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Growing South Dakota (Spring 2013), College Of Agriculture &. Biological Sciences

Growing South Dakota (Publication of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences)

[Page] 2 Food Focus: SDSU Leading National Effort To Promote Healthy Food Choices
[Page] 3 In Stores Now: “Pick It, Try It, Like It” Fruit & Vegetable Campaign
[Page] 4 Coaching Food Entrepreneurs: SDSU Extension Outreach Includes Entrepreneur Workshops
[Page] 5 From South Dakota to South America: College of Agriculture & Biological Science Students Experience Argentine Agriculture
[Page] 6 Spring College News
[Page] 8 Showcasing Ag’s Evolution: SDSU’s Ag Museum Is More Than Just Tractors [Page] 10 Mastering Marketing: Students Host Bull Sale Through Unique Class [Page] 11 Following Pheasants: SDSU Researchers Analyze Nesting Needs
[Page] 12 Faculty Highlights
[Page] …

Sugar Promotes Vegetative Phase Change In Arabidopsis Thaliana By Repressing The Expression Of Mir156a And Mir156c, Li Yang, Mingli Xu, Yeonjong Koo, Jia He, R. Scott Poethig

Faculty Publications

Nutrients shape the growth, maturation, and aging of plants and animals. In plants, the juvenile to adult transition (vegetative phase change) is initiated by a decrease in miR156. In Arabidopsis, we found that exogenous sugar decreased the abundance of miR156, whereas reduced photosynthesis increased the level of this miRNA. This effect was correlated with a change in the timing of vegetative phase change, and was primarily attributable to a change in the expression of two genes, MIR156A and MIR156C, which were found to play dominant roles in this transition. The glucose-induced repression of miR156 was dependent on the …

Effects Of Increased Nitrogen Deposition On The Dominance Of Hedera Helix In The Pacific Northwest, Bianca Christine Dolan

Dissertations and Theses

Increased nitrogen deposition has been shown to promote the dominance of invasive species, and nitrogen deposition rates have steadily increased in most of the Western United States in recent years due to population increases. The purpose of this study was to determine if increased rates of nitrogen deposition are contributing to the success of Hedera helix in the Pacific Northwest. Plots were established in Lesser Park in Portland, Oregon and received monthly treatments of ammonium nitrate for one year. Growth, measured as change in percent cover, was compared between treated and untreated plots for both H. helix and native species. …

Three-Dimensional Structure Of Victorivirus Hvv190s Suggests Coat Proteins In Most Totiviruses Share A Conserved Core, Sarah E. Dunn, Hua Li, Giovanni Cardone, Max L. Nibert, Said A. Ghabrial, Timothy S. Baker

Plant Pathology Faculty Publications

Double-stranded (ds)RNA fungal viruses are currently assigned to six different families. Those from the family Totiviridae are characterized by nonsegmented genomes and single-layer capsids, 300-450 Å in diameter. Helminthosporium victoriae virus 190S (HvV190S), prototype of recently recognized genus Victorivirus, infects the filamentous fungus Helminthosporium victoriae (telomorph: Cochliobolus victoriae), which is the causal agent of Victoria blight of oats. The HvV190S genome is 5179 bp long and encompasses two large, slightly overlapping open reading frames that encode the coat protein (CP, 772 aa) and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp, 835 aa). To our present knowledge, victoriviruses uniquely express their RdRps via …

Persons As Plants: Ecopsychology And The Return To The Dream Of Nature, Monica Gagliano

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Abstract. In this article, I examine human-plant perceptions and interactions in terms of developing a new perspective on the perception and the actions of people towards plants. By combining my scientific understanding of the biological world and my own experiences working with plant shamans, storytellers and mystics from around the world, I engage with the idea that the hierarchical structure by which Western science defines the variety of life forms as ‘primitive’ or ‘more evolved’ is at the root of the current environmental crisis and I argue that the solution to it rests in a change of this very perspective.

Linking Animal Behavior To Useful Natural Repellents, Sandra Avant

Agricultural Research Magazine

A little monkey business is revealing a few clues about natural remedies that animals use to protect themselves against biting insects and arthropods.

Certain species of animals, such as monkeys and birds, anoint themselves with citrus, other plants, and creatures like millipedes. To find out more about this behavior and to determine if any chemicals in the anointing substances effectively deter ticks and mosquitoes, scientists are examining responses to natural compounds.

Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service Henry A. Wallace Beltsville [Maryland] Agricultural Research Center (BARC) and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) at the National Zoological Park in Front …

An Atlas For Guatemala, A Tool For Conserving World Crops, Karen Williams, Dennis O’Brien

Agricultural Research Magazine

With exotic names like ayote de caballo (a wild squash), friajolito (a wild bean), and teocinte (a wild relative of corn), Guatemala’s native plants seem very different from the agricultural bounty produced by farmers in the United States and other countries. But many of these native plants carry genes that may be vital to global food security. A new tool, developed by a team that includes Agricultural Research Service scientists, will make it easier to find and preserve these important plants. The tool is an interactive atlas designed to provide Guatemalan scientists and land managers with information on where these …

Wasted Food: What We Are Doing To Prevent Costly Losses, Robert L. Fireovid

Agricultural Research Magazine

Like many other public and private organizations, the Agricultural Research Service is very concerned about how much food goes to waste between farm and fork—both nationally and internationally.

By reducing losses in our food systems, U.S. growers, processors, and others can enhance America’s ability to feed itself and the world. By the same token, slashing waste may provide new opportunities to reduce costs along the entire supply chain and make better use of increasingly limited natural resources.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) estimated— in 2008—that the amount of food lost annually at just the retail and …

Measuring And Managing Impacts Of Manure Spills, Ann Perry

Agricultural Research Magazine

Manure spills happen for a range of reasons—a manure spreader rolls over, a hose breaks, a storage pond overflows after a relentless downpour. Whatever the cause, these events are such a threat to the environment that states have emergency teams to deal with the hazard.

Typically, the responders build dams to contain the spill and then pump out the contaminated water. Although cleanup efforts start as quickly as possible, a fish kill in a nearby stream is often the first evidence that a spill has taken place.

Another problem is that sediments in the contaminated water channel can capture phosphorus …

March 2013 Locations Featured In This Magazine Issue

Agricultural Research Magazine

The Agricultural Research Service has about 100 labs all over the country.

Locations Featured in This Magazine Issue

Davis, California 3 research units ■ 117 employees Corvallis, Oregon 3 research units ■ 127 employees

Vegetable and Forage Crops Research Unit, Prosser, Washington 1 research unit ■ 35 employees

Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory, Kimberly, Idaho 1 research unit ■ 34 employees

U.S. Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center, Maricopa, Arizona 3 research units ■ 80 employees

Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney, Montana 2 research units ■ 59 employees

Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Houston, Texas 1 research unit ■ 8 employees …

Trickery And Other Methods Explored To Vanquish Potato Cyst Nematodes, Roy Navarre, Jan Suszkiw

Agricultural Research Magazine

The pale cyst nematode, Globodera pallida, is one bad roundworm.

Unchecked, it invades the roots of potato and other host crops to feed, obstructing the free flow of nutrients and causing stunted growth, wilted leaves, and other symptoms that can eventually kill the plant. Severe infestations in potato fields can cause yield losses of up to 80 percent.

To make matters worse, female G. pallida nematodes form hard, round cysts that safeguard their eggs from predators and parasites, inhospitable conditions, or a scarcity of food. As many as 30 years may pass before the eggs hatch (cued by a …

How Does A Mom's Nutrition Affect Her Children's Health?, Robert A. Waterland, Marcia Wood

Agricultural Research Magazine

In some rural villages of the tiny West African nation of The Gambia, food is generally less available during August and September—the peak of the rainy season—than during a typically dry March through May. Now, a study led by molecular geneticist Robert A. Waterland of the USDA-ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas, has shown that functioning of certain genes in kids conceived during the rainy season differs from that in children conceived during the dry season.

