You’ve never seen cabbage like this….

http://insideinsides.blogspot.com/

However, the road to digesting cellulose is a long one. Before current research on cellulose, only one enzyme, cellulose synthase (CESA), of the cellulose constructing protein complex was known. Recently, researchers at Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam, working with colleagues in the USA, identified another enzyme that may play a crucial role in the synthesis of cellulose. When researchers tested plants that could not form this newly identified protein, cellulose synthase-interactive protein (CSI1), they found that a much lower amount of cellulose was produced. This, of course, led to structural malformations in the plant.

Although the scientists have not completely ascertained the full scope of CSI1’s function, the identification of the protein remains a large step forward for the pursuit of cellulose digestion. Understanding the formation of cellulose and plant cell walls could prove to be key in increasing the digestibility of cellulose in animal feed, and could, in turn, spur agricultural production in the midst of a global food crisis.

Discussion Question: Can you foresee any problems if livestock or humans could digest cellulose?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100720083254.htm

Journal Article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1007092107

This ray of hope comes from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), which has recently released new kidney bean germplasm lines. The new lines of kidney beans, known as TARS HT-1 and TARS HT-2, show high yields despite soaring daytime temperatures. The difference between HT-1 and HT-2 lies in nighttime productivity, as HT-1 thrives under high temperatures after dark, while HT-2 prospers under moderate nighttime temperatures.

Researchers at Cornell University, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Puerto Rico are also developing strains of bean plants that will not only be resistant to heat and drought, but also disease. Resistance to bacterial blight disease will be particularly beneficial to both the crop and the farmer, as loss in yields would be greatly minimized.  The research will be published in an upcoming issue of HortScience.

Discussion Question: What might be the mechanism underlying the difference between TARS HT-1 and TARS HT-2?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100630115141.htm

ARS Publication announcement: http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?SEQ_NO_115=248761

The gene of interest comes from the fern Pteris vittata, a plant that is 100 to 1000 times more resistant to arsenic than other species of plants. Jody Banks and David Salt, professors at Purdue University, determined the resistant genes by using yeast functional complementation. Essentially, they introduced thousands of different genes from the fern (since the fern’s genome was not sequenced) into yeast, which was not resistant to arsenic, and then exposed the yeast to arsenic. Yeast that survived had taken up the genes necessary for arsenic tolerance.

To validate the results found via yeast functional complementation, the researchers knocked out the resistance genes in fern plants and then exposed the plant to arsenic. With knocked out genes, the plant was unable to survive. The genes that Banks and Salt discovered are not present in flowering plants, but careful genetic modification of flowering plants could lead to arsenic resistance in flowering species (e.g. crop plants) as well.

Since the activity of the genes leads to the absorption of arsenic from the soil, plants with these genes could remove arsenic from polluted lands. After the fern absorbs the arsenic, it relocates the arsenic to vacuoles in its fronds, where the arsenic can do little to damage the plant or its surroundings.

Discussion Question: Do you think that arsenic-tolerance genes can be expressed similarly in flowering plants? What would be the advantage?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100608183044.htm

Journal Article: http://www.plantcell.org/cgi/content/abstract/tpc.109.069773v1

The two “psychedelic” genes that the scientists discovered not only influence the color of the leaves, but they also work together to move carbon throughout the plant. Carbohydrate transport is crucial in plants as it allows the proper distribution of nutrients from the roots to the flowers, meaning that these two genes are significant in plant growth and development. Careful manipulation of this pathway could yield great results in corn and other crops. Manipulating the pathway can bring about an increased efficiency in the production of biofuels by increasing corn biomass, while alteration in the pathways of other plants could lead to a multitude of benefits, such as drought-resistant plants or greater food production.

Discussion Question: What benefits (or consequences) can you foresee from the manipulation of “psychedelic” genes?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100607142215.htm

Journal Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100607142215.htm

When 20% of tubers were infested, the researchers found that the weight of the plant yield doubled.  Even when half of the potatoes were infested, plant yields were similar to those of plants without infestation. However, the infested tubers themselves do not actually increase in size. When a tuber is infested, other tubers in the plant begin growing more than usual. The authors found that the spit of the moth caterpillar is responsible for this unusual growth pattern and are trying to determine the specific compound in the spit that triggers the growth. The researchers hypothesized that the plant undergoes photosynthesis more when a tuber is infected in order to compensate for the loss of the infected tuber.

If the compound that causes this growth is isolated, it could have great implications in agriculture. Selectively administering the compound in tubers would allow farmers to increase their yields greatly, even after removing the infested tuber. The spit of the moth does not create universal growth in potato species, however. Seven species of potatoes were tested, but only Solanum tuberosum responded in this manner. However, this unique growth mechanism could be a common physiological response in many other plants when triggered by their respective compounds.

