The restricted foods included grains beans fruit poultry and plants belonging to the nightshade family
while taking supplements containing the antioxidant polyphenol from fish oil grape seed extract and vitamins. Antioxidants are thought to slow cell aging.
and microbes adjacent to rice roots--can be used to block the arsenic uptake. Bais first identified the bacterial species in soil samples taken from rice fields in California.
and slow arsenic uptake in rice roots but the researchers have not yet determined exactly how this process works
if creating an iron shield around the rice roots will slow arsenic movement into other parts of the plant Bais said.
Sherrier and Bais who received a 2012 seed grant for the project from Delaware's National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCOR) ultimately want to determine how UD1023 slows arsenic movement into rice roots
Coating seeds with bacteria is very easy. With this bacteria you could implement easy low-cost strategies that farmers could use that would reduce arsenic in the human food chain.
buckthorn. This nonnative shrub which has invaded two-thirds of the United states has long been known to negatively impact plant community composition
and forest structure but these two innovative studies slated to publish in upcoming editions of the Journal of Herpetology
and Natural Areas Journal demonstrate how this shrub negatively impacts native amphibians and affects habitat use by mammals including increased prevalence of coyotes and other carnivores.
Lincoln Park Zoo Reintroduction Biologist Allison Sacerdote-Velat Ph d. and Northern Illinois University Professor of Biological sciences Richard King have identified European buckthorn as a contributor to amphibian
Levels of emodin in the environment are greatest at leaf out which is occurring right now in early spring.
Several amphibian species exhibit low hatching rates in sites that are infested heavily with European buckthorn.
The Chicago Wilderness 2004 Woodland Audit found that in the Chicagoland area alone more than 26 million stems of European buckthorn exist with a density of 558 stems per acre.
hypothesize that emodin may impact the reproductive success of other frog species in regions where buckthorn is not native.
The new study demonstrates how a shrub that is viewed by many as a decorative plant can become invasive
Additionally new research from the zoo's Urban Wildlife Institute reveals how the presence of the invasive shrub in forest preserves and natural areas correlates to increased prevalence of carnivores.
and nestlings such as robins when nests are built in buckthorn and honeysuckle compared to nests built in native shrubs or trees.
The relationship between invasive plants and wildlife is complex. This is the first study of its kind to investigate the association between buckthorn
and habitat use by mammal species explained Director of the Urban Wildlife Institute Seth Magle Ph d. We know based on prior research that birds which build nests in buckthorn are more susceptible to predation.
Our study found that the presence of buckthorn alters wildlife distribution and attracts some carnivore species. We now know that there are significantly more coyotes raccoons
and opossums in buckthorn invaded areas and significantly fewer white-tailed deer. Magle hypothesizes that the carnivores could be drawn to buckthorn areas
because birds and their nests are easier to prey upon. He suggests that deer may be avoiding these areas
because buckthorn is an undesirable food source and also due to the increased prevalence of coyotes.
Research shows that deer fawns are a relatively common food item for Chicago-area coyotes.
In some areas like Lake County Forest Preserve District where Sacerdote-Velat works regularly ecologists and land managers have been committed to removing buckthorn from the area.
which is a common herbicide used against weeds. Relyea and his Pitt collaborators exposed the tadpoles from each of the nine populations to environments containing either no pesticides chlorpyrifos or Roundup.
These components probably originate in the tree resins that bees use to make propolis the bee glue
From their recent findings the plant biologists now understand how transport proteins control processes that allow roots to tolerate toxic aluminum.
The scientists also discovered transporters in plants and symbiotic soil fungi that allow crops to acquire phosphate--an element essential for plant growth
The data set collected from 2001 to 2008 includes a sample of all trees shrubs vines herbs grasses fern
#Identification of stem cells two separate roles raises possibility of therapies that could inhibit fat formation,
The findings are published in the April 27 online edition of Stem Cells and Development. The Wake Forest Baptist researchers proved that pericytes stem cells associated with blood vessels contain two sub-types with completely different roles:
Type 1 which forms only fat cells and Type 2 which forms only muscle cells. We found that Type 1 contributes to fat accumulation in the skeletal muscle under pathogenic conditions
but five remained as they fed on aquatic plants in shallow ponds created by the receding flood waters typical of the Pantanal's dry season.
but will consume aquatic plants tubers grasses and small invertebrates such as insect larvae worms and snails when fruits are said scarce Dr. Keuroghlian.
and other habitats as a seed predator and disperser and it is a favorite prey of jaguars and pumas.