The difference may be explained by a relatively new science referred to as “epigenetics.” The variation appears to be permanent, and in …

A Desert Shrub’S Crystallized Protein Sheds Light On Photosynthesis, Michael Salvucci, Dennis O’Brien

Agricultural Research Magazine

Plants use an enzyme known as “rubisco” to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and, with energy from the sun and nutrients from the soil, build up the shoots, leaves, and stems that make up the plant itself. Scientists have known that for years. They also have known that temperatures are important. When it gets too hot, a rubisco helper protein called “rubisco activase” shuts down, photosynthesis stops, and the plant stops growing. Heat literally unravels the activase protein, and when it does, the result is a less bountiful harvest. Different plants shut down photosynthesis at different temperatures, and the …

Agricultural Research Magazine, March 2013

Agricultural Research Magazine

Table of Contents

4 Weight Loss, Cortisol, and Your Brain: Scientists Explore Connections

6 How Does Mom’s Nutrition Affect Her Children’s Health? Epigenetics May Provide New Insights

8 Enhancing Yogurt With Healthful Fiber From Oats

9 An Atlas for Guatemala, a Tool for Conserving World Crops

10 Linking Animal Behavior to Useful Natural Repellents

12 Cultural Practices To Maintain Soil Quality and Address Climate Change

15 A Desert Shrub’s Crystallized Protein Sheds Light on Photosynthesis

16 Measuring and Managing Impacts of Manure Spills

18 Trickery and Other Methods Explored To Vanquish Potato Cyst Nematodes

20 Measuring the Potential of Switchgrass …

Cultural Practices To Maintain Soil Quality And Address Climate Change, Upendra Sainju, Dennis O’Brien

Agricultural Research Magazine

For decades, farmers in Montana and the Dakotas have produced impressive yields of barley and wheat. But that bounty has come at a cost. Tilling the soil in the region’s crop-fallow production systems has robbed the soil of nutrients and organic matter and reduced crop yields. In fact, the region’s soils have lost up to 50 percent of their organic matter in the last 50 to 100 years, and scientists say that current practices are unsustainable.

Agriculture also contributes about 25 percent of the human-made carbon dioxide and 70 percent of the human-made nitrous oxide being released into the atmosphere. …

Measuring The Potential Of Switchgrass Pellets, Paul Adler, Ann Perry

Agricultural Research Magazine

President Barack Obama wants U.S. scientists to pursue an “all-of-the-above” strategy in developing new sources of domestic energy. Agricultural Research Service agronomist Paul Adler is providing complete cost-benefit breakdowns for using switch-grass pellets instead of fuel oil to heat homes and businesses in the Northeast.

“There have been a lot of studies on bioenergy potential,” says Adler, who works at the ARS Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit in University Park, Pennsylvania. “Most of them are focusing on transportation, but we still need a viable, commercial, bio-based fuel substitute for petroleum. In the meantime, our studies suggest that we …

Weight Loss, Cortisol, And Your Brain Scientists Explore Connections, Nancy L. Keim, Kevin D. Laugero, Marcia Wood

Agricultural Research Magazine

Americans everywhere are struggling to lose weight—and to keep from putting those lost pounds right back on. For many, it’s discouraging to have their best efforts fail while those of other dieters succeed.

Researchers at the Agricultural Research Service’s Western Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis, California, are conducting studies that may provide new insights into the underlying causes of this disparity in dieting success.

Given America’s obesity epidemic, such research is timely and relevant. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 35 percent of U.S. adults and 18 percent of kids and adolescents age 6 through …

Enhancing Yogurt With Healthful Fiber From Oats, Mukti Singh, Sanghoon Kim, Marcia Wood

Agricultural Research Magazine

Adding about one-quarter teaspoon of a fiber-rich component of oats boosts the nutritional value of low-fat yogurt without noticeably affecting the taste or texture of this increasingly popular dairy food.

Oat fiber is of interest to foodmakers and nutritionists alike. Studies with volunteers have shown that it can lower serum cholesterol, which may help improve heart health.

Agricultural Research Service food technologist Mukti Singh, chemist Sanghoon Kim, and their colleagues experimented with adding fiber-containing oat beta-glucan to what’s known in the dairy industry as “low-fat yogurt mix.” It is made up of low-fat milk and a selection of common, safe-to-eat …

Pseudomonas Hopu1 Modulates Plant Immune Receptor Levels By Blocking The Interaction Of Their Mrnas With Grp7, Valerie Nicaise, Anna Joe, Byeong-Ryool Jeong, Christin Korneli, Freddy Boutrot, Isa Westedt, Dorothee Staiger, James R. Alfano, Cyril Zipfel

