Flora & Fauna: Celebrity goat; pest-resistant tomatoes; eye-popping foliage; grizzlies on the move; pawpaw popularity

Crisco hasn't let stardom go to his head. He enjoys hiking
and roaming just like not-famous goats. (Facebook photo)

For people needing novel bucket-list items, adding a visit to see Crisco, the roaming goat turned celebrity, might be an excursion. "For nearly a decade, Crisco, who escaped a roundup, has ruled the bluffs overlooking this reservoir straddling Arkansas and Missouri," reports Jim Carlton of The Wall Street Journal. "His legend exploded after a Facebook page began chronicling his exploits three years ago. Now some 14,000 followers eagerly await Crisco updates."

It may seem unbelievable, but after 30 years of lab work, "Researchers finally completed a new line of tomatoes, bred with natural pest-resistant qualities, reports Shea Swenson for Ambrook Research. "Plant breeder and geneticist Martha Mutschler-Chu is about to successfully hand off new lines of pest-resistant tomatoes to any interested seed company, where they can ultimately be bred for commercial sales. . . . As far as Mutschler-Chu’s tomato is concerned, the process of creating it is considered traditional cross-breeding, not genetic modification."

The Midwest is predicted to have 'electric' fall colors. (Adobe Stock photo)

Fall is leaf-viewing season, and the country's heartland is the place to gawk. "Some of the most colorful displays could be in the Midwest. AccuWeather, the commercial forecasting service, said in early September that it expects especially vibrant foliage in states such as Michigan and Illinois," reports Patrick Whittle of The Associated Press. "The service also said powerful, popping colors are expected in upstate New York and parts of Pennsylvania, while New England will follow a more typical color pattern."

Ambrook map, from ArcGIS data,
click to enlarge

Grizzly bears haven't lived on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island for 10,000 years, but that may be about to change. Brian Payton of Hakai magazine writes, "There they were. . . a grizzly sow and two cubs browsing in the grass. As the cubs rose onto their hind legs, Joyce Ellis raised her camera, capturing a portrait of a family poised to change the course of natural history."

Fall bird migrations are in full swing and while there are lots of ways to follow favorite feathered friends, Birdcast has some incredible tracking tools, including real-time predictions of bird migrations, a migration dashboard and local bird migration alerts. To show birds more love, CornellLab offers seven simple actions to help birds thrive.

The charming hoiho (A.S. photo)

Delightful, shy and a little bit stinky, the "hoiho," or yellow-eyed penguin won New Zealand's 2024 Bird of the Year election," reports The Associated Press. Although the country's avian elections are "fiercely fought," there's little talk of "interference scandals and cheating controversies of past polls," instead campaigners start "meme wars, seek celebrity endorsements and some even [get] tattoos to prove their loyalty. . . . Hoiho supporters hope that recognition from its victory might prompt a revival of the endangered bird."

The pawpaw’s green skin, and its 'custardy'
interior (Photo by Kat Arazawa, Civil Eats)

For farmers and fans, September means a delicious trip to the pawpaw patch. "Pawpaws are America’s largest edible native fruit, and their ineffable mystique will bring thousands of visitors to the farm’s annual pawpaw festival in late September," reports Ben Seal of Civil Eats. "Festivals in several states give people a chance to taste the fruit for the first time. . . a blend of banana, mango, and pineapple, so soft it’s eaten with a spoon. . . . Research and plant breeding efforts are underway to explore and expand its potential as a sustainable low-input, high-value crop that could figure into the future of small farms throughout the eastern U.S."

'Adam is with us.' A genealogist finds DNA from first man

William Noel has DNA that links back to the first
man. (Photo by Tristan Lorei, The Free Lance-Star)

According to Wikipedia, "a haplogroup (haploid from the Greek: ἁπλοῦς, haploûs, 'onefold, simple' and English: group) is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor with a single-nucleotide polymorphism mutation."

Very science-ish. Also, very exciting for participants in Virginia genealogist Paula Royster's research, which was "conducted into the origins of some of Fredericksburg’s oldest Black families—and for William Noel [a study participant] in particular," reports Adele Uphaus of The Free Lance-Star. 

Uphaus shares Royster's research announcement: “Mr. Noel, you are the only person living in these United States with this particular DNA type. You have the same haplogroup as the first human man. Adam is with us today.” 

