Potato in Biological News

Purple sweet potato means increased amount of anti-cancer components

... health benefits of a specially bred purple sweet potato because its dominant purple color results in an ... the pigment effects of a Kansas-bred purple sweet potato on cancer prevention. Lim said purple sweet ... but the anti-cancer ability of the purple sweet potato has not been well investigated. Lim used a ...

Low level herbicide use can damage potato reproduction

... field trials were conducted to determine if potato vegetative growth and tuber yield and quality ... herbicides at below recommended field rates. potato plants were exposed to one of seven different ... of Environmental Quality . They demonstrated that potato tuber yield and quality can be affected by ...

Potatoes may hold key to Alzheimer's treatment

... this concept on an amyloid-like protein found in potato virus (PVY). They injected PVY into mice followed ... antibodies if given injections of PVY-infected potato leaf as opposed to purified PVY. Friedland and colleagues note that potato virus is a fairly common infection that poses no ...

UCR graduate student discovers, names bacterium linked to psyllid yellows

... a disease that infects and kills tomato and potato plants. The disease is spread from plant to ... insect. This psyllid commonly is called potato psyllid or tomato psyllid, depending on the plant ... "One symptom of an infected tomato or potato plant with this bacterium is yellowing of the ...

ESA to feature wide range of UW-Madison presentations

... AUGUST 7, 2008 Wisconsin Healthy Grown potato program: Conservation potential in agricultural ... purposes. The Wisconsin Healthy Grown potato eco-label provides an economic incentive for ... of biodiversity in non-croplands adjacent to potato fields in central Wisconsin. Participating farms ...

Drought tolerance in potatoes

... dry Andean Altiplano gave rise to a number of potato varieties that could tolerate drought. ... drought tolerance traits in several native Andean potato landraces. Dr. Schafleitner, of the Germplasm ... and Crop Improvement Division, International potato Center in Peru, will be presenting this work at a ...

Plant reflections may be key to early detection of treatment needs

... hope can work with other programs. Currently, potato producers must use visual symptoms of stress in ... plants are still growing, Nansen said. With a potato plant, a lot of inputs and resources are needed. ... Nansen said. The zebra chip effect causes the potato to turn brown after frying, he said. At this time ...

Using DNA, scientists hunt for the roots of the modern potato

... MADISON -More than 99 percent of all modern potato varieties planted today are the direct ... potatoes were wiped out during the Great Irish potato Famine, the 19th-century late-blight epidemic that devastated potato fields across Europe, initiating the import of ...

New research to decode the genetic secrets of prolific potato pest

... at a parasitic worm less than 1mm long. The potato cyst nematode (PCN), Globodera pallida, attacks potato crops all over the world and is particularly devastating in developing countries where the potato is a subsistence crop. A 1.7 million project led ...

New research to help fight widespread potato disease

... Dr Mike Storey, R&D Director of the British potato Council, commented in response to the research ... key diseases across all sectors of the British potato industry. The findings from the University of ... careful storage management as most varieties of potato have no inbuilt resistance to soft rot and there ...

New wheat disease could spread faster than expected

... progression of some historic disease problems, such as the catastrophic potato late blight that led to the Irish potato famine of the mid-1840s. And they suggest that a new fungal pathogen of ...

Entomological Society announces 2007 award winners

... of Idaho. His research focused on the role of hairy nightshade on the potato leafroll virus pathosystem, demonstrating the importance of the weed as a ... He is currently continuing his research on aphids and viruses in potato systems at the University of Idaho. He has published seven peer-reviewed ...

Study finds DNA barcoding requires caution without closer examination

... warn that we are being too hasty in wholeheartedly embracing this technique. Dr. David Spooner, a researcher with the USDA and an expert in the potato and tomato family ( Solanaceae ), offers just such a cautionary note against accepting this technique without closer examination in his recent ...

American Chemical Society's weekly PressPac -- May 27, 2009

... Chemical & Engineering News Food manufacturers are searching for new ways to reduce the amount of salt added to products ranging from potato chips to salad dressings while preserving the salty taste that consumers crave, according to an article scheduled for the June 1 issue of Chemical & ...

Caffeic acid inhibits colitis in a mouse model -- is a drug-metabolizing gene crucial?

... by examining colon histopathology. In comparison with rutin, an anti-inflammatory flavonoid and hypoxoside extract, a botanical known as African potato previously shown to protect against colitis, all three compounds had anti-inflammatory effects, suppressing myeloperoxidase, IL-17 and iNOS and ...

Hunt for 'climate-ready' crops accelerates as organizations search seed collections worldwide

... to banana streak virus, which will likely become more problematic with climate change; transferring traits from a wild to a cultivated variety of potato that convey resistance to a soil-borne pathogen responsible for bacterial wilt; a search for novel traits with tolerance to heat and drought stresses ...

Symposia selected for Entomological Society of America meeting

... Research Student Debate: Implications of Insect Management for Human Survival Systematics and Diversity of Coleoptera The Colorado potato Beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) Past, Present, and Future: Integrating Management and Reality The Future of Biological Control of Japanese ...

Quails get super fit by simply eating omega-3 diet

... so, but Weber needed to test the miraculous fatty acids' effects on less athletic birds, bobwhite quails, to be sure. Could he boost the couch potato quails' endurance by simply feeding them omega-3 fatty acids? Weber and his team publish their discovery that quails can get fit simply by eating a ...

Ecological insect pest management for Guam

... trapping methods and overall crop production on Guam for four important weevil pests: banana root borer, New Guinea sugarcane weevil, and two sweet potato weevils. Agriculture professionals will be instructed in trapping methods including the importance of lures and trap characteristics and diagnosis ...

