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Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (Aflp) Analysis Of Head Smut Population Diversity, Jennifer Waters, Dr. Mikel R. Stevens

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass), an invasive winter annual weed, displaces native vegetation, invades crops, and fuels rangeland fires across approximately 40 million hectares of the Intermountain West. Most attempts to control the weed have been unsuccessful, leading to a search for a biological control agent. Ustilago bullata, head smut, is a natural species-specific, fungal pathogen of cheatgrass. Despite apparent phenotypic (physical) uniformity in cheatgrass and head smut, susceptibility and virulence, respectively, are variable. These findings led to the hypothesis that genetic variability for susceptibility/pathogenicity exists in the host and pathogen.

Arabidopsis Accelerated Cell Death 11, Acd11, Is A Ceramide-1-Phosphate Transfer Protein And Intermediary Regulator Of Phytoceramide Levels, Dhirendra K. Simanshu, Xiuhong Zhai, David Munch, Daniel Hofius, Jennifer E. Markham, Jacek Bielawski, Alicja Bielawska, Lucy Malinina, Julian G. Molotkovsky, John W. Mundy, Dinshaw J. Patel, Rhoderick E. Brown

Department of Biochemistry: Faculty Publications

The accelerated cell death 11 (acd11) mutant of Arabidopsis provides a genetic model for studying immune response activation and localized cellular suicide that halt pathogen spread during infection in plants. Here, we elucidate ACD11 structure and function and show that acd11 disruption dramatically alters the in vivo balance of sphingolipid mediators that regulate eukaryotic-programmed cell death. In acd11 mutants, normally low ceramide-1- phosphate (C1P) levels become elevated, but the relatively abundant cell death inducer phytoceramide rises acutely. ACD11 exhibits selective intermembrane transfer of C1P and phyto-C1P. Crystal structures establish C1P binding via a surface-localized, phosphate headgroup recognition center …

Regulation Of Growth And Stress Tolerance In Tomato Plants By Expression Of A Dominant-Negative Version Of Erecta Gene From Arabidopsis Thaliana, Hector Ernesto Villagarcia

Theses and Dissertations

Receptor kinases are the main group of signal recognition structures in plants. The large number and diversity of these receptors suggest that they perform major roles in a complex regulatory network of growth, development, and physiological responses. The ERECTA gene is a leucine-rich, receptor-like kinase that affects plant growth rates, stomatal patterning, transpiration efficiency, bacterial pathogen resistance, inflorescence and floral organ morphology, and leaf polarity. The ability to manipulate the ERECTA pathway in members of the Solanaceae family can reveal fundamental mechanisms including regulation of fruit and tuber development. This knowledge may enable changes in plant architecture and growth rates …

Red Meat And Our Health: Separating Scientific Fact From Politics, Emotion And Misinformation, Peter Ballerstedt

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends restricting our intake of saturated fat to less than 7 percent of calories, and our cholesterol intake to less than 300 mg per day (less than two eggs). They promote the use of low-fat milk and lean meat, and the use of “meat substitutes” in school lunches. These recommendations are consistent with the official dietary policy that began in 1977 with the release of the first Dietary Goals for the United States by the United States Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. These guidelines were not justified by the then-available science. …

Animal Welfare--Animal Rights: "Protecting Animals Or A Threat To U.S. Food Production And Our Way Of Life?", W. Roy Burris

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

Cattle producers are accustomed to dealing with many forms of adversity. Adversity generally comes in the form of blizzards, droughts, floods and economic conditions but now we must deal with animal activists who have their own opinions of what we can and cannot do as it relates to animal welfare and animal rights.

Grazing: More Important Now Than Ever, Garry D. Lacefield

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

Benefits of grazing has been a major focus of the Kentucky Grazing Conference over the past decade. It has also been emphasized at thirteen Heart of America Grazing Conferences and three National Grazing Conferences. With all that emphasis, Why do I bring this up again and even have the nerve to say “More Important Now than Ever”? Well, the short answer is “things are different now!”

Foreword [2014], Garry D. Lacefield, Christi L. Forsythe

Forage Symposium at the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Convention

No abstract provided.