Noel's DNA results "were so exciting that they kept her awake at night," Royster told Uphaus. Royster is a scholar of the African diaspora and founder of the Center for African American Genealogical Research, a nonprofit whose mission is to reunite African-descended Americans with their distant African relatives.

Mr. Noel's "DNA is part of a group known as A000, which predates modern humans and has as its common ancestor the man from whom all other human men are descended—a person genealogists call 'Y-line Adam,'" Uphaus writes. Royster explained to the group: "That type of DNA is extremely rare outside of Africa and was not even known to exist until 2012, when it was discovered in a South Carolina man. [Mr. Noel's] DNA is 40,000 years older than his. . . . We all have these ideas about who came first. You, Mr. Noel, represent the beginning of all creation.”

According to Uphaus, Royce referred to the slave auction block that stood at the intersection of William and Charles streets in Fredericksburg before it was moved to the Fredericksburg Area Museum, saying “You can see that our history didn’t begin with that 1,000-pound block on the corner."

Interstate transmission of the coronavirus is a bigger concern than international transmission, says new study

Interstate transmission of the coronavirus is a much bigger public health threat in the U.S. than cases coming from international travelers, according to a new study at the Yale School of Public Health.

Researchers can track where a virus came from by analyzing its genetic makeup, or genome. They analyzed the genomes of nine virus samples from Connecticut covid-19 patients in mid-March, then compared them with 168 other covid-19 genomes from the U.S. and around the world, Colin Poitras reports for Yale School of Medicine.

"The study found that most of Connecticut’s virus samples were more closely linked to outbreaks in other states than international locations such as Europe and China," Poitras reports. "Most importantly, seven of the nine Connecticut samples were clustered with known virus genomes from Washington state. This provides evidence that transcontinental spread of the virus was already happening between the West Coast and East Coast as early as mid-March, despite federal international travel bans that were put in place starting in late January."

The findings underscore the need for more testing at the state level and more tracking of people who may have been exposed to the virus, say the researchers. Click below for a short video explaining the science behind the study.

Researchers find the little brown bat may be evolving to become more resistant to deadly white-nose syndrome

A healthy little brown bat (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo)

University of Michigan biologists have discovered the first genetic evidence of resistance in bats to white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that has killed millions of the flying mammals in North America, according to a newly published study.

"The study involved northern Michigan populations of the little brown bat, one of the most common bats in eastern North America prior to the arrival of white-nose syndrome in 2006. Since then, some populations of the small, insect-eating bat have experienced declines of more than 90 percent," Jim Erickson reports for University of Michigan News. "UM researchers collected tissue samples from wild little brown bats that survived the disease, as well as individuals killed by the fungal pathogen. They compared the genetic makeup of the two groups and found differences in genes associated with regulating arousal from hibernation, the breakdown of fats and echo-location."

Translation: Bats that are genetically prone to be a little fatter or sleep more deeply may be less susceptible to the disease. The disease kills bats two ways: When the fungus grows on them while they're hibernating, it causes them to use twice as much energy as normal to maintain bodily functions, and sometimes they waste away before making it to spring. The fungus also kills bats when it irritates them so much that they wake up during hibernation and, disoriented, leave the cave in the middle of the winter and starve.

The rapid genetic changes in those areas suggest the bats are evolving due to natural selection. As bats with these genes reproduce, more bats could survive the disease, say the authors.

"While the study was small—involving tissue samples from 25 little brown bats killed by white-nose syndrome and nine bats that survived the disease—the authors say their sample size is large enough to detect genetic changes driven by natural selection," Erickson reports. "A larger follow-up study is underway, expanding both the number of bats and the areas affected by the disease, to develop a fuller picture of adaptive change that may be key to the species’ survival."

Bats play an important role in ecosystems and contribute at least $3 billion annually to the U.S. agriculture economy by pollinating crops, dispersing seeds and keeping insect populations down. But white-nose has decimated bat populations in at least 33 states and experts say some bat species may go extinct because of it.

