California Fruit and Vegetable

Tag: Cornell University

  • New Tomato Plant that Tells you When to Fertilize

    An invention developed by two Cornell doctoral students that turns engineered tomato plants a vivid red when soil nitrogen levels are low has been named a finalist in the national Collegiate Inventors Competition.

    The RedAlert Living Sensors, created by Jacob Belding and Ava Forystek, is one of five finalists contending in the graduate student category of the competition, run by the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

    Developed through the National Science Foundation’s Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS), the students’ genetically modified sensor plants could one day help gardeners, farmers and hydroponic growers assess if their plants need more nitrogen. When the sentinel plants turn red, growers may then target where and when to fertilize. Farmers currently apply up to 50% more nitrogen than needed, which has led to run-off that pollutes groundwater and lakes, where it promotes harmful algae blooms.

    Graduate students Ava Forystek (left) and Jacob Belding check tomato plants.

    The two students will present their invention in a “Shark Tank” style pitch to a panel of judges composed of some of the most influential inventors and invention experts in the country on Oct. 16 in Washington, D.C. The judges, including National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officials, will select two top teams and a people’s choice award, each of which will receive cash prizes and a form that fast-tracks patent acquisition. An undergraduate contest will also take place.

    Currently, one common method for detecting nitrogen deficiencies in plants assesses yellowing and wilting in leaves. By the time leaves turn yellow, the plant is already stressed from low nutrients.

    “We like to use the analogy of a dog that whines when it’s hungry,” said Forystek, who works in the lab of Neil Mattson, professor in the school of Integrative Plant Science Horticulture Section in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “It would be kind of ridiculous to wait until you feel its ribs to feed it.”

    The RedAlert Living Sensors take advantage of a native pathway where the plant detects nitrogen around its roots and translates those signals to the rest of the plant. The tomato plants used in the project were genetically modified to express a red pigment when root zone nitrogen is low. Shades of redness also reflect varying gradients of available soil nitrogen.

    “We’re taking a signal from the roots where the plant first notices there’s not enough nitrogen in the soil and it translates that into visible pigment, so we can see on the plant that it is hungry for nitrogen, but it’s not already starving,” said Belding, a member of the lab of Abraham Stroock, the Gordon L. Dibble ’50 Professor in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in Cornell Engineering.

    Stroock and Mattson are team advisers, along with Margaret Frank, associate professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science, Plant Biology Section, in CALS, who first came up with the idea for the nitrogen-sensing plants.

    One day, farmers may be able to plant tomato sentinel seeds in their corn fields to monitor nitrogen levels; home gardeners might use them in their backyards; and hydroponic growers might employ them to ensure their systems’ plumbing is distributing the necessary nutrients.

    “It’s amazing to see this technology move from our research labs into the world where it can positively impact sustainable agriculture,” Frank said.

    In large field systems, tractors already equipped with cameras that read infrared and visible wavelengths could survey crop fields for interspersed sentinel plants, to inform farmers of nitrogen needs. The team is exploring the development of a smartphone app that would directly correlate sensor plant leaf colors to root zone nitrogen levels. In this way, small farmers could monitor their fields with their phones.

    “It’s kind of a democratization of these smart agriculture tools that have seen a lot of popularity in the past decade, but are mostly restricted to pretty sophisticated, expensive systems, with highly technically trained operators,” Belding said. “This could be a smart ag device that is affordable and can be easily used by even a home gardener.”

    Initial work on the project was done by Brandon Williams, M.S. ’23, Ph.D. ’25, a former member of Frank’s lab, and Yinan Wu, a former postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Sijin Li, assistant professor in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in Cornell Engineering. Forystek has helped Belding and other engineers work in the greenhouses and in better understanding challenges of field applications. — By Krishna Ramanujan, Cornell University

  • Turning Apple Waste into Profit and Protein

    Every year, as the presses churn and the sweet smell of cider fills the autumn air, more than 4 million tons of apple byproducts are hauled off as animal feed, compost or landfill waste. But a new Cornell study offers apple skins, seeds, cores and pulp a different ending.

