UC Davis News: Agriculture

Study Reveals How Plants and Bacteria ‘Talk’ to Thwart Disease

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

When it comes to plants’ innate immunity, like many of the dances of life, it takes two to tango. A receptor molecule in the plant pairs up with a specific molecule on the invading bacteria and, presto, the immune system swings into action to defend against the invasion of the disease-causing microbe.

Unwrapping some of the mystery from how plants and bacteria communicate in this dance of immunity, scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified the bacterial signaling molecule that matches up with a specific receptor in rice plants to ward off a devastating disease known as bacterial blight of rice.

The researchers, led by UC Davis plant pathologist Pamela Ronald, will publish their findings in the Nov. 6 issue of the journal Science.

“The new discovery of this bacterial signaling molecule helps us better understand how the innate immune system operates,” Ronald said.

“Because similar pairs of receptors and bacterial signaling molecules are known to exist not only in rice but also in other plants, as well as animals and humans, we are hopeful that this work will lead to new strategies for controlling diseases in plants and people,” she said.

Disease resistance background

In 1995, Ronald’s laboratory identified the XA21 gene, which produces a receptor protein that recognizes Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae, also known as Xoo, which causes bacterial blight disease. Xoo and other species of Xanthomonas infect virtually every crop species in the world.

Subsequent discoveries revealed that receptors with striking structural similarities to the XA21 receptor protein exist in other plants, flies, mice and even humans. These receptors were later named pattern recognition receptors or PRRs because they have the ability to recognize molecules that occur across species in a large class of disease-causing microbes. These receptors then can launch a protective immune defense on behalf of the plant or animal.

Together, the receptors (PRRs) and the microbial molecules they recognize comprise a previously unknown system of immunity called innate immunity. As the name suggests, this form of immunity is built into the genetic makeup of the plant, rather than developing over time with repeated exposure to disease-causing microbes. Unlike animals, plants do not produce antibodies.

The new findings

In their newly published study, Ronald and her colleagues identified a peptide -- a compound that they call ax21 -- as the molecule that binds with the XA21 receptor protein. The binding triggers a defense response against the bacterial disease.

The researchers note that ax21 is also found in many other species of Xanthomonas as well as in Xylella fastidiosa, a microbe that causes the devastating Pierce’s disease in grapes. Furthermore, ax21 is even found in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, a bacterium that causes respiratory tract infections in humans.

“These studies have led to a convergence in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that govern how disease-causing microbes interact with the plants and animals they infect,” Ronald said.

“We are hopeful that these discoveries will benefit agriculture and medicine in the United States and around the world by leading to development of treatments that will disrupt bacterial infection,” she said.

Working with Ronald on this study were Sang-Won Lee, Sang-Wook Han, Malinee Sririyanum, Chang-Jin Park and Young-Su Seo, all researchers in the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology.

Funding for the study was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and by the National Institutes of Health.

About UC Davis

For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges -- Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science -- and advanced degrees from six professional schools -- Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

Genome Sequence for the Domestic Horse to Be Unveiled

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The whole genome sequence of the domestic horse has been completed by the genome-sequencing center of The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, in collaboration with an international team of researchers that includes scientists at the University of California, Davis.

Findings from the genome sequence have important implications for improved breeding of horses, which constitute a $39 billion industry in the United States alone, and for studies of human health. They will be reported in the Nov. 6 issue of the journal Science.

“This very high-quality genome sequence of the horse is important because it gives us access to specific sequence information that we can now apply to identify the genes for specific traits in the horse,” said geneticist Cecilia Penedo of UC Davis’ Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, a co-author on the paper.

As a collaborator in the international Horse Genome Project, Penedo contributed to the genome sequencing effort by supplying DNA from Arabian horses and Quarter horses and by working on a horse linkage map, which identified a linear order of genetic markers along the horse chromosomes.

