Horticulture Commons^™

Evaluating Planting Green And Herbicides For Integrated Weed Management And Their Effect On Soil Properties In Corn And Soybean In Nebraska, Trey Stephens

Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research in Agronomy and Horticulture

Producers across the Midwest are finding new ways to implement cover crops into cropping systems and the practice of “Planting Green” is one of the newest uses of cover crops. When planting green, producers plant their row crops into actively growing cover crops and terminate the cover crop at time of planting or shortly after planting. This practice would allow for higher biomass accumulation of the cover crop and could aid in weed management of herbicide-resistant weeds. The objective of the first two studies was to evaluate planting green and its effect on soil-applied residual herbicides, weed management, dicamba/glyphosate-resistant soybean …

Genomic Selection For Yield And Seed Composition Stability In An Applied Soybean Breeding Program, Benjamin Harms

Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research in Agronomy and Horticulture

Stability traits are of primary importance in plant breeding to ensure consistency in phenotype across a range of environments. However, selection efficiency and accuracy for stability traits can be hindered due to the requirement of obtaining phenotype data across multiple years and environments for proper stability analysis. Genomic selection is a method that allows prediction of a phenotype prior to observation in the field using genome-wide marker data and phenotype data from a training population. To assess prediction of stability traits, two elite-yielding soybean populations developed three years apart in the same breeding program were used. The individuals in each …

Evaluating Form And Function Of Groundcovers And Their Environmental Impacts In Louisiana Landscapes, Thomas Maxwell Mckeown

LSU Master's Theses

Increasing environmental concerns are encouraging the adoption of sustainable landscapes that have environmental, social, and financial benefits. Ornamental groundcover systems are touted as sustainable landscape features due to the associated decreased demand of water, fertilizer, pesticide, and maintenance; however, limited research exists on soil property effects, planting density, weed density, or consumer preferences of groundcovers. This study was aimed to gain a more thorough understanding of ornamental groundcovers systems and their environmental impacts. The effects of groundcover growth habit (matting; bunching) and irrigation delivery (micro spray; overhead) on soil temperature, volumetric water content (VWC), and electric conductivity (EC) along with …

Ranunculus Cut Flower Production In Utah, Shannon Rauter, Melanie Stock

All Current Publications

Ranunculus (Ranunculus asiaticus) is grown as a cool-season annual for cut flower production in Utah. Tuberous roots can be planted as early as November in a high tunnel for blooms beginning in April. For field production, plant in November with insulation or as early as possible in spring for blooms beginning in May. Flower production ceases when temperatures reach approximately 80°F, usually by early July in northern Utah. In North Logan, UT, high tunnels produced an average of 3 to 7 marketable stems per plant, compared to 1 to 2 stems per plant in the field. Profit potential …

Arkansas Cotton Variety Test 2022, F. Bourland, A. Beach, B. Milano, B. Guest, C. Kennedy, L. Martin, 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. Adaptation of varieties is determined by evaluating the lines at five University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture research sites (Manila, Keiser, Judd Hill, Marianna, and Rohwer). The 2022 tests at Rohwer were adversely affected …

Anemone Cut Flower Production In Utah, Shannon Rauter, Melanie Stock

All Current Publications

Anemone (Anemone coronaria) is grown as a cool-season annual for cut flower production in Utah. Tubers can be planted as early as November in a high tunnel for blooms beginning in March. For field production, plant in fall with insulation or as early as possible in spring (i.e., the soil is workable, approximately early March) for blooms beginning in May. Flower production ceases when temperatures reach approximately 80°F, usually by early July in northern Utah. In North Logan, UT, high tunnels produced an average of 2 to 7 marketable stems per plant, compared to 1 to 4 stems …

A Plea For Scale, And Why It Matters For Invasive Species Management, Biodiversity And Conservation, Nicholas A. Mcmillan, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Craig A. Davis, Robert G. Hamilton, Landon. K. Neumann, Samantha M. Cady

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

1. Invasive species are suspected to be major contributors to biodiversity declines worldwide. Counterintuitively, however, invasive species effects are likely scale dependent and are hypothesized to be positively related to biodiversity at large spatial scales. Past studies investigating the effect of invasion on biodiversity have been mostly conducted at small scales (<100 m²) that cannot represent large dynamic landscapes by design. Therefore, replicated experimental evidence supporting a negative effect of invasive plants on biodiversity is lacking across many landscape types, including large grasslands.

