#Controlling zebra chip disease from the inside outzebra chip disease in potatoes is currently being managed by controlling the potato psyllid with insecticides.
But one Texas A&m Agrilife Extension service specialist is trying to manage the disease symptoms with alternative methods and chemistries.
The disease is caused by a bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum which is transmitted by the psyllid said Dr. Ron French Agrilife Extension plant pathologist in Amarillo.
Biological control methods can target psyllid populations in a field but it takes a while for them to be effective
bactericides plant defense response and plant nutrients he said. We are trying to alleviate the disease symptoms on tubers
and throughout the plant and improve plant health so that any negative impacts the psyllid bacterium disease or pesticide use are having on the plant can translate into improved yields.
His efforts to control the pathogen using foliar applications of a bactericide has had good results for two years
when psyllid populations in the field and the instances of zebra chip were said significant French.
A significant increase in yield 30 percent was recorded in potato yields. But French said the problem is the next step--getting them labeled for use on potatoes.
Bactericides for potatoes are labeled only for seed treatments although foliar applications in the field are allowed on some tree fruits crops.
If we can include bactericides in a program that can minimize insecticide use then this could be integrated part of an disease management approach he said.
In his approach to the plant defense response French said he is trying to produce something like a systemic acquired resistance or induced systemic resistance response from the potato against the pathogen.
if the plant can actually trigger a mechanism to defend itself from the pathogen and the psyllid as well he said.
Year after year there are differences in the field as far as climate disease pressure insect pressure--so sometimes we have to go to the lab to figure out why it works one time and not another.
or the pathogen and any nutrient imbalances that result or any phytotoxicity that might occur after applying pesticides French said.
whether it is for plant defense responses pathogen control plant health on top of what the growers is applying he said.
since 2006 for citrus greening or Huanglongbing in Florida to treat the disease symptoms and yields.
This disease is caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus and is transmitted by the citrus psyllid. After several years of work French said his studies are beginning to raise more interest from the industry to get products labeled or at least tested.
He said he hoped to get some products labeled if not specifically for zebra chip at least for potato health quality but
and low phosphorus tolerance said Dr. Meiping Zhang Texas A&m Agrilife Research associate research scientist in College Station.
Joining Zhang on the project are Dr. Hongbin Zhang Texas A&m professor of plant genomics and systems biology and director of the Laboratory for Plant Genomics and Molecular genetics;
Dr. B b. Singh a visiting scholar and cowpea breeder with the Texas A&m soil and crop sciences department;
and Dr. Dirk Hays Texas A&m associate professor of physiological and molecular genetics all in College Station. The goal of the study is to develop single nucleotide polymorphisms
and several other biotic and abiotic stresses she said. This research will use high-throughput site-associated DNA sequencing to map the genes controlling drought
and heat tolerant genes but also develop a platform for mapping genes controlling several other biotic and abiotic stress tolerances such as aphid resistance and low phosphorus tolerance both
and cloned will significantly advance understanding of the molecular basis underlying plant tolerances to these stresses Zhang said.
Custom-designed radar measures Antarctic ice with millimeter accuracya series of radars just deployed on Antarctica will give researchers their first ever day-by-day measurements of the health of one of the ice shelves
Although we've previously taken snapshots of the ice with radar this is the first time year-round monitoring has been said possible Dr Keith Nicholls of The british Antarctic Survey.
This will be very useful because of the uneven shape of the ice-sheet's underside Dr Nicholls commented.
which is eating away at the underside of the ice shelf floating at the edge of Pine Island Glacier said Dr Keith Nicholls of The british Antarctic Survey A continuous record of seasonal changes which is
or stresses from channels melted into the underside of the ice--they were unexpected certainly from our planning survey said Dr Nicholls.
and the region's importance regarding sea level rise said Dr Matt Ash from the UCL team who accompanied BAS on the NERC istar misson.
Boiling water to remove contaminants requires a great deal of fuel to heat the water. Membrane-based filters while able to remove microbes are expensive require a pump
but did not filter out contaminants. There's huge variation between plants Karnik says. There could be much better plants out there that are suitable for this process.
