New RNA-based active agents reliably protect plants against the Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), the most common virus in agriculture and horticulture. They were developed by researchers at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). The active ingredients have a broad spectrum effect; a series of RNA molecules support the plant's immune system in combating the virus. In laboratory experiments, 80 to 100 per cent of the treated plants survived an infection with a high viral load, as the team reports in "Nucleic Acids Research". Their paper has been selected as a "breakthrough article" by the journal. The researchers are now working on transferring the idea from the laboratory into practice.

Livestock agriculture is bearing the cost of extreme weather events. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores how heat stress affects U.S. dairy production, finding that high heat and humidity lead to a 1% decline in annual milk yield. Small farms are hit harder than large farms, which may be able to mitigate some of the effects through management strategies.

 Wolf populations in Europe increased by nearly 60% in a decade, according to a study led by Cecilia Di Bernardi and Guillaume Chapron at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, published in the open-access journal PLOS Sustainability and Transformation.

Overuse of chemical pesticides has driven resistance in agricultural pests, including the adaptable two-spotted spider mite. Researchers from Japan have discovered novel elicitor proteins, Tet3 and Tet4, in mite saliva that could enhance sustainable pest control. They found that these proteins play a crucial role in modulating plant defense responses by acting as key players in the complex interactions between parasite and host, paving the way for new mite countermeasures.