and vegetables may prevent or delay amyotrophic lateral sclerosisnew research suggests that increased consumption of foods containing colorful carotenoids particularly beta-carotene
and vegetables their bright orange red or yellow colors and are a source of dietary Vitamin a.
Furthermore subjects with diets high in beta-carotene and lutein#ound in dark green vegetables#ad a lower risk ALS risk.
#Eating deep-fried food linked to increased risk of prostate cancerregular consumption of deep-fried foods such as French fries fried chicken
From French fries to doughnuts: Eating more than once a week may raise risk Specifically Stanford co-director of the Hutchinson Center's Program in Prostate Cancer Research
and colleagues found that men who reported eating French fries fried chicken fried fish and/or doughnuts at least once a week were increased at an risk of prostate cancer as compared to men who said they ate such foods less than once a month.
They include acrylamide (found in carbohydrate-rich foods such as French fries) heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (chemicals formed
Increased intake of fruits and vegetables is associated with decreased risk of some chronic diseases. An understanding of the metabolism of these compounds and the relative activities of the compounds in the consumed fruit and their metabolic products is needed to make scientifically sound dietary recommendations
#Genome sequence of 90 chickpea lines decodedin a scientific breakthrough that promises improved grain yields and quality greater drought tolerance and disease resistance and enhanced genetic diversity
a global research team has completed high-quality sequencing of not one but ninety genomes of chickpea.
Nature Biotechnology featured the reference genome of the CDC Frontier chickpea variety and genome sequence of 90 cultivated and wild genotypes from 10 different countries as an online publication on 27 january 2013.
and functions of the genes that define the chickpea plant. It also reveals clues on how the sequence can be useful to crop improvement for sustainable and resilient food production toward improved livelihoods of smallholder farmers particularly in marginal environments of Asia and Sub-saharan africa.
The research milestone was the result of years of genome analysis by the International Chickpea Genome Sequencing Consortium (ICGSC) led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semiarid Tropics (ICRISAT) headquartered in Hyderabad Andhra
The global research partnership succeeded in identifying an estimated 28269 genes of chickpea after sequencing CDC Frontier a kabuli (large-seeded) chickpea variety.
This will help chickpea farmers become more resilient to emerging challenges brought about by the threat of climate change.
The genome map can also be used to harness genetic diversity by broadening the genetic base of cultivated chickpea genepool.
Chickpea is the second largest cultivated grain food legume in the world grown in about 11.5 million hectares mostly by resource poor farmers in the semiarid tropics.
The highly nutritious drought-tolerant chickpea contributes to income generation and improved livelihoods of smallholder farmers in African countries like Ethiopia Tanzania and Kenya and is crucial to the food security in India (being the largest producer consumer and importer of the crop).
Chickpea is also an important component of the pulse industry in Australia Canada and USA.
ICRISAT and its partners have demonstrated once again the power of productive partnerships by achieving this breakthrough in legume genomics says Dr William Dar Director General ICRISAT.
Under the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Grain Legumes led by ICRISAT along with other CGIAR Consortium members and program as well as national partners genome sequencing will play a crucial role in speeding up the development of improved varieties for smallholder farmer crops such as chickpea.
In the face of the growing global hunger and poverty amid the threat of climate change the chickpea genome sequence will facilitate the development of superior varieties that will generate more income
and help extricate vulnerable dryland communities out of poverty and hunger for good particularly those in the drylands of Asia and sub-Africa for
and has been a serious constraint for chickpea improvement. This study will provide not only access to'good genes'to speed up breeding
At the moment it takes 4-8 years to breed a new chickpea variety. This genome sequence could reduce to half the time to breed for a new variety with market-preferred traits. he adds.
According to Professor Jun Wang Director of BGI The collaboration between BGI and ICRISAT has yielded significant achievements in orphan crops research like the pigeonpea genome before and now the chickpea genome.
The chickpea genome sequencing project was undertaken by the ICGSC led by ICRISAT the University of California-Davis (USA) and BGI-Shenzhen (China) with key involvement of national partners in India USA Canada Spain
The intake of fruits and vegetables has been hypothesized to lower breast cancer risk however the existing evidence is inconclusive.
and are less dependent on estrogen levels than ER+tumors account for only 15-20%of breast cancers large pooled analyses are needed to determine the suspected link to lower ER-breast cancer risk and the consumption of fruits and vegetables.
