Around 90pc of the world's plants are directly or indirectly reliant on pollinators to survive she explains.
and heat extremes that would kill other plants. And it is becoming resistant to the most common herbicides used to combat it he said.
Killing the plant before it can go to seed is the best way to control it he said.
That means treating young plants with herbicides when they are less than 4 inches tall. Once it is taller than 4 inches the effectiveness of herbicide treatments drops off very dramatically
Catching the plant that early is problematic however. As a seedling Palmer amaranth looks a lot like waterhemp another problematic weed that is difficult to control.
The plant grows so quickly and so tall that it can completely obscure low-growing crop plants.
Some soybean fields in Kankakee County Illinois became so overgrown with Palmer amaranth that the soybeans were barely visible to the eye.
and do everything possible to remove the plants he said. Not a single plant should be tolerated.
We have to set the threshold at zero. It has to be said zero Hager. It's hard to imagine another weed species that would be more injurious to crop production than
But P. infestans is now one of the few plant pathogens in the world with a well-characterized center of origin.
and Plant Pathology in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State university a researcher with the USDA Agricultural research service and lead author on the study.
Since different potato varieties plants and pathogens have been co-evolving there for hundreds of years it offers some of the best hope to discover genes that provide some type of resistance.
and the University of California at Davis. The research team led by Harsh Bais associate professor of plant
What's more the beneficial soil microbe also induces a system-wide defense response in rice plants to battle the fungus.
The research which is funded by the National Science Foundation is published in BMC Plant Biology and includes along with Bais authors Carla Spence a doctoral student in the Department of Biological sciences Emily Alff who recently earned her master's degree in plant and soil sciences and Nicole Donofrio associate professor of plant and soil sciences all from UD;
and Sundaresan Venkatesan professor Cameron Johnson assistant scientist and graduate student Cassandra Ramos all from UC Davis. We truly are working to disarm a'cereal killer
According to Bais the rice blast fungus (Magnaporthe oryzae) attacks rice plants through spores resembling pressure plugs that penetrate the plant tissue.
Once these spores infiltrate the cell wall the fungus eats the plant alive as Bais says.
Common symptoms of rice blast are shaped telltale diamond-lesions on the plant leaves. In order to do its work the spore must produce a structure called the appressorium a filament that adheres to the plant surface like an anchor.
Without it the fungus can't invade the plant. In a research study published in the journal Planta this past October Bais
and colleagues Spence Donofrio and Vidhyavathi Raman showed that Pseudomonas chlororaphis EA105 strongly inhibited the formation of the appressorium and that priming rice plants with EA105 prior to infection by rice blast decreased lesion
size. For her work Spence the lead author recently received the Carson Best Paper Award for the best scientific paper published by a Ph d. student in biological sciences at UD.
The next step in the research was to sample the rhizosphere the soil in the region around the roots of rice plants growing in the field to reveal the microbial community living there
In their study reported in BMC Plant Biology the researchers used gene sequencing techniques to identify 11 naturally occurring bacteria isolated from rice plants grown in the field in California.
when farmers will treat plants with a magic cocktail of microbes naturally found in soil to help boost their immunity and growth.
This summer he and his colleagues will conduct field trials using Pseudomonas chlororaphis EA105 on rice plants grown on the UD farm.
and promoting growth of new forests could tie up as much as 1. 3 gigatons of carbon in plant material annually the team calculated.
because soils can trap plant materials that have converted already atmospheric carbon dioxide into a solid form as well as any carbon dioxide that the solids give off as they decompose.
But such simple steps as leaving slash--the plant waste left over after crop production--on fields after harvests so it could be incorporated into the soil could reintroduce between 0. 4 and 1. 1 gigatons of carbon annually to soil the study says.
and high pressure to turn plants into charcoal releases little carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Under normal conditions decaying plant life inevitably decomposes a process that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
But charred plant material takes significantly longer--sometimes centuries--to decompose. So the approach can work to keep carbon that has become bound up in plant life from decaying
and respiring as carbon dioxide. And like working slash into the soil adding biochar to soil can improve its fertility and water retention.
