Researchers have revealed that commercial pesticides can be applied to crops in the Cucurbitaceae family to decrease their accumulation of hydrophobic pollutants, thereby improving crop safety. The research group consisted of FUJITA Kentaro (1st year Ph.D. student) of Kobe University’s Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Academic Researcher YOSHIHARA Ryouhei (now an assistant professor at Saitama University) and Associate Professor INUI Hideyuki of Kobe University’s Biosignal Research Center, Senior Research Scientist KONDOH Yasumitsu, Technical Staff HONDA Kaori and Group Director OSADA Hiroyuki of RIKEN, and Lead Researcher HAGA Yuki and Senior Scientist MATSUMURA Chisato of Hyogo Prefectural Institute of Environmental Sciences.
The team developed two approaches to control the functions of plant proteins related to the transport of hydrophobic pollutants.
These findings will lead to these new functions of pesticides being utilized in agriculture, enabling safer crops to be produced.
These results were published online in the international scientific journal ‘Science of the Total Environment’ on June 23 and in ‘Environmental Pollution’ on July 18.
Read more at Kobe University
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