Crop diversity: Breadfruit's checkered past bears fruit for food security.

New interdisciplinary research on breadfruit helps reconcile cultivar names with genotypic and phenotypic diversity across time, continents, and cultures. The findings will advance breeding and conservation initiatives for this underutilized crop, but also highlight methodological challenges commonplace in crop evolutionary studies.

Amaranth as a natural food colorant source: Survey of germplasm and optimization of extraction methods for betalain pigments.

Growing consumer demands for healthier foods have evoked trends in the food industry to replace synthetically produced colorants with naturally derived alternatives. Anthocyanins currently comprise the bulk of the natural colorant market, but betalains offer advantages where anthocyanins have limits. species are appealing betalain sources given their extensive pigmentation patterns and recognized food status around the world.

Limited Impacts of Cover Cropping on Soil N-Cycling Microbial Communities of Long-Term Corn Monocultures.

Cover cropping (CC) is a promising in-field practice to mitigate soil health degradation and nitrogen (N) losses from excessive N fertilization. Soil N-cycling microbial communities are the fundamental drivers of these processes, but how they respond to CC under field conditions is poorly documented for typical agricultural systems. Our objective was to investigate this relationship for a long-term (36 years) corn [ L.

Amaranths.

Chance W. Riggins and Rita H. Mumm introduce the ancient amaranth genus, highlighting the ancient crop's controversial history and its contemporary use in improving food security.

Soil Microbial Indicators within Rotations and Tillage Systems.

Recent advancements in agricultural metagenomics allow for characterizing microbial indicators of soil health brought on by changes in management decisions, which ultimately affect the soil environment. Field-scale studies investigating the microbial taxa from agricultural experiments are sparse, with none investigating the long-term effect of crop rotation and tillage on microbial indicator species. Therefore, our goal was to determine the effect of rotations (continuous corn, CCC; continuous soybean, SSS; and each phase of a corn-soybean rotation, Cs and Sc) and tillage (no-till, NT; and chisel tillage, T) on the soil microbial community composition following 20 years of management.

Microbial Shifts Following Five Years of Cover Cropping and Tillage Practices in Fertile Agroecosystems.

Metagenomics in agricultural research allows for searching for bioindicators of soil health to characterize changes caused by management practices. Cover cropping (CC) improves soil health by mitigating nutrient losses, yet the benefits depend on the tillage system used. Field studies searching for indicator taxa within these systems are scarce and narrow in their scope.

Biochemical characterization of metabolism-based atrazine resistance in Amaranthus tuberculatus and identification of an expressed GST associated with resistance.

Rapid detoxification of atrazine in naturally tolerant crops such as maize (Zea mays) and grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) results from glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity. In previous research, two atrazine-resistant waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus) populations from Illinois, U.S.

Distinct detoxification mechanisms confer resistance to mesotrione and atrazine in a population of waterhemp.

Previous research reported the first case of resistance to mesotrione and other 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD) herbicides in a waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus) population designated MCR (for McLean County mesotrione- and atrazine-resistant). Herein, experiments were conducted to determine if target site or nontarget site mechanisms confer mesotrione resistance in MCR. Additionally, the basis for atrazine resistance was investigated in MCR and an atrazine-resistant but mesotrione-sensitive population (ACR for Adams County mesotrione-sensitive but atrazine-resistant).

Identification of genetic elements associated with EPSPs gene amplification.

Weed populations can have high genetic plasticity and rapid responses to environmental selection pressures. For example, 100-fold amplification of the 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) gene evolved in the weed species Amaranthus palmeri to confer resistance to glyphosate, the world's most important herbicide. However, the gene amplification mechanism is unknown.

The genus Artemisia (Asteraceae: Anthemideae) at a continental crossroads: molecular insights into migrations, disjunctions, and reticulations among Old and New World species from a Beringian perspective.

Artemisia is the largest genus (ca. 350-500+ spp.) in the tribe Anthemideae and is composed of ecologically, morphologically, and chemically diverse species that are found primarily throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

Herbicide resistances in Amaranthus tuberculatus: a call for new options.

Amaranthus tuberculatus is a major weed of crop fields in the midwestern United States. Making this weed particularly problematic to manage is its demonstrated ability to evolve resistance to herbicides. Herbicides to which A.

Characterization of the horseweed (Conyza canadensis) transcriptome using GS-FLX 454 pyrosequencing and its application for expression analysis of candidate non-target herbicide resistance genes.

Background: The de novo transcriptome sequencing of a weedy plant using GS-FLX 454 technologies is reported. Horseweed (Conyza canadensis L.) was the first broadleaf weed to evolve glyphosate resistance in agriculture, and also is the most widely distributed glyphosate-resistant weed in the United States and the world.

Characterization of de novo transcriptome for waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus) using GS-FLX 454 pyrosequencing and its application for studies of herbicide target-site genes.

Background: Waterhemp is a model for weed genomics research in part because it possesses many interesting biological characteristics, rapidly evolves resistance to herbicides and has a solid foundation of previous genetics work. To develop further the genomics resources for waterhemp, the transcriptome was sequenced using Roche GS-FLX 454 pyrosequencing technology.

Results: Pyrosequencing produced 483 225 raw reads, which, after quality control and assembly, yielded 44 469 unigenes (contigs + singletons).