Digital Commons Network^™

Rna Sequencing Analysis Of The Msl2msl3, Crl, And Ggps1 Mutants Indicates That Diverse Sources Of Plastid Dysfunction Do Not Alter Leaf Morphology Through A Common Signaling Pathway, Darron R. Luesse, Margaret E. Wilson, Elizabeth S. Haswell

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

Determining whether individual genes function in the same or in different pathways is an important aspect of genetic analysis. As an alternative to the construction of higher-order mutants, we used contemporary expression profiling methods to perform pathway analysis on several Arabidopsis thaliana mutants, including the mscS-like (msl)2msl3 double mutant. MSL2 and MSL3 are implicated in plastid ion homeostasis, and msl2msl3 double mutants exhibit leaves with a lobed periphery, a rumpled surface, and disturbed mesophyll cell organization. Similar developmental phenotypes are also observed in other mutants with defects in a range of other chloroplast or mitochondrial functions, including …

A Desert In Disguise: The Resilience Of The Nebraska Sandhills, Jeff Hartman

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Nebraska Sandhills are the largest sand dune system in the Western Hemisphere, and are unique because they remain relatively undisturbed from row crop agriculture. Research in the past two decades demonstrated that the Sandhills are dynamic on millennial timescales, switching between stabilized, vegetated states to non-vegetated, mobilized states. The Sandhills are currently stabilized, but understanding how ecological processes are altered as sand dunes transition from stabilized to mobilized states, provides insight into the thresholds, stability, and resilience of this grassland ecosystem. My research investigated the impacts of vegetation disturbances on ecological processes and the sand dune surface stability. For …

Extension Agriculture And Natural Resources In The U.S. Midwest: A Review And Analysis Of Challenges And Future Opportunities, Mahdi M. Al-Kaisi, Roger Wesley Elmore, Gerald A. Miller, David Kwaw-Mensah

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

This review addresses key changes in U.S. agricultural extension and future opportunities. Agricultural extension has been a part of the land-grant university (LGU) system for more than 100 years. The Morrill Act of 1862 established the LGU system by authorizing states access to federally controlled land and funding for public institutions offering educational opportunities focusing on agriculture and mechanical arts for farmers and the working class. Current surveys in Iowa reveal changing trends in extension: more than 90% of farmers identified private-sector crop advisers as their primary source for recommendations, whereas more than 80% of those advisors identified Iowa State …

Ubiquitin Goes Green, Zhihua Hua, Richard D. Vierstra

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

Chloroplasts depend on the nucleus for much of their proteome. Consequently, strong transcriptional coordination exists between the genomes, which is attuned to the developmental and physiological needs of the organelle. Recent studies highlight that the post-translational modifier ubiquitin adds another layer to plastid homeostasis and even helps eliminate damaged chloroplasts.

Soybean Yield And Nodulation Response To Crop History And Inoculation, Stephen Mason, Tomie Galusha, Zaher Kmail

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] inoculation was imposed on a long-term continuous grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] and soybean cropping systems study with and without manure application at Mead, NE. The objective was to determine the influence of 28-yr history of continuous grain sorghum and soybean production, inoculation, and manure on soybean yield and nodulation. Average 2-yr soybean grain yield was 0.5 Mg ha^–1 greater on plots with continuous grain sorghum crop history rather than soybean history, even after this history was broken by 2-yr crop rotation with grain sorghum in the 2 yr previous to …

Soil Moisture Affects Growing-Season Wildfire Size In The Southern Great Plains, Erik S. Krueger, Tyson E. Ochsner, David M. Engle, J. D. Carlson, Dirac L. Twidwell, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The increasing availability of soil moisture data presents an opportunity for its use in wildfire danger assessments, but research regarding the influence of soil moisture on wildfires is scarce. Our objective was to identify relationships between soil moisture and wildfire size for Oklahoma wildfires during the growing (May-October) and dormant seasons (November-April). We hypothesized that soil moisture influences wildfire size when vegetation is growing but is less important when most vegetation is dead or dormant. Soil moisture, as fraction of available water capacity (FAW), and commonly measured weather variables were determined for 38,419 wildfires from 2000–2012. Wildfires were grouped by …

