January 2025 Arkansas Ag Research Report
Ioannis Tzanetakis, professor of virology and director of the Arkansas Clean Plant Center, led an international effort to streamline global shipments of plant tissues.
IN THIS ISSUE:
- What are “phantom agents” and how does their identification offer potential to improve international food security?
- New software package developed to help understand how organisms change over time.
- Researchers are working to “beat the heat” on high nighttime stress in rice.
- Fruit breeder, geneticist honored with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
- WATCH: Casey Owens shares her passion for poultry science in our latest Behind the Discovery video.
A team of 185 agricultural scientists from more than 40 countries is calling for the removal of a long list of “phantom agents” from regulatory lists because they are outdated and impede access to plant materials clean from pathogens. Clean plants are needed for the sustainable production of crops.
Ioannis Tzanetakis, professor of plant virology and director of the Arkansas Clean Plant Center, led the efforts to identify 120 phantom agents in eight crops that still appear on regulated pathogen lists even though there is no way to accurately test for them. Their work was published in Plant Disease, the American Phytopathological Society’s publication.
Ioannis Tzanetakis is a professor of plant virology and director of the Arkansas Clean Plant Center.
Top Notch
Worthington wins a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
Margaret Worthington, director of the Fruit Breeding Program and associate professor of fruit breeding and genetics, received one of the highest honors bestowed by the United States government in January. Her Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) comes with $250,000 in additional grant funding.
“This PECASE Award demonstrates the national and international value and excellence provided by Dr. Margaret Worthington to fruit breeding, and we are thrilled for her to receive this,” said Mary Savin, professor and head of the Department of Horticulture. “The nomination and receipt of this award highlights Margaret’s capabilities and contributions to horticultural science and research and reinforces that NIFA recognizes — and has recognized — her value to advance fruit science, production and sustainability.”
Margaret Worthington, director of the Fruit Breeding Program for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
New Faces
Behavioral economist aims to bridge information gap between farmers, consumer
Most people go to the grocery store for food. Behavioral economist Shijun Gao goes for research.
Gao’s passion for learning where food comes from, how it’s produced and how consumers make choices about the foods they buy led him to pursue a career in agricultural economics. His research focus aims to enhance the flow of information between food consumers and food producers.
Gao joined the experiment station as a researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness in December 2024.
Listen — Food, Farms & Forests Podcast
In this episode of Food, Farms & Forests, Tim Burcham joins us to discuss the recently completed Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center — also known as NERREC. Burcham shares NERREC’s mission to help farmers achieve greater profitability and sustainability and to educate the public about the importance of rice and agriculture in Arkansas.
New episodes every other week! Subscribe on your favorite platform!
Research Spotlights
New software package drives deeper understanding of trait evolution
Evolution is complex and difficult to study, but a new software package developed by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station offers researchers a better way to simulate how organisms change over time.
TraitTrainR, the software package developed by a team led by Rich Adams, assistant professor of agricultural statistics with Entomology and Plant Pathology Department and the Center for Agricultural Data Analytics, could be used to address a host of compelling questions, including the evolution of pathogen resistance, crop resistance and invasive species.
“The big picture is trying to understand how living organisms function and how they came to function in the way that they do,” Adams said.
Rich Adams, assistant professor of agricultural statistics, and his team of researchers developed a new software package that can be used to better understand the diversity of life forms on our planet.
A way forward in breeding rice to withstand high nighttime stress
Vibha Srivastava, professor of plant biotechnology in the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences, explores the topic of breeding rice and the potential for gene editing to tolerate night heat in the December issue of Current Opinion in Plant Biology.
Her co-authors of the article are Christian De Guzman, assistant professor of rice breeding and genetics, and Samuel B. Fernandes, assistant professor of agricultural statistics and quantitative genetics, both researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Vibha Srivastava, professor of plant biotechnology, explores the potential for gene editing to help rice breeders adapt to high nighttime stress in the journal Current Opinion in Plant Biology.
The researchers were awarded a four-year grant last year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to breed rice for high nighttime tolerance.
How do road salts impact roadside microorganisms?
Shannon Speir, assistant professor of water quality in the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences, and her students are conducting studies to measure the impact that road salt and beet brine, a common eco-friendly alternative, have on freshwater ecosystems that receive the roadway runoff.
Speir said her team’s experiments showed road salt and beet brine did not significantly impact overall leaf litter decomposition even though decomposition rates were decreased in the presence of high levels of beet brine during the first week of the study only.
Shannon Speir and her team conduct water quality tests at Niokaska Creek in Fayetteville, Arkansas, as part of their research.
Watch
Casey Owens – Enhancing Poultry Quality
Casey Owens is at the forefront of improving poultry meat quality. One of her current studies is focused on marination and how certain functional ingredients could help improve meat texture. Owens’ passion for poultry began in high school through her involvement with FFA. At the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, that passion is still going strong.
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