Rural Wisconsin doctor in largely Amish and Mennonite town sees some of the world's rarest genetic diseases

Dr. James DeLine outside a home in La Farge, Wiusconsin.
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel photo by Mark Hoffman)

James DeLine grew up in a rural farming community in Illinois, and gravitated toward rural practice after graduating from medical school. But when he accepted a job as the sole physician in La Farge, Wisconsin, in 1983, he never could have dreamed that his practice would lead him to the cutting edge of genetic disease study, Mark Johnson reports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

La Farge, pop. 750, is a hotbed of rare genetic diseases because of its large Amish and Old Order Mennonite population. Sometimes known collectively as the Plain People, the Amish and Mennonites generally marry within their communities, which increases the chances that rare genetic diseases will be expressed, Johnson reports. La Farge has the second-largest cluster in the world of sitosterolemia, a very rare disease that causes blood-vessel linings to thicken, and a much higher than average incidence of other rare genetic diseases. As a result, DeLine has worked with geneticists from as far away as England to help diagnose and learn more about such diseases to help his patients.

Four years ago, the La Farge Medical Clinic opened its Center for Special Children, "which focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of children born with rare genetic and metabolic diseases. Many, but not all, of the center’s children come from Amish or Mennonite families," Johnson reports.

La Farge in Vernon County, Wisconsin
(Wikipedia map)

DeLine didn't find out about the high incidence of genetic diseases for some time. Plain People are often wary of outsiders and rarely seek medical help. It took DeLine and his staff years to gain their trust. "Often, they fear that going to a hospital or clinic will mean surrendering the decision-making to doctors who neither respect their beliefs nor understand their financial limitations," Johnson reports. "DeLine, not a religious man himself, accommodates the beliefs of patients and parents; he has always viewed them as the ultimate decision-makers. As a result, the clinic has become a magnet for Plain People. Some travel eight hours from Missouri or Iowa just to see him."

DeLine was on his own for years, but in 2003 his clinic was purchased by Vernon Memorial Healthcare in the nearby town of Viroqua, so now the clinic has two more doctors and a staff of 25, Johnson reports. DeLine says he hopes to practice for another five years or so before retiring.

It will surely be difficult to fill DeLine's shoes, according to Byron Crouse, retired associate dean for rural and community health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "He’s maintained the Norman Rockwell bedside manner skills, and yet he’s working on the cutting edge of 21st-century medicine, the very newest science,"Crouse told Johnson. "I can’t think of anybody else who has that ability."

Penney's contributions to agriculture highlighted in new book

Though J.C. Penney stores were popular with small-town and rural farmers in the early 1900's, few knew about the retail mogul's passion for improving the lives of animal agriculturists. David Delbert Kruger's new biography, published by University of Oklahoma Press, focuses on just that.

In J.C. Penney: The Man, The Store, and American Agriculture, Kruger brings readers back to Penney's roots as a Missouri boy whose Baptist-preacher father eked out a living on the family farm. Penney wanted to attend college but needed to support his family. So he took a job in retail, and eventually took a job at a Colorado dry-goods store, The Golden Rule. His work ethic impressed the owners so much that they allowed him to open his own store in Wyoming. When the owners dissolved their partnership in 1907, he bought all three stores and launched the J.C. Penney Co.

Penney established his corporate headquarters in New York City, and bought some acreage north of the city where he could enjoy a hobby farm. But his interest in agriculture didn't end there. "Penney recognized that his store customers made a living off the land. The productivity of dairy cattle in rural America, for instance, was much lower than dairy cows in Europe," Bill Spiegel writes for The High Plains Journal. "In 1921, he began buying the best Guernsey sires and dams from around the world, bringing them to his Emmadine Farm in New York. From 1927 to the farm’s dispersal in 1953, Penney eagerly shared his knowledge with other dairy farmers, and sold progeny from his Foremost Guernsey herd in an effort to boost profits of the people who were his primary store customers."

Though his forays into agriculture weren't always successful, Kruger paints a picture of a man who worked hard to improve farm animals' genetics and American agriculture overall.

Mystery of a mountain people's racial heritage may be solved, at an interesting time for America

Among and along Appalachian ridges and valleys in Tennessee, Virginia and other states is the ancestral home of a mysterious American people, the Melungeons. The dark-skinned mountaineers were whispered to be gypsies; others believed them to be descendants of Native Americans or of ship-wrecked Portuguese sailors. Though the history and settlement of the Melungeons in the Appalachian region is still unclear, the mystery their racial makeup has been solved, and at a propitious time, writes Andrew Miller of The Economist.

