In a study of newborn piglets, infection with influenza A was associated with disruptions in the piglets’ nasal and gut microbiomes and with potentially detrimental changes in gene activity in the hippocampus, a brain structure that plays a central role in learning and memory. Maternal vaccination against the virus during pregnancy appeared to offer some protection from those changes in the piglets.

If you peek into a Turner Hall classroom at the end of the semester, you might see something unusual.

“It’s when you plant one thing, then another, then–”
“Crop rotation!”
“Correct. Next. Um… you have lots of places to live. But they’re all broken up.”
“Landscape mosaic?”
“No, close, you want them to be together–”
“Habitat connectivity!”

Faculty from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences are teaming up with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) on groundbreaking projects to tackle climate change and drive the future of the bioeconomy.  

The three selected projects from a competitive open call for proposals are: 

Laboratory and field experiments have repeatedly shown that modifying the process of photosynthesis or the physical characteristics of plants can make crops more resilient to hotter temperatures. Scientists can now alter the abundance or orientation of leaves, change leaf chemistry to improve heat tolerance and adjust key steps in the process of photosynthesis to overcome bottlenecks, researchers report in a new review in the journal Science.

Inside a large walk-in refrigerator on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, thousands of envelopes hold the fate of global food security, not to mention a significant portion of the world’s economy.

The National Soybean Germplasm Collection, maintained by a small but mighty USDA Agricultural Research Service team, is the country’s only public soybean seed bank, encompassing nearly the whole of the crop’s genetic diversity and impacting nearly every soybean product grown today — not just in the U.S., but across the world. 

The family of Phil B. Jones, a respected Washington County farmer and community leader, is pleased to announce the creation of the Phil B. Jones Family Scholarship to support local high school students pursuing degrees in agriculture, communications, and related fields at the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

URBANA, Ill.