Sorghum's Biofuel Potential Spotlighted Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:12:00 -0500
International experts from government, academia
and agriculture will gather for the International Workshop on Sorghum for
Biofuels in Houston, Texas. Photo courtesy of Howard F. Schwartz, Colorado
State University, Bugwood.org
New sorghum is ideal for
both fuel and feed
Exploring sorghum's knack
for keeping weeds away
A head start on mapping
two cereal crop genomes
USDA Conference Spotlights Sorghum's Biofuel
Potential
By Ann Perry
August 18, 2008 WASHINGTON, D.C., August 18,
2008Sorghum's potential as a biofuel crop will be explored at the
International Workshop on Sorghum for Biofuels which begins in Houston, Texas,
tomorrow. More than 100 international experts from government, academia, the
private sector and the agricultural community are expected to participate in
the conference.
U.S. co-sponsors of the event include the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Research, Education and Economics (REE)
mission area, Texas A&M University
(TAMU), and the National Sorghum
Producers (NSP). Other co-sponsors include Brazils
Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa
Agropecuaria (EMBRAPA), the International
Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and
Tsinghua University,
which is located in the Peoples Republic of China.
U.S. consumers know that we need to develop new sources of energy to
meet our transportation needs, said REE Under Secretary
Gale
A. Buchanan. Growing sorghum for bioenergy production can give us a
source of renewableand profitableenergy right here at home.
Sorghum is attracting greater interest as a bioenergy crop because it is
tolerant of drought and grows well on marginal lands not suitable for most
other crops. It produces high yields even after an abbreviated production
cycle, and requires minimal amounts of fertilizer and irrigation. Scientists at
the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), a USDA scientific research agency, are
part of the international research community studying sorghum genetics and
genomics, production systems and conversion processes to optimize biofuel
production.
At the workshop, attendees will share information about key scientific
advances supporting the economically viable and environmentally sustainable
production and utilization of sorghum as a bioenergy crop. Participants also
will be able to visit TAMU and learn more about ongoing research on bioenergy
feedstock and development. Site visits also will be available to Jennings, La.,
where Verenium Corporation has broken
ground for a 1.4-million-gallon-per-year demonstration cellulosic ethanol
facility, the first of its kind in the United States.
Opening remarks will be given by Mark Hussey, interim vice chancellor and
dean of the TAMU College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences, and also director of
Texas AgriLife Research; USDA
Under Secretary Buchanan, and Liu Yanhau, vice minister of the Peoples
Republic of China Ministry of Science and
Technology. Other speakers on the agenda include representatives from the
NSP, USDA, ARS, the U.S. Department of Energy
and the TAMU Agricultural and Food Policy
Center.
Investigating Genetic Traits in Sheep Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:13:00 -0500
Read the
magazine
story to find out more.
Information gathered on a sheep and its relatives
is helping ARS scientists learn just how much a trait is affected by genes or
by nongenetic factors. Click the image for more information about
it.
Genetics research helps
scuttle scrapie
To boost flock fertility,
first find superior studs
Protecting sacred
sheep
Genetic Underpinnings of Sheep Traits May Yield Clues to
Greater Productivity
By Jan Suszkiw
August 15, 2008 Keeping America's sheep healthy and
productive while expanding the market for wool and lamb is the goal of
Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
scientists who are matching the animals' physical traits to the genes that
underpin their expression.
The scientists are pursuing this research mainly at three ARS locations: the
Animal
Diseases Research Unit (ADRU) in Pullman, Wash.; the
U.S.
Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho; and the
Roman
L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Neb.
At Dubois, the team led by
Gregory
Lewis is investigating reproductive efficiency, mineral retention and other
traits.
Michelle
Mousel, an ARS geneticist at Dubois, has also created a bank of frozen
tissue specimens from the station's on-site flock of 6,000 lambs, ewes and rams
in support of that work, as well as data analysis and genotyping efforts.
At Pullman, ARS scientists
Lynn
Herrmann-Hoesing,
Stephen
White and
Donald
Knowles, who leads ADRU, are using the tissue samples to study whether
ovine progressive pneumonia virus levels are affected by specific sheep immune
response genes. Their goal is a molecular test with which to measure the levels
of such infectious agents in sheep.
Scrapie, a degenerative neurological disease of sheep, is another concern.
At Clay Center, ARS microbiologist
Michael
Heaton and colleagues used DNA analysis and genotyping procedures to
identify sheep with 21 prion gene alleles (alternate forms of a gene) that
influence genetic resistance to scrapie. The advance has given rise to faster,
better and cheaper methods of detecting scrapie susceptibility in sheep and
eliminating their predisposition to the disease through selective breeding.
Parallel studies under way at Clay Center and Dubois focus on the so-called
myostatin mutation in Texel sheep. Through conventional breeding, researchers
eventually may be able to harness the mutation to increase the size of lamb
chops without adversely affecting tenderness.
Read
more about this and related research in the August 2008 issue of
Agricultural Research magazine.
ARS is a scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"Slick" Gene Helps Cattle Beat the Heat Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:31:00 -0500
Read the
magazine
story to find out more.
Agricultural
Research Service scientists have identified a gene associated with "slick coat"
which gives cattle shorter, slick hair that helps keep them cool in subtropical
heat. Click the image for more information about it.
Perennial peanut for
quality pastures and hay
USDA's Florida research
station celebrates 75 years of excellence
Federal genebank releases
first animal germplasm
"Slick" Gene Helps Cattle Beat the Heat
By Alfredo
Flores August 14, 2008
Pinpointing the chromosomal location of the "slick" gene
identified by Agricultural Research
Service (ARS) scientists could help breeders develop cattle with shorter,
slick hair that helps keep them cool in the subtropical heat.
In central Florida, excessive summer heat can take its toll on cattle,
leading to reduced milk production from dairy cattle and higher death rates
among beef cattle. But the discovery of the slick gene by scientists at the ARS
Subtropical
Agricultural Research Station (STARS) in Brooksville, Fla., should help
deal with these heat-related issues.
Breeders could move the gene into other economically important breeds,
such as Holstein or Angus, to improve their heat tolerance. The black-and-white
Holstein is the world=s top-producing dairy animal. The typical Holstein herd
produces more than 21,000 pounds of milk, 775 pounds of butterfat and 683
pounds of protein per year.
Angus is the most popular beef breed in the United States, with more
than 350,000 Angus cattle registered. They are hardy, undemanding and
adaptable, and have a high carcass yield of marbled meat--the amount of
intramuscular fat that gives the meat its marble pattern appearance, a highly
sought trait in the meat industry.
Studies at Brooksville led by animal scientist
Chad
Chase have shown slick-haired animals to have internal temperatures about 1
degree Fahrenheit lower during the summer than other cattle with normal hair
coats.
Mapping the gene=s location on the chromosome is the first step
towards identifying the mutation responsible for the shorter, slick hair. Chase
and his STARS team have found a strong association between at least two closely
positioned markers on chromosome 20 and the slick-haired phenotype.
Microsatellite markers were used in these studies.
These results suggest a role for marker-assisted selection to identify
bulls that will produce only slick-haired progeny. Some Senepol bulls were
tested using these markers, and the results indicated excellent potential for
identifying bulls that will produce only slick-haired offspring. The same gene
also appears to be responsible for the slick hair coat in Romosinuano cattle.
Read
more about this and related animal studies in the August 2008 issue of
Agricultural Research magazine.
ARS is a scientific research agency of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture .
USDA - National Agricultural Statistics Service Reports
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