Farmers often keep calves in individual pens believing this helps to reduce the spread of disease.
and using antibiotics in hives to keep the bees disease-free. To help regulate honey safety We have strict import laws that apply to honey coming from certain countries he says.
because it accounts for about half of global monoterpene emissions explains Dr. Mikael Ehn from the University of Helsinki who is the first author of this study
and provide the basis for a series of further experiments as Dr. Torsten Berndt from TROPOS explains.
Chemists from TROPOS investigate reactions of OH and other radicals since many years. The hydroxyl radical consisting of one hydrogen
and the fact that their saliva is the primary cause of feeding injury to plants
and used forceps to extract the hardened sheaths from the surfaces of the tomatoes. They then processed
influence climatepine forests are especially magical places for atmospheric chemists. Coniferous trees give off pine-scented vapors that form particles very quickly and seemingly out of nowhere.
#Climate change puts wheat crops at risk of diseasethere is a risk that severity of epidemics of some wheat diseases may increase within the next ten to twenty years due to the impacts of climate change
The researchers carried out a survey in China to establish a link between weather and the severity of epidemics of fusarium ear blight on the wheat crops.
This weather-based model was used then to predict the impact on severity of the disease of future weather scenarios for the period from 2020 to 2050.
Professor Bruce Fitt professor of plant pathology at the University of Hertfordshire's School of Medical and Life sciences said:
Fusarium ear blight is a serious disease affecting wheat across many areas of the world.
During severe epidemics wheat crop losses can be as much as sixty per cent. These losses can become larger as under certain conditions the fusarium pathogen produces toxic chemicals known as mycotoxins.
The levels of mycotoxins present in the grain may render it unsuitable for either human
or animal consumption--the mycotoxin safe levels being controlled by legislation. Professor Fitt continued: We know that the weather plays a big part in the development of the disease on the wheat crops--the incidence of the disease is determined by temperature and the occurrence of wet weather at the flowering or anthesis of the wheat crops.
When the weather-based model developed at Rothamsted Research was used to predict how climate change may affect the wheat crops it was predicted that wheat flowering dates will generally be earlier
and the incidence of the ear blight disease on the wheat crops will substantially increase.
The research suggests that climate change will increase the risk of serious ear blight epidemics on winter wheat in Central China by the middle of this century (2020-2050.
Similar conclusions were reached about impacts of climate change on wheat in the UK where climate change models are predicting warmer wetter winters for the country.
and an ever-growing population it is essential to improve the control of crop diseases like fusarium ear blight around the globe.
Some operations that rear and sterilize insects such as one in Guatemala that produces many of the sterile medflies dropped over Florida's major ports roughly every seven days do employ low-oxygen conditions called hypoxia or anoxia.
While these pheromones can be made chemically it can be a toxic process to produce them Durrett said.
What we demonstrated in this study is a more environmentally friendly approach that avoids the need to use toxic chemicals
This is the first time a study has been published that supports the protective role of the bioactive compounds in strawberries in tackling recognised markers and risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.
but all the signs and epidemiological studies point towards anthocyanins the vegetable pigments that afford them their red colour.
#Drone shows new view of energy coal ash spillaerial images captured by a drone aircraft provide a new look at the extent of contaminants leaked into a North carolina river from a Duke energy coal ash dump as concerns about water pollution grow
It could be an effective means to monitor the extent of environmental contamination in the case of similar incidents.
With the continuing rise of resistance the research published in the journal Genome Biology is key as scientists say that this knowledge could help improve malaria control strategies.
The researchers led by Dr Charles Wondji used a wide range of methods to narrow down how the resistance works finding a single mutation in the GSTE2 gene which makes insects break down DDT
so it's no longer toxic. They have shown also that this gene makes insects resistant to pyrethroids raising the concern that GSTE2 gene could protect mosquitoes against the major insecticides used in public health.
Mosquitoes (Anopheles funestus) are vectors of malaria and most strategies for combating the spread of the disease focus on control of mosquito populations using insecticides.
The spread of resistance genes could hold back efforts to prevent the disease. The authors say that knowing how resistance works will help to develop tests
and stop these genes from spreading amongst mosquito populations. Charles Wondji said:''We found a population of mosquitoes fully resistant to DDT (no mortality
when they were treated with DDT) but also to pyrethroids. So we wanted to elucidate the molecular basis of that resistance in the population
and pyrethroids and mosquitoes from a laboratory fully susceptible strain and did a genome wide comparison study.