In order to determine if there is a link between the lowered risk of ER-breast cancers and the intake of fruits and vegetables Seungyoun Jung Sc.
and vegetables and risk of developing breast cancer in each study and then combined the study-specific estimates to generate summary estimates for all studies combined.
In an accompanying editorial Cynthia A. Thomson Ph d. and Patricia A. Thompson Ph d. both of the University of Arizona Cancer Center write that the findings of the study support the emphasis on greater intake for vegetables
and vegetables may make young people calmer happier and more energetic in their daily life new research from the University of Otago suggests.
and dried fruit) vegetables (excluding juices) and several categories of unhealthy foods like biscuits/cookies potato crisps and cakes/muffins.
and vegetables they reported feeling calmer happier and more energetic than they normally did says Dr Conner.
and vegetables predicted improvements in positive mood the next day suggesting that healthy foods may improve mood.
After further analysis we demonstrated that young people would need to consume approximately seven to eight total servings of fruits and vegetables per day to notice a meaningful positive change.
One serving of fruit or vegetables is approximately the size that could fit in your palm or half a cup.
My co-author Bonnie White suggests that this can be done by making half your plate at each meal vegetables
which indicates that the contribution from the Greenland ice sheet was less than half the total sea-level rise during that period says Dorthe Dahl-Jensen Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute University of Copenhagen and leader of the NEEM-project.
The new findings show higher temperatures in northern Greenland during the Eemian than current climate models have estimated says Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen Niels Bohr Institute.
We were shocked completely by the warm surface temperatures at the NEEM camp in July 2012 says Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen.
and running out to sea in warm climate periods like the Eemianas we thought explains Dorthe Dahl-Jensen
The analysis fingered five substances including both beta carotene found in carrots and many other vegetables and gamma tocopherol which is relatively abundant in vegetable fats such as soybean corn and canola oils and margarine.
The Stanford investigators learned that the NHANES contained data on numerous individuals'environmental exposures and for many of the same individuals their genomic compositions.
But maybe it can't hurt to eat a few more carrots. Other co-authors were John Ioannidis MD Phd professor of medicine and of health research and policy;
Wusirika thinks the rice callus culture may be attacking cancer with the same sort of plant chemicals that make vegetables so healthy to eat.
of which are linked to food items such as eggs chicken beef pork salad vegetables and dairy products. Between 1981 and 1991 the number of salmonella infections rose by 170%in the UK driven primarily by an epidemic of Salmonella enteritidis
or gypsum said Chemcam team member Nicolas Mangold of the Laboratoire de Planetologie et Geodynamique de Nantes in France.
--and certain types of food already linked to protective or damaging effects on healththese included meat fish fruits and vegetables pulses cereals bread and pasta rice butter margarine nuts
potatoes milk eggs and fast food/burgers. Consumption was categorised as never; occasionally; once or twice a week;
The health-conscious pattern was characterized by relatively higher intakes of pasta noodles rice whole fruit poultry nuts fish and vegetables and lower intakes of fried vegetables processed meats
The Western pattern was characterized by higher intakes of bread eggs fats fried vegetables alcohol and soft drinks and the lowest intakes of milk and whole fruit.
Blueberries and strawberries contain high levels of naturally occurring compounds called dietary flavonoids also found in grapes and wine blackberries eggplant and other fruits and vegetables.
or less--even in women who otherwise ate a diet rich in other fruits and vegetables.
The American Heart Association supports eating berries as part of an overall balanced diet that also includes other fruits vegetables and whole-grain products.
The diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) preferentially feeds on economically important food crops such as rapeseed cauliflower and cabbage.
breads bagels English muffins cereals crackers cereal bars granola bars and chips. They collected nutrition content ingredient lists and the presence or absence of the Whole Grain Stamp on product packages from all of these products.
and mixed prairie species to typical corn-corn-soybean rotations each of the perennial crops were highly efficient at reducing nitrogen losses with miscanthus having the greatest yield.
and mixed prairie species were compared against a typical corn-corn-soybean rotation. Harvested biomass and nitrogen nitrous oxide emissions
and soybean treatment as well as switchgrass but were lower for prairie and miscanthus. Prairie and miscanthus levels were lower due to harvest of the plant biomass
at the moment the scientists are working also on potato plants on behalf of a Japanese chemical company. They use their knowledge to get crops to yield a far greater amount of biomass.