Charcoal has been used as an agricultural amendment for centuries but scientists are only now starting to appreciate its potential for tying up greenhouse gases Cusack said.
because these plants are already under attack and so a good place to look for food sexual partners
and forces it to release methyl salicylate to mimic an attack by plant lice. Jumping plant lice that fly towards the source of the odor are duped:
they will not find enough food there as the bacterium has lowered drastically the nutritional quality of infected leaves.
which lays its eggs on young jumping plant lice so that the wasp larvae can feed on them.
whether the wasp is attracted likewise to the odor of methyl salicylate while hunting for plant lice.
The wasps were attracted strongly to the smell of both bacteria-infected and louse-infested citrus plants and also to pure methyl salicylate.
and attack young plant lice on plants infected with the bacterium or on plants that had been treated with methyl salicylate.
This proves that the wasp finds its prey by eavesdropping on the odor signal exchanged between bacteria citrus trees and plant lice.
#What can plants reveal about gene flow? That its an important evolutionary forcea plant breeder discovers his experimental crops have been contaminated with genes from a neighboring field.
New nasty weeds sometimes evolve directly from natural crosses between domesticated species and their wild relatives.
A rare plant is threatened due to its small population size and restricted range. What do all these situations have in common?
So how much gene flow is there between plant populations? How important is gene flow for maintaining a species'identity and diversity and
Norman Ellstrand a plant geneticist at the University of California Riverside is interested in many aspects regarding gene flow especially in applied plant biology
and thus a significant evolutionary force a few decades later when quantitative data on gene flow in plant populations began being collected this view changed as evidence seemed to indicate that gene flow was not all that significant.
At the time the main concern for plant breeders was pollen movement between different strains of crops
When I first started doing plant paternity studies in the 1980s Ellstrand comments our lab assumed that gene flow was limited.
And the paradigm of limited gene flow in plants began to crumble. Indeed one of the amazing things that parentage studies revealed is just how far genes could flow from hundreds to thousands of meters in some cases.
and DNA techniques have shown us not only how surprisingly far the flow of genes between distant plant populations can be
And plants are suited very well for studies on gene flow because individuals are stationary yet pollen
This review paper tells the story of gene flow's rise to respect among plant evolutionary biologists he concludes a fact that hasn't yet penetrated biology in general that is still mired in selection/adaptation-only thinking.
which take advantage of the natural variation between different plant strains and information on the genetic mechanisms that underlie these traits to select strains for breeding that will be more successful in producing hybrid strains with characteristics that are suited highly for growing successfully in different environments.
Having full knowledge of the genetic makeup of a plant allows researchers to identify genetic markers related to specific physical traits
and scientists across the world will greatly aid in defining genotype/phenotype relationships as well as serve as an extensive resource improving our understanding of plant biology.
#Understanding disease resistance genes in crops to secure future food productiona new understanding as to how plants defend themselves against some pathogens that cause crop diseases is proposed by researchers from the University of Hertfordshire to help scientists
By exploiting new molecular and genetic insights the research done in collaboration with Pierre de Wit from Wageningen Agricultural University in The netherlands provides a better understanding of the defense system of crop plants against the damaging pathogens that grow in the spaces between plant cells.
but we need to improve our understanding of effective resistance mechanisms within plants. Our research enhances the traditional understanding of the plant defense system
and describes a new concept describing how plants protect themselves against the pathogens that grow in the space outside plant cells (the apoplast)--a new concept called effector-triggered defense or ETD.
Plant defense systems consist of interconnected tiers of receptors which are found both outside and inside the plant cells Both sets of receptors sense the invasive pathogen
and respond to its intrusion. The two receptor systems have different classes of plant receptor proteins to detect different types of pathogen molecules.
The current understanding of plant defense is that plants using these receptors have two forms of defense.
Pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) is the first line of defense operating soon after the pathogen has landed on the plant surface.
Before the pathogen has entered the plant its presence of specific pathogen molecules or patterns is recognised by the host plant's immune systems.
