corn in Biological News

Restoring a natural root signal helps to fight a major corn pest

... that attack and kill larvae of the Western corn rootworm, a voracious root pest. In field tests, ... Edition, August 3𔃅, 2009) The Western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera) is the ... 2007 also been found in southern Germany. The corn rootworm larvae feed on root hairs and bore ...

Corn yield stability varies with rotations, fertility

... the effects of long-term cropping systems on corn grain yields, yield trends, and yield stability ... Central Pennsylvania soil, the yield of corn rotated with alfalfa, red clover, and timothy is modestly higher and less variable than corn grown exclusively. Further, when dairy manure is ...

Recent news reports of sweetener reformulations raise questions about motivations

... other brands that they will remove high fructose corn syrup from certain products are being called into ... little material difference" between high fructose corn syrup and other caloric sweeteners. She added ... are nutritional differences between high fructose corn syrup and sugar, when in fact they are ...

Study of agricultural watersheds and carbon losses

... This is particularly important in the eastern corn belt where tile drainage dominates the ... included a restored prairie grass, continuous corn rotations and cornsoybean rotations fertilized at three nitrogen rates, and continuous corn rotations fertilized with lagooned swine effluent ...

Scientists work to plug microorganisms into the energy grid

... is fermented from readily available sugars in corn starch or corn kernels. Producing ethanol from corn has also come under much criticism lately, ...

American Chemical Society's weekly PressPac -- May 6, 2009

... the much-sought ability to transform switchgrass, corn cobs, and other organic materials into methyl ... about stress on the global food supply from using corn and other food crops. Their study is scheduled ... boost methyl halide production from switchgrass, corn cob husks, sugar cane waste, and poplar wood to ...

Experts lay to rest long-held misconceptions about high fructose corn syrup at ILSI-USDA workshop

... general public to stop demonizing high fructose corn syrup as the culprit of obesity and to rethink the myths about high fructose corn syrup's impact on the American diet. "The ... including former critics of high fructose corn syrup, who found there is little evidence that ...

Tiny super-plant can clean up animal waste and be used for ethanol production

... currently used for corn, Cheng adds. corn is currently the primary crop used for ethanol ... concerns about the amount of energy used to grow corn and commodity price disruptions resulting from competition for corn between ethanol manufacturers and the food and ...

Pest management specialist Charles Summers wins prestigious Woodworth Award

... of his career: his work on the biology of corn leafhopper and corn stunt spiroplasma. He proved that the corn leafhopper can overwinter in the San Joaquin ...

Doubling a gene in corn results in giant biomass

... plant geneticist Stephen Moose has developed a corn plant with enormous potential for biomass, literally. It yields corn that would make good silage, Moose said, due to a ... was originally described for its role in giving corn seedlings a waxy coating that acts like a sun ...

Historical increase in corn yield -- it's in the roots

... been the continuous and substantial increase in corn yield over the past 80 years in the U.S. corn Belt. This extraordinary yield advance has ... on this dramatic increase in yield in the U.S. corn Belt, and have found that the root structure may ...

Pure fructose frequently confused with high fructose corn syrup

... used in scientific studies, according to the corn Refiners Association (CRA). Interchanging two ... such as pure fructose and high fructose corn syrup, creates factually incorrect conclusions ... to show that the body processes high fructose corn syrup differently than other sugars due to ...

Study critiques corn-for-ethanol's carbon footprint

... in conservation reserves than to plow it up for corn to make biofuel, according to a comprehensive ... already receiving federal subsidies to grow more corn for ethanol under the Energy Independence and ... who led the study. Making ethanol from corn reduces atmospheric releases of the greenhouse ...

Doubling a gene in corn results in giant biomass

... plant geneticist Stephen Moose has developed a corn plant with enormous potential for biomass, literally. It yields corn that would make good silage, Moose said, due to a ... was originally described for its role in giving corn seedlings a waxy coating that acts like a sun ...

Will large amounts of soil carbon be released if grasslands are converted to energy crops?

... been in smooth bromegrass for 13 years to no-till corn production on soil organic carbon in eastern ... killed with herbicides in late fall of 1998 and corn was planted directly into the killed sod in the ... soil carbon during 6 years of continuous no-till corn production. Ronald Follett, who led this ...

Sequencing of sorghum genome completed

... stress allow it to be grown in regions where corn or other grain crops cannot compete. ... crop and its ability to grow in areas where corn would not. Brazil's extensive biofuel economy is ... for this application and sorghum is superior to corn as a biofuel since the entire plant may be used, ...

Preventing soil erosion in continuous corn

... energy sources, the increased harvest of corn residue for cellulosic ethanol production is ... This may be especially true in fields where corn is grown continuously, in part because ... amounts favor annual harvests, and also because corn residue left on the soil surface is a source of ...

Diverse landscapes are better: Policymakers urged to think broadly about biofuel crops

... University scientists has found that growing more corn to produce ethanol creating less diverse ... Academy of Sciences . From 2006 to 2007, corn acreage increased by 19 percent in the United ... co-author. "If we look at farmers who grow only corn and soybeans, ...

Purdue study suggests warmer temperatures could lead to a boom in corn pests

... to an increase in populations that feed on corn and other crops, according to a new study. ... potential range expansion was seen with the corn earworm, which is known to infest other high-value crops such as sweet corn and tomatoes. Warming could allow populations to ...

Diverse landscapes are better: Policymakers urged to think broadly about biofuel crops

... University scientists has found that growing more corn to produce ethanol creating less diverse ... Academy of Sciences . From 2006 to 2007, corn acreage increased by 19 percent in the United ... co-author. "If we look at farmers who grow only corn and soybeans, ...

