UF researchers find genes that ‘tune’ flower fragrances

February 9, 2010
Topic(s): Agriculture, Research

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Shakespeare famously wrote, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” With all due respect to the Bard, University of Florida researchers may have to disagree: no matter what you call a flower, its scent can be changed.A team at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has uncovered some of the genes that control the complex mixture of chemicals that comprise a flower’s scent, opening new ways of “turning up” and “tuning” a flower’s aromatic compounds to produce desired fragrances.

“For a long time, breeders have mostly focused on how flowers look, their size, color and how long blooms last,” said David Clark, a professor of environmental horticulture. “But scent has gotten left behind. Go to a florist and try to smell the flowers. You probably won’t get what you expect.”

Over the years, Clark says, breeders have selected flowering plants that produce bigger, more attractive flowers with long vase lives; but in doing so, they may have been inadvertently selecting plants that were willing to devote less to producing fragrance.

That may change. For example, a customer may someday be able to walk into a florist and select from scented or unscented varieties of the same flower.

In work published in the January issue of The Plant Journal and the February issue of Phytochemistry, the researchers describe how various genes in petunias help regulate the amount of the 13 major aromatic compounds in that flower’s fragrance. (more…)

UF study: Invasive snail may damage diet of rare Everglades bird

February 4, 2010
Topic(s): Conservation, Environment, Pests

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Invasive animals often wreak havoc with their feeding habits; however, University of Florida researchers say a huge South American snail is causing problems when it’s the prey rather than the predator.

Known as the island apple snail, it could threaten an endangered bird, the Everglades snail kite. The kite normally feeds on native apple snails the size of a golf ball. But in recent years, those snails have declined in historically important kite habitat and the birds have fled.

Many kites now dwell at Central Florida’s Lake Tohopekaliga, which is filled with the invasive snails. The mollusks grow larger than a tennis ball and kites have difficulty holding them. Researchers warn that young kites there may be malnourished.

The study was published in the current issue of Biological Conservation.

Popular in the aquarium trade, the island apple snail may have been accidentally or deliberately released in the wild. It’s been found in numerous Florida locations, according to the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

As the invader spreads, it could become a serious threat to snail kite populations, said Wiley Kitchens, a courtesy professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Fewer than 700 of the birds exist in the U.S., all of them in Central and South Florida.

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UF research finds that ‘killer’ bees haven’t stung U.S. honey production

January 26, 2010
Topic(s): Biocontrols, Entomology and Nematology, Invasive Species

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In just a few years after Africanized honey bees were introduced to Brazil in 1956, the aggressive bees had dominated and ruined domestic hives throughout South and Central America. According to University of Florida research, however, the same story isn’t playing out in North America.

According to an economic analysis from UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, since their arrival in the U.S. in October 1990, Africanized honey bees (often called killer bees) haven’t had a substantial economic impact on the honey production of domestic hives-even after spreading throughout 10 states.

The analysis, published online by the journal of Ecological Economics, seems to indicate virtually no hive loss to the bees — any economic loss was likely due to the cost of preventive measures taken by hive keepers to keep the Africanized bees away, said Charles Moss, one of the analysts behind the report and a professor in UF’s department of food and resource economics. (more…)

UF plant geneticist only Florida researcher to receive special DOE funding

January 21, 2010
Topic(s): Biofuels, New Technology, Research

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida plant geneticist Matias Kirst is the only researcher from the state of Florida to be named a recipient of U.S. Department of Energy special funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Kirst, of UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and School of Forest Resources and Conservation, will receive $873,000 over five years to conduct a radically new genetic analysis of poplar trees-an effort that may help harness the trees as a sustainable and economical fuel source.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced earlier this month that 69 recipients had been selected from nearly 1,800 applications nationwide to receive a total of $85 million.

This is the first such funding from the DOE’s Early Career Research Program, a program designed to “bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years.” (more…)

Old-time vegetables offer new opportunities to Florida farmers, UF experts say

January 21, 2010
Topic(s): Agriculture, Conservation, Crops, Cultivars, Economics, Green Living

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Vegetables of yesteryear may offer Florida farmers a brighter tomorrow, say University of Florida experts who’ll be teaching a workshop on commercial production of trendy “heirloom” varieties this weekend.

These crops are gaining popularity with consumers and restaurants, and often work well for small and medium-sized farms that sell products locally, said Danielle Treadwell, an assistant professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

“I work with commercial farms all the time where they want to grow heirloom varieties,” Treadwell said. “A lot of our small farmers are operating out of a different set of cultivars (compared with large farms) because that’s what their customers demand.”

In Florida, where about 90 percent of the state’s 47,000 farms are classified as small by U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, heirloom crops may represent a significant economic opportunity, she said. (more…)

Dead Sea-dwelling microbes reveal roots of protein common to all higher life forms

January 11, 2010
Topic(s): Research

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — We have more in common with Dead Sea-dwelling microbes than previously thought. University of Florida researchers have found that one of the most common proteins in complex life forms may have evolved from proteins found in microbes that live in deadly salty environments.