Phages Of Non-Diary Lactococci: Isolation And Characterization Of Phi L47, A Phage Infecting The Grass Isolate Lactococcus Lactis Ssp Cremoris Dpc6860, Daniel Cavanagh, Caitríona M. Guinane, Horst Neve, Aidan Coffey, R. Paul Ross, Gerald F. Fitzgerald, Olivia Mcauliffe

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

Lactococci isolated from non-dairy sources have been found to possess enhanced metabolic activity when compared to dairy strains. These capabilities may be harnessed through the use of these strains as starter or adjunct cultures to produce more diverse flavor profiles in cheese and other dairy products. To understand the interactions between these organisms and the phages that infect them, a number of phages were isolated against lactococcal strains of non-dairy origin. One such phage, ΦL47, was isolated from a sewage sample using the grass isolate L. lactis ssp. cremoris DPC6860 as a host. Visualization of phage virions by transmission electron …

Warming, Soil Moisture, And Loss Of Snow Increase Bromus Tectorum’S Population Growth Rate, Aldo Compagnoni, Peter B. Adler

Green Canyon Environmental Research Area, Logan Utah

Climate change threatens to exacerbate the impacts of invasive species. In temperate ecosystems, direct effects of warming may be compounded by dramatic reductions in winter snow cover. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is arguably the most destructive biological invader in basins of the North American Intermountain West, and warming could increase its performance through direct effects on demographic rates or through indirect effects mediated by loss of snow. We conducted a two-year experimental manipulation of temperature and snow pack to test whether 1) warming increases cheatgrass population growth rate and 2) reduced snow cover contributes to cheatgrass’ positive response to …

Volume 1, Chapter 3-3: Sexuality: Size And Sex Differences, Janice M. Glime, Irene Bisang

Bryophyte Ecology Subchapters

No abstract provided.

Volume 1, Chapter 3-4: Sexuality: Reproductive Barriers And Tradeoffs, Janice M. Glime, Irene Bisang

Bryophyte Ecology Subchapters

No abstract provided.

Volume 1, Chapter 3-2: Sexuality: Sex Ratio And Sex Expression, Janice M. Glime, Irene Bisang

Bryophyte Ecology Subchapters

No abstract provided.

Volume 2, Chapter 1: The Fauna: A Place To Call Home, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Subchapters

No abstract provided.

Volume 2, Chapter 5-3: Tardigrade Habitats, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Subchapters

No abstract provided.

Volume 2, Chapter 10-1: Arthropods: Crustacea - Copepoda And Cladocera, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Subchapters

No abstract provided.

Volume 2, Chapter 10-2: Arthropods: Crustacea - Ostracoda And Amphpoda, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Subchapters

No abstract provided.

Volume 2, Chapter 10-3: Arthropods: Crustacea - Isopoda, Mysida, And Decapoda, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Subchapters

No abstract provided.

Patch Burn‐Grazing: An Annotated Bibliography, Rajeeva Voleti, Stephen L. Winter, Sherry Leis

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Patch burn‐grazing is a rangeland management strategy that exploits the attraction of grazing animals to recently burned areas in order to achieve management objectives. When fire is applied to a landscape in a patchy manner, leaving some patches unburned, the resulting grazing animal activity, forage utilization, and animal impact are patchily distributed within that landscape as well. Areas that have been recently burned tend to be characterized by the highest levels of grazing animal activity while areas that have gone the longest without burning tend to be characterized by the lowest levels of grazing animal activity. This can be advantageous …

Landscape Mulches, Recycling Yard Waste, And Fertilizing Appropriately, Adam Pitcher, John J. Pipoly Iii

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Reports

No abstract provided.

Principles Of Florida-Friendly Landscaping(Tm), John J. Pipoly Iii

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

No abstract provided.

Variedades De Sorgos Bmr: Una Alternativa Para Producir Forraje, Instituto Nacional De Innovación Y Transferencia En Tecnología Agropecuaria (Inta-Costa Rica), Roberto Tinoco Mora

INTSORMIL Scientific Publications

Nervadura de color café en variedad de sorgo BMR.

Durante el año 2010, el Instituto Nacional de Innovación y Transferencia en Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA-Costa Rica), conjuntamente con el Programa Colaborativo y de Apoyo a la Investigación del Sorgo, el Mijo y otros Granos (INTSORMIL, CRSP) ubicado en El Salvador. elaboraron un proyecto de investigación para evaluar la adaptación, producción y valor nutritivo de una colección de 15 variedades de sorgo (Sorghum bicolor) para alimentación animal. Las variedades disponían del gen recesivo denominado BMR, siglas en inglés de "Brown mid rib" que significan "vena café" (Figura 1).

Este gen tiene la …

"Over The River And Through The Woods": An Analysis Of Understory And Canopy Plant Diversity In Urban Riparian Forests, Carlisle R. Evans Peck

Urban Forest Project

As population growth explodes and urban areas expand, studying the ecology of urban areas has become increasingly important. Urban development has been shown to drastically alter native habitats and to severely degrade biodiversity. However, urban landscapes also hold the potential to harbor and support valuable biodiversity especially if managed correctly. We studied the understory herbaceous plant and overstory tree canopy diversity of eight forested ravines in the small cities of Rock Island and Moline IL surrounded by a range of urban development intensity. The goal of the project was to determine whether or not the composition of the plant communities …

The Effect Of Pin Reduction In Populus: The Search For The Missing Phenotype, Samuel Norcross

