The Promise of Plant Translational Research

As the world's population continues to expand, and as water resources come under increasing pressure and pathogens that cause devastating crop losses continue to spread, there is a pressing need for plant research to contribute solutions to improving food security in a sustainable and safe way. Plant translational research has a vital role to play in meeting these challenges, and given the importance of research in this field, PLOS believes that such work should be published in open access journals, ensuring that it reaches the widest possible audience without any barriers to access. The technical advances highlighted in this collection exemplify how basic research discoveries are being translated into methods to develop and improve, both agriculturally and environmentally, important crop traits. Produced with the support of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Image Credit: Phil Dubois, Flickr