This means that the mosquito can survive by breaking down the poison into nontoxic substances..
The above story is provided based on materials by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#As hubs for bees, pollinators, flowers may be crucial in disease transmissionlike a kindergarten or a busy airport where cold viruses and other germs circulate freely flowers are common gathering places where pollinators such as bees
or viral infections that might be as benign as the sniffles or as debilitating as influenza.
But almost nothing is known regarding how pathogens of pollinators are transmitted at flowers postdoctoral researcher Scott Mcart
and Professor Lynn Adler at the University of Massachusetts Amherst write. As major hubs of plant-animal interactions throughout the world flowers are ideal venues for the transmission of microbes among plants and animals.
and identify promising areas for future research on how floral traits influence pathogen transmission. As the authors point out Given recent concerns about pollinator declines caused in part by pathogens the role of floral traits in mediating pathogen transmission is a key area for further research.
They say their synthesis could help efforts to control economically devastating pollinator-vectored plant pathogens such as fire blight
which affects rose family fruits such as apples and pears and mummyberry disease which attacks blueberries. Mcart adds Our intent with this paper is to stimulate interest in the fascinating yet poorly understood microbial world of flowers.
We found several generalities in how plant pathogens are transmitted at flowers yet the major take-home from our paper may be in pointing out that this is an important gap in our knowledge.
The authors identified 187 studies pertaining to plant pathogens published between 1947 and 2013 in
which floral visitors were implicated in transmission and where transmission must have occurred at flowers or pathogen-induced pseudoflowers.
These are flower-like structures made by a pathogen that can look and smell like a real flower for example.
Regarding animal pathogens they identified 618 studies published before September 2013 using the same criteria.
In total we found eight major groups of animal pathogens that are transmitted potentially at flowers including a trypanosomatid fungi bacteria
and RNA VIRUSES they note. Their paper Arranging the bouquet of disease: Floral traits and the transmission of plant and animal pathogens was featured in the publisher's News Round up of most newsworthy research.
Traditionally research on flower evolution has focused largely on selection by pollinators but as Mcart and colleagues point out pollinators that also transmit pathogens may reduce the benefits to the plant of attracting them depending on the costs and benefits of pollination.
The researchers say more work is needed before scientists can know whether a flower's chemical or physical traits determine the likelihood that pathogens are transmitted for example
and whether infection by pathogens is an inevitable consequence of pollinator visitation. Plant pathologists have made great strides in identifying floral traits that mediate host plant resistance to floral pathogens in individual systems;
synthesizing this literature can provide generality in identifying traits that mediate plant-pathogen dynamics. From the pollinator's perspective there has been surprisingly little work elucidating the role of flowers and floral traits for pathogen transmission.
Given recent concerns about pollinator declines caused in part by pathogens understanding the role of floral traits in disease transmission is a key missing element say Mcart and colleagues.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Note:
Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#In the eye of a chicken, a new state of matter comes into viewalong with eggs soup
and rubber toys the list of the chicken's most lasting legacies may eventually include advanced materials such as self-organizing colloids
or optics that can transmit light with the efficiency of a crystal and the flexibility of a liquid.
and controlling light waves the researchers report in the journal Physical Review E. States of disordered hyperuniformity behave like crystal and liquid states of matter exhibiting order over large distances and disorder over small distances.
The lab of co-corresponding author Joseph Corbo an associate professor of pathology and immunology and genetics at Washington University in St louis studies how the chicken's unusual visual layout evolved.
and allowed them to see the underlying method to the madness. It turned out that each type of cone has an area around it called an exclusion region that other cones cannot enter.
DMS-1211087) National Cancer Institute (grant no. U54ca143803; the National institutes of health (grant nos. EY018826 HG006346 and HG006790;
the Human Frontier Science Program; the German Research Foundation (DFG; and the Simons Foundation (grant no. 231015.
and keep the corn cubs for food we have come a long way says Per Morgen professor at the Institute of Physics Chemistry and Pharmacy University of Southern Denmark.
#Genetically modified spuds beat blightin a three-year GM research trial scientists boosted resistance of potatoes to late blight their most important disease without deploying fungicides.
