Life Sciences Commons^™

Thermodynamic Analysis Of Phenylpropanoid Pathway In Arabidopsis Thanliana, Patrick J. Ioerger, Rohit Jaini, John A. Morgan

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Biofuels represent a renewable alternative to traditional fossil fuels. As dependence on fossil fuels rise so does the importance of improving the production of alternative fuels. Lignin poses one obstacle in the development of such alternative fuels. Its presence strengthens cell walls and hinders degradation of polysaccharides into monosaccharides, increasing cost and time while decreasing efficiency of the process. Lignin is composed of three monolignols, each of which is produced through the Phenylpropanoid pathway; a series of chemical reactions. This work aims to determine which reactions in the pathway are least thermodynamically favorable and thus most limiting. From metabolic mapping …

You Don’T Have To Go Home But You Carrot Stay Here: Root-Knot Nematode Biological Control In Carrots, Casey R. Martin, Sahar Abdelrazek, Lori A. Hoagland

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Root-knot nematodes cause tens of billions of dollars in damages annually in agricultural production. The enormous economic losses brought about by nematodes, combined with the downsides to current methods for handling them, have led to an increased focus in understanding natural plant defense mechanisms and finding alternative methods to lessen the damage done by root-knot nematodes. Endophyte biocontrol agents such as Trichoderma harzianum have shown promise in reducing nematode damage. Recent studies have demonstrated that soil management practices and plant genotype can influence endophyte community structure, but it is unclear whether such differences influence susceptibility to nematode damage. This study …

Long-Term Tillage System Impacts On Soil Erodibility, Julianne R. Chechanover, Dennis C. Flanagan

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Conservation tillage practices, such as no-till agriculture, have the potential of reducing the erodibility of a soil compared to conventional agricultural practices. This research sought to determine whether long-term agricultural practices affect the baseline erodibility properties of a soil. Two soils from Throckmorton-Purdue Agricultural Center in Tippecanoe County, Indiana were used during this experiment. One soil was treated with a long-term conventional tillage (fall chisel, spring disk) system and the other soil was treated with a long-term no-till system. The soils’ interrill erodibility, and rill erodibility and critical hydraulic shear stress were measured under a rainfall simulator using soil boxes …

Detecting Genomic Regions Responsible For Resistance In Arabidopsis, Valeria Cancino, Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi, Rucha Karve

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Ralstonia solanacearum is a soil-borne plant root colonizing pathogen and the casual agent of bacterial wilt (BW) disease. BW leads to severe yield loss in a wide variety of agricultural commodity crops, such as tomato, banana, and pepper. In this study, we look at the plant-pathogen interaction between Ralstonia solanacearum and various ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana with the goal of finding resistant ecotypes. To identify resistant ecotypes, seeds are first sterilized and left to soak in the dark. Then the seeds are plated on agar media, transferred to a growth chamber, and allowed to grow for 5 days. On day …

Effects Of Temperature And Pollinator Availability On Plant Reproductive Success In The Indiana Spring Ephemeral Community, Asya Robertshaw

Open Access Dissertations

Temperature is a key driver of phenology in both plants and insects, and even small changes in temperature can impact the reproductive success of insect-pollinated plants by influencing access to pollinator services. While it is well-established that temperature variation directly impacts the flowering phenology of many plant species, the mechanisms by which it ultimately influences seed production via the pollinator community are not well understood. Climate change has the potential to disrupt the temporal synchrony between plants and their primary pollinators, especially if the two rely on different seasonal cues for the timing of their life history events. If the …

Genetic, Agronomic And Compositional Characterization Of Brown Midrib Sweet Sorghum Lignocellulosic Biomass For Ethanol Production, Luis A. Rivera Burgos

Open Access Dissertations

Sorghum is a promising bioenergy crop due to its unique phenotypic and genotypic attributes. Quality (low lignin and high stem sugar concentration) and quantity (biomass yield, plant height, plant maturity, etc.) biomass traits are key contributors to ethanol yield and production. In this study, a 236 sorghum recombinant inbred line (RIL) population was subjected to genetic, agronomic and compositional characterization for ethanol yield and production. We found that the sweet mutation enhances biomass quantity traits in the RILs which translates to higher ethanol production and biomass quality which improves ethanol yield. The variance components showed from moderate to high heritability …