    Freeze-dried and milled into a fine powder, the byproduct, known as pomace, can be blended into commercial beef meatballs at levels up to 20% without turning off consumers, according to a new study published Sept. 12 in the Journal of Food Science and Nutrition. In sensory panels of more than 100 untrained tasters, the meatballs with apple pomace were indistinguishable in aroma, taste, texture and overall preference from all meat formulations.

    Doctoral student Peter Gracey works in the Leslie J. Herzog ’77 and Jacqueline Beckley Food Innovation Lab. Photo by Sreang Hok, Cornell University.

    “It’s a great source of fiber and bioactives,” said corresponding author Elad Tako, associate professor of food science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “But as an ingredient, it also has an antioxidant effect and contributes to a longer shelf life for food products.”

    The finding is more than a kitchen curiosity. It also points toward a potential new revenue stream for apple and cider producers in New York state and a practical way to close a circular loop in food manufacturing. Rather than paying to dispose of pomace, processors could freeze-dry and sell it as a value-added ingredient to meat packers, food manufacturers and specialty producers.

    That shift could trim disposal costs, reduce methane emissions from landfills and capture additional dollars from a resource now treated as waste. At the same time, it could increase dietary fiber content in popular processed foods and modestly reduce the share of animal protein without changing the eating experience.

    “I’ve always had a passion for sustainability,” said Peter Gracey, first author and doctoral student in Tako’s lab. “There have been other experiments exploring the use of grape and apple pomace as an ingredient in other meat products.”

    Gracey said they tested a realistic commercial scenario. They bought Cortland, Empire and Red Delicious apples at wholesale, pressed them at a commercial juice press, then freeze-dried the leftover pomace for 48 hours. After milling the dried material to a consistent particle size, they rehydrated it and blended it into 80% lean ground beef at 10% and 20% inclusion rates.

    Beyond the tasting panels, they measured texture, color, composition and cooking yields. The 20% formulations did show a drop in cooking yield and a shift in internal color that might matter to manufacturers who need to meet specification standards. But the sensory panel did not penalize the higher inclusion levels, suggesting consumers may accept small changes if the product is otherwise familiar.

    The benefits flow in multiple directions, Tako said. For cider makers and juice processors, pomace accounts for an estimated 25-30% of the total fruit mass. Handling that volume is expensive. Transportation and disposal costs can eat into already tight margins, especially for small and mid-sized processors. Turning pomace into a dry, shelf-stable ingredient means less waste-hauling and a marketable product that could be packaged, sold and distributed. For regional processors seeking new revenue streams, the approach could be appealing.

    For meat producers, the ingredient adds pectin, fiber, polyphenols and micronutrients – all benefits that could be advertised in a “better for you” food package. Many populations fall short on recommended fiber intake. Adding fruit-derived fiber to processed meat products could help close that gap without asking consumers to change deeply ingrained habits. The approach may be especially useful in institutional settings such as schools, hospitals and workplaces where familiar comfort foods are served at scale, according to the researchers, among them Olga Padilla-Zakour, Seneca Foods Foundation Professor and director of the Food Venture Center, Cornell AgriTech.

    From a climate perspective, diverting pomace from landfills curbs methane emissions and reduces the environmental footprint of juice and cider production. Replacing part of the meat in processed foods with plant material lowers the embedded greenhouse gas intensity of those items. The study citesresearch indicating that substantial reductions in processed and red meat consumption could lead to steep declines in food-system emissions.

    Globally, apple production topped 97 million metric tons in 2023. New York state is the second-largest apple producer in the U.S., home to thousands of apple growers and a growing number of small cider houses and juice operations. The prospect of a local market for pomace could keep dollars within regional supply chains, according to Tako. Instead of trucking wet waste to distant composting sites, a processor in the Finger Lakes could partner with a meat co-packer or snack-food manufacturer in the region.

    The exact size of the potential market will depend on a string of practical issues, Gracey said: how much pomace producers can economically dry, how quickly they can supply consistent lots and whether food manufacturers will invest in formulation and labeling changes. Freeze-drying preserves bioactive compounds and structure, but it is energy-intensive and requires capital equipment or third-party services. Simpler drying technologies might work, too, but would need careful validation to preserve color, flavor and food safety.

