MAX FACTS
hydroponic news, tips and trivia
Study Reveals Organic
Tomato Juice Better
for You
A Spanish study has revealed that organic tomato
juice contains more phenolic components than
juice from conventionally grown crops.
Polyphenols are a family of natural compounds
with important nutritional properties that can
protect the body against cardiovascular and
degenerative diseases and some forms of cancer.
Spanish researchers found significant differences
between the levels of bioactive components in
organic tomatoes and the levels found in those
grown conventionally.
(Source: sciencedaily.com)
Report Explains Why Plant Clones
Aren’t Identical
A team from Oxford University and King Abdullah University of Science and
Technology has shown why cloned plants are not actually identical: the genomes of
regenerant plants carry relatively high frequencies of new DNA sequence mutations
that were not present in the genome of the donor plant.
“Where these new mutations actually come from is still a mystery,” said one of the
authors of the study. “They may arise during the regeneration process itself or during
the cell divisions in the donor plant that gave rise to the root cells from which the
regenerant plants are created.”
(Source: sciencedaily.com)
Global Food Security at Peril as Species Shrink
Researchers from the National University of Singapore’s biological sciences department
have reported that many species of plants and animals are shrinking over time in reaction to
changing climactic conditions.
The report cited an experiment showing how shoots and fruit have been shown to be three to 17 per
cent smaller for every degree Celsius of warming in a variety of plants.
“Impacts could range from food resources becoming more limited (less food produced on the same
amount of land) to wholesale biodiversity loss and eventual catastrophic cascades of ecosystem
services,” warned co-author David Bickford.
(Source: newsdaily.com)
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Maximum Yield USA | January 2012