Maximum Yield Australia/New Zealand November/December 2018 | Page 22

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FACTS
Blue-green Algae a Boon for Increased Crop Yields
In an effort to increase crop yields, scientists have engineered tiny carbon-capturing
engines from blue-green algae into plants in a move that promises to boost yields of wheat,
cowpeas, and cassava. Australian National University (ANU) researchers determined the
discovery is a big jump forward in improving the way crops undergo photosynthesis. “
For the first time, we have inserted tiny compartments (carboxysomes) from cyanobacteria
— commonly known as blue-green algae — into crop plants that form part of a system that
could lead to a 60 per cent increase in plant growth and yield,” says ANU lead researcher
Dr. Ben Long, adding the process helps plants speed up how fast CO 2 can be turned to
sugar while minimising reactions with oxygen. Computer models show that upgrading
plant photosynthesis to use this mechanism will increase plant growth and yield.
The test worked with tobacco plants and the hope is it will work on crops like wheat.
—sciencedaily.com
Researchers Crack Wheat Genome Code After 13 Years
After 13 years of research, scientists have cracked and sequenced
the large wheat genome code. An article in the journal Science
details how more than 200 scientists from 73 research institutions
across 20 countries worked to sequence the genome for Chinese
Spring, a bread wheat variety. An initial investment of US$100,000
by the farmer directors of the Kansas Wheat Commission led to the
completion, which will help pave the way for producing wheat varieties that
are more adapted to climate change, with enhanced nutritional quality, higher
yields, and improved sustainability. “Researchers said the wheat genome was
too big, too complex, and too expensive. And now more than a decade later, to
see it finally come to fruition, is exciting,” says Justin Gilpin, CEO of the Kansas
Wheat Commission. A key crop for food security, wheat is the staple food of
more than a third of the global human population and accounts for almost
20 per cent of the total calories and protein consumed by humans worldwide.
—agriculture.com
Studies Show Bumblebees Acquire Taste
for Pesticide-laced Food
In what is like a nicotine addiction in smokers, bumblebees acquire
a taste for pesticide-laced food. And a study shows the more the
bees get, they more they want the poisonous material. British researchers
found bees, when given a choice between two sugar solutions, chose the
solution laced with neonicotinoid pesticides. This means there may
be more pesticide-contaminated nectar entering bee colonies that
previously thought. “Given a choice, naive bees appear to avoid
neonicotinoid-treated food. However, as individual bees increasingly
experience the treated food they develop a preference for it,” says Dr.
Richard Gill from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College
London. Controversial neonicotinoid pesticides are chemically similar
to nicotine, the addictive compound in tobacco. In 2013, the EU imposed a
partial ban on three widely used neonicotinoids because of evidence that they
may be harmful to bees. The findings are reported in the journal Proceedings
of the Royal Society.
—theguardian.com
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