b'EXTRASLETTUCE COULD PROTECT ASTRONAUTS BONESall possible ways to distribute this cropland across the globe, ON MARS TRIP while maintaining overall production levels for each crop. This allowed them to identify the option with the lowest environ-Astronauts might one day grow and eat genetically modifiedmental impact.plants to ward off disease associated with long spaceflights.ThestudywaspublishedinthejournalNature Researchers at the University of California, Davis College ofCommunications Earth & Environment.Engineering have developed a transgenic, or genetically mod- Source: University of Cambridgeified, lettuce producing a drug to protect against bone density loss in microgravity. Our bones are constantly balanced between growth andMIGRANTS FROM SOUTH CARRYING MAIZE resorption, allowing bones to respond to injury or changes inWERE EARLY MAYA ANCESTORSexercise. Spending time in microgravity disrupts this balance, tipping bones towards resorption, so astronauts lose bone mass.New research published this week by University of New Mexico This can be treated with a drug called parathyroid hormone, orarchaeologist Keith Prufer shows that a site in Belize was crit-PTH, but it requires regular injections.ical in studying the origins of the ancient Maya people and the Kevin Yates, a graduate student working with Professorspread of maize as a staple food.Karen McDonald and Adjunct Professor Somen Nandi at the UCAccording to the paper South-to-north migration preceded Davis Department of Chemical Engineering, developed a trans- the advent of intensive farming in the Maya region, published genic lettuce that expresses a fusion protein combining PTHthis week in Nature Communications and co-led by Prufer, exca-with part of a human antibody protein. The fusion protein isvations in Belize, along with ancient DNA analysis, indicate a designed to be stable in the bloodstream and to allow astronautspreviously unknown migration of peoplecarrying maizeto potentially purify the drug from plant extracts, Nandi said.from an area of South America northward to the Maya region.The team is evaluating the plants for how much of the drugPrufer and his colleagues excavated 25 burials dating they can produce, which leaves contain the most product andfrom 10,000 to 3,700 years ago from two cave or rock shelter the best time to harvest the leaves. sites located in the remote Maya Mountains of Belize, Central Source: University of CaliforniaDavis America. These sites were located below the overhang of tall limestone cliffs that sheltered the people living below and pro-tected the deposits of the everyday debris and burials of the dead RELOCATING FARMLAND COULD TURN BACKfor over 7,000 years. CLOCK 20 YEARS ON CARBON EMISSIONS, SAYThe excavated skeletons revealed a range of ancient DNA SCIENTISTS information on the movements of early populations in the Americas: An early southward migration of people from the Scientists have produced a map showing where the worlds majornorth by 9,600 to 7,300 years ago show only distant relatedness food crops should be grown to maximise yield and minimiseto present-day Mesoamericans, including Maya-speaking popu-environmental impact. This would capture large amounts oflations; Then, a previously unknown movement from the south carbon, increase biodiversity, and cut agricultural use of fresh- starting about 5,600 years ago made a major demographic impact water to zero. on the region, contributing more than 50% of the ancestry of all The reimagined world map of agriculture includes large newlater individuals. This new ancestry derived from a source ances-farming areas for many major crops around the cornbelt in thetral to present-day Chibchan speakers living from Costa Rica to mid-western U.S., and below the Sahara Desert. Huge areas ofColombia, according to Prufer, whose lab led the archaeological farmland in Europe and India would be restored to natural habitat. and isotope research.The redesignassuming high-input, mechanised farmingThe genetic prehistory of human populations in Centralwould cut the carbon impact of global croplands by 71%, byAmerica was largely unexplored, leaving an important gap in allowing land to revert to its natural, forested state. This is theour knowledge of the global expansion of humans, which is why equivalent of capturing twenty years worth of our current netthis research is really exciting and ground-breaking, Prufer CO2 emissions. Trees capture carbon as they grow, and alsoremarked.enable more carbon to be captured by the soil than when cropsSource: University of New Mexicoare grown in it.In this optimised scenario, the impact of crop production on the worlds biodiversity would be reduced by 87%. This wouldTHE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERUTILIZED CROPS drastically reduce the extinction risk for many species, for whichFOR FUTURE FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITYagriculture is a major threat. The researchers say that croplands would quickly revert back to their natural state, often recover- Staple crops are limited in their tolerance of a changing climate, ing their original carbon stocks and biodiversity within a fewforcing researchers and breeders to start to investigate new ways decades. to ensure future food security. A review in New Phytologist The redesign would eliminate the need for irrigation alto- examines the value of studying underutilized crops, which are gether, by growing crops in places where rainfall provides all thelocally important crops grown in limited regions, and identi-water they need to grow. Agriculture is currently responsible forfying the specific genes that underpin the crops adaptive and around 70% of global freshwater use, and this causes drinkingvaluable traits.water shortages in many drier parts of the world. The review demonstrates that extensive genome sequenc-The researchers used global maps of the current growinging is the best way to move from discussions of interesting and areas of 25 major crops, including wheat, barley and soybean,unique crops to the breeding of favourable varieties with the which together account for over three quarters of croplandspotential to move into the mainstream.worldwide. They developed a mathematical model to look atSource: Wiley46IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'