Super-sized Cassava Plants May Help Fight Hunger in Africa

In a recent study, genetically modified cassava plants produced roots that were more than two-and-a-half times the size of normal cassava roots.The findings could help ease hunger in many countries where people rely heavily on the cassava plant (Manihot esculenta) as a primary food source, said Richard Sayre, the study's lead author and a professor of plant cellular and molecular biology at Ohio State University.

The researchers used a gene from the bacterium E. coli to genetically modify cassava plants. The plants, which were grown in a greenhouse, produced roots that were an average of 2.6 times larger than those produced by regular cassava plants.

“Not only did these plants produce larger roots, but the whole plant was bigger and had more leaves,” Sayre said. Both the roots and leaves of the cassava plant are edible.

Cassava is the primary food source for more than 250 million Africans – about 40 percent of the continent's population. And the plant's starchy tuberous root is a substantial portion of the diet of nearly 600 million people worldwide.

Sayre said he hopes to offer these plants to countries where cassava is an important crop.

The current study appears in the online early issue of the Plant Biotechnology Journal. Sayre collaborated with Ohio State colleague Uzoma Ihemere and scientists from BASF Plant Science in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and BARC-West in Beltsville, Md., who formerly worked on this project in his laboratory.

Sayre said that cassava produces sugar more efficiently than any other cultivated plant.

“We wanted to find a way to help the plant redirect that excess sugar and use it to make starch,” Sayre said.

The researchers used a variety of cassava native to Colombia (cassava was brought to Africa from South America by the Portuguese in the 1500s.) They inserted into three cassava plants an E. coli gene that controls starch production. A non-modified fourth plant served as a control.

“Cassava actually has this same gene,” Sayre said. “But the bacterial version of the gene is about a hundred times more active.”

The modified plants converted more of their sugar into starch, as shown by an increase in root size as well as the number of roots and leaves produced by each modified plant.

The roots of the modified plants were up to 2.6 fold larger than the roots of a non-modified plant (an average of 198 grams for the biggest roots vs. 74 grams for the roots of the non-modified plant.) The modified plants produced a maximum of 12 roots, compared to the seven roots produced by the non-modified plant. These modified plants also produced a third more leaves – a maximum of 123 leaves per modified plant vs. 92 leaves per non-modified plant.

Sayre said that the bigger roots produced by the plants were just that – bigger. They weren't necessarily more nutritious. And they would still need to be processed quickly and properly after harvesting, as the roots and leaves of poorly processed cassava plants contain a substance that triggers the production of cyanide.

In previous work, Sayre helped create cassava that produced little to no cyanide once it is harvested.

He is also the principal investigator of an ongoing project focused on improving the nutritional content of cassava. In this work Sayre leads a team of national and international scientists focused on increasing the vitamin, mineral and protein content of the plant.

The current study was supported in part by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Centro Internacional Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) and Ohio State.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060524221812.htm

Organic Nitrogen Gives New Clue to Biodiversity

Scientists have found that organic nitrogen is more important for plant growth than previously thought and could contribute to maintaining diversity in grasslands.

Until recently it was generally believed that the most important source of nitrogen for plants was inorganic nitrogen. However, researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) from the University of Lancaster and the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) have found that not only can organic nitrogen be directly taken up by plants it is also used differently by different species, enabling nitrogen sharing and biodiversity.

By tagging organic nitrogen with stable isotopes researchers have challenged the long held idea that organic nitrogen has to be first converted into an inorganic form before the plants can use it. Their findings have significant implications in unfertilised, low-productivity grasslands where organic nitrogen often appears in greater concentrations than inorganic forms.

Professor Richard Bardgett, lead researcher at the University of Lancaster explained: "This research provides important new information about what happens to organic nitrogen in real ecosystems in real time. Tagging amino acids also revealed that different plant species prefer different sources of organic nitrogen. These preferences may be a way for plants and microbes to avoid competition with their neighbours for nitrogen when it is in very short supply, effectively enabling them to share nitrogen and maintain biodiversity."

