It may be possible to alter plants so they are more nutritious and easier to process without weakening them so much they fall over, according to Purdue University researchers who found a new twist in a plant formation biochemical pathway.
Decreasing the amount of two acids in plant cell walls may enhance livestock feed digestibility for better nutrition, while increasing the potential uses of various plants, said Clint Chapple, Purdue biochemistry professor.
The findings, published
Researchers in the Netherlands have investigated the molecular structure of plant proteins that must provide alternatives for the animal proteins in our food over the next 10 years. They discovered that proteins with a similar chemical structure behaved differently after heating. The behaviour of the proteins after heating plays an important role in the development of a new type of meat substitute product.
Francesca O’Kane used various proteins from peas and soya for her research. After h
Research in the Netherlands has revealed that under sub-otpimal conditions, the best way for rice breeders to improve the rice harvest is to produce varieties whose performance is not fertiliser dependent. However, specifically modified varieties need to be developed for rice growing under saline conditions.
Gambian researcher Baboucarr Manneh investigated variations in the rice yield and the possibilities for increasing this under a variety of environmental circumstances by means of plant
Adding small amounts of seaweed to contaminated soil could prove to be a natural and effective way of breaking down the toxic pesticide DDT, according to new research in the Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology. A British biologist, Ian Singleton, worked with colleagues in Australia and Thailand to find the right formula to use. Too much seaweed hindered biodegradation, but the most effective mix – 0.5% seaweed added to waterlogged soil – managed to remove 80% of the DDT present over si
New research on untreated green olives has found that products with a stated shelf-life of 2-3 years can be ‘unacceptable’ long before their sell-by date. The study, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, looked at the growing trend towards using polyethylene pouches which are vacuum-packed, filled with brine or packed in ‘modified atmospheres’. Only the vacuum pouches gave promising results, producing a shelf-life of nearly two years, while those packed in ordinary air had
Planter size has a significant impact on per acre costs, according to a University of Illinois Extension study examining planter costs with different farm sizes.
“Planting more hours per day could result in a smaller planter size having lower costs,” added Gary Schnitkey, U of I Extension farm management specialist who conducted the study.
The study’s objective was to determine the planter size that had the lowest cost for a given farm size. Farm sizes from 400 to 4,000 acres
Szechuan pepper can be used to deter crop-destroying mammals such as the prairie vole, without affecting non-targeted species, says research published in the journal Pest Management Science.
Researchers discovered that compounds in the pepper probably repel prairie voles by stimulating pain receptors in the nose, mouth and eyes. The component Zanthoxylum, found in Szechuan pepper, stimulate neurons different to those stimulated by other natural deterrents such as capsaicin, from capsicum pep
A group of researchers at the Navarre Public University, together with technical experts from the Navarre Provincial Government, are evaluating the impact of agricultural activity on water resources, based on a Net of Experimental Catchment Areas that the Provincial Administration has installed in several areas of Navarre.
To put this project into effect, the Agricultural Non Point Source Pollution method is being used; AGNPS is a technology which has been developed by the Department of Agri
The scientific puzzle pieces are fitting together to form a definitive picture of the origin of corn, says a Duke University plant geneticist who has proposed that the world’s most important food crop originated in an ancient cross between two grasses.
Mary Eubanks described the latest evidence that corn, or maize, originated as a cross between teosinte and gamagrass, or Tripsacum, in a talk Friday, April 2, 2004, at a symposium on maize held at the annual meeting of the Society for Ame
New technology developed by CSIRO Livestock Industries (CLI) will lead to the development of new strategies designed to substantially reduce the $140 million lost each year due to Australian dairy cows contracting udder infections.
Developed with support from the Innovative Dairy Products Cooperative Research Centre (Dairy CRC), the bovine immune gene microarray provides researchers with the means to rapidly assess the gene activity profiles of infected and mastitis-resistant cattle.
Scientists at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research are developing new plant breeding techniques which can improve the efficiency of cow digestion and reduce pollution at the same time. Grass isn’t the easiest food to digest, and even cows appear to have difficulty doing it efficiently. Dr. Alison Kingston-Smith and Mrs. Rosalind Shaw will present results at the SEB annual meeting at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh outlining how selective plant breeding can improve the amount of p
During World War II, soldiers from the Fifth U.S. Army set up camp at an exclusive hunting estate in Italy, regrouping between military drives north against German troops and fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Sixty years later, forest pathologists are pointing to huge gaps of dead trees in the estate as the visible reminders of that brief stay.
In a new study published in the April issue of Mycological Research, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and in Italy, have unlock
A Purdue University researcher is working to restore the American chestnut, an important wildlife tree and timber resource that dominated the landscape from Maine to Mississippi before it was driven to near-extinction by a fungal disease introduced about 100 years ago.
Doug Jacobs, assistant professor of forestry in the Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center at Purdue and director of the Indiana chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, studies how well American chestnut trees
Erosion of genetic diversity of crop plants has for several decades been making it necessary to develop initiatives for protecting these plant resources. One strategy is in-situ conservation of crop plants. The model currently advanced involves maintaining the varieties to be conserved isolated in reserves, protected from entry of other varieties from elsewhere and cultivated according to ancestral farming practices. Researchers from the IRD and the CIMMYT of Mexico (1) used work previously conducted
The world’s largest insect emergence of “Brood X” cicadas in May will result in some damage to fruit trees and prized yard trees and shrubs, but the large insects will not cause crippling harm to common farm crops, an Indiana University scientist says.
“There will be some crop damage, especially to orchards, but we don’t expect a disaster,” said IU Bloomington biologist Keith Clay, who recently received a three-year, $300,000 National Science Foundation grant to study Brood X. “Th
The Asian soybean aphid — native to China, Korea and Japan — has invaded the United States. It was identified as a distinctly new crop pest on the North American continent in 2000, after appearing simultaneously in 11 states.
Having no natural enemies here to control it, the aphid expanded its range by more than 300 kilometers a year for the next two years, showing up in soybean fields from the Dakotas to Virginia and causing crop losses of more than $2.2 billion.
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