2. We collected data across eight large (333–809 ha) grassland landscapes managed with pyric herbivory—that is the recoupling …

   ---

   Go to article

Soil Depth And Geographic Distance Modulate Bacterial Β-Diversity In Deep Soil Profiles Throughout The U.S. Corn Belt, Lucas Dantas Lopes, Stephanie L. Futrell, Emily E. Wright, Gerasimos J. Danalatos, Michael J. Castellano, Tony J. Vyn, Sotirios V. Archontoulis, Daniel P. Schachtman

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

Understanding how microbial communities are shaped across spatial dimensions is of fundamental importance in microbial ecology. However, most studies on soil biogeography have focused on the topsoil microbiome, while the factors driving the subsoil microbiome distribution are largely unknown. Here we used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to analyse the factors underlying the bacterial β-diversity along vertical (0–240 cm of soil depth) and horizontal spatial dimensions (~500,000 km²) in the U.S. Corn Belt. With these data we tested whether the horizontal or vertical spatial variation had stronger impacts on the taxonomic (Bray-Curtis) and phylogenetic (weighted Unifrac) β-diversity. Additionally, we …

Graph Convolutional Network Using Adaptive Neighborhood Laplacian Matrix For Hyperspectral Images With Application To Rice Seed Image Classification, Jairo Orozco, Vidya Manian, Estefania Alfaro, Harkamal Walia, Balpreet K. Dhatt

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

Graph convolutional neural network architectures combine feature extraction and convolutional layers for hyperspectral image classification. An adaptive neighborhood aggregation method based on statistical variance integrating the spatial information along with the spectral signature of the pixels is proposed for improving graph convolutional network classification of hyperspectral images. The spatial-spectral information is integrated into the adjacency matrix and processed by a single-layer graph convolutional network. The algorithm employs an adaptive neighborhood selection criteria conditioned by the class it belongs to. Compared to fixed window-based feature extraction, this method proves effective in capturing the spectral and spatial features with variable pixel neighborhood …

A Role For Heritable Transcriptomic Variation In Maize Adaptation To Temperate Environments, Guangchao Sun, Huihui Yu, Peng Wang, Martha Lopez‑Guerrero, Ravi V. Mural, Olivier N. Mizero, Marcin Grzybowski, Baoxing Song, Karin V. Van Dijk, Daniel P. Schachtman, Chi Zhang, James C. Schnable

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

Background: Transcription bridges genetic information and phenotypes. Here, we evaluated how changes in transcriptional regulation enable maize (Zea mays), a crop originally domesticated in the tropics, to adapt to temperate environments.

Result: We generated 572 unique RNA-seq datasets from the roots of 340 maize genotypes. Genes involved in core processes such as cell division, chromosome organization and cytoskeleton organization showed lower heritability of gene expression, while genes involved in anti-oxidation activity exhibited higher expression heritability. An expression genome-wide association study (eGWAS) identified 19,602 expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) associated with the expression of 11,444 genes. A …

Large And Stable Genome Edits At The Sorghum Alpha Kafirin Locus Result In Changes In Chromatin Accessibility And Globally Increased Expression Of Genes Encoding Lysine Enrichment, J. Preston Hurst, Abou Yobi, Aixia Li, Shirley Sato, Thomas E. Clemente, Ruthie Angelovici

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

Introduction: Sorghum is a resilient and widely cultivated grain crop used for feed and food. However, it’s grain is deficient in lysine, an essential amino acid. This is due to the primary seed storage proteins, the alpha-kafirins, lacking lysine. It has been observed that reductions in alpha-kafirin protein results in rebalancing of the seed proteome and a corresponding increase in non-kafirin proteins which leads to an increased lysine content. However, the mechanisms underlying proteome rebalancing are unclear. This study characterizes a previously developed gene edited sorghum line, with deletions at the alpha kafirin locus.