This then activates immune responses to stop the pathogen and so protect the plant from infection. The second line of defense is referred to as effector-triggered immunity (ETI) this is based on the detection of disease pathogens by the plant's genes--there is a relationship between the gene in the host plant and the gene in the pathogen.
The concept of ETI was developed to describe defense against pathogens that enter into plant cells (e g. wheat rusts
and mildews potato late blight pathogens) and fits their defense mechanisms well. The presence of the pathogen in the cell activates specific proteins that cause death of both the plant cell and the invading pathogen.
Dr Stotz continued: This concept of plant ETI does not really explain the second line of defense in the interaction of plant hosts protecting themselves against extracellular fungal pathogens
--i e. those foliar fungal pathogens that get into the leaf of the plant to exploit the space between its cells known as the apoplast to retrieve nutrients from the plant.
These include the damaging pathogens that cause septoria leaf blotch on wheat barley leaf blotch apple scab and light leaf spot on oilseed rape.
The ETI concept does not hold for defense against those pathogens that go into the leaf but not into the cells.
Through our research we discovered that defense against extracellular pathogens (ETD) involves different plant genes from those involved in the defense against intracellular pathogens.
We identified some specific resistance genes that code for receptor-like proteis (RLPS) and described how they operated against the pathogens.
We feel immunity is too strong a term for this new defense mechanism because these extracellular pathogens can survive
This new understanding of plant defense through ETD suggests different operations of specific resistance genes
In the first study to experimentally demonstrate that competition between plants can result in ecosystem-wide losses of forest carbon scientists working in Panama showed that lianas
which the loss of carbon from one plant is balanced by the gain of carbon by another.
Energy company Fortum is to invest â0m in an integrate bio-oil plant while Swedish packing firm Billerud received â2m from the European commission to build a new biofuel plant based on forest residues.
Global trade unintentionally moves living species around the world in packing materials ballast water and on live nursery plants.
The final sugar yield was closely related to the removal of xylan a common component of plant cell walls.
According to Couvillon it may be that the regular mowing required initially to discourage certain plants from growing in those plots might leave few wildflowers for bees.
and Management researcher Oskar Franklin in collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences used a theoretical model to explain the new experimental findings by simulating the interaction between individual fungus and plant.
and the plants where each individual trades carbon for nutrients or vice versa to maximize profits not unlike a capitalistic market economy says Franklin
Yet our results show how these disturbances can severely degrade the forest with huge amounts of carbon being transferred from plant matter straight into the atmosphere.
The top 10 is designed to bring attention to the unsung heroes addressing the biodiversity crisis by working to complete an inventory of earth's plants animals and microbes.
Beautiful soft sword-shaped leaves with white edges and cream-colored flowers with bright orange filaments are the hallmarks of this impressive plant.
Valued as a horticultural plant its small number (perhaps 2500) and the fact that it grows on limestone that is extracted for the manufacture of concrete has earned this species a preliminary conservation status of endangered.
As long as we remain ignorant of the vast majority of species we unnecessarily limit our effectiveness at conservation goals. â#¢Billions of years of natural selection have driven plants
#With climate changing, Southern plants outperform Northerncan plants and animals evolve to keep pace with climate change?
A study published May 19 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that for at least one widely-studied plant the European climate is changing fast enough that strains from Southern Europe already grow better in the north than established
Small and fast-growing Arabidopsis thaliana is used widely as the lab mouse of plant biology. The plant grows in Europe from Spain to Scandinavia
and because Arabidopsis is studied so well there is a reference collection of seeds derived from wild stocks across its native range.
Originally collected from 20 to 50 years ago these plants have since been maintained under controlled conditions in the seed bank.