In the case of potatoes this means a great deal more starch. If we want to guarantee security of supply for foodstuffs
However our method is only likely to deliver success as long as the flowers of the plant in question play no significant role--sugar beet for instance.
#Research revisiting the safety of GM weevil-resistant peas in mice contradicts previous risk assessment findingsresearchers at the Medical University of Vienna have conducted feeding trials with mice to investigate the allergenicity of genetically modified (GM) weevil-resistant peas.
Development of the peas was discontinued in 2005 when a risk assessment conducted by the CSIRO
and Australian National University showed negative reactions in mice to the peas (Prescott et al 2005).
Field peas are an important rotation crop which can be devastated by pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum) infestation. Unlike peas beans are attacked not by pea weevils as they contain a protein called Î-amylase inhibitor (Î AI) that causes the weevils feeding on beans to starve before they cause any damage.
The Meduni Vienna-team investigated immune responses in mice fed several varieties of beans non-transgenic peas
and the transgenic peas expressing the bean or the transgenic versions of the Î-amylase inhibitor.
The mice showed similar levels of immune response no matter which food they consumed. Dr. Michelle Epstein the lead researcher said We observed that the immune response in mice was the same no matter
whether the inhibitor came from beans where it naturally occurs or from peas genetically modified to express the inhibitor and even in non-transgenic peas.
These results demonstrate that Î AI transgenic peas are no more allergenic than beans or non-transgenic peas in mice Dr. Epstein added.
The Prescott study is cited regularly by those on both sides of the GM debate as an example of either the inherent dangers of genetically modified foods or the effectiveness of pre-market studies in identifying potential risk factors.
It is also vital that investigators are aware of potential unexpected crossreactive allergic responses upon the consumption of plant products as we found in the non-transgenic peas.
#Physics students disprove childrens author Roald Dahls peach calculationfour students from the University of Leicester Department of physics
and Astronomy have calculated that it would take 2425907 seagulls rather than the 501 described in Roald Dahl's James
#Genetic history of tomatoes revealed by new sequencingthis week an international team of researchers led by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing is publishing in the journal Nature Genetics a brief genomic history
of tomato breeding based on sequencing of 360 varieties of the tomato plant. The C. M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center here at UC Davis played an important role in this study by providing seed of both cultivated tomato varieties and related wild
species. This study which builds on the first tomato genome sequence completed just two years ago shows in great detail how the processes of early domestication
and modern breeding influenced the genetic makeup of cultivated tomatoes. UC Davis researchers also led an effort to sequence the genome of a wild relative of the cultivated tomato.
Analysis of the genome sequences of these 360 varieties and wild strains shows which regions of the genome were under selection during domestication and breeding.
The study identified two independent sets of genes responsible for making the fruit of modern commercial tomatoes 100 times larger than their wild ancestors.
An important finding is that specific regions of the tomato genome were depleted unintentionally in genetic variation:
for example in DNA around genes conferring larger fruit size or genes for resistance to diseases afflicting tomato plants.
and highlight the important role that the Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center and similar collections play in housing much of the genetic variability that will be critical for future breeding and research on tomato.
#Chemical derived from broccoli sprouts shows promise in treating autismresults of a small clinical trial suggest that a chemical derived from broccoli sprouts
Talalay cautions that the levels of sulforaphane precursors present in different varieties of broccoli are highly variable.
It would be very difficult to achieve the levels of sulforaphane used in this study by eating large amounts of broccoli or other cruciferous vegetables.
and right now they are running tests on lettuce crops (chosen for their rapid growth) in growth chambers under controlled conditions.
Synthetic beans and mushrooms--accessories for the cursed humpbacked witch in a Baylor University production of the musical Into the Woods--recently emerged from a little machine tucked away in a corner of the costume shop at Baylor.
rotting vegetables including two dozen beans and a dozen mushrooms. That done the 3d printer heated and spun plastic cord into the delicate thread to create the costume elements for the witchy wardrobe.
#Wild tomato species focus of antioxidant studytomatoes are known to be rich in antioxidants such as Vitamin c lycopene Î-carotene and phenolics.
While tomato domestication and breeding programs have focused typically on traits such as fruit weight color shape
and disease resistance scientists are now looking at ways to develop tomato cultivars that boast higher antioxidant traits.
To date wild tomato species have been used widely for improvement of tomato disease resistance but have not been explored extensively for health-related traits.