The name Melungeon may come from the Greek word melas, meaning dark or black, or early French settlers use of the word mélange to describe them, but the name soon became a racial slur. Melungeons were no strangers to prejudice or segregation, and their ill treatment is a plausible reason as to how they settled in and around isolated Hancock County, Tennessee, 200 or more years ago. The county was, for the most part, outside the grip of Jim Crow laws.

Kathy Lyday, a professor at Elon University in North Carolina, has researched Melungeons appearances in periodicals and literature for the past century. She spoke with Dale Neal from the Citizen-Times in Asheville about seeing Melungeons in newspapers as a child. "Melungeons are clearly not like the mountaineers I knew," Lyday told Neal. "They look different. They have darker skin, darker hair and blue eyes. In older photos, their physical appearance looks almost Mediterranean or Middle Eastern."

Researchers have re-defined Melungeon as tri-racial, theorizing that they are descendants of Europeans, Africans and Native Americans. In 2012, however, the Journal of Genetic Genealogy released a DNA study that reported families historically called Melungeons "are the off-spring of sub-Saharan African men and white women of northern or central European origin." Today, Melungeons stretch across East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and into areas of Eastern Kentucky.

At a time when mixed ethnic backgrounds are becoming a more comfortable topic of conversation, emerges a peculiar people who can declare they do not have the racial identity of one-half or one-third of an ethnicity. Melungeons can identify, rather, as wholly sub-Saharan African and European. The "invention" of the Melungeon race and the unraveling mystery of their origins bring new clarity to a muddy and infamous past of race relations in America, Miller writes.

"There may be a deeper honesty, and a kind of idealism, in this voluntary embrace of a mixed-ethnic background—a make-up common to millions of Americans, but which many remain reluctant to acknowledge," Miller writes. "And there is something optimistic and timely about the vision of race that the Melungeons imply. These days, on university campuses and beyond, the old, humanistic faith that everyone is the same at heart has been ousted by an essentialist idea of black- and whiteness, which sees the experiences of each as distinct, even mutually incomprehensible. The grievances that underpin this attitude are often legitimate, but the result is that race in America can sometimes seem like a prison. The notion of racial categories as fluid and optional, even invented, is a refreshing counterpoint to this ossifying sense of unbridgeable difference."

FDA approves genetically altered salmon, nation's first such animal approved by government agency

On Thursday the Food and Drug Administration "approved the nation's first genetically altered animal—a salmon engineered to grow twice as fast as its natural counterpart," Brady Dennis reports for The Washington Post. "AquAdvantage, produced by Massachusetts-based AquaBounty, is an Atlantic salmon that contains a growth hormone from a Chinook salmon and has been given a gene from the ocean pout, an eel-like fish. The result is a fish that is large enough for consumption in about a year and a half, rather than the typical three years." (AquaBounty Technologies photo: Two same-age salmon, a genetically modified salmon, rear, and a non-genetically modified salmon, foreground)

FDA officials said the decision "was 'based on sound science and a comprehensive review' and that regulators are confident that the genetically altered fish is as safe to eat as a normal Atlantic salmon, with no discernible difference in its nutritional value," Dennis writes. "Officials noted that the agency held meetings, combed through thousands of public comments and conducted scientific and environmental assessments about the AquaBounty fish before finally approving it."

Critics argue that approval of the genetically altered salmon "could open the door to a broad range of potentially unsafe genetically modified animal foods," Dennis writes. "Knowing an FDA approval was likely, critics have in recent years won commitments from some of the nation's most recognizable chains—including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Target—to not sell the fish." (Read more)

More cattle ranchers turning to DNA testing to identify prize animals

Cattle ranchers are using technology to test the genetic value of livestock, allowing breeders to "identify prize animals whose offspring will yield a larger volume of tastier steaks," leading to higher sale prices to beef processors, Jacob Bunge and Kesley Gee report for The Wall Street Journal.

Cattle breeders say having animals' DNA scanned by a gene-testing firm—which costs up to $100 per animal and includes sending a blood sample to the lab—allows them "to assess a bull’s genetic value with the same accuracy as if it already had sired up to 20 calves," Bunge and Gee write. "Testing also can save money on animal upkeep by culling cattle with less-desirable genes."