    If adopted, Tako said, “it’s a win-win-win. It could mean more natural, better-for-you products for meat companies and the people who care about getting enough protein and other nutrients, but also provide a new income stream for apple and cider producers.” — By Laura Reiley, Cornell University

  • 160 Years of Cornell Potato Breeding with National Impact

    Boil them, mash them, stick them in a stew – potatoes are the most-consumed vegetable in New York and the U.S., accounting for $100 billion of the U.S. economy. Although New York’s share of total potato production has decreased over time, with most crops now being grown in the west, the Empire State still punches above its weight in supporting the national potato industry, thanks to Cornell University’s 160-year-old potato breeding program and its network of farmer and processor collaborators, who work hand-in-hand to develop new varieties grown across the country.

    Cornell’s outsize impact on the potato industry stems from having developed over 50 varieties, including the most-grown variety used nationwide for making potato chips, and varieties resistant to the invasive golden nematode (a devastating potato pest), said Walter De Jong, professor of plant breeding and genetics.

    “The processing quality of our potatoes is probably the best in the world, and that would not be possible without many decades of effort and cooperation between scientists, growers and processors,” De Jong said. “The breeding program I inherited was one with excellent communication between breeders and stakeholders – when I was interviewed at Cornell 20-some years ago, there was a potato grower even on the search committee. Those kinds of relationships are hard to start, but once they go, they’re fantastic.”

    Walter De Jong introduces recent Cornell potato varieties to farmers at an extension event he has been hosting every year for the past two decades. Photo: Pia Spychalla

    Protecting Potatoes from Pests

    Robert Plaisted, professor emeritus of plant breeding and genetics, oversaw Cornell’s potato breeding program for almost half a century, from 1956-2000. The biggest challenge he addressed was protecting potatoes from the invasive golden nematode, a microscopic worm that feeds on potato roots, stunting growth and drastically reducing yield. The nematode was first discovered in Long Island in 1941.

    The potato variety “Marcy” grows in front of the mountain in New York’s Adirondacks it is named after in 2003. Photo: Keith Perry

    “At the time, the control method was fumigation,” Plaisted said. “But a few years into the program, they discovered on the research farm that the well from which the irrigation water was being pumped had signs of the fumigant. The well water on Long Island is sacred, so they immediately prohibited the further application of the nematicide.”

    Along with breeders at Cornell and in Maine, Plaisted acquired wild South American potato varieties resistant to nematodes, and crossed them with Scottish seeds, better adapted for New York’s long daylight growing periods. The researchers began releasing golden nematode-resistant varieties that effectively controlled the pest, without the fumigant pesticide.

    Robert Plaisted is inspecting potato plants at Cornell AES’ Campus Area Farms in 2004, when he was leading Cornell’s potato breeding program. Photo: provided

    Since then, almost every Cornell variety released includes such resistance, De Jong said. And because Cornell varieties are so widely grown across the country, they are now used as breeding stock in other programs, so that resistant varieties are also being released by other breeders, he said. In the U.S., careful monitoring and regulation have prevented the pest from spreading outside New York – for now.

    “If golden nematodes ever do appear someplace else, there are resistant varieties being used everywhere,” De Jong said. “Out of everything our program has done, I’m most proud that we’ve spread nematode resistance across the country – it’s almost the equivalent of a vaccination.”

    Walter De Jong’s lab is producing fresh potato chips and enjoying a taste test as part of the evaluation. Photo: Allison Usavage

    Progress through collaboration

    The Mahany family understands better than most the devastation that can result from potato pests and diseases. The Irish potato famine of 1845 led Cain Mahany to immigrate from Ireland to North America, where he began a new potato farm in Maine. His descendants relocated to Arkport, New York in the mid-20th century, where the current Mahany Farms grows 2,300 acres of primarily potatoes, field corn and wheat.

    Photo Caption: Colorful potato varieties. Photo: Allison Usavage

    For at least 55 years, Mahany Farms has collaborated with Cornell potato breeders to test potential new varieties in real-world conditions, said grower Gary Mahany. In 1997, Plaisted named a new variety Reba after Gary’s mother, to honor the family’s long-term support of the program and all women in the potato industry, Mahany said.