Development And Evaluation Of A Multi-Year Fractional Surface Water Data Set Derived From Active/Passive Microwave Remote Sensing Data, Ronny Schroeder, Kyle C. Mcdonald, Bruce D. Chapman, Katherine Jensen, Erika Podest, Zachary D. Tessler, Theodore J. Bohn, Reiner Zimmermann

Publications and Research

The sensitivity of Earth’s wetlands to observed shifts in global precipitation and temperature patterns and their ability to produce large quantities of methane gas are key global change questions. We present a microwave satellite-based approach for mapping fractional surface water (FW) globally at 25-km resolution. The approach employs a land cover-supported, atmospherically-corrected dynamic mixture model applied to 20+ years (1992–2013) of combined, daily, passive/active microwave remote sensing data. The resulting product, known as Surface WAter Microwave Product Series (SWAMPS), shows strong microwave sensitivity to sub-grid scale open water and inundated wetlands comprising open plant canopies. SWAMPS’ FW compares favorably (R2 …

Evaluation Of Genetic Gain For Dynamic Leaf Traits In Maize Using Field Spectroscopy, Jonathan Luetchens

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Rapid introduction of cheap and precise genotyping technology has created a void between genotypes and phenotypes in maize breeding. While detailed genetic information is easily accessible, the data are lacking robust phenotypes to be used in mapping studies like genome-wide association. As a result, high-throughput phenotyping tools are necessary to rigorously characterize specific traits. In this study, agronomic traits and an active spectrometer system were used to monitor 36 era hybrids – popular commercial maize hybrids grown from 1936 to 2012 – to discover how various traits have changed over time. In conjunction with increased grain yield of 76 kg/ha …

Discovery & Born-Digital Archiving: Open Source Systems For Preservation And Access, L. Bryan Cooper, Margarita Perez-Martinez

Works of the FIU Libraries

The Everglades Explorer (EE) portal at http://ee.fiu.edu continues to evolve with the addition of the Internet Archive's Archive-It, and future planned alignment with the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). The reasons for the development of the portal continue to exist, as originally perceived four years ago. Adaptations to ongoing change and system testing continues, and the use of Archive-It has broad institutional potential beyond EE. Cross-walking skills continue to grown, and will benefit future syndication and discovery system integration. The metadata normalization and harmonization will help save time for the end-user. Preservation and access to learning and research …

Molecular Genetic Aspects Of Iron And Copper Cross-Talk In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Qingyuan Xiang

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Iron (Fe) and copper (Cu) are essential micronutrients for plants and humans who consume plants. Their functions are tightly linked. For example, both of Fe and Cu work as cofactors in superoxide dismutase proteins to prevent reactive oxygen species damage. When Fe is removed from nutrient solution, plants uptake more Cu, but how plants sense and respond to Fe status is not fully understood. This thesis includes two projects that focus on Fe and Cu interaction, homeostasis and cross-talk in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Two Arabidopsis ecotypes, Kas-1 and Tsu-1, have difference in timing of Cu accumulation in rosettes under Fe …

Relative Salt Tolerance Of Seven Strawberry Cultivars, Youping Sun, Genhua Niu, Russ Wallace, Joseph Masabni, Mengmeng Gu

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) cultivars (“Albion”, “Benicia”, “Camarosa”, “Camino Real”, “Chandler”, “Radiance”, and “San Andreas”) were evaluated for salt tolerance in a greenhouse environment. Plants were irrigated with a nutrient solution with an electrical conductivity (EC) of 1.1 dS·m−1 (control) or a nutrient solution with the addition of salts (salt solution) with ECs of 2.2, 3.3, or 4.4 dS·m−1 for four months. Salinity reduced plant growth and fruit yield of strawberry; however, the magnitude of reduction varied with cultivar. For example, at an EC of 4.4 dS·m−1 , “Benicia” and “Chandler” had 39% and 44% less shoot dry weight (DW) …

