Pesticide Potpourri

• The University of Arkansas and Monsanto have confirmed glyphosate-resistant johnsongrass in a field in southeast Arkansas.  In a separate case, Monsanto and specialists at Mississippi State University (MSU) confirmed a case of johnsongrass resistance to glyphosate near Clarksdale, Mississippi.  The two cases were investigated over the past several months.  In initial greenhouse trials conducted by the University of Arkansas and Monsanto, johnsongrass was not controlled with labeled rates of glyphosate.  The field in question has been in continuous Roundup Ready soybeans.  (Feedstuffs, 3/12/08).
•  Widespread “contamination” of corn, soybean and other crops by genetically engineered varieties is threatening the “purity” of organic food products and driving purveyors of such specialty products to new efforts to protect their markets.  A range of players, from dairy farmers to food retailers, are behind an effort to introduce testing requirements and standards for certification aimed at keeping co-mingling at bay.  Organic Consumers Association national director Ronnie Cummins was quoted as saying, “Now there is a real shortage of organic grain for animal husbandry and dairy operations.  People are having to be real careful.”  Proponents have presented the plan at an industry meeting in Anaheim, California, seeking to get the entire organic foods industry to agree on testing and standard certifications.  Companies that get certified will be allowed to use a seal designating as such on their products.  Michael Funk, CEO of United Natural Foods, which is backing the initiative, was quoted as saying, “We think we can keep the contamination from getting worse by putting safeguards in place so people who want to choose to eat organic products free of genetic contamination can do so.  The longer we delay ...  the more challenging it is going to be.”  The USDA has a set of national standards for foods labeled organic as part of its marketing service, but the organic industry members seeking independent testing said the USDA has not gone far enough to require organic foods be free from biotech “contamination.”  (Reuters, 3/13/08). 
•  Ethanol fuel production in the U.S.A. averaged 423,000 barrels per day in 2007, an increase of more than 34 percent over 2006 production, according to the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA).  Ethanol fuel production totaled 6.48 billion gallons in 2007, far above the 4.7 billion gallons of renewable fuel required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.  Ethanol production will have to continue to increase this year, as the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 includes a new Renewable Fuel Standard that requires 8 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be blended into the country's fuel supply in 2008.  That's an annual growth rate of more than 23 percent, but the industry appears ready to meet that challenge.  According to the RFA, there are currently 143 ethanol biorefineries with the combined capacity to produce 13.4 billion gallons per year of ethanol fuel, well above that required by the new standard.  The industry is also building another 57 biorefineries and expanding seven existing biorefineries in an effort that will boost ethanol production capacity by another 5.2 billion gallons.  And those capacity additions are yielding economic benefits, too, as a new report concludes that the ethanol fuel industry created nearly 240,000 new jobs in 2007 and added $47.6 billion to the nation's gross domestic product.  With U.S. gasoline consumption at about 9 million barrels per day, one question is how the U.S. fuel infrastructure will absorb a steadily increasing supply of ethanol.  One answer is a greater use of flex-fuel vehicles, which can burn E85, but most cars are currently burning at most 10 percent ethanol blends, or E10.  Fueling the entire nation with E10 would allow for a doubling of ethanol production from the 2007 production level, but the new fuel standard calls for ethanol consumption to more than double by 2012.  The answer may come from states like Minnesota, which has found that current vehicles and fuel dispensing equipment can handle ethanol blends as high as 20 percent.  The year-long research effort will lead the state and its partners to apply for a waiver from the EPA to allow E20 to be used for all of the state's gasoline.  If approved, such a change could nearly double the ethanol demand in Minnesota, a state where much of the nation's ethanol is produced, and could serve as a model for other states.  (Tech News Daily, 3/17/08). 
•  The UK’s Advertising Standards Association (ASA) has banned a series of advertisements by Cotton Council International for claiming that cotton is produced in an environmentally sustainable way.  Trading under the Cotton USA banner, the ads described cotton as “soft, sensual and sustainable.”  The advertising regulators received three complaints challenging the ad arguing that cotton is a “pesticide- and insecticide-intensive crop” that could “seriously deplete” groundwater in the high plains region of the USA.  In its ruling, the ASA concluded that magazine and poster advertisements for Cotton USA, which state “soft, sensual and sustainable, it’s Cotton USA,” should  “no longer appear in their current form.”  (Ecotextile News, 3/19/08). 
•  A research team from Virginia Tech has identified an enormous superfamily of pathogen genes involved in the infection of plants.  The Avh superfamily comprises genes found in the plant pathogens Phytophthora ramorum and Phytophthora sojae.  The pathogen genes produce effector proteins that manipulate how plant cells work in such a way as to make the plant hosts more susceptible to infection.  The results suggest that a single gene from a common ancestor of the both pathogen species has spawned hundreds of very different, fast-evolving genes that encode for these highly damaging effector proteins.  The scientists probed the recently published genome sequences of both organisms using bioinformatic tools that can look for specific amino acid sequences or motifs.  Advanced searches of the genome sequences (BLAST and Hidden Markov Model) revealed that the P. sojae and P. ramorum genomes encode large numbers of effector proteins (374 from P. ramorum and 396 from P. sojae) that likely facilitate the infection of their host plants.  The Avh gene superfamily is one of the most rapidly evolving parts of the genome.  Duplications of genes are common and presumably responsible for the rapid expansion of the family.  The diversity and duplication of genes noted in the sequences are consistent with maximizing the number of effector genes in the pathogens while making it increasingly difficult for the host defense systems to recognize invading molecules, ideal features for effector proteins aimed at wreaking havoc on susceptible plant hosts.  Professor Brett Tyler of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, the leader of the project, remarked: “The extraordinary speed with which the Avh genes are evolving suggests that these genes are key to the pathogens’ ability to outwit the defense systems of the plants.”  (EurekAlert, 4/3/08).
•  Researchers have designed an E. coli bacterium in such a way that it can be used to search out atrazine, thus helping improve efforts to mitigate contamination sites.  Escherichia coli has receptor proteins on its cell surface that can identify chemicals of interest, enabling the bacterium to follow a chemical along its concentration gradient to its source.  The recognition information is passed along the cell, eventually triggering its whip-like tail, or flagellum, to rotate either one way to move forward or the other way to tumble randomly.  To direct this motion, researchers used a strain of E. coli that lacked the gene needed to move cells forward.  The group engineered a segment of RNA, or riboswitch, containing the gene.  In the presence of atrazine, the switch was turned on, allowing the bacterium to move toward higher concentrations of the chemical.  Some bacteria can metabolize atrazine, creating another chemical by-product as waste.  The team members showed that they could create a riboswitch that recognized atrazine but not the by-product.  Justin Gallivan of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, said that by incorporating genes from atrazine-eating bacteria, it should be fairly straightforward to engineer a bacterium that can seek out and destroy the pesticide.  (Thaindian News, 4/10/08). 
•  Activists have joined Italian beekeepers in calling for a ban on the use of neonicotinoids after more than 40,000 bees died in recent months.  The Italian news agency ANSA reported 200 protesters rallied in early April outside the agriculture ministry, waving banners that highlighted their concern about the perceived relationship between the seed treatments and bee colony die-offs.  The National Union of Italian Beekeepers said some studies have suggested the insecticide leads bees to stop feeding larvae and hurts their navigational abilities.  It is estimated about 200,000 beehives disappeared in Italy last year, ANSA said.  The agricultural union Coldiretti said a third of all farm produce depends on insect pollination, mostly carried out by bees.  (United Press International, 4/10/08).