Horticulture Commons^™

Summaries Of Arkansas Cotton Research 2015, Derrick M. Oosterhuis

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

No abstract provided.

Arkansas Wheat Cultivar Performance Tests 2015-2016, R. E. Mason, R. G. Miller, D. E. Moon, J. P. Kelley

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

Wheat cultivar performance tests are conducted each year in Arkansas by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences. The tests provide information to companies developing cultivars and/or marketing seed within the state and aid the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service in formulating cultivar recommendations for small-grain producers.

B. R. Wells Arkansas Rice Research Studies 2015, R. J. Norman, K.A. K. Moldenhauer

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

No abstract provided.

Cross Species Selection Scans Identify Components Of C4 Photosynthesis In The Grasses, Pu Huang, Anthony J. Studer, James C. Schnable, Elizabeth A. Kellogg, Thomas P. Brutnell

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

C₄ photosynthesis is perhaps one of the best examples of convergent adaptive evolution with over 25 independent origins in the grasses (Poaceae) alone. The availability of high quality grass genome sequences presents new opportunities to explore the mechanisms underlying this complex trait using evolutionary biology-based approaches. In this study, we performed genome-wide cross-species selection scans in C₄ lineages to facilitate discovery of C₄ genes. The study was enabled by the well conserved collinearity of grass genomes and the recently sequenced genome of a C₃ panicoid grass, Dichanthelium oligosanthes. This method, in contrast to previous studies, …

Herbicide Resistantsorghum Mutants, Ismail M. Dweikat

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

This disclosure provides for four different sorghum mutants that exhibit resistance to ALS-inhibiting herbicides. This dis closure also provides for methods of using such Sorghum mutants that exhibit resistance to ALS-inhibiting herbicides in breeding methods to make Sorghum hybrids, varieties, or lines. The Sorghum hybrids, varieties, and lines provided in this disclosure can be used in methods of controlling weeds.

Long-Term Sandhills Prairie Responses To Precipitation, Temperature, And Cattle Stocking Rate, John A. Guretzky, Cheryl Dunn, Heidi L. Hillhouse

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Understanding of Sandhills prairie, the most expansive sand dune region stabilized by perennial grasses in the Western Hemisphere, is limited by lack of long-term vegetation data. We used a 26-year dataset to evaluate Sandhills prairie responses to yearto- year variation in precipitation, temperature, and cattle stocking rate. Basal cover, a measurement that is constant seasonally and used to detect long-term changes in bunchgrass vegetation, was measured in 38–40 permanent plots positioned along four transects spanning 769 ha from 1979 to 2007. Across this period, total basal cover averaged 2.4 % and was dominated by warm-season grasses (81.1 %). Schizachyrium scoparium …

Arkansas Soybean Research Studies 2014, Jeremy Ross

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

No abstract provided.

Spinach (Spinacia Oleracea L.) Seed Germination And Whole Plant Growth Response To Heat Stress And Association Mapping Of Bolting, Tallness And Erectness For Use In Spinach Breeding, Jessica Chitwood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effect of temperature on spinach seed germination was evaluated using a total of nine spinach genotypes and seven temperatures: 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 32, and 35 oC in growth chambers. Genetic variation was observed. ‘Donkey’, ‘Marabu’, and ‘Raccoon’ showed higher seed germination percentage with over 70% at 30 and 32 oC, indicating the three spinach genotypes had heat-tolerance for germination. However, all spinach genotypes except ‘Ozarka II’ had lower germination percentages of less than 30% while ‘Ozarka II’ had 63% at 35 oC, indicating ‘Ozarka II’ may be a source of heat-tolerance for seed germination.

Seed germination may …

Evaluating Pedestrial Compaction Variation & Soil Organic C Content, Gunner B. Decker

Scholars Week

Over time, playing fields are monitored by overall appearance. However, pedestrian compaction is not evenly distributed throughout the entire surface.