About 20 percent of purebred animals registered by the American Angus Association in 2014 were genetically tested, up from 1 percent in 2010, Bunge and Gee write. "Two-thirds of commercial cattle ranchers in the U.S. say their cow herds include animals with Angus genes, according to the association."

"Soaring cattle prices are helping fuel investment in beef genetics," Bunge and Gee write. "The nation’s cattle herd has dwindled to its smallest size in 60 years after years of drought in the southern Great Plains parched pastures and drove up feed costs. Tight supplies of steers and heifers have meant record prices for young beef cattle in the U.S., and retail beef prices were projected to climb 11 percent to 12 percent in 2014, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates."

"Some ranchers, anticipating bigger payoffs, now aim to rebuild their herds with animals boasting better genes, said Luke Bowman, spokesman for Select Sires Inc., an Ohio company that provides dairy and beef-cattle semen to breeders," Bunge and gee write. "That is helping drive a surge in prices for high-quality breeding animals, Mr. Bowman said, with bulls fetching as much as $250,000 now, compared with about $50,000 four years ago." (Read more)

Genetically modified corn may be leading to pesticide-resistant corn worms

The Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing one of seed-giant Monsanto's genetically modified corn strains for fear that it might be creating a pesticide-resistant worm that eats corn. The action is a response to a scientific study released last week that found western rootworms on two Illinois farms that had developed resistance to insecticide produced by the seed corn. (ThinkProgress photo)

The worm hinders corn's ability to draw water and nutrients from the soil, and caused about $1 billion a year in damages and pesticide bills before Monsanto's seed was developed about a decade ago. Pesticide-resistant worms were first documented last year, Jack Kaskey of Bloomberg reports. Monsanto spokeswoman Kelly Clauss said studies in Iowa and Illinois don't confirm resistance in the field, and that more data is needed to prove resistance. (Read more)

Tomato genome decoded and made public to improve its future production and pest resistance

In Western Farm Press Daniel Stolte reports that an international consortium has deciphered the genetic code of the cultivated tomato and a wild relative. The Tomato Genome Consortium, a group of more than 300 scientists from 14 countries, decided to publish results in the May 31 issue of the journal Nature in an effort to reduce costs and streamline and improve future tomato production and resistance to pests and drought.

"The sequence provides a detailed overview of the functional portions of the tomato genome and its closest relative, revealing the order and structure of their 35,000 genes," writes Stotle, of the University of Arizona. "The tomato belongs to the Solanaceae (nightshade) family, which includes potatoes, peppers and eggplant, plus ornamental or medicinal plants including petunia, tobacco, belladonna, and mandrake. The members of this family have adapted to different ecosystems, from tropical rainforests to the extremely dry Atacama Desert in Chile."

“The tomato is an important biological model system for understanding fruit biology, ripening and crop development,” said Rod Wing, who heads the university's Arizona Genomics Institute. “Having the genome provides a much more precise way of bringing in genes through normal breeding and crossing techniques, and much faster than was possible before.” Having the genome sequence will allow scientists to locate and identify genes more quickly and improve the crop more rapidly. The sequence shows that the genome of tomato “triplicated” suddenly about 60 million years ago, soon after the mass extinction that included the disappearance of the dinosaurs. 

USDA sued over its OK of Roundup Ready alfalfa

The Center for Food Safety, a group critical of genetically modified crops, has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture in federal court in San Francisco, challenging the USDA's January approval of Roundup Ready alfalfa as unlawful. Ken Anderson of Brownfield Network reports, "The center alleges the approval is based on faulty information, and that genetically modified alfalfa will damage the organic industry because it could contaminate conventional or organic alfalfa." (Read more)

"This is the second time the USDA has been sued over its approval of Roundup Ready alfalfa, which is genetically engineered (GE) to tolerate glyphosate, a popular herbicide commonly sold under the Monsanto brand name Roundup," reports Mike Ludwig for Truthout. The concern is "that Roundup Ready alfalfa will increase reliance on already overused herbicides like Roundup, encourage the spread of herbicide-resistant 'superweeds' and contaminate organic and conventional alfalfa with Monsanto transgenes through cross-pollination," writes Ludwig. This could "threaten the production of organic meat and milk," since alfalfa is used for livestock feed, Ludwig opines. (Read more)