Biology Honors Papers

The plant hormone auxin is involved in virtually every aspect of plant growth and development. Because of its vital role in plant physiology, it is transported through controlled mechanisms. The PIN family of efflux carrier proteins are highly involved in this transport, shuttling molecules of auxin from cell to cell. This PIN-driven transport of auxin guides the differentiation of plant vasculature. In this study, I used a clonally-propagated line of the woody plant species Populus tremula x alba that had been genetically altered to induce an RNAi response against genes coding for the PIN proteins. These plants were shown to …

Overcoming India’S Food Security Challenges: The Role Of Intellectual Property Management And Technology Transfer Capacity Building, Stanley Kowalski, Aarushi Gupta, Ifica Mehra

Law Faculty Scholarship

The growth of the Indian economy after Independence has had little impact on the food security of the country. The paper analyses the development of advanced crop varieties through the use of agricultural technologies (hereinafter "agbiotech") within the technology transfer system, a framework which comprises of the interactions of intellectual property rights law and agricultural research and development in India. Through this, the author argues that agricultural innovation in India is failing due to the absence of connections within the technology transfer system and advocates for the creation of a national program aimed at advancing IP and tech-transfer capacity in …

Florida-Friendly Landscaping(Tm) Right Plant, Right Place; Integrated Pest Management; And Attracting Wildlife, John J. Pipoly Iii

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

No abstract provided.

Temporal Fluctuation Scaling In Populations And Communities, Michael Kalyuzhny, Yishai Schreiber, Rachel Chocron, Curtis H. Flather, Ronen Kadmon, David A. Kessler, Nadav M. Shnerb

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Taylor’s law, one of the most widely accepted generalizations in ecology, states that the variance of a population abundance time series scales as a power law of its mean. Here we reexamine this law and the empirical evidence presented in support of it. Specifically, we show that the exponent generally depends on the length of the time series, and its value reflects the combined effect of many underlying mechanisms. Moreover, sampling errors alone, when presented on a double logarithmic scale, are sufficient to produce an apparent power law. This raises questions regarding the usefulness of Taylor’s law for understanding ecological …

Nebline, January 2014

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: 4-H Youth Serve Their Community By Volunteering

Food & Health

Family Living

Farm & Acreage

Home & Family Living

Horticulture

Pests & Wildlife

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

Family and Community Education (FCE) Clubs

and other extension news and events

Evaluation Of Constitutive Iron Reductase (Atfro2) Expression On Mineral Accumulation And Distribution In Soybean (Glycine Max. L), Marta W. Vasconcelos, Thomas E. Clemente, Michael A. Grusak

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Iron is an important micronutrient in human and plant nutrition. Adequate iron nutrition during crop production is central for assuring appropriate iron concentrations in the harvestable organs, for human food or animal feed. The whole-plant movement of iron involves several processes, including the reduction of ferric to ferrous iron at several locations throughout the plant, prior to transmembrane trafficking of ferrous iron. In this study, soybean plants that constitutively expressed the AtFRO2 iron reductase gene were analyzed for leaf iron reductase activity, as well as the effect of this transgene's expression on root, leaf, pod wall, and seed mineral concentrations. …

Identification Of Rna Silencing Components In Soybean And Sorghum, Xiang Liu, Tao Lu, Yongchao Dou, Bin Yu, Chi Zhang

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Background: RNA silencing is a process triggered by 21–24 small RNAs to repress gene expression. Many organisms including plants use RNA silencing to regulate development and physiology, and to maintain genome stability. Plants possess two classes of small RNAs: microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). The frameworks of miRNA and siRNA pathways have been established in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis).

Results: Here we report the identification of putative genes that are required for the generation and function of miRNAs and siRNAs in soybean and sorghum, based on knowledge obtained from Arabidopsis. The gene families, including …

Methylation Protects Micrornas From An Ago1- Associated Activity That Uridylates 5′ Rna Fragments Generated By Ago1 Cleavage, Guodong Ren, Meng Xie, Shuxin Zhang, Carissa Vinovskis, Xuemei Chen, Bin Yu

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

In plants, methylation catalyzed by HEN1 (small RNA methyl transferase) prevents microRNAs (miRNAs) from degradation triggered by uridylation. Howmethylation antagonizes uridylation of miRNAs in vivo is not well understood. In addition, 5′ RNA fragments (5′ fragments) produced by miRNA-mediated RNA cleavage can be uridylated in plants and animals. However, the biological significance of this modification is unknown, and enzymes uridylating 5′ fragments remain to be identified. Here, we report that in Arabidopsis, HEN1 suppressor 1 (HESO1, a miRNA nucleotidyl transferase) uridylates 5′ fragments to trigger their degradation.We also show that Argonaute 1 (AGO1), the effector protein of miRNAs, interacts …