Information Thermodynamics Of Cytosine Dna Methylation, Robersy Sanchez Rodriguez, Sally Ann Mackenzie

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Cytosine DNA methylation (CDM) is a stable epigenetic modification to the genome and a widespread regulatory process in living organisms that involves multicomponent molecular machines. Genome-wide cytosine methylation patterning participates in the epigenetic reprogramming of a cell, suggesting that the biological information contained within methylation positions may be amenable to decoding. Adaptation to a new cellular or organismal environment also implies the potential for genome-wide redistribution of CDM changes that will ensure the stability of DNA molecules. This raises the question of whether or not we would be able to sort out the regulatory methylation signals from the CDM background …

Ws-2 Introgression In A Proportion Of Arabidopsis Thaliana Col-0 Stock Seed Produces Specific Phenotypes And Highlights The Importance Of Routine Genetic Verification, Mon-Ray Shao, Vikas Shedge, Hardik Kundariya, Fredric R. Lehle, Sally Ann Mackenzie

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Arabidopsis thaliana is an important model organism with a robust network of resources that has been of enormous value to the plant science research community. The use of isogenic material as a reference point or control is critical for many types of experiments in plant molecular biology and genetics. Recently, we noticed that some seed from a common source of the widely used Columbia-0 (Col-0) strain gave rise to plants showing features atypical for this strain. Whole-genome DNA-sequencing and allelespecific PCR assays confirmed that the abnormal individuals contain multiple introgressions from the ecotype Wassilewskija-2 (Ws-2), as described below. This …

Student-Conducted Farmer Video Interviews, Jenn K. Simons, Justin Van Wart, Charles Francis, Kristyn Harms

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

High school agricultural education teachers have expressed concern about the lack of easily accessible educational materials dealing with contemporary topics in sustainable agriculture. There are numerous textbooks and monographs available for farmers and students at the college level, including the highly practical resources available from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) book series on soil fertility (Magdoff and van Es, 2010), cover crops (Bowman et al., 2007) and building a farm business (DiGiacomo et al., 2003), among others. Although these are full of color photos and easily accessible graphs and tables, they are still in the print media category. …

Arkansas Cotton Variety Test 2015, Fred Bourland, A. Beach, C. Kennedy, L. Martin, A. Rouse, B. Robertson

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

The primary goal of the Arkansas Cotton Variety Test is to provide unbiased data regarding the agronomic performance of cotton varieties and advanced breeding lines in the major cotton-growing areas of Arkansas. This information helps seed companies establish marketing strategies and assists producers in choosing varieties to plant. These annual evaluations will then facilitate the inclusion of new, improved genetic material in Arkansas cotton production.

Corn Era Hybrid Response To Nitrogen Fertilization, Krishna P. Woli, Matthew J. Boyer, Roger Wesley Elmore, John E. Sawyer, Lori J. Abendroth, Daniel W. Barker

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Corn (Zea mays L.) N use is of continued interest due to agronomic performance and environmental issues. This 2-yr study evaluated era hybrid response to fertilizer nitrogen (FN) rate in a factorial arrangement of one popular hybrid per five decades (1960–2000 eras) and five N rates (0–224 kg N ha^–1). An additional hybrid per era was grown at 168 kg N ha^–1. Hybrid productivity and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) increased across the eras, but not between the 1980 and 1990 eras. Grain yield (GY) increased 65% and total plant biomass 43%, however, total plant nitrogen …

Mapping Qtls And Association Of Differentially Expressed Gene Transcripts For Multiple Agronomic Traits Under Different Nitrogen Levels In Sorghum, Malleswari Gelli, Sharon E. Mitchell, Kan Liu, Thomas E. Clemente, Donald P. Weeks, Chi Zhang, David R. Holding, Ismail M. Dweikat

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Background: Sorghum is an important C₄ crop which relies on applied Nitrogen fertilizers (N) for optimal yields, of which substantial amounts are lost into the atmosphere. Understanding the genetic variation of sorghum in response to limited nitrogen supply is important for elucidating the underlying genetic mechanisms of nitrogen utilization.

