Description of the project:
Increasing crop resilience and productivity
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Publication dateObjectiveSectorsApproach
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Publication dateObjectiveSectorsApproach
Description of the project:
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Objective
Hyperion® is a distinct variety of dogwood tree that it is the result of crossing two varieties (Cornus kousa x Cornus florida hybrid and Cornus kousa). Its large creamy white flowers almost completely cover the tree in an overlapping manner. Attractive strawberry-like fruit are also produced and leaf colors range from a glossy dark green in the summer months to shades of yellow purple and orange during the fall months. Growth is very vigorous with dense branching low to the ground and upright branches.
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Objective
Iron deficiency afflicts over 3 billion people worldwide and plants are the principal source of iron in most diets. In response to iron deficiency all plants except the grasses induce Fe(III) chelate reductase activity Fe(II) transport activity and proton release into the rhizosphere. Dartmouth researchers have identified an Arabidopsis mutant frd3 that constitutively expresses all three of these iron deficiency responses. Therefore it is tempting to speculate that FRD3 encodes a regulatory factor involved in sensing and/or responding to iron levels in Arabidopsis.
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ObjectiveTechnology
Summary: Inorganic nitrogen is a vital nutrient for plants. Soil nitrate provides as much as 90 percent of the nitrogen taken up by most plants and leads to a dramatic change in gene expression which is critical to direct the productivity and survival of the plant. Consequently nitrate is commonly provided by way of fertilizer to improve crop yield. However many crop plants are inefficient in their ability to utilize the nitrogen. For example corn and wheat typically only utilize 50 percent of the nitrogen applied to the soil and paddy rice may recoup as little as 30 percent.
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Objective
Soil-borne fungal pathogens from the genus Fusaria limit the cultivation of more than a hundred plant species including bananas cotton tomato potato and sugar beet. The pathogens causing Fusarium wilt invade and colonize plant roots which leads to rotting. Present methods for the control of soil-born fungi include: breeding for resistance (if feasible) soil fumigation with volatile chemicals and solarization. There is currently no effective method to control Fusarium wilt and the fungus is highly resistant to fungicides.
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ObjectiveTechnology
Diseases in crops are a major struggle for farmers and cause devastating yield losses annually particularly in edible foodgrains such as rice wheat and maize. Fusarium head blight and yellow dwarf virus are the two largest diseases in wheat crops. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) the damage from these two diseases in US wheat crops is estimated to be $1 billion dollars per year. Yellow dwarf is the most widely distributed and destructive of the wheat viruses.
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