Technologies
Crops and Germplasm
Grain
breeders and dealers rely heavily on the compositional properties of many
different types of grain, including: soybeans, corn, rice, and wheat etc. The most common variables assessed for
commercial and nutritive properties of grains are oil and protein content, both
of which are highly variable, with values ranging from 20 – 60%.
Soybean
crop is susceptible to a variety of threats including soybean cyst nematode
(SCN), soybean rust, bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) and aphids. SCN is currently the largest pest of soybean
and can be controlled with crop rotation or nematicides, however, crop rotation
is not always successful and nematicides can be expensive and harmful to human
health. Generation of a soybean that is genetically resistant to SCN (and other
diseases) would avoid these complications.
Soybean aphid
is an invasive insect pest that was first discovered in North America in 2000
and can have devastating effects on soy crops and yields. A new advance from
the University of Illinois Department of Crop Sciences allows for engineering
of aphid-resistant soybean cultivars.
Domestic soybean cultivars used in the U.S. are highlysusceptible to soybean rust disease caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi. The rapid spread of the disease and its abilityto cause significant yield losses (ranging from 13 to 80% of total yield) canresult in major economic losses for soybean producers. Synthetic fungicides areheavily used (~74 million acres in US in 2007) to prevent rust disease buttheir effect on human health and the ecosystem is unknown.
Soybean aphid
is an invasive insect pest that was first discovered in North America in 2000. Since
then, these aphids have become a significant pest in the soybean producing
regions of the northern USA and southern Canada. Currently, millions of acres
of fields are sprayed with insecticide each year, which is both costly and has
potential environmental implications. Researchers at the University of Illinois
and USDA – Agricultural Research Service have identified a gene that can confer
aphid resistance for soybeans.
This technology is a flotation method for recovering corn coarse fiber (pericarp or bran) in the corn dry milling ethanol process (dry grind process). In the dry grind process, the pericarp is ground up with the rest of the kernel components and placed in the fermenter. The pericarp does not ferment and ultimately ends up in the low valued distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) after having taken up valuable space in the fermenter.
This newly isolated and sequenced promoter from the soybean Msg gene is preferentially active in the soybean pod, not in the seeds. It can be used in the genetic engineering of plants in the legume family for improved disease resistance traits without creating any adverse byproducts in the seeds.
Not only can this gene be used to prevent crop yield loss due to disease and pests, but also to increase the control and precision with which further improvements can be engineered into legume crops.
This unique and highly effective insecticide chemically induces insects to accumulate high levels of tetrapyrroles, which causes insect death when exposed to daylight, and even when used in darkness.
This reaction creates an insecticide to which insects will have a much more difficult time building resistance. As a result, it will lengthen the useful life and cost-effectiveness of the insecticide.
Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a highly productive late-season red apple tree. Resistant to apple scab disease, the tree produces apples of exceptional "Juliet". Co-op 43 is the 15th apple cultivar developed by the cooperative breeding program between the University of Illinois, Purdue University, and Rutgers University.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) have discovered a gene for soybean aphid resistance in the soybean cultivars Dowling and Jackson. The soybean aphid was identified in the Midwestern United States as a significant infestation in July of 2000 and has since expanded to twenty-one states and other parts of North America.