Results: A bi-parental mapping population consisting of 131 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was used to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) influencing different agronomic traits evaluated under normal N (100 kg.ha⁻¹ fertilizer) and low N (0 kg.ha⁻¹ fertilizer) conditions. A linkage map spanning 1614 cM was developed …

Proteomic Profiling Of Maize Opaque Endosperm Mutants Reveals Selective Accumulation Of Lysine-Enriched Proteins, Kyla J. Morton, Shangang Jia, Chi Zhang, David R. Holding

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Reduced prolamin (zein) accumulation and defective endoplasmic reticulum (ER) body formation occurs in maize opaque endosperm mutants opaque2 (o2), floury2 (fl2), defective endosperm*B30 (DeB30), and Mucronate (Mc), whereas other opaque mutants such as opaque1 (o1) and floury1 (fl1) are normal in these regards. This suggests that other factors contribute to kernel texture. A liquid chromatography approach coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) proteomics was used to compare non-zein proteins of nearly isogenic opaque endosperm mutants. In total, 2762 proteins were identified that were enriched for biological processes such …

Simulating Long-Term Impacts Of Cover Crops And Climate Change On Crop Production And Environmental Outcomes In The Midwestern United States, Andrea D. Basche, Sotririos V. Archontoulis, Thomas C. Kaspar, Dan B. Jaynes, Timothy B. Parkin, Fernando E. Miguez

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

It is critical to evaluate conservation practices that protect soil and water resources from climate change in the Midwestern United States, a region that produces one-quarter of the world’s soybeans and one-third of the world’s maize. An over-winter cover crop in a maize–soybean rotation offers multiple potential benefits that can reduce the impacts of higher temperatures and more variable rainfall; some of the anticipated changes for the Midwest. In this experiment we used the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) to understand how winter rye cover crops impact crop production and environmental outcomes, given future climate change. We first tested APSIM …

Decipher The Molecular Response Of Plant Single Cell Types To Environmental Stresses, Mehrnoush Nourbakhsh-Rey, Marc Libault

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The analysis of the molecular response of entire plants or organs to environmental stresses suffers from the cellular complexity of the samples used. Specifically, this cellular complexity masks cell-specific responses to environmental stresses and logically leads to the dilution of the molecular changes occurring in each cell type composing the tissue/organ/plant in response to the stress.Therefore, to generate a more accurate picture of these responses, scientists are focusing on plant single cell type approaches. Several cell types are now considered as models such as the pollen, the trichomes, the cotton fiber, various root cell types including the root hair cell, …

Organic Struggle: The Movement For Sustainable Agriculture In The United States [Book Review], Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Organic Struggle chronicles the challenges encountered by innovators in a growing segment of the U.S. food production and marketing system. Practiced for millennia by farmers before the introduction of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and first developed more formally in Europe, organic farming practices began to gain prominence in the United States only in the 1950s. Far more than a system for producing food, this strategy has become a focus for those supporting healthy and pesticide-free products, for some who embrace the organic system as a food movement, and by many who disagree with the current domination of the country’s food …

Draft Genome Sequence Of Erwinia Tracheiphila, An Economically Important Bacterial Pathogen Of Cucurbits, Lori R. Shapiro, Erin D. Scully, Dana Roberts, Timothy J. Straub, Scott M. Geib, Jihye Park, Andrew G. Stephenson, Erika Salaau Rojas, Quin Liu, Gwyn Beattie, Mark Gleason, Consuelo M. De Moraes, Mark C. Mescher, Shelby G. Fleischer, Roberto Kolter, Naomi Pierce, Olga Zhaxybayeva

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Erwinia tracheiphila is one of the most economically important pathogens of cucumbers, melons, squashes, pumpkins, and gourds in the northeastern and midwestern United States, yet its molecular pathology remains uninvestigated. Here, we report the first draft genome sequence of an E. tracheiphila strain isolated from an infected wild gourd (Cucurbita pepo subsp. texana) plant. The genome assembly consists of 7 contigs and includes a putative plasmid and at least 20 phage and prophage elements.

Muts Homolog1 Silencing Mediates Orf220 Substoichiometric Shifting And Causes Male Sterility In Brassica Juncea, Na Zhao, Xinyue Xu, Yashitola Wamboldt, Sally Ann Mackenzie, Xiaodong Yang, Zhongyuan Hu, Jinghua Yang, Mingfang Zhang

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) has consistently been associated with the expression of mitochondrial open reading frames (ORFs) that arise from genomic rearrangements. Spontaneous fertility reversion in CMS has been observed in several cases, but a clear understanding of fertility reversion controlled by nuclear genetic influences has been lacking. Here, we identified spontaneous fertile revertant lines for Brassica juncea CMS cytoplasm in which the mitochondrial genome has undergone substoichiometric shifting (SSS) to suppress ORF220 copy number. We placed ORF220, with or without a mitochondrial targeting presequence, under the control of the CaMV35S and AP3 promoters in Arabidopsis to confirm that ORF220 …