Also collaborating on the project from UC Davis were James Murray, a professor of animal science who has worked with the Horse Genome Project since its inception in 1995, and Stephanie Pedroni, then a UC Davis staff researcher and genetics graduate student.

“Having access to multiple genome sequences makes it easier to understand all genomes, including our own,” Murray said. “By looking at the horse genome, we can better understand human biology and human diseases.”

In reporting the horse genome sequence, the researchers noted that there are more than 90 hereditary conditions that affect both humans and horses. Because horses share these conditions, which include infertility, inflammatory diseases and muscle disorders, the horse is an important model for improving the understanding of human diseases.

The sequencing project revealed that the horse genome is somewhat larger than the dog genome and smaller than the human and cow genomes. In comparing the horse and human chromosomes, the researchers discovered that 17 out of 32 -- or 53 percent of -- horse chromosome pairs are composed of material from a single human chromosome, while only 29 percent of dog chromosomes are composed of material from a single human chromosome. This indicates that fewer chromosome rearrangements separate humans from horses than separate humans from dogs.

The researchers were also surprised to find on horse chromosome 11 the existence of an evolutionarily new centromere. Centromeres are key structural features of chromosomes that are necessary for their movement when cells divide, a function that ensures normal distribution of all genetic material to each daughter cell. The functional but evolutionarily immature centromere in the horse may provide a model to study factors responsible for how centromeres function.

Penedo noted that the completion of the high-quality horse genome sequence has provided researchers around the world with ready access to specific gene sequences that can be applied to mapping various traits of the horse.

She and genetics graduate student Leah Brault are using this information in their research focused on identifying the cause of equine cerebellar abiotrophy, a genetic, neurological condition found almost exclusively in Arabian horses. Studies have shown that a horse can carry the gene for equine cerebellar abiotrophy and not be affected by it. However, if two horses carrying the gene are bred, there is a 25-percent likelihood that the resulting foal will manifest the condition, which causes serious neurological problems including head tremors and poor equilibrium.

The sequencing of the horse genome was funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute, the Dorothy Russell Havemeyer Foundation, the Volkswagen Foundation, the Morris Animal Foundation, and Italy's Programmi di Ricerca Scientifica di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale.

About UC Davis

Federal Stimulus Funds to UC Davis Will Bring 250 Jobs

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Federal stimulus grants to UC Davis will put some 250 people to work on earthquake safety, new sources of clean energy and West Nile virus control, among dozens of other research projects. So far 53 of the jobs are in place, with the rest expected to come on line in the near future.

UC Davis job numbers were announced today as part of a national report from the White House on initial outcomes from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and are based on an analysis of $69.9 million in stimulus awards the campus had received as of Sept. 30. Overall, UC Davis has submitted more than $500 million in proposals for stimulus funds.

According to the White House report, awards to UC Davis have generated 53 full-time-equivalent positions on campus, ranging from lab technicians to professors.

At least 200 additional employees will be required to carry out research projects funded by the stimulus awards, campus officials say. Further job-creation numbers will be reported to the federal government at the end of the year.

"In addition to creating and preserving jobs in a difficult economy, these grants will support important research in medicine, basic sciences and engineering that will have long-term benefits for the economy of California and the nation -- and they will help us to train the next generation of scientists," said Barry Klein, vice chancellor for research at UC Davis.

"Moreover, we are optimistic that discoveries made in the course of stimulus-funded research will create new enterprises and additional long-term, sustainable jobs," Klein said.

Signed into law by President Obama in February, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act charged the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation with distributing $11.2 billion in stimulus funds to scientists around the country.

The program is intended to save or create more than 3.5 million jobs nationwide over the course of two years, while helping to revitalize the nation's scientific research enterprise.

