All posts; Tags Include "Agriculture"
- September 9, 2016
- 09:55 AM
- 160 views
The deep history of barley breeding
by Luigi in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
A recent paper reported on the discovery of a bit of the barley genome where an allele from the wild relative, when homozygous, confers a 30% yield advantage over a popular German variety under saline conditions.1 That of course is very interesting in its own right, but I want here to delve a bit into the methods, rather than the results.... Read more »
Saade, S., Maurer, A., Shahid, M., Oakey, H., Schmöckel, S., Negrão, S., Pillen, K., & Tester, M. (2016) Yield-related salinity tolerance traits identified in a nested association mapping (NAM) population of wild barley. Scientific Reports, 32586. DOI: 10.1038/srep32586
- September 7, 2016
- 03:16 AM
- 105 views
The recent history of summer squashes
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
So you’re telling me that sixteenth century Italian gardeners selected long, thin squashes from among those brought back to Europe from the Americas (actually two different places in the Americas) in conscious imitation of the bottle gourds they had used for centuries? And somehow kept them separate from other cucurbits so that they bred true? […]... Read more »
Lust, T., & Paris, H. (2016) Italian horticultural and culinary records of summer squash (Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbitaceae) and emergence of the zucchini in 19th-century Milan. Annals of Botany, 118(1), 53-69. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcw080
- September 6, 2016
- 03:30 AM
- 83 views
Home is where conservation begins
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Thanks to Jade Philips (see her on fieldwork below) and Åsmund Asdal, two of the authors, for contributing this post on their recent paper on the conservation of crop wild relatives in Norway. Norway may be an unlikely spot in which to look for agrobiodiversity, but seek and ye shall find. A recent paper discusses […]... Read more »
Phillips, J., Asdal, A., Magos Brehm, J., Rasmussen, M., & Maxted, N. (2016) In situ and ex situ diversity analysis of priority crop wild relatives in Norway. Diversity and Distributions. DOI: 10.1111/ddi.12470
- July 21, 2016
- 10:08 AM
- 395 views
The decline of biodiversity: Past the point of no return?
by gdw in FictionalFieldwork
Mohi looks up at her mother. Confused. Afraid. Mother had always said that she had to keep her filtration veil on when they left their housedome. But now, here stood her mother, unveiled. The woman gifted an encouraging nod to her young daughter. Mohi removed her veil. Air! Light! The freshness of the breeze and […]... Read more »
Steffen W, Richardson K, Rockström J, Cornell SE, Fetzer I, Bennett EM, Biggs R, Carpenter SR, de Vries W, de Wit CA.... (2015) Sustainability. Planetary boundaries: guiding human development on a changing planet. Science, 347(6223). PMID: 25592418
Newbold T, Hudson LN, Arnell AP, Contu S, De Palma A, Ferrier S, Hill SL, Hoskins AJ, Lysenko I, Phillips HR.... (2016) Has land use pushed terrestrial biodiversity beyond the planetary boundary? A global assessment. Science, 353(6296), 288-91. PMID: 27418509
Oliver TH. (2016) How much biodiversity loss is too much?. Science, 353(6296), 220-1. PMID: 27418489
- April 28, 2016
- 09:33 AM
- 541 views
Breathing Bordeaux is entirely different from drinking it!
by Rosin Cerate in Rosin Cerate
It was the summer of 1882, and grape farmers in the Médoc region of southwest France (north of Bordeaux, on the Atlantic coast) had a problem.Schoolchildren (or university students, or just anyone travelling the roads along which the grapevines grew, depending on what source you're reading) were pilfering their grapes. To try and ward them off, some farmers decided to dissolve some slaked lime and copper sulfate in water and spray it on their grapevines closest to the roads. The idea was... Read more »
Pimentel J, & Marques F. (1969) 'Vineyard sprayer's lung': A new occupational disease. Thorax, 24(6), 678-688. DOI: 10.1136/thx.24.6.678
- February 25, 2016
- 11:21 AM
- 205 views
Why we may lose bananas, again
by Alice Breda in la-Plumeria
Bananas are yellow, smiling and fluorescent, they are used as a unit to measure low doses of radioactivity and over a hundred million tons of them are eaten in the world every year. However, a rapidly spreading disease is threatening the existence of this beloved fruit that might completely from the market. And it’s not the first time.
