Resistance Genes in Global Crop Breeding Networks.

Resistance genes are a major tool for managing crop diseases. The networks of crop breeders who exchange resistance genes and deploy them in varieties help to determine the global landscape of resistance and epidemics, an important system for maintaining food security. These networks function as a complex adaptive system, with associated strengths and vulnerabilities, and implications for policies to support resistance gene deployment strategies. Extensions of epidemic network analysis can be used to evaluate the multilayer agricultural networks that support and influence crop breeding networks. Here, we evaluate the general structure of crop breeding networks for cassava, potato, rice, and wheat. All four are clustered due to phytosanitary and intellectual property regulations, and linked through CGIAR hubs. Cassava networks primarily include public breeding groups, whereas others are more mixed. These systems must adapt to global change in climate and land use, the emergence of new diseases, and disruptive breeding technologies. Research priorities to support policy include how best to maintain both diversity and redundancy in the roles played by individual crop breeding groups (public versus private and global versus local), and how best to manage connectivity to optimize resistance gene deployment while avoiding risks to the useful life of resistance genes. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY 4.0 International license .

Genetics of grain amaranths. II. The inheritance of determinance, panicle orientation, dwarfism, and embryo color in Amaranthus caudatus.

The genetic control of four developmental characters was studied in Amaranthus caudatus L. Determinant panicle growth was determined by one recessive gene. Two major genes governed panicle orientation, with erect panicles incompletely dominant to drooping panicles. Additional modifier genes appeared to alter expression of panicle orientation. A single recessive gene determined dwarfism. Pleiotropy or tight linkage was responsible for abnormal growth of dwarf plants. Pink embryo color was under the control of two complementary epistatic genes with one locus determining the presence or absence of red betalain pigment and the other locus regulating the expression of pigment in developing embryos.

Soil plant microbe interactions in phytoremediation.

Use of vegetation in remediation of soil and groundwater contaminated with organic materials is a promising, cost-effective alternative to the more established treatment methods used at hazardous waste sites. Plants can transpire groundwater and lower the concentrations of organic contaminants in soils and groundwater. The evapotranspirational activity of vegetation acts as a natural pump-and-treatment system. Plants have shown the capacity to absorb, uptake, and convert organic contaminants to less toxic metabolites in laboratory and field studies. Vegetation also plays a significant role in bioremediation. This is because plants stimulate the degradation of organic compounds in the rhizosphere by the release of root exudates and enzymes. Success of any plant-based remediation system depends on the interaction of plants with the surrounding soil medium and the contaminant. Knowing the fate of an organic contaminant in the soil can help determine the persistence of the contaminant in the terrestrial environment and ultimately the success of any remediation method. Also, an understanding is needed of soil-plant-microbe interactions that determine the fate of organic contaminants in the soil-plant ecosystem. This paper presents an overview of the subsurface environment and fate and transport processes of organic contaminants as affected by soil-plant-microbe interactions.

The effect of plants on the degradation and toxicity of petroleum contaminants in soil: a field assessment.

A field project located at the US Naval Base at Port Hueneme, California was designed to evaluate changes in contaminant concentrations and toxicity during phytoremediation. Vegetated plots were established in petroleum (diesel and heavy oil) contaminated soil and were evaluated over a two-year period. Plant species were chosen based on initial germination studies and included native California grasses. The toxicity of the impacted soil in vegetated and unvegetated plots was evaluated using Microtox, earthworm, and seed germination assays. The reduction of toxicity was affected more by contaminant aging than the establishment of plants. However, total petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations were lower by the end of the study in the vegetated plots when compared to the unvegetated soil. Although phytoremediation is an effective approach for cleaning-up of petroleum contaminated soil, a long-term management plan is required for significant reductions in contaminant concentrations.