Genome Sequences Of Three Phytopathogenic Species Of The Magnaporthaceae Family Of Fungi, Laura H. Okagaki, Cristiano C. Nunes, Joshua Sailsbery, Brent Clay, Doug Brown, Titus John, Yeonyee Oh, Nelson Young, Michael Fitzgerald, Brian J. Haas, Qiandong Zeng, Sarah Young, Xian Adiconis, Lin Fan, Joshua Z. Levin, Thomas K. Mitchell, Patricia A. Okubara, Mark L. Farman, Linda M. Kohn, Bruce Birren, Li-Jun Ma, Ralph A. Dean

Plant Pathology Faculty Publications

Magnaporthaceae is a family of ascomycetes that includes three fungi of great economic importance: Magnaporthe oryzae, Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici, and Magnaporthe poae. These three fungi cause widespread disease and loss in cereal and grass crops, including rice blast disease (M. oryzae), take-all disease in wheat and other grasses (G. graminis), and summer patch disease in turf grasses (M. poae). Here, we present the finished genome sequence for M. oryzae and draft sequences for M. poae and G. graminis var. tritici. We used multiple technologies to sequence and annotate the …

Genetic Dissection Of Disease Resistance To The Blue Mold Pathogen, Peronospora Tabacina, In Tobacco, Xia Wu, Dandan Li, Yinguang Bao, David Zaitlin, Robert D. Miller, Shengming Yang

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Tobacco blue mold, caused by the obligately biotrophic oomycete pathogen Peronospora tabacina D.B. Adam, is a major foliar disease that results in significant losses in tobacco-growing areas. Natural resistance to P. tabacina has not been identified in any variety of common tobacco. Complete resistance, conferred by RBM1, was found in N. debneyi and was transferred into cultivated tobacco by crossing. In the present study, we characterized the RBM1-mediated resistance to blue mold in tobacco and show that the hypersensitive response (HR) plays an important role in the host defense reactions. Genetic mapping indicated that the disease resistance …

Southeast South Dakota Experiment Farm Annual Progress Report: 2015, Agricultural Experiment Station

Agricultural Experiment Station and Research Farm Annual Reports

This document highlights 34 crop and livestock research and demonstration reports from projects conducted at Southeast Research Farm in 2015. It is published by the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service at South Dakota State University in cooperation with the Southeast South Dakota Experiment Farm Corporation. Reports in this document include information on: weather and climate data, corn production and performance, soybean research and planting, soil testing, alfalfa yield test, fertilizer testing, herbicide research, crop rotation, sorghum, small grains, swine research, and pest and weed control.

Survey For Spotted-Wing Drosophila (Diptera: Drosophilidae) In The Five-County Nursery Production Region Of Middle Tennessee, Usa, Karla M. Addesso, Jason B. Oliver, Paul A. O'Neal

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Through global trade, spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), a native of Southeast Asia, has spread to at least 3 other continents since 2008. Initial reports of the fly in new regions often are associated with damage in agriculture fields, but the fly may be present in the landscape for years before populations reach a level at which they become a pest in fruit production. In 2012, spotted wing drosophila was reported in blueberry fields in eastern Tennessee, USA, for the first time. In order to determine whether the fly was established in middle Tennessee, we conducted landscape surveys …

California Ethnobotany: A Bibliography, James P. Smith Jr

Botanical Studies

No abstract provided.

The Receptor For Activated C Kinase In Plant Signaling: Tale Of A Promiscuous Little Molecule, Tania Islas-Flores, Ahasanur Rahman, Hemayet Ullah, Marco Villanueva

Department of Biology Faculty Publications

Two decades after the first report of the plant homolog of the Receptor for Activated C Kinase 1 (RACK1) in cultured tobacco BY2 cells, a significant advancement has been made in the elucidation of its cellular and molecular role. The protein is now implicated in many biological functions including protein translation, multiple hormonal responses, developmental processes, pathogen infection resistance, environmental stress responses, and miRNA production. Such multiple functional roles are consistent with the scaffolding nature of the plant RACK1 protein. A significant advance was achieved when the β-propeller structure of the Arabidopsis RACK1A isoform was elucidated, thus revealing that its …

Effect Of Genotype, Environment, And Production Packages On Yield, Agronomic Characteristics, And End-Use Quality Of Winter Wheat, Madhav Bhatta

