EurekAlert! - Agriculture

It's a gas: New discovery may lead to heartier, high-yielding plants

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Genetics Society of America) In a research report in the November 2009 journal Genetics, scientists show how a family of genes (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase, or ACS genes), in the weed Arabidopsis thaliana, are responsible for production of ethylene. This gas affects many aspects of plant development, and this information, which will be applicable to other plants, lays the foundation for future genetic manipulation that could make plants disease resistant, able to survive and thrive in difficult terrain, and increase yields.

New method to measure snow, vegetation moisture with GPS may benefit farmers, meteorologists

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Colorado at Boulder) A research team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder has found a clever way to use traditional GPS satellite signals to measure snow depth as well as soil and vegetation moisture, a technique expected to benefit meteorologists, water resource managers, climate modelers and farmers.

NSF awards $7.5M grant to University of Oklahoma for plant genomics

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Oklahoma) A decade ago, a group of University of Oklahoma researchers were sequencing the first human chromosome as part of the human genome project. Today, the OU Advanced Center for Genome Technology is contributing to an international effort to sequence the tomato genome with a $7.5 million grant awarded by the National Science Foundation for plant genomics.

New maize map to aid plant breeding efforts

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of California - Davis) A massive survey of genetic diversity in maize has produced a gene map that should pave the way to significant improvements in a plant that is a major source of food, fuel, animal feed and fiber around the world.

Paleontologists find extinction rates higher in open-ocean settings during mass extinctions

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Cincinnati) Arnie Miller, University of Cincinnati professor of paleontology in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, and co-author Michael Foote of the University of Chicago publish their research in the Nov. 20 issue of Science with their paper, "Epicontinental Seas Versus Open-Ocean Settings: The Kinetics of Mass Extinction and Origination."

New map of variation in maize genetics holds promise for developing new varieties

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Cornell University) A new study of maize has identified thousands of diverse genes in genetically inaccessible portions of the genome. New techniques may allow breeders and researchers to use this genetic variation to identify desirable traits and create new varieties that were not easily possible before.

Maize cell wall genes identified, giving boost to biofuel research

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Purdue University) Purdue University scientists have helped identify and group the genes thought to be responsible for cell wall development in maize, an effort that expands their ability to discover ways to produce the biomass best suited for biofuels production.

ORNL, Los Alamos pioneer new approach to assist scientists, farmers

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Sustainable farming, initially adopted to preserve soil quality for future generations, may also play a role in maintaining a healthy climate, according to researchers at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge and Los Alamos national laboratories.

Microorganism may provide key to combating giant salvinia throughout Louisiana

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Louisiana Tech University) A team of researchers at Louisiana Tech University has found that a naturally occurring microorganism acts as a natural herbicide against giant salvinia.

Reference genome of maize, most important US crop, is published by team co-led by CSHL scientists

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) A four-year, multi-institutional effort co-led by three Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientists culminated today in publication of a landmark series of papers in the journal Science revealing in unprecedented detail the DNA sequence of maize. Maize, or corn, as it is commonly called by North American consumers, is one of the world's most important plants and the most valuable agricultural crop grown in the United States, representing $47 billion in annual value.

Public University of Navarre draws up first map of chromosome terminals of higher fungi

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Elhuyar Fundazioa) A doctor in biology from the UPNA, Gúmer Pérez Garrido studied and described for the first time how the telomeres and adjacent sequences of the oyster fungus are organized.

Let them eat snail

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Inderscience Publishers) A nutritionist in Nigeria says that malnutrition and iron deficiency in schoolchildren could be reduced in her country by baking up snail pie. In a research paper to be published in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health, she explains snail is not only cheaper and more readily available than beef but contains more protein.

Why Israeli rodents are more cautious than Jordanian ones

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Haifa) A series of studies carried out at the University of Haifa have found that rodent, reptile and ant lion species behave differently on either side of the Israel-Jordan border. "The border line, which is only a demarcation on the map, cannot contain these species, but the line does restrict humans and their diverse impact on nature," says Dr. Uri Shanas.

