Location: Horticultural Crops Research Unit
Project Number: 2072-22000-041-003-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 30, 2014
End Date: Sep 29, 2019
Objective:
1. Development of novel and rapid assays for pathogen detection
2. Characterization of the major plant pathogens communities in commercial nursery production systems.
Approach:
This project will identify diversity of soil microbial and plant pathogen communities associated with rhododendron in commercial nurseries in the Pacific Northwest. Briefly, we will determine abundance of cryptic and other pathogens using metagenomic approaches to profile both beneficial and pathogenic fungal species in the soil, potting mix, rhizosphere and roots. Variation among isolates within species will be assessed using genotyping methods including genotyping by sequencing (GBS) as well as plant pathology assays to determine phenotypic diversity. Amendment #2 adds funds to continue the current research objectives and will be used to sequence samples and conduct bioinformatic analysis.