Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics

Stories

Engineered bacterium enables rapid gene testing across diverse crop species

Contributing institution; NLR and agrobacterial biology expertise

For three decades, rapid plant gene testing has centered on one species: Nicotiana benthamiana, a nightshade that accepts foreign DNA with unusual ease. On October 15, a UK-Taiwan team reported that an engineered bacterium, Rhizobium rhizogenes strain AS109, delivers transient gene expression across most of 30 dicot species tested, including faba bean, cowpea, common bean, and field mustard.

Updated Oct 19

Saturn's moon empire: 128 new worlds in a single day

New Capabilities

As of May 2026: Leading planetary astronomy research

On March 11, 2025, the International Astronomical Union dropped a bombshell: 128 new moons orbiting Saturn. Not over a year. Not over a decade. All at once. A team led by Edward Ashton stacked thousands of telescope images from 2019 to 2023, revealing a swarm of tiny irregular satellites—each just a few kilometers across—that had been hiding in plain sight. Saturn now has 274 confirmed moons, more than all other planets in the solar system combined.

Updated May 19