Contents, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 17 2016, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Bumpers College Students In Action, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Prospects Of Genomic Prediction In The Usda Soybean Germplasm Collection: Historical Data Creates Robust Models For Enhancing Selection Of Accessions, Diego Jarquin, James Specht, Aaron Lorenz

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The identification and mobilization of useful genetic variation from germplasm banks for use in breeding programs is critical for future genetic gain and protection against crop pests. Plummeting costs of next-generation sequencing and genotyping is revolutionizing the way in which researchers and breeders interface with plant germplasm collections. An example of this is the high density genotyping of the entire USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection. We assessed the usefulness of 50K SNP data collected on 18,480 domesticated soybean (G. max) accessions and vast historical phenotypic data for developing genomic prediction models for protein, oil, and yield. Resulting genomic prediction models explained …

Corn (Zea Mays L.) Seeding Rate Optimization In Iowa, Usa, Mark A. Licht, Andrew W. Lenssen, Roger W. Elmore

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Collecting soil, topography, and yield information has become more feasible and reliable with advancements in precision technologies. Combined with the accessibility of precision technologies and services to farmers, there has been increased interest and ability to make site-specific crop management decisions. The objective of this research was to develop procedures to optimize corn seeding rates and maximize yield using soil and topographic parameters. Experimental treatments included five seeding rates (61 750; 74 100; 86 450; 98 800; and 111 150 seeds ha^-1) in a randomized complete block design in three central Iowa fields from 2012 to 2014 (nine …

Construction Of High Resolution Genetic Linkage Maps To Improve The Soybean Genome Sequence Assembly Glyma1.01, Qijian Song, Jerry Jenkins, Gaofeng Jia, David L. Hyten, Vince Pantalone, Scott A. Jackson, Jeremy Schmutz, Perry B. Cregan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Background: A landmark in soybean research, Glyma1.01, the first whole genome sequence of variety Williams 82 (Glycine max L. Merr.) was completed in 2010 and is widely used. However, because the assembly was primarily built based on the linkage maps constructed with a limited number of markers and recombinant inbred lines (RILs), the assembled sequence, especially in some genomic regions with sparse numbers of anchoring markers, needs to be improved. Molecular markers are being used by researchers in the soybean community, however, with the updating of the Glyma1.01 build based on the high-resolution linkage maps resulting from this research, …

Genome-Wide Discriminatory Information Patterns Of Cytosine Dna Methylation, Robersy Sanchez, Sally A. Mackenzie

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Cytosine DNA methylation (CDM) is a highly abundant, heritable but reversible chemical modification to the genome. Herein, a machine learning approach was applied to analyze the accumulation of epigenetic marks in methylomes of 152 ecotypes and 85 silencing mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana. In an information-thermodynamics framework, two measurements were used: (1) the amount of information gained/lost with the CDM changes I_R and (2) the uncertainty of not observing a SNP LC_R. We hypothesize that epigenetic marks are chromosomal footprints accounting for different ontogenetic and phylogenetic histories of individual populations. A machine learning approach is proposed to …

Expression Of Apoplast-Targeted Plant Defensin Mtdef4.2 Confers Resistance To Leaf Rust Pathogen Puccinia Triticina But Does Not Affect Mycorrhizal Symbiosis In Transgenic Wheat, Jagdeep Kaur, John Fellers, Alok Adholeya, Siva L.S. Velivelli, Kaoutar El-Mounadi, Natalya Nersesian, Thomas Clemente, Dilip Shah

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Rust fungi of the order Pucciniales are destructive pathogens of wheat worldwide. Leaf rust caused by the obligate, biotrophic basidiomycete fungus Puccinia triticina (Pt) is an economically important disease capable of causing up to 50 % yield losses. Historically, resistant wheat cultivars have been used to control leaf rust, but genetic resistance is ephemeral and breaks down with the emergence of new virulent Pt races. There is a need to develop alternative measures for control of leaf rust in wheat. Development of transgenic wheat expressing an antifungal defensin offers a promising approach to complement the endogenous resistance genes …

Letter From The Dean, Lona Robertson

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.