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Fresh from the Field is a weekly album showcasing transformative impacts made by grantees supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Editor: Falita Liles Jan.18, 2018
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Success Stories
CRISPR
Mushrooms Coming Soon
Plant pathologist Yinong
Yang at Penn State University used the versatile gene-editing tool
called CRISPR-Cas9 to design a button mushroom that resists browning and may
have a longer shelf life.
CRISPR stands for
clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. It's a relatively
new and revolutionary way to modify an organism's genome by precisely
delivering a DNA-cutting enzyme — Cas9 — to a targeted region of DNA. The
resulting modification can delete or replace specific DNA pieces, thereby
promoting or disabling certain traits.
In this case, the gene
editing reduces production of a specific enzyme that causes mushrooms to turn
brown. The end product is a mushroom with longer shelf life that resists
blemishes caused by handling or mechanical harvesting — but without DNA from a
foreign organism.
NIFA supported the program
through the Hatch Act funding.
Read the full
article at Penn State News. USDA photo by Lance Cheung.
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News Coverage
Strange Case in a Nursery Setting
There are mostly benign
species in the soil-borne, plant-associated genus of bacteria known as
Rhodococcus, but a few species can be pathogenic. A team of researchers at Oregon
State University (OSU) used genome sequencing to identify species of
Rhodococcus that transition between beneficial and pathogenic – stimulating
growth in some plants in the former case, while deforming tissues in the
latter.
The key to Rhodococcus
transitioning between being a “good” and “bad” bacteria is made possible by DNA
molecules known as plasmids, said Jeff Chang, a microbial genomicist in OSU’s
College of Agricultural Sciences and leader of the study. A plasmid is a DNA
molecule maintained separately from the chromosome of bacteria.
"We traced how the
beneficial and pathogenic members of Rhodococcus are moving from plant to plant
and nursery to nursery. Now we can inform the nursery industry to implement
practices to limit its spread,” explained Dr. Chang.
NIFA supports this project
through Specialty Crop Research Initiative and the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.
Read the story in OSU
Extension Service and Agricultural Research News. Photo courtesy of Melodie
Putnam-OSU.
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The Library
The Hunt for Genetically Engineered Organisms
Similar to a Star Trek
Tri-Corder device, physicists and biologists at the University of Notre Dame,
Rice University, and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York have teamed up to develop a field-ready
device to detect the genetic or protein signature of genetically engineered
(GE) organisms in the environment. This device uses Light Transmission
Spectroscopy (LTS) to measure the size of very small particles (nanoparticles).
This is applied to detection, by coating the outside of these small particles
with single stranded DNA or antibodies that will bind only to targeted DNA or
proteins from GE organisms in the environment, thus growing in size, which is
detectable by the LTS device. The LTS device can run off a car battery and
links up to a laptop for real time detection in the field.”
NIFA supports this project
through the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research Grants (BRAG) Program.
Read the story at Rice
University News & Media. Photo courtesy of Jeff Fitlow-Rice University.
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Video
American
Bison Making a Comeback
When President Obama named
the American bison, also known as the buffalo, as America's first national
mammal in 2016, he recognized the ecological, cultural, historical, and
economic contributions of North America’s largest mammal.
Bison were a significant
spiritual symbol and source of food, clothing, and shelter for American
Indians, but the ravages of westward expansion depleted the bison population,
and by 1885 an estimated 750 animals remained. Thanks to combined conservation
efforts among public organizations, American Indian communities, non-profit
organizations, and private citizens, the U.S. bison population has climbed back
to more than 380,000 on farms and ranches, tribal lands, and federal and state
lands.
"Bison restore the
landscape they're being raised on when managed properly, which is the
definition of regenerative and sustainable agriculture. Once you bring bison
back to the prairie, other native species, from birds to plants and flowers,
follow suit,” according to Jim Matheson of the National Bison Association.
NIFA supports this project
with the Sustainable Agriculture and Research and Education (SARE)
program.
Watch the video
from North Central SARE. USDA photo by Jack Dykinga.
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Tweet of the Week
#NIFAIMPACTS
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NIFA’s mission is to invest in and advance agricultural research, education, and extension that solve societal challenges. NIFA’s investments in transformative science directly support the long-term prosperity and global preeminence of U.S. agriculture. To learn more about NIFA’s impact on agricultural sciences, visit www.nifa.usda.gov/Impacts, sign up for email updates or follow us on Twitter @USDA_NIFA, #NIFAImpacts.
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