Changing microbial communities: how excluding foliar fungi impacts plant growth and soil microbiome
How does removal of fungi impact plant growth and rhizosphere diversity in perennial grasslands? Professor Linda Kinkel, postdoc Brett Lane, and colleagues looked into it.
Potato power: testing potential enhancements to soil microbiome of potato
The diversity of soil microbes around a growing plant can meaningfully impact that plant’s fitness in a number of ways, including nutrient uptake, yield, and disease resistance. Scott Klasek, Linda Kinkel, and colleagues from SWAC and other institutions characterized 1,824 potato soil microbiomes from 456 plots in the eight field sites across the continental USA, surfacing valuable insights on ties between management, microbiome, and yield.
Something fishy about this fungus: exotic underwater fungus reaches the US on aquarium wood
Mysterious black growths on submerged decorative wood from freshwater aquariums in the states of Minnesota and Colorado were revealed to be Xylaria apoda, a fungus not previously reported in the United States.
Ginger in Danger: new bacterial pathogen found on the US mainland
When rotting, wilted ginger was reported to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture by specialty growers in central Minnesota in July 2024, UMN-PLPA researcher Milo Chiu and faculty member Devanshi Khokhani were ready to solve the case.
Research on ovicidal fungi and Emerald Ash Borer demonstrates biocontrol potential
Invasive Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) beetles have killed hundreds of millions of North American ash trees, but entomopathogenic fungi have potential to play a big role in pest management solutions.
Virulence and strain success in Goss's wilt and leaf blight of corn
New research by Molly Veregge, Cory Hirsch, Matthew Moscou, and Devanshi Khokhani et al. indicates that virulence is not directly related to strain success in planta in Clavibacter nebraskensis.
Charakas, Khokhani publish insights about interactions in the mycorrhizosphere
This paper unpacks the tripartite interactions between roots, soil microbial communities, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and provides a framework for future research and exploration.
Corn tar spot insights newly published by Solórzano, Malvick, Floyd, Subbaiah
This new publication on tar spot of corn caused by Phyllachora maydis provides valuable context about the disease's pathosystem and potential improvements to management strategies.
Entomopathogenic fungi may be the key to biocontrol for emerald ash borer
Blanchette Lab research is finding important ties between entomopathogenic fungi and Emerald Ash Borer, which threatens many of Minnesota's trees.
Protecting Minnesota’s cultivated wild rice
University of Minnesota Researcher Claudia Castell-Miller shares knowledge and experiences from her collaborative research into wild rice pathogens, genetics, and disease management practices.
Harnessing Plant Defensins to Combat Alfalfa Crown Rot
While all plants have ways of protecting themselves against disease, former Plant Pathology Ph.D. student Andrew Sathoff is researching ways to enhance alfalfa’s natural defense system to combat a complex disease. Read more >>
Ensuring Soybean Yields by Screening for Resistance to Fusarium Graminearum
Marissa Scherven, a former Plant Pathology undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Jim Kurle’s lab, is looking for resistance to Fusarium graminearum in soybean, in order to prevent disease problems in farmer’s fields before they affect soybean yield. Read more >>
Informing What Is Grown in High Tunnels
Helping growers protect high tunnel tomatoes in Minnesota and the Midwest is the research topic of former Plant Pathology graduate student Lillian Garber. Learn more about how Garber's research protects the highest value crop grown in high tunnels in Minnesota. Read more >>
Using Microbes to Create Healthier Plants
By trying to disentangle the reasons plants in native prairies have been able to evade significant disease in the prairie, are there important lessons that can be applied to agriculture to create healthier, more productive plants? Linda Kinkel and her research team are trying to find ways to harness microbes indigenous to Minnesota's native prairies by using them to create disease suppressive soils. Read more >>
Helping Minnesota Hops Grow
As the microbrewery industry in the state of Minnesota continues to expand each year, brewers are looking to hop producers near home to provide sustainable and high-quality hops. In order to meet this growing demand, Angela Orshinsky, assistant professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, and her research team are working with hop producers throughout the state to provide answers to the many hops management questions that past research has not yet answered for local producers. Read more >>
Evaluating a Reemerging Threat to Corn
First confirmed in Minnesota in 2009, this Goss's wilt is a concern for researchers like former graduate student Blake Webster because of its potential to reduce corn yields by as much as 50 percent. While there are current recommendations for disease control measures, Webster is taking a holistic, three-pronged approach to learn more about this disease and discover additional methods of disease management. Read more >>
Classifying Fungal Diversity
Trying to find a needle in a haystack can seem like an insurmountable task, but imagine attempting to find 100 needles in 100 haystacks. This is a more apt description of the task that faces Josh Kielsmeier-Cook. Josh, a former Ph.D. student in the Department of Plant Pathology advised by Bob Blanchette, is currently studying fungi in Yasuní National Park in Ecuador, where there are not only 100 needles, but 100 unique needles that need to be classified and cataloged. Read more >>