According to information available online from federal agencies that administer research funding, UC Davis faculty had received 176 stimulus grants worth $69.9 million as of Sept. 30. The projects include:

* $2.3 million to study the spread of tuberculosis, which kills some 1.7 million people worldwide each year

* $2 million to develop a new, more powerful electron microscope

* $1.5 million to the Clinical and Translational Science Center, which focuses on bringing promising medical research to the bedside

* $780,000 for research on building foundations that can withstand earthquakes

* $685,000 for cardiovascular research

* $548,000 for tools for predicting outbreaks of West Nile virus

* $490,000 to study the use of ultrasound in cancer treatment

* $478,000 for influenza virus studies

* $379,000 to explore causes of autism

* $378,000 for engineering and implanting replacement knee joint tissue

* $330,000 for technology that could lead to new materials for storing data

* $240,000 for research on cobalt water-splitting catalysts, a possible source of clean energy

* $206,000 to explore use of virtual reality technology for social-skills training of children with autism

Stimulus funds also are helping to fund a summer program to bring high school and college students, and teachers from schools at all levels, to university labs to learn about stem cells. Stimulus funds also help to pay graduate students studying for doctoral and master's degrees in science or engineering at UC Davis.

Stimulus funds have significantly boosted research funding the campus receives from established government and philanthropic channels. Support from external sources has more than doubled from $299 million in 2000-01 to $622 million for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

The stimulus program requires quarterly reporting by grant recipients of estimated jobs created. For the first quarterly report, due Sept. 30, UC Davis used payroll records to calculate jobs supported by stimulus funds. That calculation yielded an estimate of 53 full-time-equivalent positions in place. The estimate of an additional 200 jobs is based on analysis of the budgets of awards received, many of which have not yet shown up in the payroll system.

"The payroll count method is transparent, verifiable and accurate, while the budget estimate gives a realistic picture of the expected job count from funds received to date," Klein said.

He noted, however, that calculation methods are not yet uniform nationally, or even within the University of California system.

About UC Davis

Psychiatrist-Philanthropist Gives $1 Million for Infancy Studies

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Dr. Robert Dorn, a Davis psychiatrist who devoted his career to understanding and treating mental health problems that originate in the earliest years of life, has given $1 million to support infant development research at UC Davis.

"People can get patched up, and sometimes that works very well. But I'd like this research to be about prevention, not repair," Dorn said. His gift will support a faculty member who conducts research into the social and emotional development of babies.

Dorn, 88, was associated with the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry for more than 20 years. He continues to serve as a volunteer associate in child development in the Department of Human and Community Development, and also maintains a part-time private psychiatry practice in downtown Davis.

The Robert M. and Natalie Reid Dorn Endowed Chair on Infancy will support a faculty member who will collaborate widely with faculty from other disciplines on research that ultimately will help parents and caregivers to better meet the needs of infants. Recruitment for the chair is under way.

The chair is named for Dorn and his wife of 40 years, Natalie, who died five years ago. The gift is the largest ever received by the Department of Human and Community Development.

“Something very important takes place at the beginning of life,” Dorn said. “If there is a good bond between the baby and its mother or the caregiver — if the baby ‘thrives’ — these early connections lay the groundwork for healthy development. As a clinician, I help patients recover from problems that often originate in late pregnancy, early infancy, the toddler phase or childhood. I hope this gift will help us prevent these problems."

The endowed chair holder's research will be based at the UC Davis Center for Child and Family Studies, a program of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences dedicated to advancing the field of child development. Dorn was a longtime volunteer at the center, one of a contingent of seasoned child development professionals who donated their time to work with mothers and toddlers. The group became known as the "grandparents group."

Dorn and his late wife moved to Davis in 1980. From 1981 to 1986, he served as chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center. He renamed the program “Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatry” during his tenure to emphasize the importance of family to an individual's mental health. Dorn remained a clinical professor of psychiatry at UC Davis until 2007.

Dorn earned his medical degree at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Following a stint in the military, he completed a medical residency and pursued additional medical training in England. He studied at the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London and worked at the University of London's Institute of Psychiatry and at The Institute of Neurology, Queen Square. He also became a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society.

