How is a supercomputer useful for controlling pests that ruin 700 million crops?



Approximately 700 million people worldwide, mainly in the tropics of Asia, South America, and Africa, are staple foodsCassavaResearch is being carried out against the insect pests that have seriously damaged by using supercomputers.

How a Supercomputer Helps Fight Flies That Ravage Crops for 700 Million People
http://gizmodo.com/how-a-supercomputer-helps-fight-flies-that-ravage-crops-1736813111

How a TED Fellow is working to save cassava from whiteflies | TED Blog
http://blog.ted.com/how-a-ted-fellow-is-working-to-save-african-cassava/

Cassava is a plant that grows potatoes underground in a basement and keeps its stems in the ground and is relatively easy to cultivate,tapiocaIt is also known as a raw material. But in recent years, like cassavaWhiteflySmall white and small insects are damaging all over the world. The following picture shows that whiteflies stick to the back of cassava leaves and are absorbing moisture from the leaves.


The whitefly does not only absorb moisture from the cassava leaves,Cassava brown streak virusIt is also a vector of pathogenic bacteria. A cassava infected with Cassava brown streak virus causes brown spots on the roots and can not be shipped for edible, resulting in a decrease in farmers' earnings. In addition to cassava, since whitefly has become resistant to agricultural chemicals, it has caused damage to 600 kinds of agricultural crops in 1 year.


So I am studying computational biology at the University of Western AustraliaLaura BoykinHe worked on research to protect cassava from the whiteheaded threat. Mr. Boykin visited the cassava plantation in Uganda and investigated the whitefly stuck on the cassava leaves in detail.


Research is in the Pawsey Supercomputing Center in AustraliaCray XC 40 super computerUsing "Magnus", genome analysis of whitefliesPhylogenetic treeCreate. Until now, whitefly was believed to be only one kind of insect, but it turned out that 34 kinds of whitefly existed in the world by supercomputer.

Mr. Boykin and Magnus of the supercomputer are reflected in the following pictures. According to the Pawsey Supercomputing Center, Magnus is a high performance computer used for radio astronomy, analyzing the data of 500 whiteflies has 10 10 27 patterns, and handling data without a supercomputer It was difficult.

Mr. Boykin's team used Magnus to translate the whitefish database "Whiteflybase"Is created. By mapping which whitefly larvae live in which region, we identify the species of whiteflies that will cause damage to cassava, and it is expected that pest control will become easier in the future. In addition, we are hoping to develop pesticides effective for all 34 species of whitefly using the database.

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in Hardware,   Science,   Creature, Posted by darkhorse_log