Methods: A single consensus …

Large And Stable Genome Edits At The Sorghum Alpha Kafirin Locus Result In Changes In Chromatin Accessibility And Globally Increased Expression Of Genes Encoding Lysine Enrichment, J. Preston Hurst, Abou Yobi, Aixia Li, Shirley Sato, Thomas E. Clemente, Ruthie Angelovici, David R. Holding

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

Introduction: Sorghum is a resilient and widely cultivated grain crop used for feed and food. However, it’s grain is deficient in lysine, an essential amino acid. This is due to the primary seed storage proteins, the alpha-kafirins, lacking lysine. It has been observed that reductions in alpha-kafirin protein results in rebalancing of the seed proteome and a corresponding increase in non-kafirin proteins which leads to an increased lysine content. However, the mechanisms underlying proteome rebalancing are unclear. This study characterizes a previously developed gene edited sorghum line, with deletions at the alpha kafirin locus.

Methods: A single consensus …

Assessing Functional Biodiversity For The Future Of Plants, Planet, And People, Ali Loker

Doctoral Documents from Doctor of Plant Health Program

Biodiversity plays a critical role in supporting life in global ecosystems and its links to ecosystem services and sustainability are recognized by scientific and non-scientific communities. Growing awareness of the importance of biodiversity is accelerated by discussions of its loss, and how to design interventions to conserve and mitigate a biodiversity crisis. Stakeholders are funding and implementing assessment strategies at various scales to help direct conservation efforts. There is also growing interest in measuring and communicating biodiversity outcomes.

Functional biodiversity characterizes the multiplicity of life forms into groups based on their diverse contributions to natural and agro-ecosystems. Assessing functional biodiversity …

Arkansas Corn And Grain Sorghum Performance Tests 2022, J. F. Carlin, R. B. Mulloy, R. D. Bond

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

Corn and grain sorghum performance tests are conducted each year in Arkansas by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The tests provide information to companies marketing seed within the state and aid the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service in formulating recommendations for producers. The 2022 corn performance tests contained 68 hybrids and were conducted at the Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center (NERREC) at Harrisburg, the Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center (NEREC) at Keiser, the Lon Mann Cotton Research Station (LMCRS) near Marianna, the Rohwer Research Station (RRS) near Rohwer, and the Rice Research and Extension Center (RREC) …

Soybean Seed Protein Concentration Is Limited By Nitrogen Supply In Tropical And Subtropical Environments In Brazil, E. H. Figueiredo Moura Da Silva, N. Cafaro La Menza, G. G. Munareto, A. J. Zanon, Santos Carvalho, F. R. Marin

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

Soybean production contributes to ca. 60% of global plant-based protein used for food and feed. Brazil is the largest soybean producer and exporter, with 60% from tropical and 40% from subtropical environments. Nitrogen (N) can play an essential role in the storage of proteins in seeds; thus, it could be a key factor in increasing the quantity and quality of seeds in high-yielding soybean crops. Unlike in temperate environments, there is a gap of knowledge on whether soybean grown under tropical and subtropical climates are limited by N-fertilization to sustain the seed yield increase without detriments in seed protein concentration. …

De Novo Assembly And Comparative Analyses Of Mitochondrial Genomes In Piperales, Runxian Yu, Xudong Chen, Lingjie Long, Matthias Jost, Ran Zhao, Lumei Liu, Jeffrey P. Mower, Claude W. Depamphilis, Stefan Wanke, Yuannian Jiao