During his years abroad, Dorn worked with Anna Freud, the daughter of Sigmund Freud. His teachers and mentors included John Bowlby, a pioneer in attachment theory, Jungian psychiatrist E.A. Bennet, and neurologist McDonald Critchley. Dorn incorporated elements of these varied approaches to therapy in his work as a psychiatrist.

The idea of a gift began as a discussion with UC Davis faculty about the need for additional research into the role that early emotional experiences play in human development.

“The social-emotional development of infants is extremely important as a foundation for life,” said Zhe Chen, professor and chair of human and community development. “One of the most significant and exciting research areas focuses on early attachment and neuropsychological development. We really appreciate Bob’s vision and effort in helping us build an endowed chair in this area.”

In creating an endowed chair, Dorn has strengthened UC Davis’ ability to pursue its academic mission, Chen said. Appointment to an endowed chair is one of the highest honors a university can bestow upon a faculty member. Created through funds that are permanently invested in order to provide annual interest income in perpetuity, these endowments support stellar teaching and research while ensuring the advancement of knowledge for generations to come.

Although Dorn is expansive in conversation about child development, he is almost shy in his role as a philanthropist.

“Your community gives to you, and you give back to your community,” Dorn said of his gift.

“I was lucky to be part of a nurturing community that made kids feel like we belonged," he said, recalling his childhood in Cleveland. "When children receive the right nurturing at the beginning of life, they grow into compassionate adults who are able to nurture the next generation.”

With his gift, the psychiatrist hopes to make possible insights and discoveries that will nurture compassionate adults for many generations to come.

About UC Davis

For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science — and advanced degrees from six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

$15 Million Horticulture Research Program to be Led by UC Davis

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Intent on helping the world’s poorest people break out of a persistent cycle of poverty by producing and marketing high-value crops, the U.S. Agency for International Development has selected the University of California, Davis, to lead a new $15 million, five-year global Horticulture Collaborative Research Support Program.

The new program will select and support U.S. and international partners as they undertake research, training, curriculum-development and outreach activities in the neediest countries, most located in sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia and Latin America.

The collaborative research effort will be responsible for developing and leading a broad range of activities that demonstrate how horticulture can help reduce hunger and malnutrition, and raise the incomes of the rural poor.

“This is not an easy task,” said Jim Hill, associate dean of International Programs in UC Davis’ College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “In seizing this opportunity we are committing ourselves to making sure that the rural poor have access to appropriate technology, markets, resources, training and supportive government policies.

“We are excited about the opportunity that USAID has provided,” Hill said. “Our focus now is on jump-starting the program so that we can fund research and implementation projects in the near future.”

The new program will be housed in the college’s Department of Plant Sciences under the leadership of Professor emeritus Ron Voss, a recognized extension specialist in the area of vegetable production and small farms.

There are eight other existing USAID Collaborative Research Support Programs around the nation, including a global livestock program led by UC Davis. Like the older programs, the new horticulture program will provide funding to foster collaboration among U.S. land-grant colleges and universities and institutions in developing countries.

(Land-grant institutions, including the University of California, were designated in the mid-1800s by the federal government to focus on teaching agriculture, science and engineering.)

The newly created horticulture program will address priorities that were identified in the USAID-sponsored Global Horticulture Assessment, conducted and written in 2004-2005 by a team of international horticultural and development experts led by Patrick Brown, a UC Davis plant science professor.

Voss noted that in the developing world, women provide as much as 90 percent of the labor for production of horticultural crops, yet often have limited access to resources, receive lower wages and have less stable jobs than men. Gender equity will, therefore, be one of the overarching themes of the new horticulture program. Other areas of emphasis will be innovative technologies and information accessibility.