The history of bananas began in South East Asia, where highest diversity of wild species and cultivated varieties is still present. Some of them are red,........ Read more »
Ordonez, N., Seidl, M., Waalwijk, C., Drenth, A., Kilian, A., Thomma, B., Ploetz, R., & Kema, G. (2015) Worse Comes to Worst: Bananas and Panama Disease—When Plant and Pathogen Clones Meet. PLOS Pathogens, 11(11). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005197
- December 18, 2015
- 08:28 AM
- 527 views
Kiss Me Under the Parasitic Angiosperm
by Stephanie Swift in mmmbitesizescience
Mistletoe is held in high regard at this time of year. No Christmas decorations are complete without a garland of cheerful mistletoe hanging on the door, or suspended prettily from the rafters as an incentive for festive romance. In nature, … Continue reading →... Read more »
Petersen G, Cuenca A, Møller IM, & Seberg O. (2015) Massive gene loss in mistletoe (Viscum, Viscaceae) mitochondria. Scientific Reports, 17588. PMID: 26625950
- November 12, 2015
- 12:47 PM
- 911 views
Savin juniper likes mountains and dislikes diabetes
by Rosin Cerate in Rosin Cerate
In mountainous regions throughout much of Europe and Asia there grows an evergreen shrub by the name of Juniperus sabina (savin juniper). Being a juniper, it produces berry-like cones and is occasionally infected by members of everyone's favourite genus of sinister orange tentacled fungi, Gymnosporangium.This shrub takes no prisoners (Source)Crushing the leaves of J. sabina produces a strong unpleasant odour, a harbinger of the ability of the plant to poison many of the creatures who consume it......... Read more »
Gao R, Gao C, Tian X, Yu X, Di X, Xiao H, & Zhang X. (2004) Insecticidal activity of deoxypodophyllotoxin, isolated from Juniperus sabina L, and related lignans against larvae of Pieris rapae L. Pest Management Science, 60(11), 1131-1136. DOI: 10.1002/ps.922
- November 5, 2015
- 05:27 PM
- 612 views
The wonderful yields of crop buddies
by Rosin Cerate in Rosin Cerate
Ever since we stopped roaming and started farming, we've been looking for ways to improve our harvests. One old school approach is to grow plants close to one another, otherwise known as polyculture. Whether it's two crops, three crops, or a crop and a beneficial but not otherwise harvestable plant, farmers have long realized the botanical buddy system results in larger plants producing more seeds (read: more food).Compared to monoculture (growing a single crop over a large area, e.g. your typic........ Read more »
Postma J, & Lynch J. (2012) Complementarity in root architecture for nutrient uptake in ancient maize/bean and maize/bean/squash polycultures. Annals of Botany, 110(2), 521-534. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcs082
- September 4, 2015
- 11:59 AM
- 825 views
Bacteria from tobacco plant roots provide protection against sudden-wilt disease
by Betty Zou in Eat, Read, Science
A new study from the Max Planck Institute shows how root-associated bacteria can rescue plants from sudden-wilt disease. The authors conducted laboratory and field testing to show that treating seeds with a mixture of six native bacterial species significantly reduces plant mortality.... Read more »
Berendsen, R., Pieterse, C., & Bakker, P. (2012) The rhizosphere microbiome and plant health. Trends in Plant Science, 17(8), 478-486. DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2012.04.001
Santhanam R, Luu VT, Weinhold A, Goldberg J, Oh Y, & Baldwin IT. (2015) Native root-associated bacteria rescue a plant from a sudden-wilt disease that emerged during continuous cropping. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 26305938
- August 24, 2015
- 04:05 PM
- 976 views
Argania spinosa has goat ornaments and makes a useful oil
by Rosin Cerate in Rosin Cerate
Argania spinosa (argan) is a tough little tree endemic to a limited area in southwestern Morocco and a bit of very western Algeria (Tindouf). Patchy forests of the tree cover about 800,000 hectares of the semi-arid Sous valley. These represent a unique biotope and have been designated a fancy UNESCO biosphere reserve. The presence of the forests slows desertification, as the drought-resistant trees act to stabilize the soil. Argan trees can live up to 250 years and are able to make do ........ Read more »
