Stalking the Wild Tomato: The Ethnobotany of Genetically Modified Crops

Stalking the Wild Tomato: The Ethnobotany of Genetically Modified Crops

In a place where population growth is moving incredibly fast, added pressure on farmers in India in the wake of crushing debt and failed crops calls for a new agricultural approach. Genetic modification and organic farming present promising solutions. Young Explorer Andrew Flachs will investigate the effect of both growing strategies by interviewing farmers in Southern India.

Herbaria: Antonius Münchenbergs Herbarium vivum

Herbaria: Antonius Münchenbergs Herbarium vivum: Antonius Münchenbergs Herbarium vivum Naturhistoriska riksmuseet The oldest dated collection of plants at the Swedish Museum of Natura...

4. The Living Planet - Jungle

Broadcast 16 February 1984, this episode is devoted to the jungles of the tropics. Attenborough ascends a kapok in the South American tropical rainforest to observe "the greatest proliferation of life that you can find anywhere on Earth." There are two main causes for this: warmth and wetness. As this climate is constant, there are no seasons, so trees vary greatly in their flowering cycles. However, each species does so at the same time and, because of the lack of wind, relies on birds and insects for pollination. Bromeliads have their own population of visitors, largely due to their chalice-like rosettes of leaves that hold water. This is used by some for drinking, or, as in the case of the poison dart frog, for depositing tadpoles. Attenborough also highlights those species that have perfected the art of camouflage, including phasmids. The most densely populated part of the jungle is in its uppermost reaches. Around half-way down, there is little life, apart from those that inhabit nest holes, such as macaws, or use the trunks and lianas to aid movement. The jungle floor is not very fertile as the rain washes away any nutriment from the soil. Tree roots therefore rely on a kind of compost formed from decaying leaves — a process that is greatly accelerated in the natural humidity. After a tropical storm, an aged kapok comes crashing to the ground, leaving a gap in the canopy above. The process of renewal then begins as saplings race to fill the space created

THE SECRET WORLD OF THE PLANTS

The secret world of plants gets us closer to these motionless and quiet creatures, so attractive and surprising as the rest of the living creatures. 

The documentary reveals the most unknown aspects of the vegetable kingdom. We will learn about the secret of the eternal youth of a 3500 years old sequoia and be charmed by the 'rafflesia arnoldi' flowers, able to reach up to one meter of diameter. An exhaustive journey through the world of plants, from its domain over humid areas in mangrove covers, where they are able to live inside the water, to the most arid spots, conquered by the 'Welwitzia mirabilis', whose leaves reach up to six meter length .

Evidence plants communicate via underground fungal networks

Rog Wood

Farming correspond

ent

PLANTS use underground fungal networks to warn their neighbours of aphid attack, according to researchers.

The study, published this week in Ecology Letters, is the first to reveal plants' ability to communicate underground in this way.

The research changes our understanding of the ways in which living things interact with one another. If crops can be managed in a way that exploits this natural communication channel, it could provide a new weapon in the battle against insect pests.

Scientists from Aberdeen University, the James Hutton Institute and Rothamsted Research grew the bean plant in groups of five. They allowed three in each group to grow underground networks of mycelia – a thread-like fungus that grows from one set of roots to another. They kept the two remaining plants free of the fungal links.

They then infested one plant in each group with aphids, triggering the release of chemicals to repel aphids but attract wasps, one of the aphid's predators.

Remarkably, plants which were not under attack themselves, but were connected to the victim by the underground fungal network, also began to produce the defensive chemical response. Unconnected plants did not mount a chemical defence. Researchers covered the plants with bags to rule out above-ground signalling.

Dr David Johnson, of Aberdeen University, who led the study, said: "We knew that plants produce volatile chemicals when attacked, and we knew they communicate danger to each other above ground. Now we know they communicate danger through these underground fungal networks as well.

"We don't quite know the mechanism, but it's likely to be a chemical signal. Our understanding of ecological systems has not considered the fact that plants are interconnected in this way. It could have major implications for our understanding of how one organism affects another."

The roots of virtually all groups of plants, including important food crops such as wheat, rice, maize and barley, are colonised by symbiotic fungi.

