Technician Teresa Koppin checks sucrose content of
a beet using a near-infrared instrument. Click the image for more
information about it.
Read the
magazine
story to find out more. |
Toward a Better Sugar Beet
By Don Comis
April 12, 2004
A team of Agricultural
Research Service scientists in East Lansing, Mich., is well on its way
toward developing sugar beets with improved seedling vigor, higher sugar
content, enhanced disease resistance and other valuable traits.
J. Mitchell McGrath, a geneticist at the ARS
Sugar Beet and Bean Research
Unit in East Lansing, leads the team, which has given the
Beet Sugar Development Foundation of
Denver, Colo., a simple test for seedling emergence. The emergence test has
already led to commercial varieties with higher germination rates.
The team also discovered two possible genetic markers for
seedling vigor, which is the ability of a seed to sprout and of the seedling to
survive in adverse environments.
Regarding high sugar content, the researchers found a possible
marker to predict beets with this trait when they're about seven weeks old,
instead of waiting for full growth in about 25 weeks. McGrath and colleagues
theorize that beets with the highest sugar content aren't better at storing
sugar, just better at keeping the concentration high by letting less water
in.
The scientists are also on the trail of the genes for resistance
to two major seedling disease agents: Aphanomyces and
Rhizoctonia. Disease is the main threat to a seedling's survival in its
first month. The researchers have developed a test for Aphanomyces
seedling disease and used it to show there are two genes for resistance.
They're also examining sugar beet germplasm to develop ideas that could help in
breeding for resistance to Rhizoctonia seedling disease.
Read more
about the research in the April issue of Agricultural Research
magazine.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. |