Aboussaid H, Vidal-Quist JC, Oufdou K, El Messoussi S, Castañera P, & González-Cabrera J. (2011) Occurrence, characterization and insecticidal activity of Bacillus thuringiensis strains isolated from argan fields in Morocco. Environmental Technology, 32(11-12), 1383-91. PMID: 21970180
Monfalouti HE, Guillaume D, Denhez C, & Charrouf Z. (2010) Therapeutic potential of argan oil: A review. The Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 62(12), 1669-75. PMID: 21054392
Paris C, Herin F, Reboux G, Penven E, Barrera C, Guidat C, & Thaon I. (2015) Working with argan cake: A new etiology for hypersensitivity pneumonitis. BMC Pulmonary Medicine, 18. PMID: 25888313
- July 31, 2015
- 10:00 AM
- 1,023 views
How to make rice healthier for you and the environment
by Betty Zou in Eat, Read, Science
An innovative way of cooking rice that removes more arsenic than the conventional method and a new strain of high-starch, low-methane rice are discussed.... Read more »
Carey M, Jiujin X, Gomes Farias J, & Meharg AA. (2015) Rethinking Rice Preparation for Highly Efficient Removal of Inorganic Arsenic Using Percolating Cooking Water. PloS one, 10(7). PMID: 26200355
Su J, Hu C, Yan X, Jin Y, Chen Z, Guan Q, Wang Y, Zhong D, Jansson C, Wang F.... (2015) Expression of barley SUSIBA2 transcription factor yields high-starch low-methane rice. Nature. PMID: 26200336
- July 8, 2015
- 11:35 AM
- 1,148 views
Colour changing fruits and veggies
by Rosin Cerate in Rosin Cerate
The fleshy parts of plants we eat tend to change colour. This can be due to ripening (e.g. various berries turning red as they mature), intentional injury (e.g. apple slices turning brown after being cut), or changing external pH (e.g. red cabbage turning pink in vinegar). Let's look a bit at how and why this happens using a couple of examples.Strawberry fruit develops through green, white, and red stages. These correspond to changing levels of chlorophyll, anthocyanins, flavonoids, tannins, and........ Read more »
Chi M, Bhagwat B, Lane WD, Tang G, Su Y, Sun R, Oomah BD, Wiersma PA, & Xiang Y. (2014) Reduced polyphenol oxidase gene expression and enzymatic browning in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) with artificial microRNAs. BMC Plant Biology, 62. PMID: 24618103
Cho J, Lee EJ, Yoo KS, Lee SK, & Patil BS. (2009) Identification of candidate amino acids involved in the formation of blue pigments in crushed garlic cloves (Allium sativum L.). Journal of Food Science, 74(1). PMID: 19200080
- May 6, 2015
- 08:00 AM
- 1,051 views
Plants Aren’t Just Male Or Female
by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules
It’s hard enough to believe that flowering plants have different sexes, but how about plants that have three sexes? One trioecious plant varies it sex ratio depending on how much water is around, while another only shows three sexes when it lives near a particular bat. But most amazing, man made the papaya into a three-sex plant. Your tropical fruit salad is made with a hermaphrodite.... Read more »
Armoza-Zvuloni, R., Kramarsky-Winter, E., Loya, Y., Schlesinger, A., & Rosenfeld, H. (2014) Trioecy, a Unique Breeding Strategy in the Sea Anemone Aiptasia diaphana and Its Association with Sex Steroids. Biology of Reproduction, 90(6), 122-122. DOI: 10.1095/biolreprod.113.114116
VanBuren, R., & Ming, R. (2013) Organelle DNA accumulation in the recently evolved papaya sex chromosomes. Molecular Genetics and Genomics, 288(5-6), 277-284. DOI: 10.1007/s00438-013-0747-7
VanBuren R, Zeng F, Chen C, Zhang J, Wai CM, Han J, Aryal R, Gschwend AR, Wang J, Na JK.... (2015) Origin and domestication of papaya Yh chromosome. Genome research, 25(4), 524-33. PMID: 25762551
Ueno, H., Urasaki, N., Natsume, S., Yoshida, K., Tarora, K., Shudo, A., Terauchi, R., & Matsumura, H. (2014) Genome sequence comparison reveals a candidate gene involved in male–hermaphrodite differentiation in papaya (Carica papaya) trees. Molecular Genetics and Genomics, 290(2), 661-670. DOI: 10.1007/s00438-014-0955-9
- February 5, 2015
- 09:10 AM
- 1,051 views
Climate Change: Heatwaves and Poverty in Pakistan
by Jalees Rehman in Fragments of Truth
The 2010 floods were among the worst that Pakistan has experienced in recent decades. Sadly, the country is prone to recurrent flooding which means that in any given year, Pakistani farmers hope and pray that the floods will not be as bad as those in 2010. It would be natural to assume that recurring flood disasters force Pakistani farmers to give up farming and migrate to the cities in order to make ends meet. But a recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change by Valerie Mueller ........ Read more »
