Ruth Dill-Macky

Small Grains Pathology

My applied research program is focused on the economically important diseases of small-grained cereals in Minnesota. I work in close collaboration with the wheat, barley and oat breeding programs in the development of new varieties with improved resistance to diseases. My project also facilitates the development of new techniques to assist in the identification of disease resistance in plants and to screen collections of germplasms to identify sources of resistance to the major pathogens of our cereal crops. I am also involved in studies to examine the mode of inheritance of resistance in cereal crops to a number of diseases, and to determine the effect of the environment on resistance expression. This knowledge is used to determine the most effective ways to deploy host resistance. Members in my program also conduct epidemiological studies of several foliar pathogens of cereal crops and on the influence of cultural practices on the development of small grain diseases.