Research topics will include improving germplasm or plant genetic material; local plant varieties; and sustainable production methods in horticultural crops that will ensure success in the marketplace. Because as much as 40 percent of the food grown in the target countries never reaches the table, there will be a special focus on reducing postharvest losses. Training aimed at decreasing the incidence of food-borne illnesses also will be provided.

Other key priorities will include developing and strengthening private-sector relationships, particularly related to markets and marketing, as well as improving local support for horticultural producers through short- and long-term student and professional training.

The results of research projects funded by the new horticulture program will be made available through a readily accessible database of information and training tools. All research projects in the program will include outreach and evaluation components to provide farmers, horticulturists, marketers and consumers in the developing world with the tools they need to improve their horticultural crop production, as well as their livelihoods, nutrition and health.

“Those improvements will translate into enhanced nutrition and human health, as well as improved social and economic conditions, for poor -- mostly rural -- communities, and especially for women in those communities” Voss said.

“By harnessing the research, training and outreach expertise of the land-grant universities in the U.S. to work with local developing country partners, we are confident that we can improve their knowledge generation and horticultural capabilities in much the same way that the land-grant system helped to revolutionize American agriculture,” he added.

Statewide Horse Day to Draw 4-H Youth to UC Davis

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

UC Davis’ Department of Animal Science will host the annual State 4-H Equine Field Day Saturday, Oct. 24 beginning at 10 a.m. More than 200 4-H members, parents and adult leaders are expected to participate in the daylong event, which will include educational presentations as well as a tour of the campus breeding facility and horse barn, a demonstration of a horse drill team and rides on a wagon pulled by draft horses.

Speakers from UC Davis will include equine facility supervisor Joel Viloria; animal science doctoral candidate Gerry Brown; veterinary resident Laramie Winfield and equine dental technician Tony Basile.

Presentation topics will include horse conformation and judging, shoeing and hoof care, health issues, equine dentistry, draft horses and driving, horse nutrition, riding in timed games known as gymkhana events, horse knowledge bowl, saddle fitting and tack, and foal behavior.

The California Cowgirls Rodeo Drill Team will perform at 12:30 p.m. in the Cole Facility arena, and internationally known horse trainer Charles Wilhelm will present a demonstration with horses at 2 p.m. in the arena.

4-H Field Day participants must be at least 9 years old or in the 4th grade or above, and should wear closed-toed shoes and bring an equestrian helmet to participate in the wagon ride. Admission on the day of the event will be $25 per person.

The daylong event will be held at the Cole Facility Horse Barn, located on La Rue Drive and Putah Creek Lodge Road on the UC Davis Campus. The Cole Facility can be reached by taking the UC Davis exit from Interstate 80. From the off-ramp, turn right onto Old Davis Road. After you pass the information booth, turn left onto California Avenue. Go past one stop sign, cross a small bridge and then turn left onto La Rue Road. Pass Bioletti Way on the right and park in Lot 47 on the right. Parking is free on the weekend.

New Centennial Olive Oil Goes on Sale

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The UC Davis Olive Center will begin selling this year’s Centennial Blend of extra virgin olive oil Wednesday, Oct. 14, at the campus bookstore in the Memorial Union. On that day, the oil will be sold for the special price of $10 per bottle, rather than the normal $12, and free olive oil tastings will be offered from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the entrance to the bookstore.

The oil also can be purchased online beginning Thursday, Oct. 15, at $12 per bottle from the UC Davis bookstore at http://bookstore.ucdavis.edu.

This is the second year that the award-winning olive oil program at UC Davis’ Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science has offered the Centennial Blend, commemorating the 100-year partnership between UC Davis and California’s olive growers and processors. This premium olive oil combines Spanish, Greek and Italian varietals from UC Davis trees and from olive producers in Butte, Glenn, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama and Yolo counties.

“This is a well-balanced blend that contains a bouquet of green apple with aromatic grassy flavors and a hint of banana and ripe olives,” said Dan Flynn, executive director of the olive center.

