonization, which correspondingly weakened the plant’s resistance to common soil-borne pathogens.
Understanding the biochemical basis for such recruitment enables scientists to rethink approaches to crop protection and enhancement. Bacillus species are well-known for their plant growth-promoting traits, including production of antimicrobial compounds, enhancement of nutrient solubilization, and induction of systemic resistance in plants. By harnessing the heptadecanoic acid signaling pathway, it is conceivable that agricultural inoculants could be optimized to improve colonization efficiency and consistency in field conditions, potentially reducing the need for chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
This molecular dialogue highlights a sophisticated communication network where plants actively shape their microbial environment. The discovery that a fatty acid functions not merely as a structural or energy-storage molecule but as a signaling compound redefines our conception of root exudate complexity. Moreover, heptadecanoic acid’s hydrophobic nature prompts questions about its diffusion dynamics in soil and the mechanisms by which Bacillus receptors detect it. Future exploration into bacterial chemoreceptors and downstream signaling pathways activated by this molecule could illuminate novel targets for microbiome manipulation.
Beyond direct agricultural implications, this finding resonates with broader ecological principles. The soil microbiome’s composition significantly influences plant community dynamics, ecosystem productivity, and resilience to environmental stresses. By uncovering a precise mediator of microbe recruitment, the work by Zeng and colleagues contributes to the fundamental ecological theory of plant-soil feedback loops, suggesting that plants possess active biochemical agency in curating their microbial consortia.
Interestingly, the secretion of heptadecanoic acid is not constant but modulated by environmental cues and plant developmental stages, emphasizing the dynamic nature of root exudation profiles. This temporal regulation indicates that plants might selectively recruit beneficial microbes in response to specific physiological needs or external threats, adding an adaptive dimension to this interaction. Understanding these controls could inform timing strategies for microbial inoculant application in agriculture to coincide with natural recruitment periods.
The authors also raise intriguing evolutionary considerations. The conserved ability among rice varieties to secrete heptadecanoic acid suggests selective pressure favoring plants capable of enlisting Bacillus partners. Parallel studies on other cereal crops could reveal whether this fatty acid signaling is a widespread mechanism or unique to rice. Such comparative analyses across plant taxa may unearth a broader family of fatty acid signals mediating symbioses and expand the toolkit for synthetic microbiome engineering.
This pioneering investigation underscores the necessity of interdisciplinary approaches combining plant biology, microbiology, analytical chemistry, and ecology to fully decipher plant-microbe interactions. It leverages cutting-edge omics technologies and bioinformatics pipelines to characterize metabolite profiles and microbial responses, illustrating the power of integrative science. The robust experimental design and reproducible methodologies set a new benchmark for future studies aiming to parse root exudate signaling.
As the global agricultural sector grapples with the challenges of increasing food production sustainably on finite arable land under climate change pressures, the discovery of a natural plant mechanism to recruit growth-promoting and protective microbes represents a potentially transformative tool. Strategies informed by such foundational knowledge could reduce reliance on synthetic inputs, lower environmental footprints, and enhance crop resilience, aligning with ambitious global sustainability goals.
In conclusion, the identification of heptadecanoic acid as a pivotal signaling molecule secreted by rice roots to attract beneficial Bacillus species marks an exciting advance in the field of plant-microbe research. It unravels a previously unrecognized layer of biochemical communication with profound implications for agriculture and ecology. Continued investigation into the molecular details, environmental regulation, and cross-species relevance of this signaling mechanism promises to unlock innovative avenues for crop improvement and sustainable farming practices worldwide.
Subject of Research: Plant-microbe interactions focusing on the biochemical signaling between rice roots and Bacillus species mediated by heptadecanoic acid secretion.
Article Title: Author Correction: Rice roots recruit Bacillus via the secretion of heptadecanoic acid.
Article References: Zeng, J., Wen, T., Zhao, J. et al. Author Correction: Rice roots recruit Bacillus via the secretion of heptadecanoic acid. Nat. Plants (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-026-02341-5
Image Credits: AI Generated
A genetic study of 2,000-year-old grape seeds is shedding new light on ancient winemaking. For centuries, the vineyards of Tuscany have been associated with some of the world’s most celebrated red wines. But a cache of grape seeds buried in ancient wells is revealing a very different story about what people were growing and drinking [...]