Scientists from the Department of Molecular biology and Genetics at Izmir Institute of technology in Turkey published a unique study in Hortscience that compared antioxidant traits for wild tomatoes with those of cultivated varieties.
Their results they say can be used to design a breeding program with the purpose of improving antioxidant characteristics in elite tomato lines.
The Solanum habrochaites population also contained individuals that had nearly 2-fold more water-soluble antioxidant activity and phenolic content than cultivated tomato.
which had twice as much Vitamin c as cultivated tomato. Our work shows that wild tomato species harbor alleles that could be useful for improvement of antioxidant traits in cultivated tomato Doä anlar noted.
In fact some of the backcross progeny from the populations used in this study could be used for breeding of these traits.
A new study of herbicides derived from clove oil tested the natural products'effectiveness in controlling weeds in Vidaliaâ sweet onion crops.
Cultivation with a tine weeder and hand weeding are the primary tools currently used for weed control in organic sweet onion (Allium ceps) explained scientist W. Carroll Johnson III.
Johnson tested herbicides derived from natural products as a way to control these emerged weeds in organic Vidaliaâ sweet onion production.
Vidaliaâ sweet onion is a dry bulb onion grown in Georgia as a cool-season (winter) crop.
To test the efficacy of the clove oil-derived herbicide the researcher conducted irrigated field trials at the Vidalia onion
and Vegetable Research center near Lyons Georgia. One treatment factor was sprayer output volume with the sprayer calibrated at 25 and 50 gallons/acre.
The field experiments showed that weed control was improved not consistently by applying clove oil (10%by volume) with a sprayer calibrated at 50 gallons/acre compared with sprayer calibrated at 25 gallons/acre Johnson said adding that occasional improvements in weed control did not affect onion yield
and did not consistently improve onion yield. All clove oil herbicide treatments regardless of adjuvant had difficulty in maintaining an emulsion in the spray tank
and onion yields to clove oil applied in higher sprayer output volumes and the corresponding increase in clove oil cost when increasing sprayer output volume we cannot recommend clove oil in organic Vidaliaâ sweet onion production systems Johnson said.
The full report of the experiments was published in Horttechnology. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Society for Horticultural Science.
because it is perceived as a hot potato issue where politicians do not want to risk voters'discontent says Erik Brockwell.
and beans to meet the food needs of a growing world population. However boosting crop output will require improving more than
In collaboration with a research team led by Jonathan Lynch a professor of plant sciences at Penn State the system has been evaluated in South africa with cowpea and maize plants.
With its ability to quickly gather data in the field it was possible to evaluate a complete cowpea diversity panel.
Penn State collaborator James Burridge compiled a novel cowpea reference data set that consists of approximately 1500 excavated root systems.
It can be found in various kinds of fruit but also in soybeans spinach eggs and cottage cheese.
The brown algae known as sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) for example contain up to three times as much sugar as sugar beet.
and sugar beet cultivation when corresponding products can be produced in an ecologically sustainable way from algae explains Grã ndahl.
According to a new Food and Brand Lab pilot study published in Appetite chef-made meals can increase participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) by 9%and overall selection and consumption of vegetables by 16%!
meat taco pizza bean taco pizza garlic spinach pizza meat lover's pizza and a mozzarella burger.
pizza or burger canned fruit and green beans broccoli and milk. Sales data indicated that after the introduction of the new chef-made items 9%more students bought NSLP compliant meals.
however they actually ate 16%more of the selected vegetable sides-specifically the new salad.
and also potentially improve students'nutrition by increasing consumption of vegetables or other healthy sides that complement the main dish.
and defend against invaders--an important step in preventing pathogens from contaminating fruits and vegetables. Now scientists have discovered that plants may package their commensal bacteria inside of seeds;
In 2011 Germany France and The netherlands experienced an outbreak of E coli that was traced ultimately to the consumption of contaminated sprouts
The researchers led by Dr. Shaun Lee looked inside sterilized mung beans and were able to isolate a unique strain of Bacillus pumilus that provides the bean with enhanced microbial protection.
This was a genuine curiosity that my colleague and I had about whether commensal bacteria could be found in various plant sources including seed supplies said Dr. Lee.
What they found was the new strain of Bacillus pumilus a unique highly motile Gram-positive bacterium capable of colonizing the mung bean plant without causing any harm.
The five-year grant for nearly $660000 will support research to identify the plant mechanisms that direct and coordinate formation of the soybean nodule.
