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Disease Resistance

Mark Black
I contribute to peanut variety improvement by screening breeding lines in southwest Texas field plots for their reactions to spotted wilt (Tomato spotted wilt virus), peanut rust (Puccinia arachidis), southern blight (Sclerotium rolfsii), and leafspot diseases (Cercospora arachidicola, Cercosporidium personatum). In a related project, I am exploring mechanisms of partial resistance/tolerance to TSWV in peanut.

Phillip Colbaugh
Host plant resistance in turfgrasses is being explored to identify potential turfgrass varieties with multiple forms of resistance to fungal diseases. Laboratory research is centered on the use of a single leaf plant assay system for rapid disease screening of germplasm lines. Additional research correlates resistance data for both disease and insect tolerant plant species.

Mike Kolomiets
The long-term goal of my research program is to identify defense-related significance of maize oxylipin biosynthetic and signal transduction pathways by using functional genomics approaches. Currently, the focus is on the identification of function of individual lipoxygenase and oxo-phytodienoic acid reductases in resistance to mycotoxins, aflatoxins and fumonisins, produced by Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium verticillioides respectively.

Clint W. Magill
In addition to developing tags for single genes conferring resistance to several diseases and mapping resistance gene analogs in sorghum, we have used DNA technology to identify QTLs for downy mildew resistance in maize.

T. Erik Mirkov
We have an active program on the map-based cloning of the Citrus tristeza virus resistance gene (Ctv) from a citrus relative.

We are using transgenic-based approaches to develop resistance to Sorghum mosaic virus, Sugarcane mosaic virus, Sugarcane yellow leaf virus and Citrus tristeza virus.

James L. Starr
I am involved in the identification, characterization, and deployment of genes for resistance to root-knot nematodes, primarily in cotton and peanut. I am also developing marker-assisted selection systems for use in plant breeding programs.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have concerning our program.