|
|
Texas Panhandle researcher expands sugar beet program with new hireTexas Research knows no boundaries, and Dr. Charlie Rush, a Texas AgriLife Research plant pathologist, is proving that first-hand. Not only is Rush conducting research in the Amarillo area on a crop grown clear across the nation, but he's gone overseas to find a scientist he believes can help him identify the relationship between a vector and viruses affecting sugar beets. Dr. Madeleine Smith of the United Kingdom has joined the AgriLife Research staff as an assistant research scientist who will work directly under Rush. Smith's main focus will be studying the intra-plant spread of beet necrotic yellow vein virus, which causes rhizomania of sugar beet, and beet soilborne mosaic virus, which is similar to beet necrotic yellow vein virus but doesn't cause a severe disease. Both viruses are vectored, or spread, by a soilborne organism called Polymyxa betae. Rush, recognized for his work with sugar beets, originally moved to the Texas Panhandle to study sugar beet diseases. The crop and industry have since left the region, but sugar beet organizations across the U.S. are still willing to support his research. "Rhizomania is perhaps the most economically important disease of sugar beets worldwide," Rush said. "Lots of research has been conducted on the virus that causes rhizomania, but very little has been done on Polymyxa, the soilborne organism that carries the virus from plant to plant. "Madeleine is one of the few people in the world who has experience with this organism, and she will fill a major gap in our program," he said. "And even though she will be working on sugar beets, other species of Polymyxa transmit viruses that infect wheat and peanuts, so this work should have a very wide application to crops grown through the Great Plains." Smith said the bulk of her research will be done in Amarillo and Bushland, but she has already been on one sampling trip to producers' fields in Minnesota and North Dakota. Smith, born in Nottingham, England, received her bachelor's degree in plant science from the University of Leicester. She earned her master's degree jointly between the John Innes Center and the University of East Anglia in Norfolk, with a distinction in plant breeding and biotechnology. Smith obtained her doctorate from Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, with an affiliation at the University of Warwick. "The main reason I was brought here is because I have experience with the vector of these viruses found in sugar beets which is a soilborne organism called Polymyxa betae," she said. This tiny organism belongs to the class known as plasmodiophorids, Smith said, and when soils become saturated after a rain or irrigation, they can actually swim through the soil to a plant root. Once they come in contact with the root, they attach themselves to the root surface and then eventually infect individual root cells, Rush said. Infection by Polymyxa by itself doesn't harm the plant. But when they are carrying a virus which also is introduced into the root as the Polymyxa enters the cell, the virus causes the disease.
Copyright/Privacy
Copyright 1995-2011. High Plains Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Any republishing of these pages, including electronic reproduction of the editorial archives or classified advertising, is strictly prohibited. If you have questions or comments you can reach us at High Plains Journal 1500 E. Wyatt Earp Blvd., P.O. Box 760, Dodge City, KS 67801 or call 1-800-452-7171. Email: webmaster@hpj.com |
|