How burning plants tell seeds to rise from the ashesin the spring following a forest fire trees that survived the blaze explode in new growth
What we discovered she says is how a dying plant generates a chemical message for the next generation telling dormant seeds it's time to sprout.
The U s. park service actively suppressed forest fires until they realized that the practice left the soil of mature forests lacking important minerals and chemicals.
But by the following spring when the rains arrived there was a burst of flowering plants amid the nutrient-rich ash
and shrubs burn during a forest fire and remain in the soil after the fire ensuring the forest will regenerate.
First the researchers determined the structure of a plant protein know as KAI2 which binds to karrikin in dormant seeds.
Then comparing the karrikin-bound KAI2 protein to the structure of an unbound KAI2 protein allowed the researchers to speculate how KAI2 allows a seed to perceive karrikin in its environment.
and plant geneticist Zuyu Zheng says this karrikin-induced shape change may send a new signal to other proteins in the seeds.
including close relatives of globally important food crops such as sunflower bean sweet potato and strawberry. The findings which were published today (Apr 29) in the journal Crop science are good news for plant breeders who've relied increasingly in recent years on the wild kin of domesticated crops as new sources of disease resistance drought tolerance
For instance a wild sunflower species that breeders have used to restore fertility and create salt tolerance in cultivated sunflower is imperiled also globally.
Another 62 taxa in the inventory are listed under the U s. Endangered Species Act. In fact an estimated 30 percent of U s. plant species are now of conservation concern says Khoury who is also a doctoral student at Wageningen University in The netherlands.
U s. wild relatives of the world's most important food crops--including strawberry sunflower sweet potato bean stone fruits
fiber crops such as flax and cotton; ornamental plants like roses and lilies; Echinacea St john's wort and other medicinal herbs;
and what Khoury calls iconic U s. crops including sugar maple and wild rice. The rich assortment of U s. crop wild relatives came as something of a surprise to him
and his colleagues but Khoury says there are several possible reasons for it. For one although North america is itself not a major center of crop plant diversity it abuts one--Mesoamerica--where crops like corn bean squash
while nearly 5 percent are listed as federal or state noxious weeds. Despite being nonnative and potentially invasive however these plants are still valuable genetic resources for breeding Khoury says;
and then identify the priority places for collecting seed from species that haven't yet been secured.
Now Kansas State university researcher Bikram Gill and an international team of researchers have developed a physical map of wheat's wild ancestor Aegilops tauschii commonly called goatgrass as they take the first huge step
Many years ago we discovered that a particular wheat ancestor--Aegilops tauschii commonly called goatgrass--is a gold mine for wheat improvement Gill said.
Wheat varieties grown in the Great plains are protected from the leaf rust disease by genes extracted from goatgrass
This was the assertion of Prof Niels Anten in his inaugural speech upon accepting the post of Professor of Crop and Weed Ecology at Wageningen University on Monday 22 april.
In both cases plants are surrounded by numerous organisms such as weeds pollinating insects fungi blights and diseases and their natural enemies all engaged in the struggle for existence.
In China there are even examples of a 90%reduction in diseases caused by fungi leading to increased overall production.'
and Weed Ecology he will be looking at the connections between these areas of study for the benefit of sustainable crops with high yields.
But the plant also differentiates between species. Maize growing beside wheat will produce deep roots to avoid those of the wheat
whereas if there are roots of beans close by the maize roots will grow towards them.
Alien neighbouring plants include weeds which pose an important threat to crop production. The use of herbicides is an important element of weed control
but also harmful to the environment while more and more weeds are becoming resistant to these agents.''We will need therefore also to look at other more ecological solutions'says Professor Anten.'
'In short in order to achieve a sustainable increase in food production we will need to deploy all the weapons in our arsenal;
'Our first task was to find so-called macrofossils such as old weed seeds or pieces of grain.
Hopefully we'll find some weed seeds as they may help confirm that fertilisers were used indeed
since the type of weeds found in a field can signal whether fertilisers or some other method was used'says Axelsson.