    Participating in plant breeding trials means that almost every year, Cornell researchers come to the farm and provide seed potatoes of 10-12 potential new varieties. The growers watch for yield, pest and disease resistance, drought tolerance, storage quality, and factors important to their processors. The Mahanys grow potatoes for the Wise company, and for chipping, potatoes need to be small, round, not easily bruised, and have low water content, Mahany said. The family makes time in its busy schedule to participate in growing trials “because it matters,” he said.

    “We want to get a look at the new varieties as quick as we can, not just for ourselves but for other growers who don’t necessarily take the time,” Mahany said. “That’s the best way you can have input into whether a variety stays around or whether the breeding program drops it. It’s not just for us, it’s for everybody.”

    Cornell’s potato program produces and evaluates chips from their potato varieties. Photo: provided

    The success of Cornell’s breeding program comes in large part from the researchers’ active engagement with industry and growers, said Chris Hansen, general manager of CSS Farms in Bliss, NY. The Bliss farm has collaborated on testing new varieties for at least 30 years, and De Jong released a 2023 variety “Bliss” in honor of that relationship. The farm produces 70,000 tons of potatoes on 4,400 acres, and their crops go into Cape Cod, Kettle, Utz, Herr’s and Middlesworth potato chips.

    CSS Farms in Bliss, NY, has been testing Cornell’s new potato varieties for at least 30 years. Pictured: Chris Hansen, the farm’s general manager. Photo: Shanna Hansen

    Hansen also participates in the Variety Development Committee Cornell established to bring together growers and processors with potato breeders. The group has met every year for decades.

    “We’re able to give Walter feedback about what we need, what we want to see, and he listens and values our input – that’s been the success of the program, is everyone collaborating together and Walter making decisions based on that feedback,” Hansen said. “In my opinion, it’s the best program in the nation.”

    Potato breeder Walter De Jong and his field manager, Matt Falise, are discussing selection decisions during the harvest. Photo: Pia Spychalla

    Public support makes breakthroughs possible

    Cornell has supported potato breeding efforts almost since the university’s founding in 1865, as New York’s land grant university. Long-term, dedicated support to agricultural research is crucial for making the kinds of breakthroughs that powered the Green Revolution, such as developing varieties that are higher yielding, disease-resistant and best-adapted to various climates, said Margaret Smith, outgoing associate dean and director of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (Cornell AES). The station manages many of the farms and greenhouses where the university’s plant breeders conduct initial trials. Since 1887, Cornell AES has also distributed federal capacity funding (currently from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture) for states to perform research relevant to agriculture, environmental protection and community well-being.

    Plant breeding in particular requires consistent funding to maintain, because new variety development can take 10 years or more, and plant materials will die without facilities and staff to maintain them, Smith said.

    “You can’t just stop a breeding program and pick it up next year. When plants in a breeding nursery die, you’ve lost genetic materials that you can never recreate,” said Smith, who is also a corn breeder.

    The USDA also supports multi-state research projects, which enable researchers across state borders and disciplines to work together to address regional problems, said Toni DiTommaso, incoming associate dean and director of Cornell AES. Cornell’s potato breeders have participated in multi-state projects for many years, and De Jong currently serves on a collaborative potato breeding and variety development research group tasked with enhancing farm sustainability throughout the Eastern U.S.

    “Having that federal funding as a stable backdrop over time allows researchers to continue and progress with their work, which is critical because it often takes many years to achieve results,” DiTommaso said. “Like with agriculture itself, agricultural research requires a lot of patience and commitment.” — By Krisy Gashler, Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station

  • Researchers Explore Ways to Better Safeguard US Romaine Supply

    E. coli outbreaks in romaine lettuce have long been a public health concern. Between 2000 and 2020, at least 42 foodborne illness outbreaks associated with romaine lettuce were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Outbreak Reporting System.

    And yet, our affection for romaine remains: Of all leafy greens, Americans spend the most on romaine (with iceberg behind by a head).

    A new paper in Scientific Reports suggests that a combination of efforts in the field, and even postharvest techniques, can minimize risk to human health. Co-authored by Renata Ivanek, a professor in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and Martin Wiedmann, the Gellert Family Professor in Food Safety in the College of Agriculture and Life Science, the paper outlines interventions likely to make a concrete difference in the safety of the nation’s romaine.

