b'I N D U S T R Y N E W S Delivering the news you need to know. Submissions welcomeemail us at news@seedworldgroup.com. diseasesanthracnose and Stemphyliumdecrease spinach cultivation productivity, marketability and sustainability. Thats why a multi-state team of scien-tists led by faculty with the U of A System Division of Agriculture was recently awarded a $3.57 million grant by the U.S. Department of Agricultures National Institute of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative to expedite the development of spinach cultivars that are resistant to those fungal pathogens.Gene Editing Makes Purple CarrotsResearchers developed a solid purple carrot culti-The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) releasedvar, Deep Purple (DPP), with orange taproots by the National Strategic Germplasm and Cultivarsuccessfully knocking out DcGST1, a gene strongly linked to anthocyanin pigmentation in carrot taproots. Collection Assessment and Utilization Plan in supportAnthocyanins are pigments that may appear red, of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) U.S.purple, blue or black depending on pH level. The color National Plant Germplasm Systems (NPGS) mission.of purple carrot taproots is highly dependent on the anthocyanins. Through the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing The NPGS, a network of 22 genebanks primarilytechnique, the researchers produced a purple carrot operated by USDA-ARS, often in strong partnershipcultivar with orange taproots.with land-grant universities, evaluates, characterizesBayer Collaboration with Microsoft Connects and preserves unique germplasm collections,Farm Data to Address Lack of Data including seeds, tissues, tubers and buds.Interoperability in AgricultureBayer announced at Agritechnica, the worlds lead-ing trade fair for agricultural machinery, an update on 2Blades and Computomics Launch Pilot Project using AI Toolsthe strategic collaboration with Microsoft: New data to Accelerate Discovery of Disease-resistant Genes Across Cropconnectors allow secure, compliant exchange of farm Species data between Bayers flagship digital farming product 2Blades and Computomics have launched a pilot project to advance pre- Climate FieldView and original equipment manufac-dictive Artificial Intelligence (AI) models that can enhance the effective- turers (OEMs) through the industry platform Microsoft ness and throughput of disease and pest-resistant trait discovery acrossAzure Data Manager for Agriculture. Following the crop species. Trained with data from 2Blades proprietary resistance genepreview launch of Bayer AgPowered Services on discovery platform, NLRseek, the models will utilize Computomics pro- the platform earlier this year, Leaf Agriculture is now prietary machine learning technology, XSeedScore, in the in-silico analy- bringing a solution to further enhance accessibility of sis and characterization of resistance genes across crops and pathogens.farm machinery data, and OneSoil is delivering new solutions for in-season crop identification.Kansas Plant Variety Protection Act violator settles with Syngenta Construction of World-Leading UK Crop Syngenta has reached a settlement agreement with Marty Fletchall ofMicrobiome Cryobank Now CompleteBeloit, Kansas, in response to Syngentas allegations of Fletchalls unau- The construction of the UK Crop Microbiome thorized selling of and offering to sell AgriPro SY Monument variety.Cryobank (UK-CMCB)the first publicly available Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Fletchall has agreedresource of its kind anywhere in the worldis now to cease and desist from all further efforts to offer to sell and/or sellcomplete. Scientists from the UKs foremost agricul-Syngenta PVPA-protected wheat seed varieties. Fletchall will also pay atural research institutes created the facility, which will fine to Syngenta as part of the settlement agreement. safeguard future research and enable sustainable yield improvement for six major food crops: barley, oats, Arkansas Leads $3.57 Million National Effort to Improve Diseasefaba bean, oil seed rape, sugar beet and wheat.SWResistance in SpinachFusarium wilt, downy mildew, white rust and two emerging leaf spot 52/ SEEDWORLD.COMJANUARY 2024'