In reality there is a de facto moratorium in Europe on the cultivation of genetically engineered crops such as maize cotton
used a hybridised species of grass called perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) with a closely related species called meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis.
nationally-recommended perennial ryegrass cultivar and by 43 per cent compared to meadow fescue. It is thought the reduced runoff is achieved
and a hugely important advance resulting from decades of fundamental BBSRC-supported work on the hybridisation of Lolium and Festuca (Fescue) species
#Early dialogue between parents, children stems teen smokingearly substantive dialogue between parents and their grade-school age children about the ills of tobacco and alcohol use can be more powerful in shaping teen behavior
and specializes in consumer misbehavior a branch of marketing that attempts to change undesirable or risky behavior.
The team tested a wide variety of sources of biomass--leaves stems flowers seeds and legumes--with particular interest in those with high protein content
and number of tubers as well as by their resistance to the usual diseases of this crop.
The varieties imported from Peru have a very low productivity in our latitudes both in size and the number of tubers.
article April 5 for the Metallomics journal of The Royal Society of Chemistry on how to use X-ray analysis to map a path to increasing the amount of nitrogen that legumes deposit into the soil Cultivation of legumes the plant family that includes peas beans alfalfa soybeans
The Argonne-UPM team has created the world's first model for how iron is transported in the plant's root nodule to trigger nitrogen fixation.
amounts in the different developmental regions of rhizobia-containing roots. This is the first high-energy X-ray analysis of plant-microbe interactions.
Full details can be found in the paper Iron distribution through the developmental stages of Medicago truncatula nodules.
All aspects of the environment-soil rocks weather vegetation water etc. -vary from place to place over the Earth.
or triple cassava and maize yields by introducing disease-resistant plant varieties increasing fertilizer use
The study shows that animal rescue centres such as Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats where we collected our data can provide a vital role in reversing long-term neglect once the animals receive excellent care.
The research focused the state of Mato grosso the epicenter of an agricultural revolution that has made Brazil one of the world's top producers of soybeans corn cotton and other staple crops.
For example tunas and marlins are both fast-swimming marine fishes with large streamlined bodies yet they appear on very different branches of the tree.
Researchers sampled plant tissues at six incrementally spaced growth stages. They separated them into their different fractions (leaves stems cobs grain) to determine season-long nutrient accumulation utilization and movement.
Although maximum uptake rates were found to be nutrient-specific they generally occurred during late vegetative growth.
or less to water seeds of peas beans and wheat on a weekly basis. Treating the seeds less often reduced the effect
With wheat all the seeds germinated in one to two days instead of four or five and with peas and beans the typical 40 percent rate of germination rose to 60 to 70 percent.
Basically what we've done is accelerate the entire plant process he said. Crop yields nearly doubled said Peter Ward Dooley's doctoral adviser a UW professor of biology and of Earth and space sciences and an authority On earth's mass extinctions.
At the same time the pathogens in wastewater such as viruses fungi and bacteria could destroy the algae themselves
Corn stover consists of the stem leaves and husk of the corn plant remaining after ears of corn are harvested.
or triple cassava and maize yields by introducing disease-resistant plant varieties increasing fertilizer use
The study published in the current edition of the journal Science examines how Ug99--new virulent forms of stem rust first found in Uganda in 1999--could continue its movement across Africa the Middle east and Southwest asia.
Several projects to develop resistance to Ug99 are under way including an international consortium known as the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative a $26 million five-year effort funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Spending on stem rust research has been inadequate for some time and increased research investment must be sustained over the long haul
#Invasive kudzu bugs may pose greater threat than previously thoughtthe invasive kudzu bug has the potential to be a major agricultural pest causing significant damage to economically important soybean crops.
Kudzu bugs (Megacopta cribraria) are native to Asia and were detected first in the U s. in Georgia in 2009.
which we'll call Generation A. The immature bugs of Generation A normally feed on kudzu plants until they reach adulthood
Generation B kudzu bugs can feed on soybean crops during both their immature and adult life stages causing significant crop damage.
Because the immature Generation A kudzu bugs have only been seen to feed on kudzu researchers thought that the pest would not be able to migrate to northern and western parts of the United states where kudzu doesn't grow.
Under controlled conditions in a greenhouse laboratory researchers at NC State found that immature Generation A kudzu bugs were limited not to feeding on kudzu--they were feed able to exclusively on soybeans reach maturity
and the field observations indicate that kudzu bugs are potentially capable of spreading into any part of the U s. where soybeans are grown.