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Pathogens target important components of host immunity to cause disease. The Pseudomonas syringae type III-secreted effector HopU1 is a mono-ADP-ribosyltransferase required for full virulence on Arabidopsis thaliana. HopU1 targets several RNA-binding proteins including GRP7, whose role in immunity is still unclear. Here, we show that GRP7 associates with translational components, as well as with the pattern recognition receptors FLS2 and EFR. Moreover, GRP7 binds specifically FLS2 and EFR transcripts in vivo through its RNA recognition motif. HopU1 does not affect the protein–protein associations between GRP7, FLS2 and translational components. Instead, HopU1 blocks the interaction between GRP7 and FLS2 and …

Small Interfering Rna–Mediated Translation Repression Alters Ribosome Sensitivity To Inhibition By Cycloheximide In Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Xinrong Ma, Eun-Jeong Kim, Insun Kook, Fangrui Ma, Adam Voshall, Etsuko N. Moriyama, Heriberto D. Cerutti

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Small RNAs (sRNAs; approximately 20 to 30 nucleotides in length) play important roles in gene regulation as well as in defense responses against transposons and viruses in eukaryotes. Their biogenesis and modes of action have attracted great attention in recent years. However, many aspects of sRNA function, such as the mechanism(s) of translation repression at postinitiation steps, remain poorly characterized. In the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, sRNAs derived from genomeintegrated inverted repeat transgenes, perfectly complementary to the 39 untranslated region of a target transcript, can inhibit protein synthesis without or with only minimal mRNA destabilization. Here, we report …

Forage News [2013-03], Department Of Plant And Soil Sciences, University Of Kentucky

Forage News

• Kentucky Grazing School
• 33rd Kentucky Alfalfa Conference
• Kentucky Alfalfa Awards
• Kentucky Alfalfa Hay Awards
• Heart of America Grazing Conference
• Can Pregnant Mares Graze Pastures Containing Tall Fescue: Practice Assessment Methods
• Intake and Digestibility by Beef Steers for Switchgrass Hay Harvested at Three Different Maturities
• Post-Graze Recovery of Blood Circulation in Steers Exhibiting Fescue Toxicosis as Influenced by Seed Head Suppression
• Performance for Steers Grazing NWSG in Tennessee
• Managing Roundup Ready Alfalfa: Weed Control
• Forage Yield and Quality Differences Among Cool-Season Grasses
• January 1 Cattle Inventory Down 2 Percent

Nebline, March 2013

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Dryland Farming in a Drought

Farm Views

Urban Agriculture

Food & Fitness

Home & Family Living

Horticulture

Environmental Focus

4-H & Youth

Community Focus

Extension Calendar

Nutrition Education Program

Family and Community Education (FCE) Clubs

and other extension news and events

First Bacterial Endosymbionts Found In The Phylum Ascomycota, Eileen Elizabeth Fitzpatrick

Dissertations and Theses

Organisms belonging to the Kingdom Fungi are known to occupy a wide variety of ecological niches and are found globally in virtually all environments. Two members of the smallest of the fungal phylum, the Zygomycota, have also been found to harbor intercellular bacteria initially described as being from or closely related to organisms from the Genus Burkholderia. In this study two microaerophilic members of the species Verticilium from the phyla Ascomycota were characterized. Both appear to carry two bacterial endosymbionts. This is the first evidence of bacterial endosymbionts found within a member of the Ascomycota. Through the use of fluorescent …

Plant-Symbiotic Fungi As Chemical Engineers: Multi-Genome Analysis Of The Clavicipitaceae Reveals Dynamics Of Alkaloid Loci, Christopher L. Schardl, Carolyn A. Young, Uljana Hesse, Stefan G. Amyotte, Kalina Andreeva, Patrick J. Calie, Damien J. Fleetwood, David C. Haws, Neil Moore, Birgitt Oeser, Daniel G. Panaccione, Kathryn K. Schweri, Christine R. Voisey, Mark L. Farman, Jerzy W. Jaromczyk, Bruce A. Roe, Donal M. O'Sullivan, Barry Scott, Paul Tudzynski, Zhiqiang An, Elissaveta G. Arnaoudova, Charles T. Bullock, Nikki D. Charlton, Li Chen, Murray Cox, Randy D. Dinkins, Simona Florea, Anthony E. Glenn, Anna Gordon, Ulrich Güldener, Daniel R. Harris, Walter Hollin, Jolanta Jaromczyk, Richard D. Johnson, Anar K. Khan, Eckhard Leistner, Adrian Leuchtmann, Chunjie Li, Jinge Liu, Jinze Liu, Miao Liu, Wade Mace, Caroline Machado, Padmaja Nagabhyru, Juan Pan, Jan Schmid, Koya Sugawara, Ulrike Steiner, Johanna E. Takach, Eiji Tanaka, Jennifer S. Webb, Ella V. Wilson, Jennifer L. Wiseman, Ruriko Yoshida, Zheng Zeng