Mueller V, Gray C, & Kosec K. (2014) Heat Stress Increases Long-term Human Migration in Rural Pakistan. Nature Climate Change, 182-185. PMID: 25132865
- December 10, 2014
- 07:39 AM
- 624 views
The genome sequence of African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and evidence for independent domestication
by Alice Breda in genome ecology evolution etc
Oryza glaberrima is an African species of rice that is not of the same origin as the Asian rice (Oryza sativa) and was independently domesticated from the progenitor Oryza barthii about 3,000 years ago.In this study recently published by Nature … Continue reading →... Read more »
Wang, M., Yu, Y., Haberer, G., Marri, P., Fan, C., Goicoechea, J., Zuccolo, A., Song, X., Kudrna, D., Ammiraju, J.... (2014) The genome sequence of African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and evidence for independent domestication. Nature Genetics, 46(9), 982-988. DOI: 10.1038/ng.3044
- December 8, 2014
- 08:02 AM
- 1,673 views
Climate Change: Heatwaves and Poverty in Pakistan
by Jalees Rehman in The Next Regeneration
In the summer of 2010, over 20 million people were affected by the summer floods in Pakistan. Millions lost access to shelter and clean water, and became dependent on aid in the form of food, drinking water, tents, clothes and medical supplies in order to survive this humanitarian disaster. It is estimated that at least $1.5 billion to $2 billion were provided as aid by governments, NGOs, charity organizations and private individuals from all around the world, and helped contain the devastating ........ Read more »
Mueller V, Gray C, & Kosec K. (2014) Heat Stress Increases Long-term Human Migration in Rural Pakistan. Nature climate change, 182-185. PMID: 25132865
Miralles, D., Teuling, A., van Heerwaarden, C., & Vilà-Guerau de Arellano, J. (2014) Mega-heatwave temperatures due to combined soil desiccation and atmospheric heat accumulation. Nature Geoscience, 7(5), 345-349. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2141
- December 1, 2014
- 04:24 PM
- 1,019 views
Feeding the Buzzards
by Denise O'Meara in Denise O'Meara
Eimear Rooney and colleagues from Queen’s University Belfast aimed to investigate that very question in a new study examining the effects of supplementary feeding on the common buzzard population in Northern Ireland. The study has recently been published in the international ornithology journal, Ibis.
Rooney and colleagues focused on mainly agricultural land consisting of improved grassland, but they also included areas of lower productivity such as bogs, rough grazing areas, woodlands and ........ Read more »
Rooney Eimear, & W. Ian Montgomery. (2014) Supplementary feeding increases Common Buzzard Buteo buteo productivity but only in poor-quality habitat . Ibis. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12218
- November 21, 2014
- 01:58 PM
- 1,413 views
Genome, Evolution, and Domestication of the Cat
by Daniel Koboldt in Massgenomics
Even though most of my posts on MassGenomics concern human genetics and genomics, today I’d like to highlight a milestone in another species, one that many humans care fiercely about. This guy: Cat lovers, rejoice! This month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencs, Mike Montague, Wes Warren, and colleagues published the first complete […]... Read more »
Montague MJ, Li G, Gandolfi B, Khan R, Aken BL, Searle SM, Minx P, Hillier LW, Koboldt DC, Davis BW.... (2014) Comparative analysis of the domestic cat genome reveals genetic signatures underlying feline biology and domestication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 25385592
- September 16, 2014
- 01:20 PM
- 1,059 views
GM plants with modified 'eskimo1' gene have increased 'drought tolerance'
by This Science is Crazy! in This Science Is Crazy!
New study uses siRNA and 35S promoter to regulate multiple genes including ESK1 to improve drought tolerance in Arabidopsis... Read more »
Xu F, Liu Z, Xie H, Zhu J, Zhang J, Kraus J, Blaschnig T, Nehls R, & Wang H. (2014) Increased Drought Tolerance through the Suppression of ESKMO1 Gene and Overexpression of CBF-Related Genes in Arabidopsis. PloS one, 9(9). PMID: 25184213
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