It also means that both annual generations of kudzu bugs could attack soybean crops in areas where the bug is established already
#Tulip tree reveals mitochondrial genome of ancestral flowering plantthe extraordinary level of conservation of the tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) mitochondrial genome has redefined our interpretation of evolution of the angiosperms (flowering plants) finds research in biomed Central's open
Among plants the lack of genomic data from lineages which split away from the main evolutionary branch early on has prevented researchers from reconstructing patterns of genome evolution.
It belongs to a more unusual group of dicotyledons (plants with two seed leaves) known as magnoliids
and L. tulipifera still contains many genes lost during the subsequent 200 million years of evolution of flowering plants.
In fact one trna gene is no longer present in any other sequenced angiosperm. Prof Jeffrey Palmer who led this study explained By using the tulip tree as a guide we are able to estimate that the ancestral angiosperm mitochondrial genome contained 41 protein genes 14 trna genes seven trna
genes sequestered from chloroplasts and more than 700 sites of protein editing. Based on this it appears that the genome has been more
Wood ants incorporate an antimicrobial resin from conifer trees into their nests preventing microbial growth in the colony.
Parasite-infected monarch butterflies protect their offspring against high levels of parasite growth by laying their eggs on anti-parasitic milkweed.
For example when gypsy moth caterpillars consume foliage high in certain toxic compounds transmission of viruses between the caterpillars is reduced facilitating moth outbreaks.
Honeybees are known to incorporate antimicrobial resins into their nests. Analysis of the honeybee genome suggests that they lack many of the immune-system genes of other insects raising the possibility that honeybees'use of medicine has been partly responsible
For example increases in parasitism and disease in honeybees can be linked to selection by beekeepers for reduced resin deposition by their bees.
Deep inside your brain a legion of stem cells lies ready to turn into new brain
and keeps them in their stem-cell state. In a paper published online in Nature Neuroscience the U-M team shows that a particular protein called FIP200 governs this cleaning process in neural stem cells in mice.
Without FIP200 these crucial stem cells suffer damage from their own waste products --and their ability to turn into other types of cells diminishes.
It is the first time that this cellular self-cleaning process called autophagy has been shown to be important to neural stem cells.
The findings may help explain why aging brains and nervous systems are more prone to disease
or permanent damage as a slowing rate of self-cleaning autophagy hampers the body's ability to deploy stem cells to replace damaged or diseased cells.
and colleagues from around the world discuss the growing evidence that autophagy is crucial to many types of tissue stem cells
and embryonic stem cells as well as cancer stem cells. As stem cell-based treatments continue to develop the authors say it will be increasingly important to understand the role of autophagy in preserving stem cells'health
and ability to become different types of cells. The process of generating new neurons from neural stem cells
and the importance of that process is understood pretty well but the mechanism at the molecular level has not been clear says Jun-Lin Guan Ph d. the senior author of the FIP200 paper
and the organizing author of the autophagy and stem cells review article. Here we show that autophagy is crucial for maintenance of neural stem cells and differentiation and show the mechanism by
which it happens. Through autophagy he says neural stem cells can regulate levels of reactive oxygen species--sometimes known as free radicals--that can build up in the low-oxygen environment of the brain regions where neural stem cells reside.
Abnormally higher levels of ROS can cause neural stem cells to start differentiating Guan is a professor in the Molecular Medicine & Genetics division of the U-M Department of Internal medicine and in the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology.
A long path to discoverythe new discovery made after 15 years of research with funding from the National institutes of health shows the importance of investment in lab science--and the role of serendipity in research.
Several years ago Guan's team stumbled upon clues that FIP200 might be important in neural stem cells when studying an entirely different phenomenon.
when an observant postdoctoral fellow noticed that the mice experienced rapid shrinkage of the brain regions where neural stem cells reside.
what we were actually intending to study says Guan as it suggested that without FIP200 something was causing damage to the home of neural stem cells that normally replace nerve cells during injury or aging.
In 2010 they worked with other U-M scientists to show FIP200's importance to another type of stem cell those that generate blood cells.
In that case deleting the gene that encodes FIP200 leads to an increased proliferation and ultimate depletion of such cells called hematopoietic stem cells.
But with neural stem cells they report in the new paper deleting the FIP200 gene led neural stem cells to die
It's clear that autophagy is going to be important in various types of stem cells says Guan pointing to the new paper in Autophagy that lays out
what's currently known about the process in hematopoietic neural cancer cardiac and mesenchymal (bone and connective tissue) stem cells.
