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Fresh from the
Field is a weekly album showcasing transformative impacts made by
partners supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Editor: Falita Liles
June 14, 2018
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Success Stories
 Novel DNA-Based Methods for
Detection of Bt-Resistant Fall Armyworms
A devastating pest, the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda),
has become a growing threat to the use of transgenic corn technology in the
Western Hemisphere and more recently the African continent. The fall armyworm
is the insect pest with the highest number of field-evolved practical
resistance cases to Bt crops. In fact, Bt-resistant fall armyworms are now in
Florida, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Argentina.
University of Tennessee Professor Juan Luis Jurat-Fuentes led a
team of researchers who identified a particular DNA mutation in a gene that
provides fall armyworms with field resistance to Bt corn. The team was also
able to track changes in the mutant gene frequency in fall armyworm populations
in Puerto Rico, the first successful case of DNA-based detection of insects
exhibiting emerging field-evolved practical resistance to a transgenic Bt crop.
NIFA supports this research
through the Biotechnology Risk
Assessment Grant program (BRAG) and the Agriculture and Food Research
Initiative (AFRI).
Read more at the
University of Tennessee Ag Research. USDA photo.
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 Maine Forest Management
Over the last 20 years, Maine’s forests have become younger and
less dense. As a result, forests are not providing the most climate benefits
that they could through carbon sequestration and storage. However, more carbon
could be stored over the next 100 years, according to new research from the New
Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire
(UNH).
According to John Gunn at UNH, “Continuation of business-as-usual
forestry will likely lead to Maine’s forest sector being a net carbon sink for
the foreseeable future – meaning that when you add up all the carbon stored in
the forest and also consider all the greenhouse gas emissions associated with
harvesting trees and making forest products such as paper, lumber, and energy –
there continues to be more carbon going into the system than going out.” Shifting
to forestry practices that include less frequent harvests of smaller amounts of
wood from each acre, this leads to 14 to 33 percent more carbon be stored over
the next 100 years. This happens because trees would be allowed to grow older
and larger and store more carbon than typically happens under current
practices.
NIFA supports the research
through the McIntire-Stennis Capacity Grant program.
Read more at the UNH Agriculture
Experiment Station. Photo credit: John Gunn/UNH.
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Library
 Lemongrass Oil Being Used as a Natural Approach to Combat Harmful Bacteria
on Goat Meat
The recent outbreak of Escherichia coli (E. coli) in
romaine lettuce has become a multistate issue, with some cases reported in
Georgia. To help prevent such illnesses, an antibacterial essential oil could
be the solution to inactivating E. coli and other foodborne pathogens.
E. coli O157:H7 causes bloody diarrhea and can
sometimes cause kidney failure and even death. Dr. Ajit Mahapatra, a Fort
Valley State University (FVSU) associate professor of food and bioprocess
engineering, and his graduate assistant, Hema Degala, found that this particular
strain can be significantly reduced on the surface of goat meat using
continuous ultraviolet light and lemongrass oil.
NIFA supports this research through the
Evans-Allen Program.
Read the full article at FVSU.
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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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