b'INDUSTRY NEWS Delivering the people, industry, business and product news you need to know.Submissions are welcome. Email us at news@issuesink.com.off, field-grown elite hybrids yielded 4.6 bushels more per acre on average than standard plants. Dating back to 1896, the Illinois experiment was designed to test whether corn grain composition could be changed through artificial selection, a relatively new concept introduced by Charles Darwin just 37 years earlier. Repeated selection of high- and low-protein corn lines had the intended effect within about 10 generations. As selection for the traits continued, however, additional changes were noticeable.Texas A&M researchers believe the development of climate-smart crops is the key to improving nitrogen-use efficiency and reducing fertilizer nitrogen loss in agricultural fields. The crops would have the ability to suppress soil nitrification and have reduced nitrogen emissions, says Nithya Rajan, Texas A&M AgriLife Research crop physiologist and principal investigator in Working in a partnership with leading vegetableCollege Station. breeding companies, scientists from KeyGene have discovered sweet pepper plants which show a newIowa State University scientists have issued a call to action for researchers in a wide range of disciplines type of insensitivity to a group of harmful pathogens:to turn their attention to some of the most pressing geminiviruses. The new find is also described as achallenges facing agriculture. The unorthodox loss of susceptibility. This type of insensitivity toapproach to collaboration could spark innovative new approaches to how farmers produce commodities and virus infections is expected to last longer than theinteract with the environment. commonly used resistance approach. KeyGene aims to use this breakthrough to contribute to theIn a study published in Weed Science, researchers from the University of Illinois identified genetic sustainable cultivation of crops such as sweet andsignatures that distinguish male waterhemp and hot pepper, cotton and cassava, which currentlyPalmer amaranth plants from females. The discovery require regular spraying against whitefly, the mainis a crucial part of developing a genetic control system for the damaging weeds. The researchers disseminator of geminiviruses. goal is to one day introduce genetically modified male plants into a population to mate with wild females. Researchers with the New Hampshire AgriculturalModified male plants would contain a gene drive, a Experiment Station at the University of Newsegment of DNA coding for maleness, which would Hampshire have found that eggplant varietiesbe passed on to all its offspring, and their offspring, developed specifically for growing in greenhousesand so on. Ultimately, all plants in a given population and high tunnels produced a prolific amount of fruit,would become male, reproduction would cease, and offering Granite State growers another option forpopulations would crash.summer vegetable production. According to the USDAs Census of Agriculture, 92 Granite State farmsResearchers from three continentsincluding were growing eggplant to sell fresh to consumers inbiologists from Washington University in St. Louis2017, an increase from 55 farms in 2012. have mapped the crystal structure of a key protein that makes the metabolites responsible for the bitter A corn gene identified from a 118-year-oldtaste in Brassicas. The study is the first snapshot of experiment at the University of Illinois could boosthow the protein evolved and came to churn out such yields of todays elite hybrids with no added inputs.diverse byproducts in this agriculturally significant The gene, identified in a recent Plant Biotechnologygroup of plants. The results could be used along with Journal study, controls a critical piece of senescence,ongoing breeding strategies to manipulate crop plants or seasonal die-back, in corn. When the gene is turnedfor nutritional and taste benefits.72/ SEEDWORLD.COMSEPTEMBER 2019'