Progress 10/01/08 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: Our target audience is rather diverse. From a scientific standpoint, our work is of interest to ecologist and evolutionary biologists interested in host-pathogen, hyperparasites and tri-trophic interactions. Our work also has direct application to the field of Biological control of disease and has relevance to the area of invasion biology. We are also active participants in the American Chestnut Foundation, which has a mandate to restore American chestnuts to their native range in the United States. Any comprehensive blight control program will include hypoviruses as biological control agents. Finally, we are working with landowners to initiate hypovirus experiments aimed at implementing hypovirus mediated biological control of blight pathogen populations which will lead to the recovery of American chestnuts in Michigan and Wisconsin. Dr. Fulbrights work is targeted at improving chestnut production under orchard situations. He works closely with several non-profit organizations including the Midwest Nut Producers Council, the Northern Nut Growers Association, Chestnut Growers of America, as well as for-profit groups including but not limited to Chestnut Growers, Inc., a growers cooperative in Michigan and several independent farm corporations. Dr. Fulbright's work also has a national reach since he works closely with nurseries and growers in Missouri and California. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project currently has two graduate students, Mr. Matt Kolp and Ms. Claire Moore, working on the project. In addition. Dr. Joshua Springer completed his his thesis in 2013. His work is directly related to our project. Dr. Springer also served as a postdoctoral fellow over the summer. Finally, found undergraduates have assisted us in the past year. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Two growers meeting were held by Dr. Fulbright in the past year. These meetings covered all aspects of chestnut horticulture including tree care, pollinization, internal kernal breakdown and chestnut blight management. Our three graduate students gave presentations at the Ecological Society meetings in Minneapolis, MN in August. Dr. Fulbright gave talks at the International Chestnut meetings in Hungary in September. Dr. Springer gave a talk at the Madison meetings on coservation and restoration. Finally, Drs. Fulbright and Springer gave presentations at the American Chestnut Foundation meetings in Wahington DC in October. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Drs. Fulbright, Jarosz & Joshua Springer began using hypovirus to treat chestnut blight in two commercial orchards with the aim of evaluating hypovirus effectiveness at controlling blight while maintaining nut production. These experiments are an extension of work carried out on the Michigan State University Campus over the past three year, which have found that hypovirus can maintain tree health while keeping nut production at about 85% of uninfected control trees. In contrast, untreated 20% of untreated trees have died and nut production of the remaining infected trees is approximately 40% of uninfected trees. Drs. Springer, Jarosz and Fulbright also completed a study comparing population structure of Cryphonectria parasitica in natural populations where hypoviruses were either present or absent. Populations with hypovirus are less diverse for both vegetative compatibility groups and microsatellite markers and also appear to be reproducing exclusively via asexual reproduction. In contrast, populations where hypoviruses are absent are more diverse and appear to have some level of sexual reproduction. The first paper on this work appears in Phytopathology this December. Mr. Matthew Kolp, a graduate student, along with Drs. Fulbright and Jarosz have begun work investigating the importance of secondary invaders to canker in controlling chestnut blight. Initial work suggests that differ among areas, but Trichoderma species can be found at all locations. Initial competition trials in the lab suggest that Trichoderma species are the most aggressive against C. parasitica. A live tree study was initiated in October to determine if this trend is also evident on live trees. The ultimate goal of the work is to determine if a combination of hypoviruses and secondary fungal competitors can be utilized to control chestnut blight. Ms. Claire Moore, a graduate student, and Dr. Jarosz completed a characterization of vegetative incompatibility genotypes in C. parasitica populations with and without hypoviruses in Michigan. We found variability at all six characterized vic loci, but populations with hypovirus had less genetic diversity than populations without hypovirus.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Fulbright, D.W. 2013. Internal kernel breakdown (IKB) of chestnut appears when European � Japanese hybrid cultivars are pollinized by Chinese chestnut. Annu. Rept. Northern Nut Growers Assn. 103: 3-11.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Joshua C. Springer, Anita L. Davelos Baines, Dennis W. Fulbright, Matthew T. Chansler & Andrew M. Jarosz. 2012 Hyperparasites influence population structure of the chestnut blight pathogen, Cryphonectria parasitica. Phytopathology (in press). Doi: 10-12-0273-R.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Springer JC, Davelos Baines AL, Chansler MT, and AM Jarosz. 2013. Evaluating the long-term storage of Cryphonectria parasitica. Fungal Genetics Reports. 60:11-15.