Discussion Question: What other evolutionary beneficial relationships do you know of that are similar to the relationship between the potato plant and moth larvae?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100527131704.htm
Journal Article : http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/09-1726

The closing of a spring semester evokes a new persona in typical study-crazed college students.  Before attempting to successfully complete course finals while sleep deprived or participating in annual commencement ceremonies, students may catch themselves savoring an over-priced coffee shop pastry while taking in the sights and sounds of nature during the spring season.  Although most people may figuratively approach the statement, “taking in the sights of nature in the spring time,” others choose to enjoy nature in a more literal context.

As an undergraduate student at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, Dr. Stanley Roux demonstrated a true, literal appreciation of nature.  Instead of enjoying a carbohydrate-loaded blueberry muffin along with the sights of spring’s seasonal blooms, Dr. Roux preferred the taste of something a little more exotic – passion flower fruit.

Today, you will not find Dr. Roux in Alabama customizing his taste palate for the local college landscape, but you will catch him in the biological laboratories building at The University of Texas at Austin with the same, if not more, enthusiasm for plants.

Dr. Roux dedicates much of his time to researching plant response to stimuli, such as gravity and light, and lecturing a diverse student population on the science of plant physiology.  However, when he is not in the lab or the classroom, Dr. Roux serves as a board member for a project aiming to bring society a little closer to the plants that once sustained our communities.

The Useful Wild Plants Project maintains a conservation-based position to study the use of plants throughout the world.  Through exploration of 4,000 different species of wild and naturalized plants inhabiting the eleven different regions of the Texas landscape, Useful Wild Plants, Inc., documents Texas’s very own botanical resources in a detailed series of encyclopedias.

The multi-volume work, entitled The Useful Wild Plants of Texas, the Southeastern and Southwestern United States, the Southern Plains, and Northern Mexico, provides a hands-on resource for every plant fanatic, natural history enthusiast and botanical archeology buff, no matter where they live.  A surprisingly fascinating read, the encyclopedia is as much about human history as it is about plants.

Useful Wild Plants, headed by Scooter Cheatham and Lynn Marshall, originally began as a scheme to avoid a research paper in Cheatham’s college archeology class.  According to Cheatham, he and a friend convinced the professor to allow them to complete an experiment in which they would travel to his grandmother’s ranch on the Guadalupe River and live on the land’s natural resources in order to grasp a better understanding of pre-modern human society.

During his experiment, Cheatham discovered that almost all of the tools and food needed for survival thrived within one kingdom, Plantae; thus, upon conclusion of a week in the wild, Cheatham set out to locate an unified information source about wild plants, but much to his dismay, no such resource existed.  From this inadequate supply of scientific information on plants emerged the Useful Wild Plants Project.

Many years later, with some help from a few trustworthy colleagues, Scooter Cheatham has successfully provided plant enthusiasts worldwide with accurate resources detailing wild plants and their wide array of uses in the encyclopedia collection, The Useful Wild Plants of Texas, the Southeastern and Southwestern United States, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico.  Together, Scooter Cheatham, Lynn Marshall, and Marshall Johnston have written and published three of fifteen volumes that will comprise the collection, in which each encyclopedia gives scientific data and cultural uses for each plant species.

Volumes 1-3 include 650 wild plant species, ranging from genera Abronia to genera Celtis, with volume four currently a work in progress.

As the world becomes more reliant on technology, Useful Wild Plants, Inc., aims to promote the conservation and the usage of these beneficial natural resources in everyday life. Through support of board members like Dr. Roux, trustees, and individuals eager to learn about wild plants, Useful Wild Plants continues its project, while expanding the knowledge base of wild plants and providing a unique resource that offers a natural alternative to a technical lifestyle.

To learn more about Useful Wild Plants Inc., please visit their website, http://www.usefulwildplants.org/index.htm.

Want to help support the effort to collect and provide this valuable information?  Queries concerning donations should be directed to info@usefulwildplants.org.

The theme? People cannot live without plants!

Gallery of pictures:  http://www.popsci.com/technology/gallery/2010-05/gallery-inside-seed-cathedral
News Article: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/awe-inspiring-seed-cathedral-shanghai-world-expo-2010.php

At Purdue, they understand that soy serves a number of purposes that will only increase in the years to come. For this reason, they have put quite a bit of research and effort into finding ways to hone and improve the types of soybeans produced, and the way in which this is done.

Assistant professor of agronomy at Purdue University recently discovered the soybean gene that controls plant stem growth post-flowering. After a long pursuit to find a way to create new, more diverse types of soybeans, it seems that this discovery may be the critical find that many have anticipated.

The findings of this study show that manipulation of the Dt1 gene in soybean plants will allow farmers to grow both indeterminate and determine soybean plants, where previously they could plant indeterminate in the North and determinate in the South.

The details and further ramifications of the study are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Discussion question: What are limitations on soybeans now? How might this discovery change the face of the American soybean industry?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100427142144.htm
Journal Article: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/04/20/1000088107