EB-Com Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 18, 2003
Stalk Rot: Naturally Controlled In Sorghum; Same For Com?
ANDY ANDREWS
Editor
LANDISVILLE (Lancaster
Co.) Research into a natu
ral resistance to stalk rot on
sorghum plants is slowly
yielding its promise to plant
scientists.
Penn State researchers are
looking for ways to convert
that same type of naturally oc
curring resistance to stalk rot
from sorghum to com plants.
The potential harvest of in
formation could mean savings
of thousands of dollars in
spraying fungicides on crops
or the use of preplant strate
gies to control fungus.
The idea of coming up with
ways to metabolically engineer
phytoalexins in com is the
work of Surinder I. Chopra,
assistant professor of maize
genetics, Department of Crop
and Soil Sciences and Faculty
of Life Sciences Consortium at
Penn State.
Together with colleague Mi
chael Robbins, doctoral stu
dent in ecological and molecu
lar plant physiology,
Chopra is looking at
ways of using natu
ral plant chemicals
to impart plant dis-
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ease resistance.
Chopra and Robbins spoke
about the research during the
first Penn State-sponsored
Agronomy-Industry Field Day
at the Southeast Research and
Extension Center last July.
Robbins noted the research
is in the very early stage. But
the fungus (anthracnose) that
attacks stalks in com is put at
bay by naturally occurring
chemicals in sorghum.
The department is using a
“transgenic approach,” noted
Chopra, to find the genes in
com and to adapt those meth
ods either through traditional
breeding or biotechnology.
The sorghum’s genes pro
duce a red pigment. The pig
ment is toxic to the fungus.
The question: how to find that
same protein in com?
In the coming years, the
team will be looking at several
strategies that could provide a
big impact on how fungus is
controlled in field com.
Michael Robbins, far right, is a doctoral student in ecological and molecular
plant physiology at Penn State. He spoke about research into developing natural
resistance in com to stalk rot in July. Photo by Andy Andrews, editor