Guan's own research is now exploring the downstream effects of defects in neural stem cell autophagy--for instance how communication between neural stem cells
The team is also looking at the role of autophagy in breast cancer stem cells because of intriguing findings about the impact of FIP200 deletion on the activity of the p53 tumor suppressor gene
In addition they will study the importance of p53 and p62 another key protein component for autophagy to neural stem cell self-renewal and differentiation in relation to FIP200.
The bug-encrusted greenery was burned the next morning to exterminate the insects. Through painstaking detective work the scientists discovered that the creatures are trapped within seconds of stepping on a leaf their legs impaled by microscopic hooked hairs known botanically as trichomes.
Using the bean leaves as templates the researchers have microfabricated materials that closely resemble them geometrically.
They also controlled the vegetation directly around these reservoirs at this hinterland settlement says Brewer.
The types of lily pads and waterborne plants found within these basins helped naturally purify the water.
and they managed the vegetation by these water sources that were used for six months when there was virtually no rainfall.
The algae bloom and eventually die and decay removing oxygen from the water. The result is water too oxygen-depleted to support life.#
Working with cotton--a well-defined cellulosic material--as their model system the researchers applied PALM imaging in combination with a mathematical analysis they devised.
#¢Direct reflection where the light bounces back without being absorbed by the leaf.#¢#¢Fluorescence which is light emitted by plants.
This gives the company a completely consistent repeatable industrial process to produce tailored oil at scale Sugar from traditional sources such as sugarcane
The company's first fit-for-purpose commercial-scale production plant is under construction with their partner Bunge next to a sugarcane mill in Brazil.
and other agricultural innovations that took root in the 1960s. That will mean scientific innovations such as new strains of the big three grains--rice wheat
Cellulose makes up tree trunks and branches corn stalks and cotton fibers and it is the main component of paper and cardboard.
People eat cellulose in dietary fiber the indigestible material in fruits and vegetables. Cows horses and termites can digest the cellulose in grass hay and wood.
whether the presence of an audience influences the behaviour and the testosterone changes of Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica) after a fight.
prices rose by 44%before taking inflation (8. 3%)into account in Spain in the years 2006-2010 but by only 10%before inflation (8. 5%)in the Canary islands during the same period.
#Seeds of model cereal plant now availableseeds of the model cereal plant Brachypodium distachyon are now available at the RIKEN Bioresource Center (BRC) in Japan the second bioresource facility to provide seeds
Brachypodium distachyon belongs to the Poaceae family of monocot plants which comprises temperate grasses and cereals and constitutes one of the most economically important plant families in the modern world.
It is the first of the grass subfamily Pooideae to have sequenced a genome and it is used widely as a model plant for structural and functional genomic studies of grasses and cereals.
The seeds made available at BRC are of the Bd21 line the standard line used in the sequencing project.
In addition to the seeds BRC will provide the scientific community with the technology needed for the cultivation and genetic alteration of Bd21.
The BRC Brachypodium distachyon seed bank is the first of the kind in Asia. Our Bd21 seeds will be of particular interest to Asian scientists who can use it to generate transgenic plants
and study monocot genes of agronomic interest. Explains Dr. Kobayashi Head of the Experimental Plant Division.
#First expansion of sea potato seaweed into New Englandthere's a new seaweed in town a brown bulbous balloon befitting the nickname sea potato.
The seaweed was documented in Nova scotia in the 1960s but never on the U s. Atlantic coast until Green and Traggis's diving trip in 2011.
when they reevaluated photographs sent from concerned individuals in mid-coastal Maine they confirmed that the seaweed had appeared there in 2010.
--and it's quickly become prominent in the rocky intertidal zone of the Gulf of Maine attached to common seaweeds like rockweed or Corallina officinalis also known as coral weed.
The seaweed earned its oyster thief nickname after its introduction to France in the early 1900s led to significant damage to the oyster industry.
The seaweed was like a balloon attached to the oysters. Literally whole oyster beds disappeared because they floated away says Traggis a master's student from Buzzards Bay Mass.
It occurs in high density on many local seaweeds and it's competing with them for space nutrients
The paper Southern expansion of the brown alga Colpomenia peregrina Sauvageau (Scytosiphonales) in the Northwest Atlantic ocean was published in the December 2012 issue of Botanica Marina.
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