The yield of sugar beet has continuously increased in the past decades. The question arises, whether this progress will continue in the future. A key factor for increasing yield potential of the crop is breeding progress. It was related to a shift in assimilate partitioning in the plant toward more storage carbohydrates (sucrose), whereas structural carbohydrates (leaves, cell wall compounds) u...

Several physiological processes were studied during sugar beet root development to determine the cellular events that are temporally correlated with sucrose storage. The prestorage stage was characterized by a marked increase in root fresh weight and a low sucrose to glucose ratio. Carbon derived from (14)C-sucrose accumulation was partitioned into protein and structural carbohydrate fractions ...

The species Beta vulgaris encompasses wild and cultivated members with a broad range of phenological development. The annual life cycle is commonly found in sea beets (ssp. maritima) from Mediterranean environments which germinate, bolt, and flower within one season under long day conditions. Biennials such as the cultivated sugar beet (B. vulgaris ssp. vulgaris) as well as sea beets from north...

Powdery mildew of sugar beet, a disease of major economic significance, was first described at the beginning of the 20th century, and since then there has been some confusion over the correct taxonomic identity of the causal agent. In Europe, the fungus was initially classified as the novel species Microsphaera betae, later re-named Erysiphe betae, whilst in America it was identified as E. poly...

Winter moth, Operophtera brumata, originally from Europe, has invaded eastern Massachusetts causing widespread defoliation and damage to many deciduous tree species and a variety of crop plants in the infested area. We identified O. brumata nucleopolyhedrovirus (OpbuNPV) in winter moth larvae collected from field sites in Massachusetts by using PCR to amplify a 482 bp region of the baculovirus ...

The current study aimed to evaluate the variation in fermentation activity along the distal canine gastrointestinal tract (GIT, Exp. 1). It also aimed to assess fermentation kinetics and end product profiles of 16 dietary fibers for dog foods using canine fecal inoculum (Exp. 2). For Exp. 1, digesta were collected from the distal ileum, proximal colon, transverse colon, and rectum of 3 adult do...

The tiger moth Bertholdia trigona is the only animal in nature known to defend itself by jamming the sonar of its predators - bats. In this study we analyzed the three-dimensional flight paths and echolocation behavior of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) attacking B. trigona in a flight room over seven consecutive nights to determine the acoustic mechanism of the sonar-jamming defense. Three m...

The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hubner), has recently become a persistent and explosive pest of cotton in the southeastern United States. It is, however, attacked by a large and diverse complex of beneficial arthropods and pathogens that appear capable of maintaining beet armyworm populations below economically-damaging levels. Disruption of this complex contributes to outbreaks of S. exi...

Recent attention has focused on the harmful effects of introduced biological control agents on nontarget species. The parasitoid Compsilura concinnata is a notable example of such biological control gone wrong. Introduced in 1906 primarily for control of gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, this tachinid fly now attacks more than 180 species of native Lepidoptera in North America. While it did not pre...