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Spread of plant diseases by insects can be described by equations that model interplanetary gravity
September 05, 2006Researchers from Penn State University and the University of Virginia show that the spread of diseases by insects can be described by equations similar to those that describe the force of gravity between planetary objects. Their findings are detailed in the September issue of The American Naturalist.
Insects tend to transmit diseases in the course of feeding on plants, and their movement between plants is influenced by plant quality (how good of a meal they'll get) and the distance between plants, or, how far they'll have to travel to get to the next meal, explain Matthew Ferrari, Jessica Partain, Janis Antonovics, and Ottar Bjornstad.
"It turns out insects are more likely to move shorter distances between better plants," write the authors. "Interestingly, then, the probability of disease being passed between two plants goes up if they are closer and/or better, which parallels the stronger gravity between closer and larger planets."
The researchers tracked a fungal disease spread by bees and moths in the course of pollinating and feeding on nectar from white campion flowers at the University of Virginia's Mountain Lake Biological Station. As predicted by the behaviour of insects, the disease was more likely to spread shorter distances between plants that had many flowers.
"This implies that knowledge of insect behaviour can lead to better prediction of where disease will spread," explain the authors. In fact, these patterns are not limited to diseases of plants or diseases carried by insects. Bjornstad and colleagues have previously shown that similar patterns describe the spread of measles among cities, because people tend to travel more between large towns or only short distances.
University of Chicago Press Journals
The researchers tracked a fungal disease spread by bees and moths in the course of pollinating and feeding on nectar from white campion flowers at the University of Virginia's Mountain Lake Biological Station. As predicted by the behaviour of insects, the disease was more likely to spread shorter distances between plants that had many flowers.
"This implies that knowledge of insect behaviour can lead to better prediction of where disease will spread," explain the authors. In fact, these patterns are not limited to diseases of plants or diseases carried by insects. Bjornstad and colleagues have previously shown that similar patterns describe the spread of measles among cities, because people tend to travel more between large towns or only short distances.
University of Chicago Press Journals
Plant Disease Current Events and Plant Disease News RSSPeople only eat 1 when the chips are brown
Dr. Don Henne isn't wasting his degree when he's standing by the deep fryer waiting for potato slices to turn brown. He's conducting research that will help the potato industry and consumers.
Laurel Wilt of Redbay and Sassafras: Will Avocados be Next?
Scientists with the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS), Iowa State University, and the Florida Division of Forestry have provided the first description of a fungus responsible for the wilt of redbay trees along the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Humans fostering forest-destroying disease
Enjoying your August vacation? Well, (as they say in the summer movies) there's a killer in the woods. Its strike has been consistently quiet, sudden, and deadly.
Californians urged to help reduce spread of Sudden Oak Death
An update on the increased spread of Sudden Oak Death, a plant disease devastating many of California's coastal oak and tanoak trees, and information on what Californians can do to help reduce its spread will be presented during a news conference on plant diseases that are of importance to California's economy and agriculture.
Small, self-controlled planes combine plant pathology and engineering
A Virginia Tech plant pathologist has developed autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to detect airborne pathogens above agricultural fields.
Better together: Bacterial endosymbionts are essential for the reproduction of a fungus
Endosymbiotic relationships—in which one organism lives within another—are striking examples of mutualism, and can often significantly shape the biology of the participant species.
More than drought affecting wheat yields
Wheat producers have more than the drought cutting into their yields this year, said two Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers.
Balancing male fertility and disease resistance
An international collaboration of researchers, headed by Dr. Shiping Wang (Huazhong Agricultural University, China) has discovered that a single gene in rice regulates both male fertility and pathogen resistance, providing an unexpected genetic link between reproductive success and the disease resistance.
Plant-derived vaccines safeguard against deadly plague
Through an innovative feat of plant biotechnology and vaccine design, researchers in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have successfully turned tobacco plants into vaccine production factories to combat the deadliest form of plague.
Vineyard weeds found to host Pierce's disease of grapes
New research just released in the September issue of Plant Disease suggests that weeds commonly found in California's wine country may enable the spread of Pierce's disease of grapes, one of the most destructive plant diseases affecting grapes.
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