Proceeds from sales of the UC Davis Centennial Blend will benefit the UC Davis Olive Center, supporting future research and education. More information about the olive center is available at http://www.olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/.

About UC Davis

Food Scarcity and Prices Likely to Rise Without Infusion of Ag Research Dollars, Economists Predict

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Food around the world is likely to become scarcer and more expensive if the United States and other developing countries don’t bolster their investment in agricultural research, warns a team of economists from the University of California, Davis, and the University of Minnesota.

In a Policy Forum paper published this month in the journal Science, the researchers documented a slowdown since 1990 in the growth rate of general agricultural productivity and in the growth rates of yields of specific crops including corn, rice, wheat and soybeans -- the world’s major food and feed crops.

“The long-term consequences of a continuing slowdown in agricultural productivity growth could be dire, with more than one billion people around the world already suffering from malnutrition,” said UC Davis agricultural economist Julian Alston, an authority on the economic impact of government policy on agriculture.

“It is critical that the United States and other developing countries revitalize their investments in agricultural research and development, which has been the main driver of long-term growth in agricultural productivity,” he said.

Alston and his colleagues, Philip Pardey and Jason Beddow of the University of Minnesota, noted that a number of factors -- including climate change, land degradation, shifts to less productive areas, higher resource costs, evolving pests and diseases, and changes in governmental policies -- have all contributed to the slowdown in agricultural productivity growth.

“But part of the slowdown in productivity growth must be blamed on a slowdown in the growth rate of public and private investment in agricultural research and development, combined with a shift in research emphasis,” Alston noted.

Some research and development funds that were allocated for agriculture in recent decades have been redirected from productivity and toward improving food safety and product quality as well as to medical, energy and industrial uses of agricultural commodities, according to the researchers.

“Research and development have helped maintain yields as new pests, diseases and other environmental problems arise,” Alston said. “And development of new knowledge and technology has historically resulted in more abundant supplies of food at more affordable prices.

“Typically, such investments have benefited industrialized countries as well as developing nations, where more efficient agricultural systems can help alleviate hunger and poverty and reduce pressure on natural resources,” he said.

Funding for this study was supplied by the University of California; the University of Minnesota; the U.S. Department of Agriculture; the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics; and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, through the HarvestChoice Initiative.

About UC Davis

Bugs in Boxes Shed Light on Biological Invasions

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bugs in boxes are helping UC Davis researcher Alan Hastings improve scientific tools used to predict the spread of invasive plants and animals.

In today's edition of the journal Science, Hastings and a University of Colorado colleague report their latest findings from both a tightly controlled laboratory experiment and a mathematical model: When they released 600 identical beetles and let them spread at will through 30 identical landscapes over 13 generations, there was a surprising degree of difference in the outcome.

Some of the beetles went far and fast, traveling across 31 landscape patches in the 15-month experiment, while others went only a third as far. The rest fell somewhere in the middle.

Hastings said the results suggest that it won't be as easy as some had hoped to catalog all the factors that influence the spread of an invasion.

If it is difficult to predict the course of an invasion, it will be difficult to control it. And there are hundreds of destructive invaders in the U.S. alone, from kudzu to zebra mussels to the light brown apple moth.

"There appears to be this intrinsic variability, even in the simplest ecological settings, that means that difficulty in prediction is a basic feature of ecological systems," said Hastings, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy.

Hastings is currently a principal investigator or co-investigator on four grants totaling more than $1 million. These studies range from researching the dynamics of salmon and cod populations to species' response to global climate change.

Hastings' collaborator and co-author Brett Melbourne was previously a postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis, and is now an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

If invasion forecasts are to improve, Melbourne said, ecologists will have to keep trying to quantify the randomness in environmental and biological processes. "Ecological forecasts will become more like weather forecasts, with a stated range of probability but not certainty, like when the meteorologist says there is a 75 percent chance of rain on Thursday."

The study, "Highly Variable Spread Rates in Replicated Biological Invasions: Fundamental Limits to Predictability," is online at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/325/5947/1536.

