The Rural Voice, 2004-04, Page 66The leading edge
Guelph researcher looks at power of
regeneration to improve farm profits
Imagine harvesting a crop year
after year without planting seed.
That's the vision of University of
Guelph Plant Agriculture researcher
Prof. Manish Raizada.
"Essentially, each plant can make a
clone of itself," Raizada says. "It's the
equivalent of me cutting off my finger
and using it to regenerate me."
Plant regeneration is as simple as
taking a plant cutting and putting it in
water to grow a new plant, but how
this process works is mostly a
mystery.
For regeneration to occur,
specialized cells in the plant must
somehow "forget" their identities,
revert back to what are called stem
cells (cells in an embryonic state that
are capable of becoming any type of
cell) and redifferentiate into new
specialized cells, such as root cells
and leaf cells.
Using mustard cells of the
Arabidopsis genus, Raizada and his
research team are looking for the
genes responsible for this
transformation back to stem cells.
They hope to find ways of triggering
the genes to turn the regeneration
process on and off.
Raizada says putting the natural
process of regeneration to work could
help farmers — particularly those in
developing countries — get higher
crop yields from their land in shorter
growing times while cutting down on
natural resources. If plants could
regenerate certain parts more easily,
growers could harvest only the desired
part of the plant and simply wait for a
new part to grow again.
"Growing plants from seed every
season is inefficient," he said. "You
need carbon, fertilizer and water to
grow the entire plant, even though you
want only a small part of what you
harvest."
In third world countries many
farmers can't afford to buy hybrid
seed every season, says Raizada.
Regenerating plants would allow
producers to reuse the previously.
formed root system and squeeze extra
growing seasons in the same year for
higher output. Shoot regeneration
could also reduce soil erosion caused
by tilling at the time of seed planting.
Regeneration could also be used in
reforestation, saving energy, fertilizer
and carbon. As well, because more
than one-third of all medicines are
derived from plants, regeneration is
also applicable to the manufacture of
pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals,
he said.
The team involved in the research
includes post -doctoral fellow Steve
Chatfield, research associate Igor
Kyrychenko and technicians
Rosalinda Oro and Steve Dinka and a
number of undergraduate students.0
— Source: University of Guelph
Research Magazine
Kitty litter could be new market for barley
When most people think of new markets for farm crops they don't usually
tum to the cat litter box but that's where a Saskatoon company looked and they
see the potential for 3,000 tonnes of barley a year to end up serving cats.
Mark Pickard, president of InfraReady Products Ltd., which processes grains,
oilseeds and pulses for the food industry, came upon the idea during a trade show
in California where he saw cat litter made from wheat — except the picture on
the package wasn't wheat but barley. Since Pickard processes waxy hulless
barley as a food ingredient because of its high level of water absorption, he
thought the grain would work in the litter box too. Since Canadians spend $560
million a year on clay -based kitty litter, he saw a potential market. He began
researching the product in the spring of 2003, backed by a Canadian Adaptation
and Rural Development Fund grant. The result is LitterMate, marketed as a non-
toxic, environmentally -based, biodegradable litter which was introduced at the
Saskatoon Pet Expo in September. Now he is looking at other applications for
the same bio -absorption features.0
— Source: Western Producer
62 THE RURAL VOICE
Irrigation study proves
slower is better
In a world where everything
seems to be getting faster to
improve efficiency, University of
Guelph research shows slower is
better when irrigating fruit trees.
Prof. John Cline, a researcher
at the Department of Plant Agricu-
lture's Simcoe and Vineland res-
earch stations, is part of a research
team that's shown trickle, or micro -
irrigation, which routes irrigation
water to a tree's roots, can prod-
uce plumper, juicier fruit while
using less water. Cline explored
several new methods to help the
fruit industry grow higher quality
apples, peaches and sweet cherries
while providing significant side
benefits to the environment.
"Our objective with this work
is to make more efficient use of
water in orchards and to improve
fruit quality," Cline says. "But this
research could also lessen our
dependency on herbicides, reduce
groundwater contamination and
add value to industry byproducts
that would otherwise be landfilled."
Cline believes current demands
for water conservation will
increase as the climate becomes
more unpredictable. That means
the fruit industry must rethink its
growing practices and that should
include trickle irrigation, he says.
On a warm, dry day, up to 45
per cent of water coming from an
overhead sprinkler can evaporate
before it reaches a tree's roots.
Trickle irrigation, however, uses a
small hose on the soil surface near
each tree to deliver a pulsed flow
of water at low pressure directly to
the tree's root system. More than
90 per cent of the water can be
taken up by the roots.
Spinlder water also contacts the
fruit, causing concerns about food
safety if the irrigation water isn't
clean. He's also working with
various mulches like recycled
wood chips and paper biosolids to
reduce the need for herbicides and
reduce water evaporation.0
—Source: University of Guelph
Research Magazine