Cover Crop And No-Till Effects On Soil Health Properties In Indiana, Sara Alford

Open Access Theses

A growing concern of soil health and long-term sustainability has increased interest in no-till and cover crops in the Midwest. Some of the challenges with no-till in the Midwest can be higher soil moisture and lower soil temperatures at cash crop planting in the spring, planter adjustment issues, and lack of immediate economic benefit. Cover crops also have some of the same issues along with extra cost of seed and termination, mismanagement of cover crops, and lack of knowledge on the benefits and costs. This project was begun in order to quantify the effects of no-till and cover crops on …

Genetic Analysis Of Tocochromanol Variation In Maize Using High-Density Linkage Mapping, Megan E. Fenton

Open Access Theses

Vitamin E is an essential nutrient in the human diet and refers to eight distinct compounds that are collectively known as tocochromanols. Tocochromanols are grouped into two classes: tocotrienols and tocopherols. Tocochromanols are the major lipid-soluble antioxidants in maize (Zea mays L.) grain. Enhancing the tocochromanol content of maize derived foods through plant breeding has important nutritional and health implications. Chapter one is a literature review that provides a foundational understanding of the biosynthesis, function and genetic control of tocochromanols in plants, with specific attention to maize (Zea mays L.). Upon this foundation two research objectives were developed that work …

Eco-Evolutionary Factors Drive Herbivore-Induced Plant Volatiles, Which Intercept Plant Defense, Elizabeth K. Rowen

Open Access Theses

Herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) mediate a wide variety of interactions in ecosystems. However, many volatile compounds are found across plant taxa, and some are exploited to attract natural enemies for biological control. Subtle changes in HIPV blends can produce profound changes in the behavior of predators, parasitoids and herbivores, and may also alter the defensive processes of neighboring plants. I investigated different ecological and evolutionary factors to understand how plant volatile emissions are affected by feeding guild, herbivore diet breadth and domestication. I meta-analyzed 109 studies and found that specialists induce more total volatiles than generalists. Domesticated species have stronger …

Growth Parameters Of 'Golden Delicious' Apple Trees (Malus X Domestica Borkh), Biying Shi

Open Access Theses

High yield and high quality of tree fruit result from appropriate orchard design and management practices. This requires an accurate knowledge of vegetative growth, branching, and flowering processes of fruit trees. Tree development knowledge is the fundamental information necessary to build functional-structural tree models, which have various applications in agriculture. To build such models, information is needed on the distributions of growth parameters, not merely means as are often reported. The objective of this study was to quantitatively analyze shoot development and examine the correlations between fruit quality and light distribution in apple trees. This study was conducted in 2014, …

Profiling Gene Expression During Early Gametophyte Development And Sex Determination In Ceratopteris Richardii, Nadia Atallah

Open Access Dissertations

In the fern Ceratopteris richardii, every spore has the potential to develop as either a male or hermaphroditic gametophyte. Gametophyte sex is determined by a GA-like pheromone (ACE) that is secreted by hermaphrodites approximately 6 days after spore inoculation and induces male development in other juvenile gametophytes. Our goal is to better understand the genetic and molecular mechanisms involved in sex determination and to identify sex determination genes in Ceratopteris. RNA-Seq was used to create de novotranscriptome assemblies from gametophytes grown, with or without ACE, during the time that their sex is determined, and from male gametophytes in early …

Genetic Analysis Of Nitrogen Remobilization And Kernel Compositon In Zea Mays L. And Sorghum Bicolor (L.) Moench, Raymond S Lindsey

Open Access Dissertations

Genetic Analysis of Nitrogen Remobilization and Kernel Composition in Zea Mays L. and Sorghum Bicolor (L.) Moench. Major Professor: Mitchell Tuinstra. Modern maize (Zea mays L.) production relies heavily on nitrogen fertilization for high productivity. Over-application of nitrogen fertilizers in cropping systems can have detrimental economic and environmental effects. For this reason, improving Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) is a major goal of breeders and producers. Nitrogen Utilization Efficiency (NUtE) is one component of NUE, and the most important component under N-limited conditions. In this study we examined the genetic controls of the timing and preferential canopy position of leaf N …

Utilization Of Tall Wheatgrass Translocation Lines To Improve Fusarium Head Blight Resistance In Wheat, Xiangye Xiao

Open Access Dissertations

Fusarium head blight (FHB) and leaf rust (LR) are two major fungal pathogens threatening the wheat crop, consequently identifying resistance genes from various sources is always of importance to wheat breeders. Type II FHB resistance in wheat has been improved by introgressing QTL from landraces and wild species. The present study was undertaken to (1) combine two different type II FHB resistance QTL in the backgrounds of six adapted wheat lines (2) improve the map resolution of Qfhs.pur-7EL.^ In the first objective, the FHB resistance gene Fhb1 originated in a Chinese wheat cultivar and is located on wheat chromosome …