It was funded by the National Science Foundation.

About UC Davis

UC Launches New Research Center to Study Health of Migrating People

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Intent on improving the health conditions of migrating people in California and around the world, the University of California’s Berkeley and Davis campuses are joining forces to launch a new Migration and Health Research Center.

The new research center will be formally announced Wednesday, Sept. 9, at the University of California Center Sacramento, located at 1130 K St. in Sacramento. A press conference will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., and an evening kick-off ceremony and reception for legislators, public health professionals and community representatives will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The new center will focus on conducting and sponsoring research related to acute and chronic illnesses and injuries among migrating people. The resulting research discoveries will be made available to help guide public policy aimed at alleviating such health problems.

Research studies involving immigrants of many ethnic backgrounds will address a broad spectrum of issues including domestic violence; alcohol, tobacco and substance abuse; diabetes and other nutrition-related diseases; occupational health and safety; and chronic disorders such as heart and lung disease.

“Immigrant workers have significantly higher rates of occupational injury and illness, yet have less access to health care,” said center director Marc Schenker, a professor in UC Davis’ Department of Public Health Sciences, who has more than 25 years of experience studying public health issues.

“The new Migration and Health Research Center will explore the causes and potential solutions for these very serious health issues by providing research and training opportunities for graduate students, faculty researchers and visiting professors from a variety of different specialty areas,” Schenker said.

The new center’s associate director, Xóchitl Castañeda is director of the Health Initiative of the Americas at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Castañeda brings with her a decade of experience in migrant health issues.

“Migrants represent a large and vitally important population in California and around the world, and this new center will provide the information necessary to help government agencies and private organizations better meet the health needs of a more diverse California,” said Castañeda, who has been active in organizing Binational Health Week events in the United States and many Latin American countries.

Current funding for the new center has been provided by the University of California’s Health Initiative of the Americas, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, California Program on Access to Care and research grants.

Mexican Consul Carlos González Gutiérrez said that his government is looking forward to the research findings that the new center will produce.

“Migration is a difficult process, regardless of the motivations behind it,” said González Gutiérrez. “Research about the transnational effects of migration on health is desperately needed to inform national and international health policy agendas,” he said.

State Sen. Gilbert Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) noted that one in every four Californians has immigrated to the state from his or her nation of origin, the highest percentage of immigrant residents of any state in the nation.

“Migrants in California and around the world struggle with a variety of challenges, including changes in living and working environments, and limited social services,” Cedillo said. “The new University of California center will play a critical role in addressing and overcoming those challenges.”

Steve Shortell, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health noted that his school is well-positioned to address the health-care needs of California’s first- and second-generation immigrants.

“This collaboration will enhance our multi-disciplinary approach,” Shortell said. “It will build across the 10 UC campuses and bridge national borders to become a Western Hemisphere leader in the emerging field of migration and health.”

Likewise, UC Davis, with its expertise in agricultural health and safety, migration and labor economics and public health will bring a wealth of experience to the new center, added Barry Klein, UC Davis’ vice chancellor for research.

“UC Davis has the intellectual capital to undertake fundamental research that can serve a world in which migration is shaping the demographic, economic and cultural landscapes,” Klein said.

The press conference and evening ceremony for the new center at 1130 K St. in Sacramento can be reached by taking I-5 north from Interstate 80. Take the J Street exit and make a slight right at J Street. Turn right at 12th Street and then turn right at the K Street-L Street alley. The UC Center Sacramento is on the right. The closest parking is at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, located on 12th Street, across from the center.

Regulatory Woes Blocked Flow of Agbiotech Innovations

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Regulatory changes enacted a decade ago appear to be responsible for dramatically slowing the flow of quality-improving agricultural biotechnology innovations to a mere trickle, reports a team of agricultural economists and biotechnology experts.