U of M plant scientist uncovers clues to yield-boosting quirks of corn genome

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Minnesota) The offspring of two inbred strains tend to be superior to both of their parents. Characterizing the gene-level variability that leads to this phenomenon, known as heterosis or hybrid vigor, could boost our ability to custom-tailor crops for specific traits, such as high protein content for human consumption or high glucose content for biomass fuel.

Scientists at UA, collaborating institutions decode maize genome

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Arizona) Scientists from the University of Arizona led by Arizona Genomics Institute director Rod A. Wing and from collaborating institutions have deciphered the complete genetic code of the maize plant for the first time.

PLoS Genetics 2009 maize genome collection

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Public Library of Science) Maize is an important crop in many countries of the world. It is widely used for human consumption, animal feed and industrial materials. It also is considered an exemplar plant species for studying domestication, molecular evolution and genome architecture. The authors of the research presented in this special collection used the first description of the B73 maize genome to probe some of the most intriguing questions in genetics and plant biology.

Sweet corn story begins in UW-Madison lab

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Wisconsin-Madison) This week, scientists are revealing the genetic instructions inside corn, one of the big three cereal crops. Corn, or maize, has one of the most complex sequences of DNA ever analyzed, says University of Wisconsin-Madison genomicist David Schwartz, who was one of more than 100 authors in the article in the journal Science.

Like humans, ants use bacteria to make their gardens grow

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Wisconsin-Madison) Leaf-cutter ants, which cultivate fungus for food, have many remarkable qualities.

After mastodons and mammoths, a transformed landscape

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Wisconsin-Madison) Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals -- including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground sloths and giant beavers -- began their precipitous slide to extinction.

Amaizing: Corn genome decoded

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Washington University School of Medicine) In recent years, scientists have decoded the DNA of humans and a menagerie of creatures but none with genes as complex as a stalk of corn, the latest genome to be unraveled. A team of scientists led by the Genome Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis published the completed corn genome in the Nov. 20 journal Science, an accomplishment that will speed efforts to develop better crop varieties to meet the world's growing demands for food, livestock feed and fuel.

The benefits of stress ... in plants

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(American Journal of Botany) This study finds that certain wild flax plants growing in poor soils have succeeded in balancing the stress in their lives -- these plants are less likely to experience infection from a fungal pathogen. This is the first study to attempt to quantitatively explain how plants have evolved a specialization to serpentine soils and ultimately may help to explain floristic diversity in these unique environments.

Scientists unravel evolution of highly toxic box jellyfish

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center) With thousands of stinging cells that can emit deadly venom from tentacles that can reach ten feet in length, the 50 or so species of box jellyfish have long been of interest to scientists and to the public. Yet little has been known about the evolution of this early branch in the animal tree of life. In a paper published today, researchers have unraveled the evolutionary relationships among the various species of box jellyfish, thereby providing insight into the evolution of their toxicity.

UCR plant scientist's research spawns new discoveries showing how crops survive drought

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of California - Riverside) Breakthrough research done earlier this year by a UC Riverside plant cell biologist has greatly accelerated scientists' knowledge on how plants and crops can survive difficult environmental conditions like drought. In only months since the discovery, six research papers in prestigious journals such as Science and Nature have been published that build on his work, a testament to the interest among plant scientists to nail down how exactly the stress signaling pathway works in plants.

Pew Health Group statement on Senate mark up of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510)

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Pew Health Group) Sandra Eskin, director of the Pew Health Group's Food Safety Campaign, today issued the following statement regarding the markup of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee:"The Pew Health Group applauds the members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee for approving the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) today."

Study: Sea stars bulk up to beat the heat

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Chicago Press Journals) A new study finds that a species of sea star stays cool using a strategy never before seen in the animal kingdom. The sea stars soak up cold sea water into their bodies during high tide as buffer against potentially damaging temperatures brought about by direct sunlight at low tide.