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Associate Professor of Plant Biology
Department of Plant Biology
Plant Biology Department
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Research
Plant viruses appear to be simple organisms with as few as four genes. This apparent simplicity belies the complex and fascinating interactions between viruses and their hosts. Currently we have several projects that address different aspects of plantvirus interactions.
As parasites, plant viruses typically commandeer various plant cellular components that the virus requires to complete its life cycle. For DNA based viruses this includes recruiting the transcription machinery for synthesis of mRNA. One project in our lab is searching for nucleotide sequences within a DNA virus that attract the plant's RNA polymerase. Such transcription promoters may be useful in expressing foreign genes in plants.
Another project involves a virus that causes lethal necrosis of a particular bean variety. This variety expresses a specific virus resistance gene and is resistant to closely related strains of the same viruses. Our goal is to determine which viral encoded protein triggers the necrotic response and to identify plant proteins that dictate susceptibility to the necrotic virus.
A third project involves the development of a new plant transformation method. While common methods work efficiently for numerous plant species, legumes remain difficult to transform. We are refining a promising approach for the introduction of foreign genes into such crops as soybean, drybean and cowpeas.
Plants can be made resistant to specific viruses by genetically modifying the plant to express a viral gene. These genetically engineered plants promise to provide an effective method of controlling plant virus disease. However, several questions remain concerning the environmental risk of the release of these modified plants. One concern is that viral RNA transcribed by the transgenic plant may recombine with RNA of a challenging virus. The role of RNA recombination in the evolution of plant viruses has been firmly established and we are currently evaluating the possibility that similar recombination events involving a viral transgene may enhance the rate of RNA virus evolution. We have developed a sensitive bioassay to detect recombinant viruses and are using the assay to predict the frequency of RNA recombination in transgenic plants.
