Earlier attempts were hampered by the sudden death of embryonic plants from apparently successful crosses. The new technique nurtures the plant embryo on a high- nutrient growth medium. Using this method, researchers have crossed domestic peanut lines with hardy wild varieties from Mexico. Unfortunately, tough, stringy lignin poses problems in feed quality and paper production. Now ARS researchers have discovered a gene that could change the structure of corn lignin so it disintegrates more easily.
Researchers suspect the corn gene has a counterpart in pine trees used in making paper.
Pine lignin that breaks down more easily could reduce the paper industry's current dependence on chemicals that can damage water quality. Telling good soldier flies from the bad ones just got easier. Many species of soldier flies are beneficial to agriculture because they help decompose plant material. But other species are pests of sod and wheat. For the first time, ARS scientists have compiled detailed descriptions of 33 genera of the subfamily Beridinae of the soldier fly family Stratiomyidae.