Agronomy

Bruce Tabashnik, PhD, is the department head of Entomology at the University of Arizona. His research team studies the evolution and management of insect resistance to insecticides and transgenic plants. Current work focuses on evolution of resistance to insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Widespread use of transgenic corn and cotton that produce Bt toxins has increased the chances that pests will evolve resistance. Since 1997, Bt cotton has accounted for more than half of Arizona's 300,000 acres of cotton, which provides exceptional opportunities for field and laboratory research. Specific projects now underway include analyses of the genetics and ecology of pink bollworm resistance to Bt cotton, impact of Bt cotton on non-target insects, and effects of pollen-mediated gene flow from Bt crops to non-Bt crops. Progress is facilitated by synergistic collaborations that benefit from expertise in molecular and population genetics, ecology, modeling, and pest management.

Monica Schmidt is an Associate Professor in the School of Plant Sciences in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Arizona. Dr. Schmidt’s research interests are in both functional foods and functional genomics. Her research aims at applying molecular biology and genetic techniques to help alleviate current major agricultural problems. As soybean is a global commodity, much of her research focuses on soybean seed traits. Current research is investigating cellular mechanisms to strengthen the metabolic engineering efforts to fortify crops with nutraceutical carotenoids. Since soybean oil is a large component of the American diet, Dr. Schmidt is also investigating means to engineer a more healthy oil composition. Other functional food projects aim at the suppression of deleterious compounds in crops, such as toxins produced from contaminating fungus, in maize and peanuts. She uses techniques of plant biotechnology in over a dozen crops to investigate gene function, at a cellular and entire plant level. Dr. Schmidt has worked with both domestic and international collaborators on value-added traits in seeds of legumes for over a decade and is one of the few academic laboratories that can routinely transform soybean. She has been involved with a number of innovations in tissue culture / transformation techniques (for example, maturation media for soybean, novel gene expression cassette system) and her research on seed manipulation has resulted in a start-up company and patents. Keywords: plant biotechnology, functional foods, soybean, maize

Marc Orbach, PhD, uses Magnaporthe grisea, the fungal pathogen responsible for the rice blast disease, as a model system to study host-pathogen interactions at the molecular and biochemical level. This pathogen, like many other plant pathogens, interacts with its host in a gene-for-gene manner, where host resistance is induced when the plant contains a resistance gene and the pathogen, a corresponding avirulence gene. The main focus of his research program is to understand what the signals between the pathogen and its host are, that dictate whether the host is able to mount a resistance response. Genetic analysis of M. grisea have identified several avirulence genes that determine what their products are and how these products interact with host plants to induce host defenses. He is also interested in questions of genome stability and the generation of genetic variability in fungi. These questions are of significance in M. grisea because of the apparent ability of this pathogen to rapidly overcome host resistance in the field. Dr. Orbach spends time addressing these questions by studying genome variation in M. grisea at the whole genome level using electrophoretic karyotyping methods. He wishes to specifically analyze the role that a transposable element may play in genome variation and the high rate of mutation observed at some loci.

Dawn H. Gouge, PhD, is a Specialist and Professor at the University of Arizona, College of Agriculture and Life Science, Department of Entomology. Dr. Gouge is well established in the U.S. as a community Integrated Pest Management expert and works with international partners in several countries. Dawn has published 38 original research papers and more than 80 extension publications, many in collaboration with investigators from around the world, authored 4 book chapters and co-edited a definitive Pest Management Strategic Plan. Dr. Gouge is a frequent presenter at national and international meetings, and serves as a steering committee organizer of the International IPM Symposium conference. Dawn has received11 awards for outstanding achievement and provides service on both National and Federal advisory committees. Dr. Gouge has led the charge in establishing higher pest management standards in children’s environments, reducing risks associated with pest and pesticide exposure. Keywords: arthropod vectors, bed bugs, Integrated pest managment

Judith Brown, PhD, and her research interests include the molecular epidemiology of whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses (Begomoviruses, Family: Geminiviridae), the basis for virus-vector specificity and the transmission pathway, and the biotic and genetic variation between populations of the whitefly vector, B. tabaci, that influence the molecular epidemiology and evolution of begomoviruses. Keywords: Plant viral genomics, emergent virus phylodynamics, functional genomics of insect-pathogen interactions