Johanna Schmitt formerly at Brown University and now a distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology and colleagues took banked seed samples originally from Spain England Germany and Finland and raised all the plants
Around 120 plants were planted in the early summer and after a few days severe damage from snails had been observed.
and climates including isotopes inside decaying plant material pollen and charcoal trapped in lake sediments historic land surveys and tree rings.
which tracks the changing abundances of plants and trees around the lake. We're pollen whisperers says Simon Goring a postdoctoral fellow in geography who notes that pollen records can extend back tens of thousands of years
This may best be explained by way of reference to local resource-competition for water among plants
What remains as probable cause is local resource-competition among plants and vegetation --which incidentally seems quite capable of creating homogeneously scattered circles.
Whereas for example in a young-growth forest plants will grow and develop at comparatively close range vegetation will thin out
and plants and significant changes in the species the forest can support. These edge effects vary based on distance from edge to interior forest
Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant and animal life. It's required in many basic molecules like DNA and amino acids.
if there were similarities in the microbes that digest this plant-based diet. To investigate the microbes Williams collected fecal samples from two giant pandas and one red panda at the Memphis Zoo.
Fecal samples from both species were dominated by plant material which impeded identification of the microbes.
A student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed a method to remove this plant material allowing the digestive microbes to be identified clearly.
whether the pandas are consuming different varieties of the fibrous plant. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Mississippi State university Office of Agricultural Communications.
Such a mismatch in timing could severely impact both bees and plants and the productivity of many agricultural crops.
and to work with Bunker who is interested also very much in researching the ecological interdependence between plants and other organisms.
Looking at areas relatively close to NJIT that might be suitable as research sites Devan found that Morristown national historical park at Jockey Hollow has a substantial bee community--including cavity-nesting bees that forage among various flowering trees as well the understory plants beneath the trees.
and plants might respond differently to the effects of climate change Bunker says. He explains that the primary experimental focus is on the bees
whereas plants respond to changes in the length of the day the photoperiod along with temperature.
Devan emphasizes that this could devastate the cycle of plant pollination and reproduction. Or bees may adapt by feeding on different plants that flower earlier.
While this could be a positive sign that bees are adaptable it also may mean they are feeding on less nutritious plants
which could have a deleterious impact on bee populations. For the solitary cavity-nesting bees starting to forage earlier
and the plants they pollinate is in danger. Yet they may find that pollinators such as the bees at Morristown can adapt in ways that do not seriously undermine their role in pollination and by implication in agricultural production.
and plants--and on one of the most important connections that humans have with nature.
The International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 (ISPM 15) is a set of standards developed by the International Plant Protection Convention stipulating how wood packaging material used for international trade such as pallets
and his colleagues used data from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to compare wood packaging infestation rates from 2 years prior to U s. implementation
and 103 new species of plants and animals in 2013 with some research divisions anticipating higher numbers for 2014.
But the extra emphasis on biodiversity due to degradation of natural habitats and accelerating extinction rate of plants and animals worldwide has placed a higher emphasis on researchers documenting
UF researchers discovered species from more than 25 countries on four continents including 35 fossil crustaceans 24 Lepidoptera 17 plants (11 fossils) eight mollusks two
For example during an international effort to document all animals and plants living on and in the waters surrounding the island of Moorea in French polynesia Florida Museum invertebrate zoology curator Gustav Paulay dredged from the deep sea a new hermit crab that exemplifies a rarely documented process in which hermit crabs move out of their shells
Future research will include the investigation of a potential new species of moth in Hawaii that appears to delay plant aging by altering the process of plant senescence (aging) in leaves he said.
Museum scientists described 56 new species of fossil plants and animals. Among these the world's oldest-known grape species Indovitis chitaleyae discovered in 2005 and described in 2013 pushed the record of the Vitaceae (grape) family into the Late Cretaceous about 66 million years ago.
because knowledge of the kinds of plants and animals that lived here in the past provide us with a framework for understanding today's ecosystems.
when velvetleaf was grown by itself versus among corn plants. The velvetleaf alone was shorter and stouter Clay explains.
and other important plant responses differed in expression. Another study compared the corn's growth and yield in response to weeds lack of nitrogen or shade.
In all cases Clay and Horvath found that genes were expressed differentially compared with nonstressed plants.