The introduced gene from a South american wild relative of potato triggers the plant's natural defense mechanisms by enabling it to recognize the pathogen.
and by the time a gene is introduced successfully into a cultivated variety the late blight pathogen may already have evolved the ability to overcome it said Professor Jonathan Jones from The Sainsbury Laboratory.
With new insights into both the pathogen and its potato host we can use GM technology to tip the evolutionary balance in favor of potatoes and against late blight.
Their research will allow resistance genes to be prioritized that will be more difficult for the pathogen to evade.
By combining understanding of resistance genes with knowledge of the pathogen they hope to develop Desiree
and often fewer calories says registered dietitian nutritionist and Academy spokesperson Angela Ginn. This year's National Nutrition Month theme'Enjoy the Taste of Eating Right'reminds families to return to the basics of healthful eating by returning to the family dining table.
and a wide range of information about eating right--all backed by the unequalled expertise of nutrition professionals like registered dietitian nutritionists--at Kids Eat Right a joint initiative of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Nutrient-rich foods and beverages provide vitamins minerals protein carbohydrates and other essential nutrients that offer health benefits with relatively few calories.
or low-fat dairy beans nuts and seeds in the appropriate amounts you are able to get many of the nutrients your body needs all with relatively low amounts of calories says registered dietitian nutritionist and Academy spokesperson
and vegetables are associated with higher Body Mass Index (BMI) in young children in low-and middle-income households according to American University researchers in the journal Pediatrics.
Affairs (SPA). Morrissey said that when the prices of fruits and vegetables go up families may buy less of them
or canned said Alison Jacknowitz a co-author of the study and an associate professor of public administration and policy at SPA.
which is related to the risk of life-threatening diseases. More than 26 percent of 2-to 5-year-old children nationwide were considered overweight defined as having a BMI above the 85th percentile in 2009 and 2010 up from 21 percent a decade earlier The researchers linked data
The academics are set to track the implementation of a mechanism devised by a consortium led by Brunel University's Health Economics Research Group (HERG) that gauges the initial financial outlay needed to put smoking prevention measures in place before projecting how much money they stand to save the local
The new three-year study has been awarded £157000 from Britain's Medical Research Council as part of funding earmarked to boost understanding of the impact of health-related studies on society and the economy.
Called SEE-IMPACT it will be led by Dr Annette Boaz a respected expert in the use of evidence in policy making who is based at Kingston and St george's Faculty of health Social Care and Education in London.
Dr Boaz will work with the Brunel University experts who devised the tool to observe the way stakeholders engage with it as it is being implemented closely monitoring the effectiveness of communication
but it's still relatively rare for research to be done actually exploring how that plays out in the real world Dr Boaz explained.
Taking stock of how interested motivated and involved key partners health professionals and even lobbyists are in the process will give us a much better feel for how research can be used to underpin
which is why this project will be so important Dr Boaz said. We want to really explore the characteristics of what prompts people to connect with research
and others with more emerging economies--all with different legislation and outlooks on dealing with tobacco control and the potential health implications of smoking Dr Boaz said.
Officials believe it affects the health and well-being of three in 10 adults with a similar number of children starting to smoke before the age of 18.
Dr Subhash Pokhrel who has led the development of the decision-making tool at Brunel University said the stakeholder study was given particularly timely the increasing emphasis being placed on public healthcare intervention funding both in the United kingdom and abroad.
#Managed honeybees linked to new diseases in wild bees, UK study showsdiseases that are managed common in honeybee colonies are now widespread in the UK's wild bumblebees according to research published in Nature.
The study suggests that some diseases are being driven into wild bumblebee populations from managed honeybees.
Dr Matthias FÃ rst and Professor Mark Brown from Royal Holloway University of London (who worked in collaboration with Dr Dino Mcmahon
Dr FÃ rst from the School of Biological sciences at Royal Holloway said: Wild and managed bees are in decline at national and global scales.
Our results suggest that emerging diseases spread from managed bees may be an important cause of wild bee decline.
This research assessed common honeybee diseases to determine if they could pass from honeybees to bumblebees.
of which have major negative impacts on honeybee health--can infect worker bumblebees and in the case of DWV reduce their lifespan.
Dr FÃ rst explained: One of the novel aspects of our study is that we show that deformed wing virus
This means that it is acting as a real disease; they are not just carriers.
