Cereal crops

Plant and Animal Nutrient. Copper is one of seven micronutrients that has been identified as essential to the proper growth of plants (87). Cereal crops are by far the most affected by copper deficiency (see Wheat and other cereal grains). Greenhouse studies have shown yield increases from 38% to over 500% for wheat, barley, and oats (88) using copper supplementation. A tenfold increase in the yield of oats was reported in France (89). Symptoms of copper deficiency vary depending on species, but often it is accompanied by withering or chlorosis in the leaves that is not ammenable to iron supplementation. In high concentrations, particularly in low pH sods, copper can be toxic to plants. 

Under natural conditions. Agrobacterium does not appear to infect monocotyledonous plants. Genetic manipulation of cereal crops using a Ti-plasmid delivered by Agrobacterium therefore seems out of the question. However, there are some data to suggest that Agrobacterium can, under certain circumstances, infect monocots, but that it does not cause... 

We have chosen carotenoid biosynthesis as the example system for demonstrating the prospects of biotechnology of food colorants for several reasons. Carotenoid biosynthesis is the second most understood system. Multiple examples of valuable food colorant engineering in fungi, bacteria, and plants have been reported. Finally, carotenogenesis in cereal crops such as maize and rice is the primary focus of our research efforts. Hopefully, we provide the food technologist with a template with which to examine other industrially important pigment systems. 

Matthews, P.D., Luo, R., and Wurtzel, E.T., Maize phytoene desaturase and zetacar-otene desaturase catalyze a poly-Z desaturation pathway implications for genetic engineering of carotenoid content among cereal crops, J. Exp. Botany 54, 2215, 2003. 

Other suggestions on distributed processing reach beyond the capabilities of today s micro reactors, and hence are of more visionary character [5]. These include desktop pharmacies, home-recycle factories, mobile factories, house-water treatment plants, processing cereal crops at the combine, purification of blood in the body, recycling of plastics in the collection vehicle and more [5]. 

The citrus and cereal crop groups can be represented by any crop within that group (below), with the exception of Unshu orange for citrus, and rice, corn and buckwheat for cereals. Data from Chinese orange can cover grapefruit, navel orange, etc., and wheat and barley can cover oat and rye. 

In general, triazines are pre- and post-emergence selective herbicides particularly effective on annual and perennial broadleaf and grassy weeds in corn, sorghum, cotton, soybeans, sugar cane, and a host of other fruit and cereal crops. Some have anti-fungicidal properties (e.g., anilazine), and some (e.g., simazine) can be used for... 

Winter barley is an ideal entry for oilseed rape because the earlier harvest allows early drilling of rape. It has been shown on organic farms that building up fertility by using a green manure crop, such as red clover, has paid off financially, with the subsequent boost in yield of the following cereal crop. 

A ready reckoner for the amount of N, P and K removed by certain representative crops is shown in Table 5.2. The requirement for P and K may be expressed in terms of the element rather than the oxide (P205 or K20). P205 contains 0.43 units of P K20 contains 0.83 units of K. The depletion of N, P and K from the grain of wheat, barley and oats is pro rata for yield, but the nutrient composition of the straw is different, oat straw containing very much more potassium than wheat or barley straw. Potatoes and kale are very much more exhaustive of N and K than the cereal crops. 

Barley is an important crop, with the best quality grains sold for malting and the remainder used for feeding all classes of stock, especially pigs, dairy cows and intensively fed beef. Barley straw can be used for bedding and as a maintenance ration. Barley is a shallow-rooted crop which grows well on chalk and limestone soils, with a preferred pH of 6.5. Its place in the rotation can be when soil fertility is low, which means that it can follow a previous cereal crop such as wheat. 

The total monetary loss resulting from weed competition in the cereal crops was 1.3 billion annually. The most frequently reported weeds were mustards (Brassica spp.) followed by wild oats (Avena fatua L.), bromes (Bromus spp.), and wild garlic (Allium vineale L.) (11). Losses in vegetables was 5% of the total while in fruit and nuts the loss was 7% of the total. Crabgrass, bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L. )... 

