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Weeding Out The Risk Of Pest Plants
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Mar 12, 2007 More accurate assessments of the environmental risks associated with the release of disease-resistant plants are now possible following CSIRO's development of a new framework that identifies potential weed pests. SIRO Plant Industry scientist, Dr Bob Godfree, says knowing the risks is crucial to ensuring both natural and agricultural environments are protected against the threat of plants which could become invasive. "The new framework is a very exciting development," Dr Godfree says. "It will allow us to capture information that has been difficult to obtain previously and it has major positive implications for both the agricultural and natural resource management industries." He says disease is sometimes the major natural factor keeping certain plants from eventually dominating a particular environment. "If that limiting factor is removed, plants bred for agricultural purposes can very quickly spread and reduce biological diversity in the natural environments of an area. It is therefore really important that such plants undergo trials to determine if they pose a threat." The conceptual framework developed by Dr Godfree provides an accurate picture of the risk presented by a particular plant to a particular environment. "Plants will respond differently given different environmental conditions and we have found we can identify environments where disease-resistant plants have a better chance of over-running local plant populations." The framework has been used to assess the 'weediness' of white clover resistant to the disease Clover Yellow Vein Potyvirus in a variety of environments and accurately predicted where the plants would most successfully establish. "From this information we are able to formulate strategies to manage the release of plants and prevent them from becoming invasive pests in natural environments," Dr Godfree says. His findings were published recently in the respected science journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research was supported by Dairy Australia. Robert C. Godfree*,, Peter H. Thrall, and Andrew G. Young. Enemy release after introduction of disease-resistant genotypes into plant-pathogen systems. Published online before print February 13, 2007, 10.1073/pnas.0608356104 PNAS | February 20, 2007 | vol. 104 | no. 8 | 2756-2760 Email This Article
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La Jolla CA (SPX) Mar 12, 2007Jack's magical beans may have produced beanstalks that grew and grew into the sky, but something about normal, run-of-the-mill plants limits their reach upward. For more than a century, scientists have tried to find out which part of the plant both drives and curbs growth: is it a shoot's outer waxy layer? Its inner layer studded with chloroplasts? Or the vascular system that moves nutrients and water? The answer could have great implications for modern agriculture, which desires a modern magical bean or two. |
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