Agricultural Engineering and Processing

In regions that traditionally support cereal crops, penetration of the viticulture industry has been difficult because of widespread use of 2,4-D broadleaf-weed killer on large industrial fields. Typical formulations of the ubiquitous herbicide are highly volatile and are prone to drifting long distances. Unfortunately, grapes display a high sensitivity to even minute exposure to 2,4-D, which causes serious injury, crop losses and even vine death.

This technology is a method for genetically modifying and successfully cultivating a transgenic variety of the Chancellor Grape that can tolerate up to twenty times the rate of 2,4-D used to control broadleaf weeds in corn. The invention could allow for the establishment of wineries in Midwestern and Eastern areas where there is extensive use of 2,4-D.

The Midwest was once a major grape and wine producing region in the United States, but widespread use of 2,4-D herbicide on corn and soybean fields beginning in the 1950s stalled vineyard production and expansion. Over the past decade, Illinois has seen a reemergence of viticulture in the Southern and Central regions of the state. Acreage of vineyards has increased almost 500 percent, since 1997.

To meet increasing demands for resilient, productive grape varieties and to provide support for local vineyards, this technology was developed to alleviate some of the tensions that accompany growing grapes in the vicinity of industrial crops and farms.

Because there is no known 2, 4-D resistance in grape germplasm, 2, 4-D breakdown genes had to be engineered by somatic embryogenesis into select Chancellor Grape DNA to improve grape survival rates in cereal-crop growing regions. By incorporating the modified tfdA gene into the Chancellor's genetic sequence, this invention provides the encoding for an enzyme that degrades 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) to dichlorophenol (DCP). The synthetic DNA sequence comprises a natural microbial sequence that encodes the enzyme in which at least a plurality of the codons of the natural microbial sequence have been replaced by codons more preferred by a plant.

This invention also provides methods of selecting plants and plant cells that have been transformed with a DNA construct according to the invention using an auxin herbicide.

Applications

• Quality grape production: The Chancellor wine grape is a complex hybrid developed in France by Albert Siebel in the late 1800s and introduced into the United States in the 1940s. Chancellor wine is a dry, heavy bodied grape with a rich plum-cedar aroma and a dense ruby-violet color, which is grown for its earthy taste and is frequently used in wine blends.
• Suited to Midwest cultivation: Chancellor Grape vines are vigorous and high yielding plants with moderate susceptibility to powdery mildew when growing under hot, moist and calm conditions such as exist in the eastern U.S. The warm and moderately drying breezes of the Midwest provide the ideal microclimates for growing Chancellor Grapes.

Benefits

• Resists 2, 4-D herbicide: This transgenic variety of Chancellor Grape, a French-American hybrid that is popular in the Northeast and Midwest because of its ability to grow in harsh conditions, can now be grown in close proximity to fields that use the broadleaf weed killer.
• Grow multiple crops: Farmers who wish to diversify their crops in order to protect against price fluctuations and to attract tourist interest can plant Chancellor Grape vines without concern of interference from herbicide treatment.
• Manageable, Prolific crop: The Chancellor Grape vine is known for its relatively low maintenance. It requires minimal pruning and produces large grape clusters that are easy to spray and pick.
• Potential to modify other species: With further research, the tfdA gene could potentially be incorporated into other species of grape, offering growers even more latitude in choice of plant and vineyard location.

Researchers from the University of IL have developed a quick test to test for Bt resistance in Western Corn Rootworm (WCR) that can be carried out on adult WCRs and takes 10 days compared to 1 year for current testing method. The test provides real-time resistance and thus is up-to-date with evolving Bt resistance in crops, allowing early & effective counter measures. 

Dr. Matthew Hudson from the University of IL has developed a way of measuring the number of copies in the genome of a soybean plant for the soybean cyst nematode resistance gene, Rhg1.

This method involves the TaqMan assay and uses fluorescence measurements. This technology can assist in selective breeding and lead to resistant plants. It provides a faster, cheaper, more feasible method of measuring copy number in a large population of soybean plants.

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. Content assessment is a frequent occurrence in a seeds lifetime: grain breeders assess content individually, per seed, to select the best line for crop production; dealers on the other hand will likely assess content in bulk each time the grain changes hands to set a price point.

This invention uses a new, untapped type of spectroscopy to assess the protein and oil content of grains. It is completely unaffected by moisture content, is significantly more robust in the presence of contaminants, and is dramatically more accurate and reproducible. This technology is a type of spectroscopy that uses Raman principles. A beam of light is passed through the sample of interest; some of the light is scattered, and some is passed through; the light that passes through is collected and analyzed.

The different resultant wavelengths indicate the presence or absence of certain bonds (all parts of organic molecules). The spectra are compared to the necessary proprietary calibration set from UIUC researchers to quantitatively indicate molecule-of-interest presence.

Applications

This technology is applicable in any grain testing environment where NIR can be used, such as grain breeding and dealing facilities. It can detect with very high sensitivity and specificity many organic compounds (for example, it has to potential to differentiate between individual amino acids) and therefore has significant potential for analysis of animal feedstocks.

Benefits

This technology solves many of the problems posed by NIR, the conventional method of grain testing.

• More robust and less susceptible to operator error and machine abuse
• Less susceptible to dust and contaminant fouling, both of which are ubiquitous in the operating environment of such devices.
• Not susceptible to variation in atmospheric water, or grain moisture content
• Significantly more accurate, sensitive, and reproducible than NIR