Findings from the study, published in the August issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology, suggest that the slowdown may have lasting social welfare costs, such as the delay of nutritional improvements, production efficiencies and environmental protections.

"One of the great frustrations in the agricultural biotechnology community has been the failure of many new products with enhanced quality traits -- such as nutritional content, ripening control and processing attributes -- to reach consumers and processers," said Gregory Graff, an agricultural economist now at Colorado State University.

Graff led the study as a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis, working with Alan Bennett, a UC Davis plant science professor and executive director of the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture, and David Zilberman, a professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley.

“While biotech innovations with on-farm production traits -- such as insect resistance and herbicide tolerance -- moved through the research and development pipeline relatively quickly, commercialization of product-quality innovations failed to materialize,” Bennett said. “It had been hoped that these products would directly benefit the general public and change public perception of agricultural biotechnology.”

To investigate the cause for the delay in commercializing product-quality innovations, the researchers conducted two surveys, one looking back on the history of 558 product-quality innovations and another looking forward at 49 quality-innovations expected to be developed by the year 2015.

The retrospective study found that many research breakthroughs related to flower color and fruit ripening occurred in the 1980s, when agricultural biotechnology was in its infancy. It was expected that research and development in these areas would have grown during the 1990s as new products entered the market. Instead, innovation in product-quality innovation leveled off around 1998 and then declined.

“That drop-off seems to be most closely linked to the halting of regulatory approvals for agbiotech products in Europe in 1998 and the repercussions that had for regulators in other countries,” said Zilberman. “While those regulatory responses were largely directed at controlling the risks of early pest-control biotechnologies, it may have contributed to a slowdown in the commercialization of product-quality innovations.”

The study was funded in part by a grant from the Council for Biotechnology Information.

Wolfskill Event to Celebrate Pioneer's Legacy

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The public is invited to celebrate the legacy of pioneering farmer John Reid Wolfskill during the Aug. 26 Winters Horticultural Symposium, to be held at UC Davis’ Wolfskill orchard experiment station, once part of a Mexican land-grant ranch near Winters.

The symposium is presented by the Winters History Project.

The program will begin with a 10 a.m. tour of the university's historic and productive Wolfskill property at 4334 Putah Creek Road. Professor Ted De Jong, a pomologist and the station's director, will lead the tour, which organizers said also will take in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Clonal Germplasm Repository.

Lunch is planned at the Buckhorn Steak & Roadhouse in Winters, and an olive oil tasting will be led by Dan Flynn, director of the UC Davis Olive Center, which produces oil from the fruit of trees that John Wolfskill planted in the 1860s.

The symposium is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at The Palms in the historic Winters Opera House, site of a UC Farmers Institute in 1897. That institute, in fact, inspired the 2009 symposium.

Speakers include historian Joann Larkey, discussing John Reid Wolfskill, who settled in the area in 1842 and planted the first commercial orchards and vineyards in the Sacramento Valley; and Karen Ross, president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers and a member of the state Board of Food and Agriculture, addressing the “Vision of California Agriculture in 2030.”

The program also includes area farmers and processors Russ Lester, Marty Mariani, Joe Martinez, Craig McNamara and Stan Tufts, whose grandfather was the first director of the Wolfskill station.

Other participants include Carolyn DeBuse, UC Cooperative Extension orchard systems farm adviser for Yolo and Solano counties; and, as moderator, Winters farmer Richard Rominger, former director of the state Department of Food and Agriculture and former deputy secretary of the USDA.

The day will conclude with a wine reception at the Winters Center for the Arts, where guests can view historic photos and artifacts.

The cost is $45 for the complete program (tour, lunch, symposium and wine reception) or $20 for the symposium and wine reception. Tickets are available online at http://wintershorticulturalsymposium.eventbrite.com or may be reserved by mail sent in care of Woody Fridae, 112 Liwai Village Court, Winters, CA 95694 (with checks made payable to the Winters History Project).