Back to the RadioSpace™ home page
NewsDirect story topics:
Consumer, Business & General Interest
Current Events & Public Affairs
Entertainment & Sports
Health & Medicine
"Discovery Files" Features from the National Science Foundation
"Tomato Wars"
Fully produced report in MP3 format:
48 kbps |
96 kbps
(90 seconds)
-- How Will You Use This Story? --
READER SCRIPT
(DOES NOT FULLY MATCH AUDIO)
TOMATO WARS... THE "DISCOVERY FILES": NEW ADVANCES IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, FROM THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION. PUT DOWN THE TOMATOES: THIS KIND OF TOMATO WAR IS GOING ON INSIDE THE TOMATO PLANT. AS GROWERS KNOW, PLANTS OFTEN LOSE THEIR RESISTANCE: PATHOGENS CONSTANTLY COME AT THEM; THE PLANT'S DEFENSES FIGHT BACK; AND EACH SIDE EVOLVES NOVEL STRATEGIES IN ORDER TO FIGHT THE BATTLE. NEW RESEARCH OUT OF CORNELL HAS ZEROED IN ON A PARTICULARLY INSIDIOUS BACTERIUM THAT HAS FOUND A WAY TO INFILTRATE THE TOMATO PLANT--UNNOTICED; IT MIMICS AN ENZYME THAT IS PART OF THE PLANT'S DEFENSE SYSTEM. ONCE INSIDE, IT CAN--UNDETECTED--DESTROY THE PLANT, FROM WITHIN. THIS BACTERIAL TROJAN-HORSE LITERALLY WALKS IN THE FRONT DOOR--AND TURNS OFF THE PLANT'S IMMUNITY. BUT DON'T COUNT OUT THE TOMATO, JUST YET. NATURE HAS A WAY OF COMING UP WITH A COUNTER-ATTACK THAT WILL EVENTUALLY THWART THE BAD GUYS. THE RESEARCH SUPPORTS, ON A MOLECULAR LEVEL, THAT THERE IS A CONSTANT EVOLUTIONARY ARMS-RACE GOING ON IN THE PLANT WORLD. THE "DISCOVERY FILES" COVERS PROJECTS FUNDED BY THE GOVERNMENT'S NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION: FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOU! LEARN MORE AT "N-S-F"-DOT-GOV--OR ON THEIR PODCAST.
For additional "Discovery Files" features from the National Science Foundation, click here.