Professor Julia Goodfellow, BBSRC Chief Executive, commented: "This is important work which increases our understanding about the underlying processors that generate and maintain biodiversity and will help farmers, industry and government make the most of natural resources and use biodiversity more effectively."

Source: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Learn how lotus plants inspired architects and industrial designers.

Architects and engineers were puzzled over how to keep all those skyscrapers free of dust in an a more cost effective way than manual labor. The lotus plant inspired one solution. There are other interesting industrial innovations from nature, but the lotus is first in the video.

Robots And Inflatable Conveyor Belts Set To Slash Farm Labour Costs

Robots are on the march again into the last bastion of labour intensive industry - farming and horticulture. Research engineers and horticulture specialists at the University of Warwick are working together to devise a suite of robots and automated systems which could transform farming and horticulture over the next decade.

Mushroom picking robot. (Image courtesy of University of Warwick)

• The researchers from the University of Warwick's horticultural arm, Warwick HRI, and its manufacturing engineering section, Warwick Manufacturing Group, are working on a number of robotics and automation products that will vastly reduce the labour costs of farmers and growers. Those projects include:

• A robotic mushroom picker: the robot uses a charged coupled camera to spot and select only mushrooms of the exact size required for picking achieving levels of accuracy far in excess of human labour. The mushroom(s) are then picked by a suction cup on the end of a robotic arm. Whilst the speed of picking is currently just over half that of a human - the mushrooms and the robot can be set to pick 24 hours a day right through the night without the need for any sort of break. The researchers also hope to increase the speed of picking to much closer to that of a human worker.
• Inflatable Conveyor Belt: The Warwick Manufacturing Group and Warwick HRI researchers have helped an agricultural machinery company "Aeropick" to develop a revolutionary group of inflatable aids to harvesting which provide huge savings on labour costs. The inflatable conveyor system can be driven into an open field or covered growing area. Within minutes up to 100 metres of powered conveyor belt can be deployed allowing crops to be processed at high speed straight to cool storage, or washing, or simply sorted and graded while still in the field.

Story Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/03/060307220709.htm

Ebb and Flow Concert at the Japanese Garden

For those of you that missed it Ebb and Flow gave a concert on Friday at the Japanese Garden at Haywood Community College. There is always something great going on down at the Nix Horticulture Complex, so be sure to stop by.
Adam played the bass and sang along with....
Neil on the acoustic guitar. Probably the only band you will ever see whose name was in part inspired by a type of greenhouse irrigation system. Horticulture rocks!!! UPDATE: from one of the musicians: "Ebb&Flow, as an idea has been with me long before i entered into the horticultural fray, although the hydration system is one of the influences into our name, it is not the primary one"

Vegetable Production Course Underway

The Horticulture Technology students enrolled in Vegetable Crop Production have begun their hands-on learning in the on-campus garden. They will divide the vegetables produced among themselves and the remainder will be given to a local area food shelf. George Thomas, the instructor for the course will teach the students the applied science of vegetable production .
"I know those students are around here somewhere?"
"Hey George, I think we saw some students working over there...but they are gone now"
Seriously, the students worked very hard installing raised vegetable beds. Everyone jumped in grabbed a shovel or rake and went at it.
Several students install a divider down the center of the beds. As part of the course the students will compare conventional production to organic methods.
Some cucurbit transplants being installed.
The students also direct-seeded sweet corn.
Brassicas, cucurbits, tomatoes, and pepper plants were all put in today.
Student transplanting peppers.
Check back for more updates during the summer!

Horticulture Makes Front Page of Asheville Citizen-Times

An industry in bloom

Area’s population boom keeps growers busy
by John Boyle, JBOYLE@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
published May 17, 2006 12:15 am

ETOWAH — The new crop of homes and commercial buildings in Western North Carolina may encroach on farmland, but it has a major upside for some growers, especially those in landscaping and greenhouse-related businesses. To read full article online click here.

photo credit: Steve Dixon, sdixon@citizen-times.com

Carlos Fernandez guides a tree onto a trailer for a Brevard customer as Worth Weant runs the loader at Hillside Nursery’s operation in Transylvania County. The Henderson County-based company has seen its business in the mountains grow by 300 percent in the past five years.