Research about plant viruses could lead to new ways to improve crop yields

... The result of this effort was determination of the low-resolution structures of two species of flexible filamentous viruses: soybean mosaic virus and potato virus X. Amy Kendall, Michele McDonald, Wen Bian, Timothy Bowles, Sarah Baumgarten, Jian Shi and Phoebe Stewart from Vanderbilt; Esther Bullitt ...

Insight into the evolution of parasitism

... pacificus. Pristionchus species have carved out a very particular habitat for themselves: they live together with May beetles, dung beetles and potato beetles in order to feast on the bacteria and fungi that develop on the carcasses of these beetles after they die. The nematodes therefore use the ...

Pay attention! Small packages may lead to overeating

... Friends interspersed with commercials. They believed they were there to evaluate the ads. But researchers were really monitoring their consumption of potato chips. Chips were available to participants in large packages or small ones. The study found that consumption was lowest when dieting concerns were ...

Parents shape whether their children learn to eat fruits and vegetables

... in St. Louis, one way is early home interventions teaching parents how to create an environment where children reach for a banana instead of potato chips. "We know that parents have tremendous influence over how many fruits and vegetables their children eat," says Debra Haire-Joshu, Ph.D., a ...

SEX4, starch and phosphorylation

... The amylopectins of leaf starches in different plant species have also been found to be decorated with phosphate groups. Studies of Arabidopsis and potato leaves suggest a common mechanism for starch breakdown, although different pathways may operate in other plants. Further research is needed to ...

Food scientists confirm commercial product effectively kills bacteria in vegetable washwater

... million bacteria, you would have one left." The researchunusual because part of it was conducted under real-world conditions in an Idaho freshpack potato operationwill be published by the Journal of Food Science in August and is currently available at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/jfds/0/0 . ...

Analysis of RNA role in spreading disease advances study of damaging plant infections

... to look at all of the loops of a viroid RNA and see how each one functions, Ding said. The viroid model used for this research is called the potato spindle tuber viroid, and its infection was studied in a tobacco-like plant called Nicotiana benthamiana for the experiment. Lead study author Xuehua ...

The beetle's genome sequenced for the first time

... be very beautiful and colorful, but many beetle species are also serious agricultural pests that can destroy food plants like potatoes (the Colorado potato beetle) and threaten large areas of forest. Altogether, insect pests cause U.S. $ 26 billion in losses to U.S. agriculture yearly and beetles are ...

Researchers discover how stealthy HIV protein gets into cells

... said. Something about the TAT protein had induced a saddle splay curvature in the membrane. This shape resembles a saddle (like that of a Pringles potato chip), giving the openings, or pores, a bi-directional arc like that seen inside a doughnut hole. The newly formed pores in the membrane were 6 ...

Sweet potato shines as new promise for small enterprise and hunger relief in developing countries

... often misunderstood and underrated, are receiving new attention as a life-saving food crop in developing countries. According to the International potato Center ( www.cipotato.org ), more than 95 percent of the global sweetpotato crop is grown in developing countries, where it is the fifth most ...

Corazonas Foods and Brandeis University partner to create cholesterol-reducing snacks

... create additional categories of plant-sterol enhanced foods expanding beyond tortilla chips to other popular snacks including cookies, crackers and potato chips. Brandeis University has been a dream partner, said Ramona Cappello, Corazonas Foods chief executive officer. Weve been able to take an ...

Yam bean a nearly forgotten crop

... make a significant contribution to the improvement of food support, especially where resources are poor. The research is ongoing at the International potato Center, which has a mandate for the bean in the frame of Andean Root and Tuber Crops. Further evaluation is needed on the range of yam bean ...

Yam bean a nearly forgotten crop

... make a significant contribution to the improvement of food support, especially where resources are poor. The research is ongoing at the International potato Center, which has a mandate for the bean in the frame of Andean Root and Tuber Crops. Further evaluation is needed on the range of yam bean ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Aug. 15, 2007

... has been detected in many widely-consumed foods, ranging from French fries to coffee. The highest levels are in fried and baked products such as potato chips and other snack foods. Although classified as a probable human carcinogen on the basis of animal studies, there is currently no consensus on ...

Potato wart eyed as risk to potato production

... While many may be familiar with potato late blight, the plant disease responsible for widespread potato shortages, the lesser known potato wart has the potential to be as devastating to ...

Spud origin controversy solved

... University of La Laguna, and the International potato Center used genetic markers to prove that the ... of the earliest known landraces of the European potato are of Andean and Chilean origin. They report ... potatoes as breeding stock after the Irish potato famine in the 1840s. Using molecular ...

Potato blight pathogenicity explained by genome plasticity

... fingerprint in the pathogen responsible for potato blight. Some strains of the pathogen possess ... strains possess only a single copy. Certain potato plants do not recognize strains of the pathogen ... genomes to adapt to their environments. The potato late blight pathogen, known to scientists as ...

Malaria, potato famine pathogen share surprising trait

... in humans and the microbe that caused the Irish potato famine use identical protein signals to start an ... says not to worry ?there's no chance that the potato pathogen will jump to humans, nor is it likely ... infestans, the microbe that triggers late potato blight in vegetables including potatoes, soybeans ...

Finding rewrites the evolutionary history of the origin of potatoes

... Academies of Sciences, a team led by a USDA potato taxonomist stationed at the University of ... DNA markers in 261 wild and 98 cultivated potato varieties to assess whether the domestic potato arose from a single wild progenitor or whether it ...

New discovery: If it weren't for this enzyme, decomposing pesticide would take millennia

... inside a bacterium that grows in the soil of potato fields can -- in a split second -- break down ... And the chemical would remain in the soil of the potato fields where it is now used in colossal amounts, ... In contrast, the half-life of the potato pesticide residue chloroacrylate -- 10,000 years ...