Plant Pathology Faculty Publications

The fungal family Clavicipitaceae includes plant symbionts and parasites that produce several psychoactive and bioprotective alkaloids. The family includes grass symbionts in the epichloae clade (Epichloë and Neotyphodium species), which are extraordinarily diverse both in their host interactions and in their alkaloid profiles. Epichloae produce alkaloids of four distinct classes, all of which deter insects, and some-including the infamous ergot alkaloids-have potent effects on mammals. The exceptional chemotypic diversity of the epichloae may relate to their broad range of host interactions, whereby some are pathogenic and contagious, others are mutualistic and vertically transmitted (seed-borne), and still others vary in pathogenic …

Making And Marketing Hay For The Horse Industry, Todd Clark

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

No abstract provided.

Key To Success When Harvesting Alfalfa As Baleage, S. Ray Smith

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Alfalfa is an excellent forage for high-producing cows and universally considered one of the highest-quality forages. Cows efficiently use the high levels of protein, calcium and high-quality fiber in alfalfa for producing milk and meat. The palatability of alfalfa is high, especially when the leaves are maintained during harvest. Typically, cows will eat more alfalfa than grass because the fiber content is usually lower in alfalfa. Harvesting alfalfa as baleage vs. hay greatly improves the chances maintaining high quality because there is less leaf loss and less loss of soluble carbohydrates. The most important factor is harvesting high quality alfalfa …

Alfalfa For Grazing, Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

High grain prices, increasing nitrogen prices, droughts, need for higher quality pasture plants and improved alfalfa varieties have all contributed to a greater interest in and opportunity for alfalfa as a grazing crop.

Sump Diving “River Caves”, Mark Wenner

Mammoth Cave Research Symposia

Note: “Sump” is a term used in caving to describe a passage in a cave that is submerged under water.

Sump diving, and “lure of the sump” originated in the UK in the early 1920’s, as did the use of “rebreather’s, and the “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus”, S.C.U.B.A. The techniques developed by cavers, and “sump divers” in Europe, and then used in British cave systems like Wookey Hole set a cave diving precedence; the development of a unique style, and system for diving caves. These diving practices and techniques influenced the exploration of resurgences, springs, siphons, and river caves throughout …

Multiple Storm Event Impacts On Epikarst Storage And Transport Of Organic Soil Amendments In South-Central Kentucky, Jason Polk, Sean Vanderhoff, Chris Groves, Benjamin Miller, Carl Bolster

Mammoth Cave Research Symposia

The groundwater in agricultural karst areas, such as Kentucky’s Pennyroyal Plateau, is susceptible to contamination from organic soil amendments and pesticides. During 2011, water samples and geochemical data were collected every four hours before, during, and between storm events from a waterfall in Crumps Cave from January to September to track the transport and residence time of epikarst water and organic soil amendments during variable fl ow conditions. Geochemical data consisting of pH, specific conductivity, temperature, and discharge were collected continuously at 10-minute intervals, along with rainfall amounts. The changes in geochemistry indicate simultaneous storage and transport of meteoric water …

Sable Melodists, Janet Bass Smith

Mammoth Cave Research Symposia

Inside Mammoth Cave on Broadway Avenue, between the last TB hut and Star Chamber, the name Sable Melodists is inscribed on the wall, using what appears to be charcoal. Next to Sable Melodists are the names of two men: R. H. Condon, and J. M. Foans. (See Figures 1, 2, and 3) When the name Sable Melodists was researched several years ago, the only information available was that it was a minstrel group. A recent search revealed more information, and provoked a more complete investigation of minstrel groups and minstrel shows, and their evolution.