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Strawberry Fields Forever

By Guest PostApril 19, 2014Environmentandreas holzinger, callose, chemicals, flexibilitaet, high ringxiety, horticulture, luciano beheregaray, north Carolina, notifications, pests, phantom cell rings, polysaccharid, soil health, ueberlebensmechanismus

North Carolina is the nation’s No. 3 strawberry producer, but many of the state’s berries grow on small plots lacking the acreage to carry out sustainable growing practices like crop rotation. That, combined with constant concerns about soil pathogens and reliance on chemicals to rid plants of ubiquitous pests like spider mites, puts immense pressure on these farms’ long-term health.

Can North Carolina withstand this pressure and keep its top-three status behind fruit and veggie behemoths California and Florida, the top two U.S. strawberry producers? (more…)

Newly Discovered Receptors in Plants Help Them Recover from Environmental Changes, Pests, and Plant Wounds, MU Study Shows

By Guest PostJanuary 20, 2014Scienceadenosine triphosphate, atp, cell, energy source, environmental changes, environmental events, extracellular atp signaling, gary stacey, insects, jeongmin choi, kiwamu tanaka, newly discovered, pests, plant wounds, receptors in plants, recover, university of missouri

Discovery could lead to herbicides, fertilizers and pesticides that naturally work with plants to make them stronger

COLUMBIA, Mo. – ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the main energy source inside a cell and is considered to be the high energy molecule that drives all life processes in animals and humans. Outside the cell, membrane receptors that attract ATP drive muscle control, neurotransmission, inflammation and development. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found the same receptor in plants and believe it to be a vital component in the way plants respond to dangers, including pests, environmental changes and plant wounds. This discovery could lead to herbicides, fertilizers and insect repellants that naturally work with plants to make them stronger. (more…)

Biotech Crops vs. Pests: Successes, Failures from the First Billion Acres

By Guest PostJune 11, 2013Environmentbacillus thuringiensis, bacterium, Beijing, biotech crops, bruce tabashnik, bt, bt crop acreage, bt toxins, cirad, epa, evolutionary theory, france, global assessment, insecticidal proteins, kongming wu, million hectares, organic farmers, pest resistance, pests, pink bollworm caterpillar, rapid evolution, resistance in pests, sprays, thierry brevault, university of arizona, world, yves carriere

A new global assessment helps scientists explain why genetically modified crops have suppressed some pests for longer than a decade, while others adapted in a few years.

Since 1996, farmers worldwide have planted more than 1 billion acres (400 million hectares) of genetically modified corn and cotton that produce insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt for short.

Bt proteins, used for decades in sprays by organic farmers, kill some devastating pests but are considered environmentally friendly and harmless to people. However, some scientists feared that widespread use of these proteins in genetically modified crops would spur rapid evolution of resistance in pests. (more…)

Barley getting by

By Guest PostNovember 4, 2012Sciencebarley genome, crops, cycle, disease resistance, drought, euphrates, farmers, fertile crescent, food security, function, fungus, fusarium, gary muehlbauer, genes, heat tolerance, idaho, malting quality, mediterranean coast, mesopotamia, minnesota, montana, nile valley, nitrogen use, nomads, north dakota, persian gulf, pests, planet, plant genetics, sequencing, tigris, university, valley, western world, yield

Sequencing the barley genome will sow many benefits

Some 10,000 years ago, people found they didn’t have to live as nomads, hunting and gathering all their food. In the Fertile Crescent, they started planting crops.

The Fertile Crescent extended from the Nile Valley and along the eastern Mediterranean Coast, through the Tigris and Euphrates valleys of Mesopotamia and down to the Persian Gulf. There, the foundation crops of the Western World were first domesticated. (more…)

20 Years after Rio Earth Summit: Ecologists Call for Preservation of Planet’s Remaining Biological Diversity

By Guest PostJune 9, 2012Natureaichi targets, andrew gonzalez, balance of evidence, biodiversity loss, biological diversity, bradley cardinale, columbia university, david hooper, earth summit, ecologists, ecosystem services, exotic plants, fungal, george gilchrist, impact on humanity, j emmett duffy, natural ecosystems, nutrient remineralization, pests, planet, plant pathogens, preservation, rio de janeiro, rio earth summit, shahid naeem, soil organic matter, sustainability, university of michigan, viral infections

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Twenty years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 17 prominent ecologists are calling for renewed international efforts to curb the loss of biological diversity, which is compromising nature’s ability to provide goods and services essential for human well-being.

Over the past two decades, strong scientific evidence has emerged showing that loss of the world’s biological diversity reduces the productivity and sustainability of natural ecosystems and decreases their ability to provide society with goods and services like food, wood, fodder, fertile soils, and protection from pests and disease, according to an international team of ecologists led by the University of Michigan’s Bradley Cardinale. (more…)

Increasing Predator-Friendly Land Can Help Farmers Reduce Costs

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Environmentcrop pests, crops, doug landis, farmers, farming areas, insecticides, ladybugs, landscape scale, megan woltz, michigan state university, natural habitat, natural killer, pest control, pests, predatory insects, rufus isaacs, soybean aphids, soybean fields, soybean pest, united states

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Having natural habitat in farming areas that supports ladybugs could help increase their abundance in crops where they control pests and help farmers reduce their costs, says a Michigan State University study.

Ladybugs and other predatory insects eat crop pests, saving farmers an estimated $4.6 billion a year on insecticides. Non-crop plants provide these predatory insects with food and shelter, helping them to survive and thrive in areas where they are needed. In an attempt to increase benefits from predatory insects, researchers have often planted strips of flowers along the edges of crop fields. (more…)

Smarter Toxins Help Crops Fight Resistant Pests

By Guest PostOctober 11, 2011Scienceb rogers leonard, bacillus thuringiensis, bacterium, beneficial insects, bruce tabashnik, bt, bt cotton, bt toxins, cadherin, cadherin mutations, caterpillars, change in molecular structure, crop protecting proteins, david heckel, fangneng huang, genetic engineering, Germany, jena, lady bugs, manduca sexta, max planck institute for chemical ecology, mukti ghimire, pectinophora gossypiella, pests, pink bollworm, rna interference, tobacco hornworm

*A slight change in molecular structure introduced by genetic engineering gives crop-protecting proteins called Bt toxins a new edge in overcoming resistance of certain pests, a UA-led team of researchers reports in Nature Biotechnology.*

One of the most successful strategies in pest control is to endow crop plants with genes from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt for short, which code for proteins that kill pests attempting to eat them.

But insect pests are evolving resistance to Bt toxins, which threatens the continued success of this approach. In the current issue of Nature Biotechnology, a research team led by UA Professor Bruce Tabashnik reports the discovery that a small modification of the toxins’ structure overcomes the defenses of some major pests that are resistant to the natural, unmodified Bt toxins. (more…)

UF Study Traces Global Red Imported Fire Ant Invasions to Southern U.S.

By Guest PostFebruary 27, 2011Environment, Natureallergic, ant stings, australia, california, China, dewayne shoemaker, effective biological control agents, fire ant, global trade, globe, humans, invasive species, marina ascunce, molecular genetic markers, mound, new zealand, pesticides, pests, phorid flies, red fire ant invasions, solenopsis invicta, south america, southern u s, taiwan, travel network

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Red imported fire ant invasions around the globe in recent years can now be traced to the southern U.S., where the nuisance insect gained a foothold in the 1930s, new University of Florida research has found.

Native to South America, the ant had been contained there and in the southeastern U.S. before turning up in faraway places in the last 20 years — including California, China, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. (more…)

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