For thousands of years, farmers have prepared their fields for planting by overturning the soil. It helps them the manage the moisture, nutrients and flow of air underfoot. But modern farming’s deep plowing and heavy machinery often do more harm than good, researchers report.
All that soil turnover disrupts the natural paths that water takes to percolate into the root zone. And this is not a problem just for growing crops. Breaking down the network of pores that water wants to move through also makes the soil less resilient to flooding and drought. So concludes a team of scientists in the April 16 Science.
Qibin Shi is a geophysicist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. He was part of a team that fashioned a dense array of sensors out of fiber-optic cables. Such cables find use in more than just high-speed internet. They also can become powerful tools for seismology — and not just for earthquakes. They’re proving sensitive enough to detect even the tiny vibrations triggered as water moves through soil.
Shi’s group installed these cables along the edges of 27 plots of land at a university test farm in Newport, England. The plots were treated one of three ways. Nine went unplowed. Another nine were tilled to a depth of 10 centimeters (4 inches). The last nine were turned over to a depth of 25 centimeters (almost 10 inches). Within each group, plowing machinery of different weights were used. Why? The heavier they are, they more they can compact the soil.
For three days in March 2023, the team used its seismic-sensing system to track how the plots responded to rain. Rainwater didn’t seep down much on plots with the most compacted and deeply plowed soil. Instead, it tended to pool near the surface. Here, it could evaporate swiftly once the sun came out.
Water moved down and around more easily in the plots that were less compacted and less deeply plowed.
To understand what was happening, Shi’s team created a computer program that modeled the water’s movements. Rain, they found, moves through porous soil in a way that sort of mimics what happens to blood in capillaries — the body’s tiniest blood vessels. This process is known as capillary action.
Like our capillaries, the tiny, tunnel-like airways between specks of soil are very thin. Gravity does not drive water’s flow through these holes. Instead, as water tries to alternately adhere to soil particles and bind to other water molecules, it gets caught in a push-pull action. And that moves it. When those narrow pathways get disturbed or crushed, however, the suction forces strengthen, impairing the water’s flow.
Fiber-optic sensing could offer farmers a quick and inexpensive way to monitor soil moisture on a large scale, Shi’s team says. Such monitoring also could provide real-time warnings of natural hazards, such as flooding and soil liquefaction during an earthquake (when saturated ground can suddenly turn unstable due to shaking).
Terraxy, an innovative startup emerging from cutting-edge research at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), has successfully secured $3 million in its Seed-2 funding round. This round was spearheaded by Wa’ed Ventures, the venture capital wing of Saudi Aramco, with additional support from KAUST itself. The investment aims to accelerate the scaling and commercialization of Terraxy’s groundbreaking soil regeneration and carbon storage technology, designed specifically to tackle the challenges posed by desert environments.
The capital injection follows a critical growth phase, facilitating Terraxy’s shift from pilot-scale initiatives toward full-scale industrial production. A flagship component of this expansion is the establishment of a 30,000-square-meter commercial facility located in Al Zulfi, Saudi Arabia. This state-of-the-art production hub symbolizes a major leap for the company in bringing its proprietary technology to market readiness, underpinning Wa’ed Ventures’ mission to translate locally developed, research-driven innovations into sustainable, practical solutions.
At the heart of Terraxy’s technology lies Carbosoil, a proprietary soil enhancer engineered to address the unique and challenging characteristics of sandy soils found across the Arabian Peninsula. Globally, soil degradation affects nearly a third of arable land, hindering agricultural productivity and ecosystem health. In Saudi Arabia, where sandy and nutrient-poor soils dominate, agricultural efforts are hampered by poor water retention and low nutrient availability. Carbosoil demonstrates a remarkable ability to improve these conditions, delivering up to a 70% increase in plant growth and yield using the same quantities of water and nutrients. This efficacy directly translates into enhanced resource-use efficiency, especially critical in arid regions where water scarcity is a major concern.
Integral to Terraxy’s success is the supportive regulatory landscape fostered by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA). Terraxy has benefited from MEWA’s Regulatory Sandbox, a pioneering initiative allowing emerging environmental technologies to be tested rigorously under real-world conditions. This framework not only accelerates the validation of novel technologies but also ensures alignment with stringent environmental standards and drives the responsible introduction of innovations to the market, supporting national sustainability targets.