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Grain yield and end-use quality are the most important characteristics for hard red winter wheat (Triticum aestivium L.). Improvement of grain quality characteristics of grain from a given growing season and location requires systematic understanding of the genotype chosen, the production environment, and also knowing the consequence of rate and time of individual production packages such as seed treatment, seed rate, nitrogen (N) fertilization, and foliar fungicide applications. The objectives of this study were to: identify the effects of seed rate, genotype, and N top-dressed on yield, agronomic characteristics, and end-use quality of winter wheat; and to determine …

Goss's Bacterial Wilt Development And Clavibacter Michiganensis Subsp. Nebraskensis Interactions With Spray Adjuvants, Sarah A. Schlund

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Goss’s bacterial wilt and leaf blight of corn (Zea mays L.), causal agent Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. nebraskensis, was first confirmed in Dawson County, NE in 1969. Disease incidence decreased in the 1980’s due to various management strategies and disease developed sporadically until the early 2000’s when it re-emerged and was economically important. A Midwest, multistate survey conducted in 2011 suggested farming practices that may have contributed to the pathogen’s re-emergence. The use of agricultural pesticides was associated with Goss’s wilt. Since spray adjuvants are often used with pesticides, and physical characteristics of these adjuvants may enable infection of …

Arkansas Soybean Performance Tests 2015, R. D. Bond, J. A. Still, D. G. Dombek

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

Soybean variety and strain performance tests are conducted each year in Arkansas by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Arkansas Crop Variety Improvement Program. The tests provide information to companies developing varieties and/or marketing seed within the State, and aid the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service in formulating variety recommendations for soybean producers.

North Shore: A Natural History Of Minnesota’S Superior Coast, Janet R. Keough

The Prairie Naturalist

Many readers of The Prairie Naturalist have lived along or visited Lake Superior’s coast. Like me, you have probably wondered about the geology and history of this beautiful and dramatic feature of northeastern Minnesota. Chel Anderson and Adelheid Fischer have written an accessible book that comprehensively describes the history and geology of the coast, surrounding highlands, and Lake Superior itself. In addition, the authors have provided fascinating subchapters on some of the most interesting species that are key elements of the region.

This rather large but beautiful book is arranged in five major chapters that cover the dominant geological units …

Sage-Grouse Nests In An Active Conifer Mastication Site, Charles P. Sandford, David K. Dahlgren, Terry A. Messmer

The Prairie Naturalist

Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) have experienced long-term range-wide population declines and now may occupy less than 50% of their historic range (Schroeder et al. 2004). Conifer encroachment into sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) habitat was identified as a major conservation threat by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as the agency reviewed the listing status of the species for possible protection under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (USFWS 2013).

Conifer encroachment into sagebrush habitats negatively impacts sage-grouse at landscape scales (Doherty et al. 2008, Casazza et al. 2011, Baruch-Mordo et al. 2013). Sage-grouse will utilize …

North Shore: A Natural History Of Minnesota’S Superior Coast, Janet R. Koeugh

The Prairie Naturalist

Many readers of The Prairie Naturalist have lived along or visited Lake Superior’s coast. Like me, you have probably wondered about the geology and history of this beautiful and dramatic feature of northeastern Minnesota. Chel Anderson and Adelheid Fischer have written an accessible book that comprehensively describes the history and geology of the coast, surrounding highlands, and Lake Superior itself. In addition, the authors have provided fascinating subchapters on some of the most interesting species that are key elements of the region.

This rather large but beautiful book is arranged in five major chapters that cover the dominant geological units …

Remembering The Days Of Old: Data Exploration And Simple Statistics, Christopher N. Jacques

The Prairie Naturalist

Greetings GPNSS members! By the time you read this editorial, most of you will probably be enjoying spectacular seasonal changes in the outdoors this autumn and a hint of winter in the air (for those of us in the northern Great Plains region). I write this editorial during my favorite time of year, deer hunting in the Midwest. Temperatures are finally start- ing to resemble the fall and the Christmas Holiday season is just around the corner. Much like my children have images of Santa dancing in their heads on Christmas Eve, each fall I replay images of a trophy …

Effects Of Short-Term Soil Conditioning By Cheatgrass And Western Wheatgrass, James J. O'Connor, Janet S. Prevey

