Study uncovers optimal ecology of bioinsecticide

ScienceDaily (May 20, 2010) — BBSRC-funded researchers at the University of Oxford and Royal Holloway University of London have discovered that the commonly used and naturally occurring bacterial insecticide Bt works best if applied to young plants and is enhanced by the presence of the insect pests.



The research is published in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens.

Spraying Bt -- the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis -- is a common method for controlling a variety of insect pests and is one of the main approaches to chemical-free pest control in agriculture. Optimising sustainable farming techniques can help meet the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050 using fewer resources and with minimum impact on the environment.

Senior researcher Dr Mike Bonsall at the University of Oxford said: "Bt has been used commercially for about 40 years and is readily available to control pest moths and the like, but until now we've known very little about the natural abundance of the bacteria in the environment and what happens when we apply extra bacteria as a means of pest control. It's really important to understand what is happening so that we can, for example, know what factors might have an impact on the insects becoming resistant to Bt."

Bt is found naturally in soils and on plants and exists as many different varieties that each have a preference for infecting different organisms. Bt strains that are specific to certain insects rely on being able to infect those insects in order to reproduce. The researchers studied a strain called ST8, which infects the Diamondback Moth -- a pest that attacks cabbages, broccoli and related crops -- and they found that the population of bacteria (either existing or applied) establishes itself more readily when the insects are present.

The team set up several cabbage plots in the field to examine what was happening when there were extra insects and/or extra bacteria added to what was already present. Then they took samples of soil and leaves. For each sample they looked at the genetics of the bacteria to build a profile of which strains of Bt were present and in what numbers.

Lead researcher Dr Ben Raymond at Royal Holloway University of London said: "We found that our strain, ST8, is the most common in the environment already and it also seems to be best at getting onto the leaves where it can infect the moths. We think that the ST8 that exists naturally in the farm environment might well be colonising the plant as growing seedlings so it gets the earliest possible opportunity to infect the moths, which of course it needs to do to survive.

"This makes sense given that we also found that when there are extra insects in the environment the bacteria actually do much better and can be found in larger numbers. It also shows why spraying the plants, especially young ones, rather than the soil is the best way of using Bt to control insect pests."

The research team are also looking at factors that affect the chances of insects becoming resistant to Bt. In particular they are looking at the way the toxin that kills the insect and an antibiotic that Bt produces to get rid of competing strains of bacteria in the insect's gut both impact the evolution of resistance in the insect.

Professor Douglas Kell, BBSRC Chief Executive said: "Sustainable solutions to future food security will rely on a thorough understanding of how ecosystems operate. This is a good example where the interactions between different parts of such a system have a significant impact on how we can control pests using biological rather than chemical methods. It is also vital that our ongoing practices with Bt present minimal risk of insects becoming resistant and so work to understand the fundamental biology that happens within this system is extremely important."

Agriculture is a Worship

Kelantanese Government is now trying to boost its agriculture sector as to become National Food Hub. The approach chosen by the state government is quite unique. Doing agriculture is not to gain profit as much as possible (as other people see it) but it is a part of worship to God. This principle is highlighted  by the state government, they come with their own moto "Agriculture is a Worship". This new concept of agriculture would give significant impact to the target group in many aspects.
Environment is created by God and human as khalifah in this world must manage it for the sake of live beings. Farmers would try at their best in the agricultural practices so as to worship God. They would feel responsible for providing people with safe food and preserving the environment at the same time. Pests as part of the God creatures which also worship God should not be eliminated completely from the field. They must be maintained below the threshold level. The damage by the pests under the threshold level considered as "sodaqoh" where the farmers would get reward from God for good deeds.
I see this new approach would have a bright future if it is implemented in the right way. For more information plesae go to http://www.bertanisatuibadah.net/
   

Research promises more healthful vegetable oil -- and tractor fuel to harvest it

ScienceDaily (May 21, 2010) — Genetic discoveries from a shrub called the burning bush, known for its brilliant red fall foliage, could fire new advances in biofuels and low-calorie food oils, according to Michigan State University scientists.