United Auctions sold 1088 store heifers at Stirling on Wednesday to a top of 274.1p per kg and an average of 215.7p (+1.8p on the week), while 1228 store bullocks peaked at 276.1p and levelled at 231.3p (-0.5p). Some 101 store, B&W bullocks sold to 207.3p and averaged 170.7p, while 142 young bulls peaked at 262.5p and levelled at 200.7p.

In the rough ring, 177 cows averaged 140.8p.

Source:Evidence plants communicate via underground fungal networks

Photo by A. Jorjadze

3. The Living Planet - The Northern Forests.avi

Broadcast 2 February 1984, the next instalment examines the northern coniferous forests. The programme begins in northern Norway, 500 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. Here, there is only just enough light for the pine trees to survive, but it is extremely cold during the winter. Pine cone seeds provide one of the few foods available at this time of year, and large herbivores such as the moose must also rely on their fat reserves. However, there are predators, including lynxes, wolverines and eagle owls. The coniferous forest grows in a belt right around the globe, some 1,900 kilometres across at its widest. On each continent, many migratory animals arrive in the spring, and even more during the summer. In years when the vole population is high, the numbers of their main predator, the owls, increase correspondingly and spread out. Further south, the warmer climate sees the pine trees give way to broad-leaved species, such as the oak and beech. More birds occupy the forest canopy during the summer than at any other time of year, feeding on a myriad of insects. At the onset of winter, many animals in these forests hibernate, and in America, Attenborough uncovers the den of a black bear, which can be asleep for six months at a time. Finally, further south still, Attenborough discovers the effects of forest fires, which are not so destructive as they appear — the areas affected rejuvenate themselves within a couple of months, with more flowers than before.

Plant Kingdom

This about kingdom of plant see how plants can communicate.plants eats insects.by David. And we provide safaris in Tanzania and Kenya for more visit http://jackalsafari.wix.com/tanzania

Fungus network 'plays role in plant communication'

Fungus network plays role in plant communication

Plants can communicate the onset of an attack from aphids by making use of an underground network of fungi, researchers have found.

Instances of plant communication through the air have been documented, in which chemicals emitted by a damaged plant can be picked up by a neighbour.

But below ground, most land plants are connected by fungi called mycorrhizae.

The new study, published in Ecology Letters, demonstrates clearly that these fungi also aid in communication.

It joins an established body of literature,recently reviewed in the Journal of Chemical Ecology and in Trends in Plant Science, which has suggested that the mycorrhizae can act as a kind of information network among plants.

Researchers from the University of Aberdeen, the James Hutton Institute and Rothamsted Research, all in the UK, devised a clever experiment to isolate the effects of these thread-like networks.

The team concerned themselves with aphids, tiny insects that feed on and damage plants.

Many plants have a chemical armoury that they deploy when aphids attack, with chemicals that both repel the aphids and attract parasitic wasps that are aphids' natural predators.

The team grew sets of five broad bean plants, allowing three in each group to develop mycorrhizal networks, and preventing the networks' growth in the other two.

To prevent any through-the-air chemical communication, the plants were covered with bags.

As the researchers allowed single plants in the sets to be infested with aphids, they found that if the infested plant was connected to another by the mycorrhizae, the un-infested plant began to mount its chemical defence.

Mycorrhizae are mutualistic - they both need and are needed by the plants whose roots they inhabit

Those unconnected by the networks appeared not to receive the signal of attack, and showed no chemical response.

"Mycorrhizal fungi need to get [products of photosynthesis] from the plant, and they have to do something for the plant," explained John Pickett of Rothamsted Research.

"In the past, we thought of them making nutrients available from the [roots and soil], but now we see another evolutionary role for them in which they pay the plant back by transmitting the signal efficiently," he told BBC News.

Prof Pickett expressed his "abject surprise that it was just so powerful - just such a fantastic signalling system".

The finding could be put to use in many crops that suffer aphid damage, by arranging for a particular, "sacrificial" plant to be more susceptible to aphid infestation, so that when aphids threaten, the network can provide advance notice for the rest of the crop.

"Now we've got a chance in a really robust manner of switching on the defence when it is needed - not straining the plant to do it all the time - and to reduce the development of resistance (of the aphids to the plants' defences)," Prof Pickett said.

Some strains of wheat have been genetically modified specifically to resist the aphid threat

Fungus network plays role in plant communication

Source:bbc.co.uk 

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