The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing $40 million for 31 new projects through its Conservation Innovation Grants program. It’s one of the ways the USDA brings together partners to develop innovative approaches to climate-smart agriculture. The USDA also is investing $19 million in two projects focused on nutrient management funded through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, and two new formal partnerships to further nutrient-management implementation.
Iowa-based partners are two of the 14 partners with funded on-farm trial projects. The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service is investing $25 million through on-farm trials, which supports more widespread adoption and evaluation of conservation approaches in partnership with agricultural producers. Incentive payments are provided to producers to offset the risk of implementing such approaches.
Iowa State University of Science and Technology will demonstrate a relay intercropping system to maintain or enhance roductivity and profitability while improving soil health and increasing nutrient reductions.
The Iowa Soybean Association is promoting adoption of newly synthesized cropping systems developed to increase profitability, reduce nutrient losses and improve soil health. Project objectives include characterizing profitability and natural-resource outcomes for improved cropping systems and developing new economic insights, natural-resource conservation, and improved cropping-system stability via crop modeling and statistical analysis.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service is investing $15 million in 17 projects through Conservation Innovation Grants Classic. That enables partners to develop new tools, technologies and strategies to support next-generation conservation efforts on working lands and develop market-based solutions to resource challenges. Visit cig.sc.egov.usda.gov for more information.
Tool speeds microbe engineering
A deoxyribonucleic acid – DNA – editing tool has bee adapted to make engineering microbes easier and faster, according to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The Serine recombinase-Assisted Genome Engineering system, lets scientists quickly insert and test new DNA designs in a variety of microorganisms. Engineered microbes hold promise for making biofuels, recycling mixed plastics, aiding soil carbon storage, and treating health disorders.
The system works in virtually all microorganisms, said Adam Guss, a genetic and metabolic engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Microbes were modified in a few days with SAGE, compared with a tailoring process that can require weeks using existing methods.
The system can speed the work of industry and academic researchers in their own organisms of interest, Guss said. Visit science.org – search for “Adam Guss” – for more information.
Proteins could improve bioenergy plants
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have identified specific proteins and amino acids that could control bioenery plants’ ability to identify beneficial microbes. Those microbes could enhance plant growth and carbon storage in soils.
Called LysM receptor-like kinases, the proteins regulate signaling between plants and microbes. The process influences biomass production, root performance and carbon storage. A study at Oak Ridge National Laboratory showed the kinases potentially help poplar trees differentiate between helpful and disease-causing microbes.
With the information scientists can better target bioengineering efforts aimed at promoting plant-microbe symbiosis to boost poplar trees growth and sustainability in future climates.
Having predictive insight into how receptors distinguish microbial friend from foe will reduce the number of design-build-test – cycles needed to validate gene function and accelerate improvement of crop performance, said Udaya Kalluri, a senior staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The novel method used computational structural biology in a multiproged approach that can accelerate gene function identification in a variety of plants. Visit sciencedirect.com – search for “Udaya Kalluri” – more information.
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Biochar-research bill introduced
A bipartisan bill that would create a National Biochar Research Network recently was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. Companion legislation also was introduced in the U.S. Senate. The research network would test biochar’s ability to absorb carbon on a variety of soil types and to increase crop production.
Farmers can use biochar to improve soil health and sequester carbon. U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1-Maine, was one of the bill’s co-sponsors. Investment in research is needed to understand biochar’s full potential to address climate change and per- and olyfluoroalkyl substances soil remediation, she said.
Biochar sits at the intersection of smart agriculture, environment and energy practices, said U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-1-Iowa, also a co-sponsor. Biochar has significant potential to help sequester carbon in agriculture communities, she said.
U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier, D-8-Washington, also co-sponsored the bill. The Biochar Research Network Act is a critical bill that would improve understanding about how biochar can benefit farmers and provide opportunities for economic development in rural America, she said.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa-New Hartford, introduced companion legislation in the Senate. Biochar presents an opportunity for farmers looking for an inexpensive way to improve soil quality while sequestering carbon, he said.
Phytophthora research tool launched
A new online tool will help researchers identify, detect and monitor species of Phytophthora, which have been responsible for plant diseases ranging fom the 1840s Irish potato famine to sudden oak death that still plagues West Coast oak populations.
A new pathogen “tree of life” provides information about each of more than 192 formally described species – including their evolutionary history and relationships within groups. It also includes genetic-sequence data from several locations on the genetic blueprint, or genome, of each species. Other important data include global locations of each species, plants that host the pathogen, and where the pathogen resides in – or on – its plant hosts.
“We’re taking all known Phytophthora species and putting them into a living ‘tree of life’ using the Tree-Based Alignment Selector toolkit developed by my colleague Ignazio Carbone,” said Jean Ristaino, a professor of plant pathology at North Carolina State University. “Researchers can place emerging threat species into the open-access tree and look at which groups are expanding and evolving.”
The new tool will enable researchers to update plan-disease information in real time.
“The key to preventing disease outbreaks is to grab the signals before the outbreak occurs,” Ristaino said.
The Tree-Based Alignment Selector could be used for disease surveillance and for determining the next new lineage that might emerge. Researchers can query the database and the tree will incorporate the new species. Visit ristainolab.cals.ncsu.edu– search for “emerging phytophthora“ – for more information.
Swine research facility expanded
Scientists at the University of Missouri have been working for more than two decades on genetically modifying pigs to prevent diseases that threaten both swine and humans. They’ve pioneered technology using pigs, which has provided a foundation for successful transplants in humans. That included a partial heart transplant in a six-month-old baby by Maryland-based surgeons in 2022.
Genetically modified pigs are now used to study a range of human ailments such as cystic fibrosis, retinitis pigmentosa and cancr. Many other technologies have been developed such as those to create a heart and kidney that resist hyper-acute rejection when transplanted.
Randall Prather, director of the National Swine Resource and Research Center at the university, and his team’s longtime work has made the center a go-to source for genetically modified pigs used for advancing discoveries. The center’s capacity will be doubled in coming months, with a goal of broadening swine-genetics lines.
The South Farm Swine Research and Education Facility Addition, a recently completed building, will provide another 12,000 square feet to accommodate housing for animal models used by faculty who are studying genetic engineering in large animals. The project is funded by $5 million from the National Institutes of Health Resources and Services Administration with an intended completion date of 2025.
The National Swine Resource and Research Center serves as a National Institute of Health center for researchers across numerousfields. In total the center was awarded an $8 million grant and $30,000 in university funding for the expansion. Visit nsrrc.missouri.edu for more information.
