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  • From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
  • To: Gardenwriters on Gardening <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [gwl-g] FW: A Genetic Boost for Tomatoes
  • Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 09:45:28 -0700



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From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 10:01:42 -0400
To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom@hevanet.com>
Subject: A Genetic Boost for Tomatoes

STORY LEAD:
Tomatoes Get Genetic "Boost" Under Sustainable Ag System
___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
David Elstein, (301) 504-1654, delstein@ars.usda.gov
July 6, 2004
___________________________________________

Tomatoes grown in a sustainable agricultural system using a legume cover
crop as fertilizer had better disease resistance and lived longer than
tomatoes grown on black polyethylene mulch with chemical fertilizer,
Agricultural Research Service scientists report.

Based on a five-year sustainable agriculture study, the results are
published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific
research agency.

The scientists showed that at least 10 genes in the leaves of tomatoes grown
in the sustainable system were turned on longer, or "over-expressed,"
allowing those tomatoes to live longer than tomatoes grown on the plastic
mulch. These "over-expressed" genes may respond to signals emanating from
the specific ratio of nitrogen, carbon and other elements provided by the
cover crop.

The researchers compared the two tomato cultivation systems at the ARS Henry
A. Wallace Beltsville (Md.) Agricultural Research Center. In one system,
tomatoes were grown under the traditional method of black polyethylene mulch
with chemical fertilizer, a common planting regimen in the Middle Atlantic
and Southeastern states.

In the other planting system, the scientists grew tomatoes in the
sustainable system, in which the plants received half the chemical
fertilizer and fungicide applied in the traditional system. The sustainable
system relied on hairy vetch--a nitrogen-fixing legume cover crop--to
provide soil nutrients and some natural leaf disease protection.

The scientists also believe the cover crop allows the tomato root system to
produce increased levels of cytokinins, a class of plant hormones that delay
senescence and let the plant live longer.

With the genes identified that impart disease tolerance and longevity,
researchers may be able to use that knowledge to breed plants that are even
more highly responsive to sustainable production systems.

The research was conducted by Autar K. Mattoo and Vinod Kumar of the ARS
Vegetable Laboratory, Beltsville; James D. Anderson of the ARS Plant
Sciences Institute, Beltsville; and Douglas J. Mills, now at Georgia State
University, Atlanta.
___________________________________________

* This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
subscribers on weekdays.
* Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm
* NewsService@ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/news
* Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1648








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