The importance of soil health in the Kingdom cannot be overstated. It underpins food security, water efficiency, and land rehabilitation frameworks that are critical to Saudi Arabia’s ambitious environmental and economic agendas. Through collaboration between innovators, regulators, and investors, Terraxy exemplifies how multi-stakeholder engagement can foster the development of homegrown technologies that address both ecological and commercial imperatives.
Amidst escalating global efforts to combat land degradation and climate change, Terraxy’s dual-purpose technology stands out. It not only rehabilitates degraded soils but also captures and stores atmospheric carbon dioxide in a stable form that can endure for centuries. This long-term carbon sequestration capability complements regional and international commitments to emission reduction and climate resilience, providing a scalable solution adaptable to various arid and semi-arid environments.
Wa’ed Ventures CEO Anas Algahtani emphasized the strategic value of backing deep technology initiatives with tangible sustainability benefits. Highlighting Terraxy’s unique strength, he noted that the startup’s ability to transition from foundational science to deployable industrial applications underscores the potent role of science-led innovation. Such initiatives are vital to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which prioritizes sustainability, technological advancement, and economic diversification.
Aramco’s commitment to supporting solutions that address emissions from difficult-to-decarbonize sectors was also underlined by Ahmad O. Al-Khowaiter, Executive Vice President of Technology & Innovation at Aramco, and Chairman of Wa’ed Investment Committee. Terraxy’s technology fits squarely within this vision, exemplifying the kind of scalable, scientifically robust innovation required to achieve meaningful climate impact while fostering economic growth.
As a spinout from KAUST, Terraxy benefits from a robust ecosystem that bridges academia and industry. The National Transformation Institute (NTI) at KAUST has played a pivotal role in nurturing the company’s journey, offering infrastructure and translational support critical for scaling emerging technologies. Professor Himanshu Mishra, one of Terraxy’s co-founders and an associate professor at KAUST, highlighted how the broader ecosystem—rather than any singular breakthrough—was instrumental in Terraxy’s development.
Dr. Ian Campbell OBE, Senior Vice President at KAUST’s NTI, formally acknowledged the importance of NTI’s efforts in enabling Terraxy’s scale-up journey. He described Carbosoil as a cornerstone for soil enrichment initiatives and a tool that aligns with Saudi Arabia’s Green Initiative and expanding carbon credit market. Such alignment demonstrates how academia, government, and private sector investment can converge to yield innovations with direct and measurable impacts on national and global environmental priorities.
Substantial funding and institutional validation signal growing confidence in Terraxy’s technology. The company is poised to make a significant contribution to Saudi Arabia’s greening efforts, resource efficiency strategies, and carbon management policies. Its scalable commercial model offers a replicable path for other arid regions facing similar environmental challenges, positioning Terraxy as a potential global leader in sustainable soil regeneration and carbon sequestration.
The company’s trajectory also illustrates the power of university-driven innovation ecosystems in advancing high-tech environmental solutions. By translating fundamental research into market-ready products, Terraxy exemplifies how science and technology can be harnessed to create sustainable economic opportunities while addressing pressing environmental imperatives.
As Terraxy moves forward, its integrated approach to enhancing soil health and capturing carbon dioxide offers a compelling model for deep-tech interventions in the sustainability domain. With substantial backing and a proven technology platform, Terraxy’s advances could become a pivotal component in shaping sustainable land management and carbon reduction strategies, both within Saudi Arabia and internationally.
Subject of Research: People
Article Title: Terraxy Secures $3 Million to Pioneer Soil Regeneration and Carbon Storage Technology for Desert Environments
News Publication Date: Not provided
Web References: https://mediasvc.eurekalert.org/Api/v1/Multimedia/1ee8d30f-c323-416c-95ce-a86efb4d3d71/Rendition/low-res/Content/Public
Image Credits: Images © Terraxy / KAUST
Keywords: Soil Regeneration, Carbon Storage, Desert Agriculture, Deep Tech, KAUST, Terraxy, Carbosoil, Wa’ed Ventures, Aramco, Carbon Sequestration, Saudi Arabia, Sustainability, Environmental Innovation
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