Application And Implications Of Rule-Based Pruning Of Apple Trees, Jacob B. Franzen

Open Access Theses

Labor is one of the largest operating costs associated with tree fruit production in the United States. Pruning and harvest can easily eclipse over a quarter of an orchard's operating budget. Additionally, labor sources are becoming increasingly difficult to find while worker pay keeps going up. As a result, it appears that labor costs will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. Work on developing mechanized alternatives to pruning is seen as one of the key areas to reduce an orchard's dependence on human labor. The objective of this study was to test a set of simplified pruning rules (RUL), …

Framework For Functional Tree Simulation Applied To 'Golden Delicious' Apple Trees, Marek Fiser

Open Access Theses

This research aims to develop a framework to model realistic and functional trees. Our modular framework is easily controllable and extensible by the user. The framework provides powerful features such as per-leaf light simulation and a source-sink based resources transport model. Our novel 3D reconstruction algorithm generates realistic tree models with a good 3D polygon topology. ^ The second part of this research is a functional model of a Golden Delicious apple tree. We use our simulation framework and data collected in Purdue Meigs farm over the year 2014 to create a realistic data-driven model. The model reacts on temperature …

Sugar-Enhanced And Synergistic Sweet Corn Cultivar Evaluation For Northern Indiana, 2014, Elizabeth Maynard

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

Indiana sweet corn acreage harvested for fresh market averaged 5,233 acres annually from 2011- 2013, with a yield of 63 hundredweight per acre (149 crates or 3.1 tons per acre) and an annual value of $13.9 million (USDA NASS, 2014).

Sweet corn fields for fresh market sales are located throughout the state. In northern Indiana, bicolor corn is most commonly grown. Varieties with improved eating quality are of interest to both producers and consumers. Producers are also interested in yield, ear size, appearance, and agronomic characteristics.

This paper reports on nine bicolor and one yellow sugar-enhanced or synergistic sweet corn …

Supersweet Sweet Corn Cultivar Evaluation For Northern Indiana, 2014, Elizabeth Maynard

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

Indiana sweet corn acreage harvested for fresh market averaged 5,233 acres annually from 2011- 2013, with a yield of 63 hundreweight per acre (149 crates or 3.1 tons per acre) and an annual value of $13.9 million (USDA NASS, 2014). Sweet corn fields for fresh market sales are located throughout the state. In northern Indiana, bicolor corn is most commonly grown.

Varieties with improved eating quality are of interest to both producers and consumers. The term ‘supersweet’ commonly refers to sweet corn with two copies of the shrunken-2 (sh2) gene that have high levels of sugar in the kernels and …

Kentucky Cantaloupe Variety Trial — 2014, Shubin K. Saha, Lucas Hanks

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

No abstract provided.

Biochar As A Soil Amendment In A High Tunnel, Polybag Growth System, Ron Goldy, Virginia Wendzel

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Triploid Watermelon Variety Trial — 2014, Shubin K. Saha, Lucas Hanks

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

No abstract provided.

Sugar-Enhanced And Synergistic Sweet Corn Cultivar Evaluation For Northern Indiana, 2014, Elizabeth Maynard

Purdue Fruit and Vegetable Research Reports

Indiana sweet corn acreage harvested for fresh market averaged 5,233 acres annually from 2011- 2013, with a yield of 63 hundredweight per acre (149 crates or 3.1 tons per acre) and an annual value of $13.9 million (USDA NASS, 2014).

Sweet corn fields for fresh market sales are located throughout the state. In northern Indiana, bicolor corn is most commonly grown. Varieties with improved eating quality are of interest to both producers and consumers. Producers are also interested in yield, ear size, appearance, and agronomic characteristics.

This paper reports on nine bicolor and one yellow sugar-enhanced or synergistic sweet corn …

Supersweet Sweet Corn Cultivar Evaluation For Northern Indiana, 2014, Elizabeth Maynard

Purdue Fruit and Vegetable Research Reports

Indiana sweet corn acreage harvested for fresh market averaged 5,233 acres annually from 2011- 2013, with a yield of 63 hundreweight per acre (149 crates or 3.1 tons per acre) and an annual value of $13.9 million (USDA NASS, 2014). Sweet corn fields for fresh market sales are located throughout the state. In northern Indiana, bicolor corn is most commonly grown.