New low-cost DNA sequencing technology applied to seeds of the species Euonymus alatus -- a common ornamental planting -- was crucial to identifying the gene responsible for its manufacture of a novel, high-quality oil. But despite its name, the burning bush is not a suitable oil crop.
Yet inserted into the mustard weed -- well-known to researchers as Arabidopsis and a cousin to commercial oilseed canola -- the burning bush gene encodes an enzyme that produces a substantial yield of unusual compounds called acetyl glycerides, or acTAGs. Related vegetable oils are the basis of the world's oilseed industry for the food and biofuels markets, but the oil produced by the burning bush enzyme claims unique and valuable characteristics.
One is its lower viscosity, or thickness.
"The high viscosity of most plant oils prevents their direct use in diesel engines, so the oil must be converted to biodiesel," explained Timothy Durrett, an MSU plant biology research associate. "We demonstrated that acTAGs possess lower viscosity than regular plant oils. The lower viscosity acTAGs could therefore be useful as a direct-use biofuel for many diesel engines."
Improved low-temperature characteristics noted for the oil also could make it suitable for diesel fuel, he said. And acTAGs boast lower calorie content than other vegetable oils, Durrett added, "thus they could be used as a reduced-calorie food oil substitute."
With University Distinguished Professor of plant biology John Ohlrogge, visiting professor of plant biology Michael Pollard and other MSU researchers, Durrett published the findings in the May 18 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The burning bush is certainly not a rare species -- the team gathered its samples from plantings around MSU's campus. The researchers now are working to improve the modified mustard weed seeds' acTAGs yield and already report purity levels of up to 80 percent.
"It should now be possible to produce acetyl glycerides in transgenic oilseed crops or single cell production systems such as algae that are the focus of much current effort in biofuels research," said Pollard, who is keen to explore the technology's commercial potential. "With the basic genetics defined and thus one major technical risk greatly reduced, the way is open to produce and assess this novel oil in food and nonfood applications."
Funding for this early stage research came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture with support by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a scientific consortium of which MSU is a major partner.

Ant Has Given Up Sex Completely, Researchers Confirm

Ant Has Given Up Sex Completely, Researchers Confirm

ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2010) — The complete asexuality of a widespread fungus-gardening ant, the only ant species in the world known to have dispensed with males entirely, has been confirmed by a team of Texas and Brazilian researchers.

Most social insects—the wasps, ants and bees—are relatively used to daily life without males. Their colonies are well run by swarms of sterile sisters lorded over by an egg-laying queen. But, eventually, all social insect species have the ability to produce a crop of males who go forth in the world to fertilize new queens and propagate.

Queens of the ant Mycocepurus smithii reproduce without fertilization and males appear to be completely absent, report Christian Rabeling, Ulrich Mueller and their Brazilian colleagues in PLoS ONE this week.

"Animals that are completely asexual are relatively rare, which makes this is a very interesting ant," says Rabeling, an ecology, evolution and behavior graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin. "Asexual species don't mix their genes through recombination, so you expect harmful mutations to accumulate over time and for the species to go extinct more quickly than others. They don't generally persist for very long over evolutionary time."

Previous studies of the ants from Puerto Rico and Panama have pointed toward the ants being completely asexual. One study in particular, by Mueller and former graduate student Anna Himler (now at Arizona State University), showed that the ants reproduced in the lab without males, and that no amount of stress induced the production of males.

Scientists believed that specimens of male ants previously collected in Brazil in the 1960s could be males of M. smithii. If males of the species existed, it would suggest that—at least from time to time—the ants reproduce sexually.

Rabeling analyzed the males in question and discovered that they belonged to another closely related (sexually reproducing) species of fungus-farmer, Mycocepurus obsoletus, thus establishing that no males are known to exist for M. smithii.

He also dissected reproducing M. smithii queens from Brazil and found that their sperm storage organs were empty.

Taken together with the previous studies of the ants, Rabeling and his colleagues have concluded that the species is very likely to be totally asexual across its entire range, from Northern Mexico through Central America to Brazil, including some Caribbean islands.

As for the age of the species, the scientists estimate the ants could have first evolved within the last one to two million years, a very young species given that the fungus-farming ants evolved 50 million years ago.

Rabeling says he is using genetic markers to study the evolution and systematics of the fungus-gardening ants and this will help determine the date of the appearance and genetic mechanism of asexual reproduction more precisely in the near future.

