Posts Tagged ‘plant biology’

Interns learn valuable life lessons while studying tropical plant pathology in Costa Rica

Global plant health interns

Mary Lewis spent six weeks traveling around Costa Rica working on research designed to shed light on one of the most important diseases affecting bananas. While her focus was the fungal disease black sigatoka, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences student says the experience taught her just as much – or more – about what it takes to work in a foreign country and to interact with people from other cultures.

Solving molecular mysteries

Linda Hanley-Bowdoin

Over the years he’s spent studying cassava mosaic disease, Tanzanian scientist Dr. Joseph Ndunguru has noted something curious: Wherever there are DNA molecules called satellites associated with the geminiviruses contributing to the disease, symptoms are greater and losses are heavier – even in plants bred specifically to resist the disease.
Figuring out more about those subviral particles could be key, Ndunguru believes, to developing a strategy to beat the disease for good. That’s why he has teamed with CALS’ Dr. Linda Hanley-Bowdoin on a project designed to yield the scientific insight necessary to do just that.

Designing jet fuels of the future

Drs. Heike Sederoff and Amy Grunden

Using micro-organisms able to survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, two CALS researchers are working to turn plants and algae into oil-producing factories efficient enough to help solve the problem of the world’s diminishing petroleum reserves.

David Higgins: Figuring out flower development

David Higgins

This CALS senior and recipient of a national undergraduate research fellowship isn’t content to leave scientific questions unanswered. With plant geneticist Dr. Bob Franks, he’s been studying how flowers develop.

Privacy Statement | University Policies | Contact