Program Description

We are engaged in investigations of Tospoviruses and in the development of molecular tools for floral crop improvement. Our viral focus is on the genetic mechanisms utilized by Tospoviruses for diversity and adaptation.

We are currently investigating the complex structure of natural virus populations and how this population structure is altered by plant host resistance, vector hosts and other selection pressures. I also have a more mission-oriented component in which we are investigating IYSV and INSV Tospoviruses as well as several sweetpotato viruses. In addition we routinely take on special problems of grower interest such as the recent outbreak of TMV in Tobacco and IYSV in onion.

Our floral crop program has focused on techniques for development of reliable fingerprinting technology as an aid to cultivar identification and more recently the development of tools for molecular marker assisted breeding. In these studies we utilize AFLP’s, SSR’s and retrotransposons. We have conducted pilot studies with these tools on a variety of floral crops and welcome opportunities to deploy our fingerprinting technology.