When grown with weeds genes that control the major facets of the corn plant's metabolism were decreased
In short these changes in gene expression adversely affect the plant's ability to grow and reproduce.
but a slight reduction has taken place in the plant which scientists cannot pinpoint. Next the researchers look at the effect of water stress on gene expression using corn planted on high and low ground.
In addition the Circadian rhythm the internal clock which controls the operation of the plant's cells was affected she adds.
This in turn affected the plant's wounding response and made it more susceptible to pest injury.
The researchers now have a clearer idea of how that stress is affecting the plant she explains.
The tree has moved around the world as an ornamental plant and has become invasive in several states
In general the trees take over space where native plants should be. Animals such as white-tailed deer the Florida panther and migratory birds that depend on native vegetation such as mangrove for food
For the experiments UF and USDA researchers brought two types of thrips--tiny insects that often feed on plants--from Brazil to Florida laboratories.
There scientists tested them for temperature requirements reproductive ability and their plant impact. Both thrips feed on the Brazilian peppertree
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will review the joint UF/IFAS and USDA petition for the thripsâ##release Overholt said.
and prevent pollution farmers can more carefully target fertilizer application to plants'needs using soil measurements.
Moreover they should aim at efficiently recycling animal dung to fertilize the plants. Mitigation costs are currently many times lower than damage costs says co-author Alexander Popp.
and seed from escaping into the ecosystem and crossing with wild plants. Cary Mitchell professor of horticulture said the technique could be particularly useful for growing transgenic crops to produce high-value medicinal products such as antibodies for the budding plant-derived industrial and pharmaceutical compounds industry.
Grains of corn could be engineered to produce proteins that could be extracted and processed into medicine pharmaceuticals
Mitchell described corn as a good candidate crop for the industry because of the plant's bounty of seeds and well-characterized genome
Using plants as factories to generate bioactive medicines would be far cheaper than the current methods that rely on cell cultures from mammals he said.
We coddled the plants with such luxurious conditions that the corn was touching the lamps before it had tasseled even he said.
He said that former mines could be prime locations to grow high-value transgenic plants
The high levels of carbon dioxide in mines also promote plant growth. Productivity in a controlled environment is superior to that in the field
The new study published today in the Journal of Ecology examined differences in aboveground wood production (one component of the total uptake of carbon by plants)
With growing global datasets collected using standardised methods further comparisons will be possible across the tropics to help elucidate the nature and causes of variation in plant biomass growth.
and prized plant for collectors to a nuisance in at least 40 of the 48 contiguous states according to Kasson.
The effect that the fungus has on other plants will be the subject of further research Kasson said.
However preliminary studies on the vegetation that surrounds Ailanthus groves indicate the fungus may not harm nearby plants and trees.
Only a small percentage of plants near the infected tree-of-heaven plots showed signs of being harmed by the fungus.
Stink bugs feed as nymphs and adults on the fruit and pods of plants which maximizes their chances to render a crop unmarketable.
As well as building the garden the children also had devoted lessons to cooking plants and growth (in science) and writing (in literacy.
In this study all other growing conditions (sunlight soil water temperature) were the same for plants grown at high-CO2 and those used as controls.
The experiments revealed that the nutritional quality of a number of the world's most important crop plants dropped in response to elevated CO2.
and iron in them (at high CO2) said University of Illinois plant biology and Institute for Genomic Biology professor Andrew Leakey an author on the study.
In much of the Great plains too little precipitation falls to replace that needed by humans plants and animals.
They offer a great opportunity to add beautiful water loving plants to the landscape and draw a host of butterflies birds and other wildlife that depend on these plants for survival.
Compared to a conventional patch of lawn a rain garden allows about 30 percent more water to soak into the ground keeping plants green and conserving water along the way.
Once excavated add at least four inches of good organic compost to help with plant growth. 4. Choose plants carefully--There are many plants that do well in rain gardens or occasionally flooded areas.
Davis says using native plants that normally grow in these conditions will practically ensure success with limited need for maintenance other than cutting back once annually some weeding
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