The Prairie Naturalist

The exotic grass Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) is a ubiquitous invader in the western USA. Cheatgrass is a proficient competitor, frequently displacing native plants, forming monotypic stands and reducing biodiversity in ecosystems it invades. Our experiment tested whether short-term soil modification by cheatgrass and a predominant native grass, Pascopyrum smithii (western wheatgrass), affected subsequent growth of both species. We compared productivity of cheatgrass and western wheatgrass by harvesting aboveground biomass of plants grown in either cheatgrass- or western wheatgrass-conditioned soils over two simulated growing seasons. Results indicated that cheatgrass soils do not inhibit the productivity of the native grass, but do …

Estimating Herbaceous Biomass Of Grassland Vegetation Using The Reference Unit Method, Eric D. Boyda, Jack L. Bulter, Lan Xu

The Prairie Naturalist

Aboveground net primary production provides valuable information on wildlife habitat, fire fuel loads, and forage availability. Aboveground net primary production in herbaceous plant communities is typically measured by clipping aboveground biomass. However, the high costs associated with physically harvesting plant biomass may prevent collecting sufficient data to account for natural spatial and temporal variability of vegetation at a landscape scale. Various double-sampling techniques have been developed to increase sample size while reducing cost. We applied a biomass estimation technique previously developed for estimating shrub biomass using representative samples or “reference units” to estimate herbaceous grassland biomass. Our reference units consisted …

Distribution And Occurrence Of Bat Species In North Dakota, Josiah J. Nelson, Paul R. Barnhart, Erin H. Gillam

The Prairie Naturalist

Prior to 2009, a detailed survey of occurrence and distribution of bats in North Dakota had not been conducted. Localized surveys, occurrence reports, and museum specimens provided the only records of bats in the state. Ongoing habitat loss, exploitation of natural resources, and the impending spread of white-nose syndrome to the western United States are major threats to bat populations of the region. The objective of this study was to document presence and distributions of bat species resident in North Dakota. From 2009 to 2012, multiple mist-netting and acoustic surveys were conducted to document species presence across North Dakota. A …

Variability In The Selection Patterns Of Pronghorn: Are They Really Native Prairie Obligates?, Paul F. Jones, Mike Grue, Mike Suitor, Darren J. Bender, Cormack Gates, Dale Eslinger, Julie Landry-Deboer

The Prairie Naturalist

In Canada, pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) are primarily considered a native prairie obligate because of their reliance on open grassland vegetation communities, although an assessment of local ecological knowledge suggests that pronghorn in Alberta select a variety of habitat from native prairie to cultivated lands. The primary objective of our study was to assess whether pronghorn in Alberta and Saskatchewan are native prairie obligates. Specifically, we addressed the following questions: 1) do individual pronghorn show similar selection patterns for native prairie and, therefore, support the notion that they are prairie obligates; 2) do pronghorn show consistent resource selection patterns …

Book Reviews: Bumble Bees Of North America. Paul H. Williams, Robbin W. Thorp, Leif L. Richardson, And Sheila R. Colla., Samuel O’Dell

The Prairie Naturalist

Bumblebee identification is generally considered straight- forward, yet mistakes often are made due to the degree of similarity between the color patterns of different species. Bumble Bees of North America aims to improve the accuracy of identifications by both casual observers and professionals through the use of intuitive diagrams, descriptions, and the more technical dichotomous keys. In addition to providing the first complete field guide to North American bumblebees, the authors make efficient use of the reader’s attention by summarizing taxonomic history, favored food plants, and environmental issues concerning bumblebees.

Bumble Bees of North America is organized into three distinct …

Forage News [2015-12], Department Of Plant And Soil Sciences, University Of Kentucky

Forage News

• New Seed Coating for Alfalfa
• Forage News Quote of the Month
• *New for Forage News* - Featured Publication: Managing Diseases of Alfalfa
• Successful International Grassland Congress
• Tall Fescue in the 21st Century is the Focus for the 2016 Virginia Winter Forage Conferences
• Heart of America Registration Open
• UK Ag Equine Programs to Host Equine Showcase, Breeder's Short Course
• Heart of America Grazing Conference Registration Form