Crop Tech Corner

Armyworms Deploy Chemical Weapons; Plant-Based Fuels Get a Boost

Emily Unglesbee
By  Emily Unglesbee , DTN Staff Reporter
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New research shows fall armyworms use chemical manipulation to disarm corn plant's defenses. (DTN photo by Nick Scalise)

ST. LOUIS (DTN) -- This bi-monthly column condenses the latest news in the field of crop technology, research and products.

CLEVER CHEMISTRY PROTECTS A MAJOR PEST

While you were setting fires with Bunsen burners or falling asleep in your high school chemistry class, the fall armyworm was clearly taking notes. The major row-crop pest has devised a clever chemical switcheroo to neutralize a corn plant's natural defenses against it, according to a new study from scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology.

Grasses and other crops often produce toxins called benzoxazinoids to protect themselves against insect attacks, an institute press release noted. When all is well, these toxins are attached to a sugar, which prevents the toxins from being active and hurting the plant. When an insect injures the plant, an enzyme is released and splits the sugar from the benzoxazinoids, which sets them loose to poison the offending insect.

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By examining the droppings of fall armyworm caterpillars, the Max Planck Institute researchers discovered the pest releases a gut enzyme that rapidly re-attaches the sugar to the benzoxazinoids, which keeps them safe and non-toxic. Moreover, the enzyme reattaches the sugar in a different chemical arrangement that foils the corn plant's attempts to re-split the sugar and deploy the toxin. In the hope of better protecting plants from the fall armyworm, the researchers are now trying to identify the gut enzymes in question and find the genes that produce them. The results could be of special interest to Brazilian farmers, who are reporting failures in Bt technology to control the fall armyworm, the researchers noted. See a detailed description of their research at the Max Planck Institute's research news page: http://goo.gl/…, and see the study abstract here: http://goo.gl/….

BIOFUEL BOOST

The future of fuel-producing plants is looking... oilier. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have found a way to increase the oil content of plant leaves, according to a laboratory news release. With help from genetic studies, scientists produced Arabidopsis plants -- the lab rats of the plant world -- with leaves that were 9% oil. That level is 150 times the oil content of Arabidopsis plants in the wild. Brookhaven Lab biochemist Changcheng Xu, the study's lead researcher, said the effect could be even more dramatic in row crops. "In crop plants, whose growth time is longer, if the rate of oil accumulation is the same, we could get much higher oil content -- possibly as high as 40% by weight," he said in the news release. The scientists hope the discovery could help boost the country's efforts to produce more renewable fuels in the future. See the laboratory news release here: http://goo.gl/…, and the study here: http://goo.gl/….

ROOT PHOTO SHOOT

Some new research could help bring the complex and often mysterious system of plant roots into focus. Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and Penn State University have created an imaging and software system that allows scientists to analyze and measure root systems from photographs taken of mature root systems in the field. According to a Georgia Tech news release, researchers uproot mature plants, clean their roots, take photos of them and upload them to a server, where software analyzes and records 30 different features, from root density to the diameter of the tap root. The software allows researchers to translate the physical root systems into spreadsheets of valuable, consistent data points in just one day. As long as scientists use consistent photographing techniques, the system could allow researchers worldwide to compile comprehensive data sets of plant root systems. Such a resource could speed research on the important role roots play in factors like nutrient uptake, drought resistance or yield. See the news release here: http://goo.gl/…, and the study here: http://goo.gl/….

Emily Unglesbee can be reached at emily.unglesbee@dtn.com

Follow Emily Unglesbee on Twitter @Emily_Unglesbee

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Emily Unglesbee