    “This study supports that interventions should focus on reducing produce contamination via contaminated irrigation water, on assuring that produce washes applied during processing consistently deliver reasonably high reductions of bacterial numbers, and on improving temperature control during distribution,” Wiedmann said.

    Ivanek said the study aimed to help industry find ways to do better and to provide consumers a better guarantee of product safety. They began with an advisory council of industry leaders, she said.

    “We tried to describe the system as holistically as possible to account for different risk factors and how they could have interactions,” she said. “There’s not just one intervention that will save us all. We spent a lot of time trying to understand the preharvest component, especially the irrigation water piece and how much risk can be explained by that.”

    Study results suggested that much contamination originates from irrigation with untreated surface water applied through overhead spray irrigation systems. They found that risk from irrigation was reduced either through water treatments or by switching to furrow or drip irrigation.

    “While not the most common system, spray irrigation is used in a number of fields for its benefits during germination, its cooling effect on plants and other reasons. But drip or furrow irrigation reduces the probability that water directly touches the leaves,” Ivanek said, acknowledging that switching to these other irrigation systems introduces significant potential additional costs to grower.

    Moving into the postharvest area, the researchers – who included Ece Bulut, formerly a research associate in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences and now a senior analyst for Walmart Sourcing – focused on what happens in the processing facilities.

    “Lettuce is harvested in batches and all lettuces are washed,” Bulut said. “There is a lot of research in how to make that wash better, but there are still knowledge gaps in the effective amount of chemicals to use and other details of the postharvest wash process to reduce variability of contact time with the wash chemicals.”

    And finally, Ivanek and her co-authors explored the importance of maintaining proper cold storage temperatures along the entire supply chain to romaine’s final destination.

    “Time and temperature play a role in food safety, and also in food quality and shelf life,” she said, describing a “perfect storm” if contamination happens at the farm or processing level and then improper transportation temperatures allow bacteria to grow.

    With Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s current focus on the “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, there is a significant push for Americans to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Many of them, as in the case of romaine, are eaten in their raw state, without a cooking “kill step” for bacteria.

    The comprehensive practices and interventions explored in this study intend to aid decision-makers in establishing and enhancing food safety best management practices, Ivanek said.

    “The big message is the American food supply chain is extremely safe compared to other countries,” she said. “We’re exploring how can we make it even safer and where we should put additional effort.” — By Laura Reiley, Cornell University

  • ‘Delightful’ Yellow Tomato to be Released in 2024

    A Cornell plant breeder has developed an unusual tomato – with yellow flesh and an oblong shape that prompted its fans to name it “Yellow Submarine.”

    Developed by Phillip Griffiths, associate professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science, Horticulture Section, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), the tomato – known as WRSTCP2 during development – has clear skin with an ethereal, semitranslucent look and is resistant to cracking on the vine.

    Fruition Seeds, based in Naples, New York, is bringing the variety to market in 2024.

    “People were just unanimously delighted by the flavor and by the shape,” said Petra Page-Mann, Fruition’s co-founder. The company spent the last two years growing and taste-testing it with its customers, after Cornell approached them with the variety.

    Griffiths, who specializes primarily in brassica vegetables, characterized his tomato breeding efforts as starting as a “freedom project” – something fun to do on Friday afternoons – that got much bigger. Previous years’ tomato breeding yielded the colorful Galaxy Suite of grape tomatoes, available from High Mowing Organic Seeds.

    He crossbreeds many different types of small-fruited tomatoes, which can add to a whole new level of biodiversity. “This enables us to generate all types of colors and shapes,” he said. “And then we evaluate them, we demonstrate them to people, we try and identify the types that people like the look of, like the taste of, that perform well for production in the Northeast.”

    Breeding, development and cultivation of this tomato variety happened both at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York, and at Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station’s Homer C. Thompson Vegetable Research Farm in Freeville, New York.

    After identifying the tomato as different and interesting, Griffiths and his team approached Fruition Seeds about commercializing the variety.

    Page-Mann said they “jumped up and down” at the chance to try it out. “It’s unbelievable to have Cornell as a partner and co-visionary in what we are eating and why,” she said.

    Fruition took the tomato to their customers and social media followers to find a more creative name. People suggested more than 80 ideas and then voted on the winner: Yellow Submarine. “We are a very community-oriented seed company,” Page-Mann said, “and so this name very much reflects the humor and delight of our community.”