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

The mitochondrial genome of Liriodendron tulipifera exhibits many ancestral angiosperm features and a remarkably slow evolutionary rate, while mitochondrial genomes of other magnoliids remain yet to be characterized. We assembled nine new mitochondrial genomes, representing all genera of perianth-bearing Piperales, as well as for a member of the sister clade: three complete or nearly complete mitochondrial genomes from Aristolochiaceae and six additional draft assemblies including Thottea, Asaraceae, Lactoridaceae, and Hydnoraceae. For comparative purpose, a complete mitochondrial genome was assembled for Saururus, a member of the perianth-less Piperales. The average number of short repeats (50–99 bp) was much larger …

An Innovative Approach To Improve Oil Production And Quality Of Mustard (Brassica Juncea L.) With Multi-Nutrient-Rich Polyhalite, Biswajit Pramanick, B.S. Mahapatra, Debarati Datta, Prithwiraj Dey, S.P. Singh, Ajay Kumar, Bappa Paramanik, Neeraj Awasthi

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

Polyhalite popularly known as POLY4 is a multi-nutrient fertiliser containing K, S, Mg, Ca, and micronutrients. POLY4 has a low carbon footprint, is certified for organic agriculture, and has the potential to improve crop productivity and quality attributes Indian mustard which often faces challenges due to imbalanced nutrition supplied in the current fertilisation schedule. The hypothesis of the study was that the multi-nutrient fartiliser POLY4 can ensure balanced nutrition for Indian mustard. Considering this, a field experiment was conducted during the winter seasons of 2017–18 and 2018–19 to evaluate the effect of POLY4 on Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.) …

Pearl Millet Response To Drought: A Review, Nikee Shrestha, Hao Hu, Kumar Shrestha, Andrew N. Doust

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

The C4 grass pearl millet is one of the most drought tolerant cereals and is primarily grown in marginal areas where annual rainfall is low and intermittent. It was domesticated in sub-Saharan Africa, and several studies have found that it uses a combination of morphological and physiological traits to successfully resist drought. This review explores the short term and long-term responses of pearl millet that enables it to either tolerate, avoid, escape, or recover from drought stress. The response to short term drought reveals fine tuning of osmotic adjustment, stomatal conductance, and ROS scavenging ability, along with ABA and ethylene …

Pearl Millet Response To Drought: A Review, Nikee Shrestha, Hao Hu, Kumar Shrestha, Andrew N. Doust

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

The C4 grass pearl millet is one of the most drought tolerant cereals and is primarily grown in marginal areas where annual rainfall is low and intermittent. It was domesticated in sub-Saharan Africa, and several studies have found that it uses a combination of morphological and physiological traits to successfully resist drought. This review explores the short term and long-term responses of pearl millet that enables it to either tolerate, avoid, escape, or recover from drought stress. The response to short term drought reveals fine tuning of osmotic adjustment, stomatal conductance, and ROS scavenging ability, along with ABA and ethylene …

Expression Of Malic Enzyme Reveals Subcellular Carbon Partitioning For Storage Reserve Production In Soybeans, Usda Agricultural Research Service, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Thomas E. Clemente, Hanh T. Nguyen

Agronomy & Horticulture -- Faculty Publications

• Central metabolism produces amino and fatty acids for protein and lipids that establish seed value. Biosynthesis of storage reserves occurs in multiple organelles that exchange central intermediates including two essential metabolites, malate, and pyruvate that are linked by malic enzyme. Malic enzyme can be active in multiple subcellular compartments, partitioning carbon and reducing equivalents for anabolic and catabolic requirements. Prior studies based on isotopic labeling and steady-state metabolic flux analyses indicated malic enzyme provides carbon for fatty acid biosynthesis in plants, though genetic evidence confirming this role is lacking. We hypothesized that increasing malic enzyme flux would alter carbon partitioning …

  ---

  Go to article