Varieties with improved eating quality are of interest to both producers and consumers. The term ‘supersweet’ commonly refers to sweet corn with two copies of the shrunken-2 (sh2) gene that have high levels of sugar in the kernels and …

Midwest Triploid Watermelon Variety Trial In Southwest Indiana — 2014, Dan Egel, Dennis Nowaskie, Sara Hoke

Purdue Fruit and Vegetable Research Reports

This is a compilation of 30 research trial reports from four land-grant universities in the Midwestern United States. Crops include cantaloupe, pickling cucumber, pepper, potato, pumpkin, summer squash and zucchini, sweet corn, tomato, and watermelon. Somecrops were evaluated in high tunnels or hoophouses. Most trials evaluated different cultivars or varieties. One report addressed plant spacing for sweet corn and one addressed soil block for production of tomato seedlings. A list of vegetable seed sources and a list of other online sources of vegetable trial reports are also included.

Midwest Cantaloupe Variety Trial In Southwest Indiana — 2014, Dan Egel, Dennis Nowaskie, Sara Hoke

Purdue Fruit and Vegetable Research Reports

This is a compilation of 30 research trial reports from four land-grant universities in the Midwestern United States. Crops include cantaloupe, pickling cucumber, pepper, potato, pumpkin, summer squash and zucchini, sweet corn, tomato, and watermelon. Somecrops were evaluated in high tunnels or hoophouses. Most trials evaluated different cultivars or varieties. One report addressed plant spacing for sweet corn and one addressed soil block for production of tomato seedlings. A list of vegetable seed sources and a list of other online sources of vegetable trial reports are also included.

Midwest Vegetable Trial Report For 2014, Elizabeth Maynard

Purdue Fruit and Vegetable Research Reports

This is a compilation of 30 research trial reports from seven land-grant universities in the midwestern and northeastern United States. Crops covered include Asian vegetables (Napa cabbage, pak choy or bok choi, mizuna, tatsoi, Yukina savoy, komatsuna, senposai, and Tokyo bekana) broccoli, cantaloupe, cucumber, kohlrabi, pepper, potato, pumpkin, radish, sweet corn, tomato, and watermelon. Several crops were evaluated in high tunnels or hoophouses. Most trials compared different cultivars or varieties. Four reports addressed specific growing practices: the use of hairy vetch to supply nitrogen, biochar use in a high tunnel bag culture system, effects of organic soil amendments, and scion-rootstock …

Nitrogen Release And Disease Suppressive Activity Of Four Compost Amendments On Three Vegetable Farms, Lori Hoagland, Elizabeth Maynard, Dan Egel, Natasha Cerruti, Jeff Evard, Ben Nava, Steve Spencer

Purdue Fruit and Vegetable Research Reports

This is a compilation of 30 research trial reports from four land-grant universities in the Midwestern United States. Crops include cantaloupe, pickling cucumber, pepper, potato, pumpkin, summer squash and zucchini, sweet corn, tomato, and watermelon. Somecrops were evaluated in high tunnels or hoophouses. Most trials evaluated different cultivars or varieties. One report addressed plant spacing for sweet corn and one addressed soil block for production of tomato seedlings. A list of vegetable seed sources and a list of other online sources of vegetable trial reports are also included.

Fall Broccoli Cultivar Trial 2012-2013, Shawn Wright, Darrell Slone, John Snyder

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

No abstract provided.

Midwest Vegetable Trial Report For 2014, Elizabeth Maynard

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

This is a compilation of 30 research trial reports from seven land-grant universities in the midwestern and northeastern United States. Crops covered include Asian vegetables (Napa cabbage, pak choy or bok choi, mizuna, tatsoi, Yukina savoy, komatsuna, senposai, and Tokyo bekana) broccoli, cantaloupe, cucumber, kohlrabi, pepper, potato, pumpkin, radish, sweet corn, tomato, and watermelon. Several crops were evaluated in high tunnels or hoophouses. Most trials compared different cultivars or varieties. Four reports addressed specific growing practices: the use of hairy vetch to supply nitrogen, biochar use in a high tunnel bag culture system, effects of organic soil amendments, and scion-rootstock …

Kentucky Bell Pepper Variety Trial — 2014, Shubin K. Saha, Lucas Hanks

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of 18 Specialty Potatoes In Southwest Michigan, Ron Goldy, Virginia Wendzel

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

No abstract provided.