Basic studies in plant genetics and plant growth and development have led to the ability of industry to regenerate transformed plant tissues. This has enabled industry to develop transgenic plants containing agronomically important genes. The plant biotechnology industry based in the U.S. has flourished with the help of basic plant research (supported by the USDA National Research Initiative).

The first transgenic soybean cultivar that produces its own environmentally-benign insecticide was developed based on fundamental plant research (supported by the USDA National Research Initiative). It's use will reduce the need for pesticide application, offering cost savings for farmers and consumers and benefits for the environment.

Wheat take-all disease can significantly diminish crop yields. Basic plant research (supported by USDA National Research Initiative) has identified the products of genes from bacteria which suppress the causative organism of wheat take-all disease. This has allowed commercial development of technology to control the disease, enabling wheat farmers to produce high yields in an environmentally friendly manner.

The forest and wood products industry faces increasing pressure to produce more product from a dwindling natural resource base. Basic plant research (supported by the USDA National Research Initiative) has led to techniques to map tree genomes and genetically engineer several commercially important tree species, including loblolly pine and cottonwood. Application of these new technologies to tree improvement circumvents the long growth cycle of trees which impeded theirimprovement by traditional breeding methods. The paper industry has enthusiastically adopted the basic plant research results.

Basic plant research (supported by the USDA National Research Initiative) is providing new use of a corn-based product for calcium-magnesium acetate (CMA). This corn-derived CMA is used for environmentally benign approaches to deicing highways and airport runways and for controlling emissions from high-sulfur coal combustion. The NRI-supported basic plant research produced CMA from corn through fermentation while improving filtration and bioreactor technology. This new environmentally benign product which opens a new market for corn-based products, is an alternative to use of imported petroleum-based products.

Basic research on cotton and corn genetics and the biology of their pests (supported by the USDA National Research Initiative) has led to the development of genetically engineered plants containing the Bt gene from a soil bacterium. These transformed plants produce compounds toxic to insects but harmless to humans when consumed. It is estimated that over 3.4 million acres may be planted with Bt-engineered corn in 1997. More pesticides are used on cotton than any other crop so the use of cotton which expresses Bt will significantly cut costs and improve the environment by reducing pesticide use. The use of Bt-engineered cotton in 1996 saved the application of an estimated quarter of a million gallons of insecticide.

As a result of (USDA National Research Initiative supported) research to determine the active chemicals produced by soybean root-knot nematodes that induce resistance in soybeans, breeders now have a standard test to screen soybeans for resistance. This test aids breeders in rapidly developing soybean lines that are resistant to nematode devastation.

Although urea is widely applied as a nitrogen fertilizer because it is cost-effective, easy to handle and has a high nitrogen content, it is not efficiently used by plants. Urea is degraded by soilborne microorganisms to volatile ammonia, often toxic to plants. Research (supported by the USDA National Research Initiative) on the responsible enzyme, urease, has determined its mechanism and molecular structure. This accomplishment sets the stage for developing safe, effective inhibitors of the enzyme to improve the efficient use of urea by plants.

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant scientist Edgar E. Hartwig helped transform soybeans from an ordinary forage to the second most valuable crop in the United States. From 1953 to the present, soybean acreage in the South has increased from 2.5 million acres to about 18 million acres, and average yields have doubled. Ninety percent of today's soybean acreage in the South is planted to cultivars developed by Hartwig.

In the 1950s and 1960s, ARS research on biochemical transformations of carbohydrates by microbial enzymes led to significant technological developments which were instrumental in the commercial production of corn sweeteners and alcohol fuels from starch.

ARS plant scientists discovered the smallest known agent of plantdisease, the viroid -- a research breakthrough comparable to the earlier discovery of bacteria in the late 1800s. A single viroid -- 80 times smaller than known viruses -- was found to cause more than a dozen different plant diseases.

The Green Revolution, which brought the promise of self-sufficient food production in poor countries, was in part due to research by ARS plant scientists who helped develop Gaines wheat, the first commercial semidwarf cereal grain cultivar in North America. This breakthrough established the high yield potential of semidwarf winter wheat.

ARS scientists invented a highly absorbent cornstarch derivative capable of absorbing hundreds of times its weight in water. This plant-produced product developed a decade ago has been put to dozens of uses in items such as diapers, baby powder, fuel filters, batteries, and laundry bags.

ARS plant researchers developed the Flame grape, a seedless red grape that has given rise to a new industry. Today, an average of 30 million pounds of Flame grapes valued at about $130 million to growers are harvested each year from California vineyards.

Plant scientists at ARS developed Lemont, a high yielding, lodging-resistant, long-grain rice which is now the number one variety of rice grown in the United States. It is a major factor in keeping U.S. rice competitive in world export markets because it is significantly less expensive to produce per unit of harvest. Released in 1988, Lemont has had well over a $2 billion economic impact in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

The ARS wheat breeding program, in association with Purdue University, has developed varieties that currently account for more than 70 percent of the 15 million acres of soft redwinter wheat grown in the eastern United States. Releases of new wheat after World War II, such as Vigo, provided one of the first red winter wheats that could stand up to the worst disease afflicting U.S. wheat -- leaf rust. Development of the wheat Dual, gave us one of the first soft wheats with a natural resistance to the Hessian fly which had caused $21 million damage in Georgia alone to non-resistant varieties. The release of Downey, provided a wheat resistant to the cereal leaf beetle that invaded the U.S. in 1963.

ARS scientists have helped to eliminate the boll weevil from North and South Carolina, Virginia and California and are helping to push the boll weevil out of Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

Phytochrome, the physiochemical agent that regulates all aspects of plant growth from germination to flowering to fruiting in response to changes in the amount of daylight was first identified through basic plant research by ARS scientists.

ARS plant researchers found that fungus Gladiocladium will suppress the fungi that causes southern blight in beans, carrots, peanuts and tomatoes as well as suppressing Verticillium wilt, which causes early dying in potatoes. These diseases cost growers more than $1 billion a year. W.R. Grace, Co., has been licensed to create a commercial product.

Basic plant research led to the discovery of how the crown-gall pathogen produces disease in susceptible plants. Further research revealed that the pathogen produces galls by inserting its own genes into the plant genome. This basic research discovery opened the field of genetic engineering for plants.

One of the most basic contributions to genetics research in this century was made by ARS plant scientist H.H. Flor who made the discovery of the gene-for-gene relationship to explain the genetics of plant-pathogen interactions.