Managing carbon loss

... one of the most commercially viable technologies. corn stover remains the most popular source available, ... carbon (SOC) associated with the removal of corn fodder as a cellulosic ethanol feedstock is of ... manure, and compost, to supplant carbon loss in corn stover removed cropping systems. The results ...

Replacing corn with perennial grasses improves carbon footprint of biofuels

... ethanol is produced by fermenting the starch in corn kernels, but significantly more liquid fuel ... expensive, but many believe that it will displace corn ethanol as the technology advances. About 20 percent of the corn crop currently goes into ethanol production in ...

Plants grow bigger and more vigorously through changes in their internal clocks

... long been known that hybrid plants such as hybrid corn are more vigorous than their parents. They are ... Darwin in 1876, and was extensively studied in corn in the early 1900s. All corn in the U.S. is hybrid. Many of the important ...

Study a step toward disease-resistant crops, sustainability

... of botany and plant pathology. First using the corn genome, the method will add to the collection of ... exploration, Johal said. In fact, two lines of corn are more different from one another than humans ... mutation, for example in corn, you cross it with corn from different backgrounds, pick the background ...

Corn researchers discover novel gene shut-off mechanisms

... impact of inactivating a gene that occurs in both corn and in the much-studied laboratory plant ... at the University of Arizona had identified from corn an orthologous gene--a gene that has the same ... to collaborate to see if the small RNAs in corn behave the same way they do in Arabidopsis. The ...

More research needed to make good on biofuel promise, experts say

... friendly than grain-based biofuels like corn ethanol, more research and science-based policies ... on soils and the landscape." Rising demand for corn grain ethanol has gone hand-in-hand with ... Doering said. There also is mixed evidence that corn grain ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions. ...

Giant grass offers clues to growing corn in cooler climes, researchers report

... Miscanthus leaves emerge up to six weeks before corn can be planted. Miscanthus thrives into late October, while corn leaves wither at the end of August. corn and Miscanthus are C4 plants, which are more ...

MSU technology that converts plant fibers to biofuel commercialized

... a gene from a bacterium in a cow's stomach into a corn plant so the fiber in corn leaves and stalks can be more easily converted ... expects to use the technology to release biofuel corn varieties directly to growers as well as ...

Entomological Society of America names new Fellows for 2008

... relationship with Beauveria bassiana , the corn plant, and the European corn borer. He initiated and directed research on the ... began his career as a technician at the European corn Borer Laboratory (later named ...

Key discovered to cold tolerance in corn

... Demand for corn -- the world's number one feed grain and a staple ... into northern Sweden and Alberta, the C4 grain corn cannot. Even within the corn Belt and despite record ...

AgriLife Research breeder develops drought-tolerant corn

... At the end of the day, drought tolerance in corn has to equate to good yields and good quality, ... scientist. Dr. Wenwei Xu, AgriLife Research corn breeder from Lubbock, is working with crosses between temperate and tropically adapted varieties of corn to find a drought-tolerant plant that performs ...

Can biofuels be sustainable?

... Journal examines one biofuel crop contender: corn stover. corn stover is made up of the leaves and stalks of corn plants that are left in the field after ...

Iowa Corn Promotion Board, NJIT to license breakthrough, safe bio-plastic alternative

... The Iowa corn Promotion Board (ICPB), NJIT and University of ... on a safe, building block chemical derived from corn known as isosorbide to chemists. The agreement ... proprietary patent pending technologies to use corn derived isosorbide as a plasticizer, UV-absorbing ...

Miscanthus can meet US biofuels goal using less land than corn or switchgrass

... in the journal Global Change Biolog y. Using corn or switchgrass to produce enough ethanol to ... obtained elsewhere with switchgrass," he said. corn yields in Illinois are also among the best in the ... reason why Miscanthus yields more biomass than corn is that it produces green leaves about six weeks ...

New UGA biomass technology dramatically increases ethanol yield from grasses and yard waste

... Inexpensive waste productsincluding corn stover or bagasse, the waste from corn and sugar cane harvests, fast-growing weedsand ... like grasses, and fibrous waste streams like corn stover, is important because of the ongoing ...

Dioxin risk in soil and plant tissues after long-term biosolids application

... of biosolids on the levels of dioxins in soil and corn tissues collected from the District's long-term ... in 1973. Specifically, they collected soil, corn grain, and corn stover samples from the field plots consisting of ...

Iowa State researchers study ground cover to reduce impact of biomass harvest

... looking beyond the kernel to the entire corn plant for more fuel. But corn, the source of ... States' ethanol, is not limitless, so turning corn stalks and leaves into ethanol is the target of ... 20 percent of ethanol will be made by turning corn stalks and leaves, known ...

Improving swine waste fertilizer

... for environmental contamination. Swine fed corn diets with more highly available phosphorus ... to what a crop needs than swine fed traditional corn diets. The use of swine waste for fertilizer ... fertilizer, manure from swine fed traditional corn diets, or manure from swine fed low ...

Organic corn: Increasing rotation complexity increases yields

... and complexity. The study revealed that corn and soybean yields in organic systems were, on ... Winter wheat yields were similar among systems. corn yields were lower in the organic than in the ... Weed competition also contributed to lower corn grain yields in organic systems. For soybean, ...

Some biofuels might do more harm than good to the environment, study finds

... on food supply when fuels based on crops such as corn and soybeans are mixed with fossil fuels. Based ... such large amounts of energy are required to grow corn and convert it to ethanol, the net energy gain of ... problems. For example, farmers who plant only corn because it is suddenly profitable, and don't ...