Using this knowledge Subramanian hopes to develop soybeans that are more efficient in making nodules
If this can be done with legumes such as soybeans perhaps this trait can be transferred to other crops that don't fix nitrogen he added.
Legumes such as soybean plants have the capacity to form mutually beneficial relationships with bacteria in the soil to fix nitrogen.
Subramanian's research has identified nearly 150 micro-RNAS that may potentially affect nodule formation through support from the Agricultural Experiment Station and the South dakota Soybean Research Council.
#On the trail of the truffle flavortruffles along with caviar are among the most expensive foods in the world.
But the distinctive smell of truffles is not only of interest to gourmets. A group of German and French scientists under the direction of the Goethe University Frankfurt have discovered that the smell of white truffles is produced largely by soil bacteria
which are trapped inside truffle fruiting bodies. White truffles from the Piedmont region in Italy can reach 5000 Euro per kilogram and black truffles from the PÃ rigord region in Southern France as much as 2000 Euro per kilogram.
Particularly large specimens even fetch prices of up to 50000 Euro per kilogram at auctions. Connoisseurs search for the precious delicacies near hazelnut trees oaks and some species of pine.
This is because truffles grow in a symbiotic relationship with the trees. For scientists truffles are
therefore a model organism to investigate how symbiosis evolved between plants and fungi. Truffles are also useful to study fungal smell and flavour.
Understanding how flavours are created is indeed very important to the food industry. Yeasts and bacteria which make cheese
and wine have been researched in depth but little is known about how the flavour of other organisms including truffles is created.
Over the past 10 years researchers already suspected that microorganisms trapped inside truffle fruiting bodies contributed to the flavour.
When the genome of the black Perigord truffle was mapped in 2010 we thought that the fungus had sufficient genes to create its flavour on its own junior professor Richard Splivallo from the Institute for Molecular Life sciences at the Goethe University explained.
The team made up of German and French scientists studied the white truffle Tuber borchii.
It is native to Europe but has been introduced recently in New zealand and Argentina. The researchers were able to show that bacteria produce a specific class of volatile cyclic sulphur compounds
which make up part of the distinctive truffle smell. Dogs and pigs are able to find truffles underground thanks to the slightly sulphuric smell.
However our results cannot be transferred to other types of truffles Splivallo says because the compounds we investigated are only found in the white truffle Tuber borchii.
For this reason in the future they plan to study compounds which are found in the PÃ rigord
and Piermont truffles and are common to all types of truffles. We don't just want to know which part of the truffle flavour is produced by bacteria.
We are interested also in how the symbiosis between fungi and microorganisms has evolved and how this benefits both symbiotic partners.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Goethe-Universitã¤t Frankfurt am Main.
alfalfa canola corn cotton soybean and sugar beet. Food-producing animals such as cows pigs goats chickens
and vegetables seafood and plant proteins and had higher intake of empty calories. The groups had comparable scores on intakes of whole grains refined grain total dairy total protein fatty acid and sodium.
or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day compared with only 6. 8%who ate less than one portion.
and followed a healthy diet with a regular consumption of fruits vegetables legumes nuts reduced-fat dairy products whole grains and fish.
We can easily fabricate chip-scale sensor arrays using these grain boundaries for real-world use.
However some lateral buds sprout during the same season such as poplar trees other salicaceae species and many tropical species. This way a syleptic branching can increase de amount of branches leaf
and tossed by the wind a field of soybean plants presents a challenge for an Asian lady beetle on the hunt for aphids.
But what if the air--and the soybeans--were still? Rising temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns may get the lion's share of our climate change attention
Lady beetles eat a major soybean pest the soybean aphid. Barton grew plots of soybeans in alfalfa fields protecting some with wind blocks
and leaving others in the open. He found two-thirds more lady beetles in the plots hidden from the wind
and twice as many soybean aphids on the plants growing in the open. Wind has no direct effect on the aphids tiny insects that hug the plants
and bend them--a stilled soybean plant represented a smorgasbord for the lady beetle. How do you do your duty as a predator if you're entire world is moving around?
Slower natural wind speeds could reduce the amount of pesticide required to keep soybean aphids from wrecking harvests.
By growing trees or not harvesting them around a field you may be able to have an indirect effect on the number of aphids on your soybean plants says Barton who wonders what other close animal relationships may be disrupted by shifting winds.
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