Precision Farming

Precision farming is about managing variability that occur across the field namely spatial and temporal variability.Dealing with these variability make we able to apply agricultural inputs such as fertlizers and pesticides accurately.For example,crop nitrogen requirement differ by soil fertility.If certain plot already contain high nitrogen content,we don't need to apply nitrogen fertilizer anymore.This also minimize the environmental degradation by the effect of nitrogen losses to the environment through leaching.This video highlight the expert views on precision farming.



Among the tools used in precision farming are GPS,satelite, and sensors.There are many reasons to use precision farming especially towards sustainable agriculture to feed the increasing world population.

Israel floods settlements with subsidies

Palestine 'paying for occupation'

By Sousan Hammad

Kubursi says Palestinian farmers face a system rigged in favour of Israel  [GALLO/GETTY] The UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) recently reported that the Palestinian economy has hit an all-time low. With the Middle East peace process locked in stalemate, Al Jazeera speaks to Atif Kubursi, a professor of economics at Canada's McMaster University and a former UN development expert, about the future of the Palestinian economy under occupation. Al Jazeera: Why are Palestinians unable to independently trade on the world market? What impact does that have on the local economy? Atif Kubursi: The major issue is water with agriculture becoming a corollary. The whole issue is that [the Israelis] govern the water accumulated under the hills of the West Bank and prevent the Palestinians from using it, while averting these water supplies to settlements and other Israeli uses. This is not a secret. It is public information that more than one third of Israel's water consumption comes from natural supplies in the West Bank. The second issue is the Israelis have prevented the Palestinians from generating income and sustenance derived from their land. Palestinians produce more than the Israelis, and more efficiently, but Israelis have, in many respects - particularly in fruits and vegetables - burdened the Palestinians so they can't compete with the Israelis. Some of the road blocks, people believe, have acted as a barrier and prevented the Palestinians from delivering cheaper and fresher fruit to the Israeli market. And the general situation is that fertiliser costs - along with all the other manufacturing costs - are now much higher in the West Bank than the rest of the Arab world, which was the traditional market destination for the Palestinians. The PA has been trying to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for many years now. Saeb Bamya, a senior adviser to the now resigned PA minister of economy, said a WTO membership would allow Palestinians to "join the multilateral trading system." Would this really open trade for Palestinians? Anything that would liberate the Palestinians from the Israeli stranglehold, I would like. But it's only one aspect. The dependency is so ingrained. Palestinians cannot import all their materials, and they can only export on Israeli terms. I would be very happy to see the Palestinians developing an alternative market to the Israelis, but is this a chance to gain economic independence? I doubt it, because the structures are all rigged in favour of Israel. We need full liberation and full independence. And if the Palestinians would like to recreate a Palestinian union, let it be from a position of strength, and with a position of alternatives - people who don't have alternatives always lose. There is no bargain when someone fights with their hands tied behind their back. Would increasing agricultural output make the economy more productive? I don't really want to consider this to be the only alternative open to Palestinians, but surely it will be one alternative. I'm not so sure the Palestinians can compete - given the Israeli costs that are now imposed on their economy - with the Syrians, Lebanese or Jordanians. There's an echoing sentiment in Ramallah that Israeli produce not only tastes better but is also more nutritious. This is a case of the Palestinians legitimising their occupation and their disenfranchisement. First, the Israelis control the water; they also control and implement the prices of all the machinery and fertiliser the Palestinians can use. At the same time, the Israelis subsidise and advertise their products and create this kind of humiliating situation. How can the Palestinians resolve this situation? No economist will tell you that there is a possibility of development in the Palestinian economy while it is under occupation. There first needs to be a liberation of society in order to liberate the economy. Currently, there is no chance that the Palestinians can develop an independent and viable state when the strong rule the weak. The Israeli government has taxed Palestinians to a situation where the poor subsidise the rich. Palestinians are paying for their occupation. Israel quickly devoured all things we economists call comparative advantage by the way they control Palestinian water and agriculture. The Palestinians cannot survive under these circumstances. It really is a testimony to the resilience of the Palestinians that under such conditions they are able to survive. We really need to cut into the matrix of control, these subjugation mechanisms used by the Israelis. It should not have to be isolated, independent or small measures. Don't believe this will liberate the Palestinian people. What we need is to re-galvanise the Palestinians into believing they have to take their destiny into their own hands. There is no way Palestinians can have any meaningful economy unless they gain their independence.

Source: Al Jazeera