19
votes
Accepted
Does cell culturing contribute to dangerous antibiotic resistance to the same degree as livestock?
Antibiotics are used in very different ways in cell culture and in livestock farming.
As you note, in farming, antibiotics are used to manage infection in unsanitary conditions and also to increase ...
- 6,967
14
votes
Accepted
Why are fruits so large compared to their seeds?
The short answer: Fruits are large compared to seeds because humans have made them large.
In the natural environment, there is a different set of evolutionary pressures. A fruit has to be able to ...
- 9,434
13
votes
Accepted
Did the old world have relatives of plants which were brought after the discovery of Americas?
Three of your examples: potato, tomato, and chilies, are from the genus Solanum. Along with the rest of the Solanaceae family, they are most diverse in the Americas but some species are found ...
- 41.2k
4
votes
Accepted
Impact of latitude on agriculture?
I know this response is coming a bit late but in case you're still curious I have a response!
I'm a M.Sc. student working in Agricultural entomology in Northern Canada (between 55 and 59 degrees ...
- 56
4
votes
Accepted
Potato Power. Self sustaining medium using a living potato plant possible?
Yes, the potato clock will work when still in the ground, but it won't work any better than a potato removed from the ground.
Potato batteries are awesome and cool projects, but they often convey the ...
- 808
4
votes
Accepted
Are sizes of potatoes normally distributed?
According to Evaluation of the Effect of Density on Potato Yield and Tuber Size Distribution potato tuber size was estimated using a normal distribution but they are not normally distributed
They ...
- 963
3
votes
Do you know of ways that help a plant to produce more flowers?
Each species of flowering plant produces a set number of floral parts, more or less. Having three styles and three stigmas per flower is a trait that is determined genetically. Mutations can cause ...
- 2,395
3
votes
What kind of parasite is this?
This is pear rust (Gymnosporangium sabinae).
It is fairly widespread in the northern hemisphere:
It is a fungal infection and affects pear trees from junipers. Pruning the affected nearby junipers ...
- 1,794
3
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to produce bread using only microorganisms?
It looks like that yeast has been engineered to produce starch.
First of all, the authors had to knock out the genes responsible for the glycogen metabolism pathway (both glycolysis and ...
- 1,313
2
votes
Accepted
Why is it common to grow microalgae in bottles or canisters?
Really, the credit for this answer goes to another 'Homo sapien' from the Spirulina manual link in his comment.
Why do they use bottles or any type of bottle-like canister?
Likely, because they are ...
- 3,318
2
votes
Why are fruits so large compared to their seeds?
Because seeds are not appealing to animals and they can only be carried by animals if they are made appealing - there are exceptions of course such as this one -. Seeds are covered with juicy layers ...
- 489
2
votes
Are agave plants perennial?
Agave is more closely related to asparagus and hyacinths than to cactus. They are perrenial, you can harvest the lowest half of the leaves to make it look like a little palm tree, it will die after ...
- 9,287
2
votes
Accepted
Are agave plants perennial?
When harvesting agave nectar, generally the whole plant is harvested at once to get to the core, where most of the sap is. There isn't exactly an easy way to continually get nectar from the agave ...
- 36
2
votes
Why people don't harvest Locusts when infestation happeds?
Locusts have been harvested in Thailand and Australia they call them sky-prawns. They deep-fry them and consume them happily.
http://www.bugsfeed.com/locust
http://www.fao.org/docrep/017/i3246e/...
- 9,287
2
votes
Potato Power. Self sustaining medium using a living potato plant possible?
Placing copper on one side of the potato and zinc on the other will not "suck the energy out of the potato".
the energy in the potato NEVER gets converted into electricity. The metals do all the work,...
- 360
2
votes
Is there a practical upper limit to ploidy?
Note that it is customary to restrict posts to a single question, which is easier to answer for these complex topics. I'll do what I can here. I'm going to deal with everything at once and then ...
- 8,728
2
votes
Hybrid corn yield vs mass-selected corn
Hybrid corn IS a "Mendelian selection scheme". The issue here is more predictability and uniformity of crop growth and yield.
Normally, plants are genetically varied and having different ...
- 1,709
2
votes
Accepted
Do spring varietes of cereals have a process of vernalization?
The answer depends to some degree on what you mean by "some process of vernalization". As far as I know, the difference between winter and spring varieties is a matter mostly of how strong ...
- 8,728
2
votes
Can bottlenecked potato immunity defence be increased with knockouts?
This sounds to me like a CRISPR approach used to create S (blight susceptibility) gene knockouts that are then screened for blight resistance, though it's a little hard to know for sure due to the ...
- 8,728
2
votes
Accepted
Is somatic fusion/hybridization off-limits to DIY-ers? ELSE: how can an infertile plant's characteristics be salvaged to a fertile one?
Not 100% impossible, but highly unlikely (upwards of 99% impossible) for the average home experimenter to be able to do.
Your biggest barriers will be
Cost - you need extensive, very expensive ...
- 9,338
1
vote
Saving a Maize Landrace from Inbreeding Depression
After planting the 10 seeds, manually cross-pollinate the plants with each other to ensure that (1) there's no self pollination, (2) every seed contributes equally to the gene pool, and (3) no foreign ...
- 111
1
vote
Optimal agriculture: maximum yield with minimum environmental impact
I believe you are looking for information on "sustainable agriculture". There are many aspects of production in agriculture like: fertilization, irrigation, pesticides and (no-)tillage. One ...
- 963
1
vote
Optimal agriculture: maximum yield with minimum environmental impact
Publications by the Food and Agriculture Organization http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/ca9692en of the United Nations would be a good place to start as they are freely accessible. There are ...
- 41
1
vote
Can we graft a tree with cells from the seed directly?
Tree grafting involves a rootstalk and a scion (part to be grafted onto the rootstalk). Here is a reference on the basics of grafting. Usually, this is done to combine the advantage of a strong or ...
- 441
1
vote
Accepted
Is it possible to extract tissue-culture material from a seed?
Yes. It's quite common, to the degree that it's done by some hobbyist plant breeders. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embryo_rescue However, AFAIK (I'm not an expert), it wouldn't be done for raising ...
- 3,633
1
vote
Should corn be considered an invasive species in the Midwest?
Should corn be considered an invasive species in the Midwest?
I agree with commenter Bryan Krause in that this question requires opinion -- but I think it only requires opinion as to the definition ...
- 172
1
vote
Mutate from non-GM to GM?
The process of genetically modifying crops is performed in a lab. Genes would not leak into planted organic crops from compost any more than they would move from decomposing soil nematodes, earthworms,...
- 7,627
1
vote
Accepted
How many kg of seed can one expect from 230 kg of cotton fiber?
According to this document (pdf) the rate is around 700 lb seed per 500 lb of fibre.
seed = 1·4 × fibre
230 kg fibre ≅ 320 kg seed
(Strangely, the rate has fallen over time.)
- 22.7k
1
vote
Why haven't modern grass based crops overrun wild grasses?
Modern grass crops (cereals) haven't run out in the wild is because that was the whole purpose of their development. What differs them from their wild counterparts are the domestication traits, like, ...
- 131
1
vote
Experimental Analysis: What are possible reasons for this increase in N₂O production?
This may have no correlation to your project but many insecticides, bacteriocides, and herbicides need a "solvent" or "transfer medium" such as water to be effective. Even when using ethanol in the ...
- 335
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