The researchers also looked at how the diseases spread and studied genetic similarities between DWV in different pollinator populations.
bumblebee infection is predicted by patterns of honeybee infection; and honeybees and bumblebees at the same sites share genetic strains of DWV.
We have known for a long time that parasites are behind declines in honeybees said Professor Brown. What our data show is that these same pathogens are circulating widely across our wild
and managed pollinators. Infected honeybees can leave traces of disease like a fungal spore or virus particle on the flowers that they visit and these may then infect wild bees.
While recent studies have provided anecdotal reports of the presence of honeybee parasites in other pollinators this is the first study to determine the epidemiology of these parasites across the landscape.
The results suggest an urgent need for management recommendations to reduce the threat of emerging diseases to our wild
and managed bees. Professor Brown added: National societies and agencies both in the UK and globally currently manage so-called honeybee diseases on the basis that they are a threat only to honeybees.
While they are doing great work our research shows that this premise is not true
Policies to manage these diseases need to take into account threats to wild pollinators and be designed to reduce the impact of these diseases not just on managed honeybees but on our wild bumblebees too.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Biotechnology and Biological sciences Research Council. Note:
But it's also been exploited to clean contaminated water and as a source to produce pharmaceuticals.
and reducing smoking in China could have an enormous public health impact even on a global scale.
and the US estimated the potential health impact of this programme in China from 2015--2050.
while stronger health warnings were projected to yield a relative 2. 3%reduction in smoking rates by 2050.
These estimates suggest that substantial health gains could be made say the authors--a 40%relative reduction in smoking prevalence
and more than 154 million life years gained by 2050--by extending effective public health and clinical interventions to reduce active smoking.
They add that these policies would be cost effective and say that without the implementation of the complete set of stronger policies the death
and disability legacy of current smoking will endure for decades in China. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Nitrogen-tracking tools for better crops, less pollutionas every gardener knows nitrogen is crucial for a plant's growth.
and decrease risks to environmental and human health. Nitrogen is primarily taken up from the soil by the roots
These coatings included significant amounts of soil organic carbon microbes and pathogens. After the coatings dried they were incorporated into the topsoil layer of the alluvial soils using tillage equipment. â#oebecause the flooding occurred during the non-growing season for corn
#Studies of cow antibodies help scientists understand how our own bodies workunderstanding how antibodies work is important for designing new vaccines to fight infectious diseases
and certain types of cancer and for treating disorders of the immune system in animals and humans.
In research to be presented at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting taking place in San francisco from Feb 15-19 Dr. Damian Ekiert who is now at the University of California San francisco will describe research he conducted as part of a team
of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute in La jolla Calif. In San francisco Ekiert will explain how the immune systems of cows are used to understand the diversity of antibodies
and how that knowledge could improve the health of both people and livestock. First studying the immune systems of cows and other animals helps us to understand how our own immune systems function.
Second the unique structure of these cow antibodies may be suited particularly well for recognizing certain kinds of antigens
and may be useful for antibody based therapies or diagnostics explained Ekiert. It turns out that cows make a very unusual kind of antibody different from anything scientists have seen ever before
and their antibodies are diversified by a surprising mechanism. Antibody diversity is particularly important because our ability to recognize
and neutralize a wide range of pathogens directly depends on the diversity of our antibody repertoire--the more different kinds of antibodies we have in our bodies the more different kinds of targets we can block said Ekiert.
Previous work described an unusual subset of antibodies in cows that had exceptionally long loops
but no one knew what they looked like or how they were being generated. A collaborative effort including Ekiert from Ian Wilson's lab at Scripps Research as well as Feng Wang from Peter Schultz's lab
and Vaughn Smider used x-ray crystallography to determine the ball and chain structure of the bovine antibodies
while deep sequencing helped researchers study the function and generation of these antibodies. The next steps in realizing the potential of this research are to determine just how these antibodies recognize their target antigen molecules and bind to them.
In addition to the obvious benefit of helping us understand the human immune system the research may benefit the large-scale raising of cattle an important segment of the U s. economy as new vaccines can be developed to protect farm animals from common cattle diseases.
Ekiert concludes Once we understand these mechanisms it is possible that bovine antibodies might be able to recognize some antigens that more conventional antibodies cannot
and would help to bind inhibit and activate targets that have thus far been intractable for antibody-based therapies.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Biophysical Society. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
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