    While the seeds will be available to home gardeners, Yellow Submarine is unlikely to be sold at grocery stores. Rather, the intent of the partnership between Fruition and Cornell is to bring different, fun and engaging products to the market, Griffiths said.

    “A lot of exciting products get killed because they don’t have those mainstream, maximum profit angles,” Griffiths said. “It’s very easy for the economic world in which we live to cut out a lot of the exciting products that exist in the natural world. People never see them just because they’re not perceived as having as high an economic return.”

    But many of Cornell’s open-pollinated varieties, including the Yellow Submarine, have the potential to become future heirloom varieties, bringing delight to future generations, Page-Mann said.

    “It’s not a hybrid,” she said. “And that means we save the seed so we can share it with you, and it will grow true to type, exactly like its parent. And so can our great-great-great-great grandchildren.” — By Holly Hartigan, Cornell University

  • Wild Tomato Genome will Benefit Domesticated Cousins

    A team of researchers has assembled a reference genome for Solanum lycopersicoides, a wild relative of the cultivated tomato, and developed web-based tools to help plant researchers and breeders improve the crop.

    Solanum lycopersicoides (S. lycopersicoides) harbors a gene making the plant resistant to a particular strain of bacterial speck disease. The gene could be introduced into cultivated tomatoes to protect them from the pathogen.

    That discovery led Boyce Thompson Institute researchers to sequence the plant’s genome and create online resources to facilitate the discovery of more genes that could improve tomatoes.

    “There wasn’t even really a discussion about whether to sequence Solanum lycopersicoides, it was just obvious to do it,” said Susan Strickler, director of the BTI Computational Biology Center (BCBC). Strickler is co-corresponding author of the paper describing the S. lycopersicoides genome, which was published in The Plant Journal on May 18.

    Wild relatives of crops are becoming increasingly valuable to plant researchers and breeders. During the process of domestication, crops tend to lose many genes, but wild relatives often retain genes that could be useful – such as genes that confer resistance to drought and disease.

    In their study, the researchers demonstrated the value of the new genome by finding several candidate genes associated with compounds – phenolics and carotenoids – that contribute to the species’ color, flavor and nutrition, as well as other genes associated with disease resistance.

    Perhaps more importantly, a larger goal of the project was to make the S. lycopersicoides reference genome as widely accessible and useful to the scientific community as possible.

    “These kinds of data are added to the National Center for Biotechnology Information repository as a general requirement, and that’s important, but not everyone is a bioinformaticist or has access to bioinformatics resources to analyze the data,” said Adrian Powell, assistant director of BCBC and a first author on the paper.

    “To increase access and ease of exploring the genome, we developed web-based tools and components that researchers beyond our project team could use and add to,” he said.

    One tool is a S. lycopersicoides genome browser available on the Sol Genomics Network website, which serves as community resource and repository for tomatoes and other species in the Solanaceae family. Powell said the browser can aid early exploratory studies of the wild tomato species as well as more advanced studies.

    Another tool is an S. lycopersicoides expression atlas, which allows users to analyze RNA sequencing data and visualize which genes are expressed in different plant tissues and under different conditions. “The atlas is based on code first developed for the cultivated tomato, but now we have a version for the wild species,” Powell said.

    These tools, combined with the new reference genome, will help researchers analyze hybrids of the wild tomato and cultivated tomato more readily than they could before, and they will also help researchers who are studying the wild species for its own sake, he said.

    For example, the reference genome could facilitate genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on multiple S. lycopersicoides accessions, to assess genetic diversity of the species and identify candidate genes for the traits breeders might want to introduce into cultivated tomatoes, such as drought tolerance, Powell said.

    Co-authors of the paper include BTI professors Lukas Mueller, Greg Martin, Zhangjun Fei and Jim Giovannoni. Martin is also a professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), and Mueller, Fei and Giovannoni are adjunct professors in CALS. Giovannoni is also a research molecular biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS).

    The study was supported in part by grants from the joint ERA CAPS Regulatome project, the National Science Foundation, the Triad Foundation, the Max-Planck-Society and the European Union project PlantaSyst, and Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research. — By Michael J. Haas, Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University