By Emily Unglesbee
DTN Staff Reporter
ROCKVILLE, Md. (DTN) -- This bi-monthly column condenses the latest news in the field of crop technology, research and products.
GLYPHOSATE OFF THE HOOK FOR GOSS'S WILT
Goss's Wilt may be on the rise in corn fields, but neither glyphosate nor the GE crops it is applied to are to blame, according to scientists from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service and the University of Illinois. The researchers have released the results of a study comparing the rates of the disease in various susceptible lines of sweet corn, some with glyphosate resistance and Bt traits and some with no GE traits. The researchers inoculated a select number of the corn lines with the bacterium that causes Goss's Wilt, which produces wilted plants and leaf blight. Half of the plants showed disease symptoms and damage, regardless of whether or not they were transgenic, the scientists reported. The timing of glyphosate applications likewise appeared to have no effect on the disease's development or severity.
"The only factor affecting Goss's wilt incidence was whether or not plants were inoculated," said Martin Williams, a USDA-ARS ecologist and University of Illinois crop scientist, in a university press release. "We found no evidence of differential susceptibility to other diseases between the transgenic and conventional lines."
In an interesting side discovery, the scientists found that the transgenic varieties treated with glyphosate yielded better than their untreated counterparts, even in the absence of weeds. The researchers speculated that this effect was the result of a little-understood phenomenon called hormesis, in which a sub-lethal dose of a toxin (in this case, glyphosate) actually increases plant growth.
For more information, see the press release here: http://bit.ly/… and the study here: http://bit.ly/….
STEP RIGHT UP AND PICK YOUR FAVORITE BUG
Entomologists from across the country are turning to crowdsourcing to fund a multitude of insect research projects, from developing an insect ID app to digging into soil microbes' plant defense properties. You can throw your support -- and your money -- behind the project or projects of your choice, thanks to the crowdfunding website, experiment.com. Anyone can launch an experiment and ask for funding through the site, and nearly half of the proposed projects get the money they seek, according to the site's statistics. Seventeen entomology projects will be up for funding until March 8, so pick your favorite -- here's a sampling of the projects of most interest to farmers:
-- Clemson University researchers are looking for help creating a mobile app that will allow farmers (among others) to identify insects in the field on their phone. See the description here: http://bit.ly/….
-- In a project led by Penn State, scientists are trying to figure out if soil microbes can bolster a plant's ability to fight off insects. See more details here: http://bit.ly/….
-- A team led by Purdue researchers is trying to determine if neonicotinoids have an effect on monarch butterfly populations. See more details here: http://bit.ly/….
For more information, see all 17 projects here: https://experiment.com/….
NITROGEN DREAMS
The National Science Foundation has given $1.8 million to three Clemson University scientists to discover the genetic blueprint behind nitrogen fixation in legumes. This project will serve as the first step toward the researchers' ambitious end goal of helping non-legumes fix their own nitrogen someday, according to a university press release. The scientists hope to gain a detailed understanding of how nitrogen fixation works at the molecular and cellular level and ultimately determine which potential genes control the process.
"I'll be finding the holistic genetic patterns present in the different tissues that are allowing this cool biology to occur," said Alex Feltus, a Clemson professor of genetics and biochemistry. "If we can eventually translate this knowledge to other non-symbiotic plants, it would have a massive economic impact -- a Holy Grail effect."
For more information on the project, see the press release here: http://bit.ly/….
Emily Unglesbee can be reached at emily.unglesbee@dtn.com.
Follow her on Twitter @Emily_Unglesbee.
(SK)
© Copyright 2016 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.