The protein ubiquitin is so-called because it is ubiquitously active in all higher life forms on Earth. The protein is essential to the life cycle of nearly all eukaryotic cells — those that are complex enough to have a nucleus and other membrane-bound structures.

Haloferax volcanii microbes, on the other hand, are unique creatures. One of the most ancient species on the planet, they long ago adapted to conditions far too salty for other organisms — even surviving for thousands of years in dried-out salt lakes.
As they report in the Jan. 7 issue of the journal Nature, researchers for UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences have found that two proteins in Haloferax are likely the simple evolutionary precursors of ubiquitin. (more…)

UF research improves production of sea oats essential to dune restoration

January 5, 2010
Topic(s): Agriculture, Biocontrols, Conservation, Disaster Preparedness, New Technology, Weather

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It might be easy for the casual beachgoer to write off sea oats as mere weeds. However, the lanky grass holds the soil of beach dunes, making it a keystone of the natural barrier between land and water-and University of Florida researchers are using cutting-edge techniques to keep that barrier in place.”The 2004 hurricane season showed us exactly how important it is to have effective ways of rebuilding our coastal dunes,” said Mike Kane, a UF environmental horticulture professor. “Plants are an essential part of that rebuilding.”

The researchers from UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences are not only developing new ways to grow the plants under laboratory and greenhouse conditions, but are building a cryogenically stored library of genetically varied sea oats samples.

Four major hurricanes and a tropical storm damaged more than 800 miles of Florida shoreline in 2004, leaving 360 miles of beach critically eroded. Nearly $200 million in state and federal funding was allocated to rebuild.

Planting sea oats along reconstructed beaches isn’t easy or cheap. The 22,000 sea oats plants required to populate one mile of rebuilt beach cost more than $40,000.

One of the biggest hurdles is producing enough plants that will thrive in the area being rebuilt. Many of the natural sea oats populations that serve as seed sources were damaged or destroyed during the 2004-2005 hurricane seasons, leaving researchers looking for ways to produce sea oats other than by seed. (more…)

Scaling back kids’ holiday gift expectations a sensitive subject, IFAS experts say

December 16, 2009
Topic(s): Families and Consumers, Finances

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — To say this year’s economy has been less than robust would be an understatement.

But with the forces of peer pressure and marketing as strong as ever, many parents find themselves trying to trim children’s lengthy wish lists without dampening their enthusiasm — or putting the family finances in jeopardy, and University of Florida experts have plenty of helpful tips.

First and foremost, says Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences extension agent Alicia Betancourt: It’s not about the presents.

“What kids really want, in all honesty, what they remember from year to year, is the time that’s spent together,” said Betancourt, based in Monroe County. “Focus more on family traditions, or creating new ones — whether it’s making cookies, going caroling or taking in a play.”

Betancourt suggests taking children to browse the toy store, so that they see for themselves that toys are often much smaller and less exciting than TV ads make them seem.

Kids of all ages can be asked, if not to shorten a wish list, to point to the two or three gifts they’re most excited about, she said.
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UF researchers find lone culprit behind greening

December 9, 2009
Topic(s): Agriculture, Citrus, New Technology, RECs, Research

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida researchers have shown that the disease that threatens to devastate the world’s citrus crop is almost certainly the result of a lone species of bacteria, and not that of a combination of bacterial or viral pathogens as some have feared.

Using three types of next-generation genetic analysis, researchers from UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences examined inner bark from Florida citrus trees infected with citrus greening.

While the team conclusively found the genetic fingerprint of the bacteria commonly suspected to be behind the disease, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, the analysis showed no other DNA of suspect viral or bacterial pathogens.

The research, published in the December issue of the journal Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, is important because the disease has been especially difficult to analyze, said Eric Triplett, chairman of UF’s department of microbiology and cell sciences and lead researcher on the study.

Normally, researchers would prove that the bacteria is behind the disease by capturing a sample of the bacteria, growing it in a petri dish, and then inserting it into a healthy tree to see if it causes the disease.

However, scientists have not yet found a way to get the bacteria to grow in a petri dish. This means that scientists are having trouble using their normal approaches to researching the pathogen.
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Computer model reveals where food pathogens grow

December 3, 2009
Topic(s): Agriculture, Crops, Food Safety, New Technology

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — An outbreak of food-related illness, such as E. coli-tainted spinach, often leaves food safety experts scratching their heads over the source of the contamination.

Thanks to a new computer model developed by researchers at the University of Florida, Wageningen University and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, food safety experts may have a better chance of predicting where contamination risks lie and what can be done to minimize those risks.

The program, dubbed COLIWAVE, can predict the growth and death of pathogenic bacteria in substances like compost, soil and water. The program uses variables such as oxygen availability, temperature and substance characteristics to predict how much bacteria is present at different periods of time.

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