The germination stimulant or stimulants from host plants have not yet been identified, but research on isolation and identification of these allelopathic compounds continues. Other nonhost plants, such as cotton, also release chemicals which stimulate the germination of witchweed seed and these crops can replace the cereal crops in witchweed-infected fields. If no acceptable host is present, the witchweed plant is unable to mature and produce seed. The importance of cereal crops as a staple food in underdeveloped countries makes growth of nonhost crops only partially acceptable, and there are numerous wild hosts that allow the witchweed to germinate, mature, and produce more seed (several thousand seeds can be produced by a single plant). Nevertheless, application of either natural or synthetic stimulants in the absence of a host plant is an effective way of reducing and eventually eliminating the witchweed problem. 

A number of analogs were prepared to arrive at the above relationship. However, the identity of the chemicals needed for haustorial initiation and produced by any cereal crop remains unknown. The possibility of using a chemical to suppress or confuse haustorial formation has been recognized, but only a little work has been done on this aspect of control. The germinated seed will die in a short time if haustorial initiation and attachment are not realized. 

He also developed a seed disinfectant that was free of poisonous mercury, then widely used in agriculture. The disinfectant helped control Tilletia, a smut fungus that causes diseases in cereal crops. The product was introduced to Swiss agriculture in 1942, when grain supplies were extremely precarious. 

In fields where some weeds were cleared using herbicides, other, more herbicide-resistant, species have appeared, such as common horsetail, coltsfoot, foxtail, wild oats, false wheat, etc. As a result of herbicide use, scratchweed, which cannot be destroyed by any herbicide, is making inroads into cereal crops, and chamomile has taken over rapeseed [6]. Using herbicides on rice fields caused the spread of wild, pesticide-resistant, low-yield forms of red-grain rice. 

Evans V J and Jenkyn J F (2000), Fungicides for control of ergot in cereal crops , Pest and Diseases, Proceedings of an international conference held at the Brighton Hilton Metropole Hotel, UK, 13-16 November 2000, 511-514. 

Four cereal crops have thus far been utilized for the production of recombinant proteins maize, rice, wheat and barley. It is notable that, despite the attention given to tobacco, oilseed rape and potatoes as major expression systems, the only cultivated... 

In the quest to find other plants that are suitable as bioreactors, various monocoty-ledonous and dicotyledonous species have been tested. These include corn [16], rice and wheat [17], alfalfa [18], potato [19, 20], oilseed rape [21], pea [22], tomato [23] and soybean [24]. The major advantage of cereal crops is that recombinant proteins can be directed to accumulate in seeds, which are evolutionar specialized for storage and thus protect proteins from proteolytic degradation. Recombinant proteins are reported to remain stable in seeds for up to five months at room temperature [17] and for at least three years at refrigerator temperature without significant loss of activity [25]. In addition, the seed proteome is less complex than the leaf proteome, which makes purification quicker and more economical [26]. 

Starch is the major energy storage polysaccharide of cereal crops. It is a natural polymer of dextrose. Starch has two naturally occurring... 

Hoffman, G.J., Jobes, J.A. Growth and Water Relations of Cereal Crops as Influenced by Salinity and Relative Humidityl. Agron. J. 70(5), 765-769 (1978)... 

Yoshida S, Ogawa M, Suenaga K, He C. 1983. Induction and selection of salt-tolerant mutant rices by tissue culture-recent progress at IRRI. In Cell and Tissue Culture Techniques for Cereal Crop Improvement. Beijing Science Press, 237-254. 

Biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel originate from cereal crops such as plant oils, and sugar beets. Today the production cost of bioethanol cereal crops is still too high, which is the major reason why bioethanol has not made its breakthrough as a fuel source yet. When producing bioethanol from maize or sugar cane the raw material constitutes about 40-70% of the production cost. 

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