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Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Information on the project was disseminated in a number of ways ranging from meetings with growers and landowners to talks and posters at national and international meetings. Dr. Fulbright took the lead with extension activities, acting as a strong advocate for commercial chestnut products. He met with growers on numerous occasions and under numerous settings. Dr. Fulbright also attended trade shows to advocate for the use of various chestnut products. Dr. Fulbright organized the Midwest Nut Producer Council Meeting in February. Drs, Fulbright, Guyer and Jarosz gave talks at the meeting. Dr. Fulbright also organized the North American Chestnut Farm Workshop in Sep. Drs. Fulbright and Guyer spoke at this workshop along with speakers from Italy, China, Turkey and Australia. Updates on the annual American chestnut census work were presented to landowners in West Salem, WI, Roscommon, Frankfort and Northpoint, MI. Joshua Springer, Claire Moore (graduate students in Dr Jarosz's lab) and Dr. Jarosz presented posters at the Ecological Society meetings in Portland, Oregon in August. Professor Hao presented poster at the American Phytopathological Society meetings in Providence, Rhode Island in August. Dr. Fulbright, D. Hao, Dr. Jarosz, Dr. Guyer, Mr. Irwin Donis-Gonzelez and Ms. Carmen Medina Mora gave talks at the International Chestnut Symposium held in Shepherdstown, West Virginia in September. PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Jianjun Hao from Plant Pathology and Dr. Dan Guyer and Mr. Irwin Donis-Gonzalez from Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering at Michigan State University are working with Dr. Fulbright to solve problems with nut storage diseases and in solving the IKB problem. Mr. Mario Mandujano, Ms. Carmen Medina-Mora and Ms. Sara Stadt from the Department of Plant Pathology at Michigan State University work with Dr. Fulbright in the improvement of chestnut orchard production. Joshua Springer, Claire Moore and Matt Kolp, Department of Plant Biology, Michigan Sate University, are graduate students working on the Michigan populations of American chestnut. Mr. Springers thesis examines the biological control aspects of hypovirus invasion and he will also investigate the evolutionary dynamics of the interaction between the pathogen and hypovirusThe work at West Salem Wisconsin is carried out in collaboration with Dennis Fulbright, Department of Plant Pathology, Michigan Sate University, and William MacDonald and Mark Double, West Virginia University. Anita Davelos Baines and Eric Eager from the University Wisconsin, LaCrosse are also collaborating with the work. Dr. Eager is developing a mathematical model to investigate within-canker dynamics of the blight pathogen and mycovirus. This work is supported by the American Chestnut Foundation and the Rogers Reserve fund at Michigan State University. TARGET AUDIENCES: Our target audience is rather diverse. From a scientific standpoint, our work is of interest to ecologist and evolutionary biologists interested in host-pathogen, hyperparasites and tri-trophic interactions. Our work also has direct application to the field of Biological control of disease and has relevance to the area of invasion biology. We are also active participants in the American Chestnut Foundation, which has a mandate to restore American chestnuts to their native range in the United States. Any comprehensive blight control program will include hypoviruses as biological control agents. Finally, we are working with landowners to initiate hypovirus experiments aimed at implementing hypovirus mediated biological control of blight pathogen populations which will lead to the recovery of American chestnuts in Michigan and Wisconsin. Dr. Fulbrights work is targeted at improving chestnut production under orchard situations. He works closely with several non-profit organizations including the Midwest Nut Producers Council, the Northern Nut Growers Association, Chestnut Growers of America, as well as for-profit groups including but not limited to Chestnut Growers, Inc., a growers cooperative in Michigan and several independent farm corporations. Dr. Fulbright's work also has a national reach since he works closely with nurseries and growers in Missouri and California. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Drs. Fulbright and Hao tested extracts from chestnut shells and found that it has anti-microbial activity towards several plant pathogens. The extract is not temperature sensitive indicating that the inhibitory activity is due to a chemical compound. Work on pollination of orchard chestnuts revealed some unexpected data in 2011. The Internal Kernel Breakdown (IKB) disease is associated with seed sired by the cultivar Benton Harbor, suggesting that IKB may be caused by genetic incompatibility between Colossal (a European X Japanese hybrid) cultivar and pollen from Benton Harbor (a Chinese chestnut cultivar). Drs. Fulbright Dan Guyer and Mr. Irwin Donis-Gonzelez continue to work on treatments to prevent storage diseases of chestnut. To test if it was possible to determine the paternity of each nut found on chestnut trees, nuts from an experimental orchard containing only three cultivars where only two of the three cultivars were capable of pollinating the third cultivar were assayed for genotype. A kernel biopsy assay was used on the nuts in order to test the genotypes before nut germination. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) genotypes of the parents,Colossal, Benton Harbor, Okei and 70 F1 progeny resulting from the pollination of Colossal with Benton Harbor or Okei, were genotyped using the primers EMCs15, CsCAT1, and CsCAT2 loci. Results indicated that twice as many nuts harvested from Colossal were fathered by Okei as by the cultivar Benton Harbor. Dr. Jarosz's lab work characterizing vegetative compatibility (VC) group diversity in seven populations of Cryphonectria parasitica in Michigan was submitted to the journal Phytopathology. Essentially, each of the three recovering populations was found to have a unique VC structure that differed from other recovering populations and also from the four epidemic sites. My lab is following up this work by investigating the underlying genetic basis of VC diversity and to investigate the genetic structure of these populations using microsatellite markers. Preliminary results suggest that recovering populations as a whole are variable at the same vic loci that are variable across the epidemic sites. Recovering sites appear to simply have unique combinations of the alleles. Microsatellite data suggest that recovering and epidemic sites are very similar genetically, with the exception of the Roscommon recovering site, which appears to be genetically distinct from the other six sites we are characterizing. We are expanding our work on the use of mycoviruses in chestnut orchards. Our work using the Grand Haven mycovirus on infected Colossal chestnut trees indicates that the Grand Haven mycovirus provides good disease control with mycovirus treated trees yielding at 5% more nuts in 2012 while infected untreated trees reduced had yields reduced by 16% between 2011 and 2012. Samples of blight were obtained from a commercial orchard in October of 2012. Once characterizations are complete, we will move the Grand Haven mycovirus into each VC background and introduce it into the orchard in the spring of 2013. This will be the first attempt at controlling chestnut blight in a commercial orchard using mycoviruses.
Publications
- Hao, J.J., Liu, H., Donis-Gonzalez, I.R., Lu, X.H., Jones, A.D., and Fulbright, D.W. 2012. Antimicrobial activity of chestnut extracts for potential use in managing soilborne plant pathogens. Plant Dis. 96: 354-360.
- Donis-Gonzalez, I.R., Pease, A., Fulbright, D.W., and Guyer, D. 2012. "Relation of computerized tomography Hounsfield unit measurements and internal components of fresh chestnuts (Castanea spp.)" Postharvest Biology and Technology 64: 74-82.
- Medina-Mora, C. and Fulbright, D.W. 2012. Using Genetic Fingerprints to Establish a Parental Relationship in a Small Michigan Chestnut Orchard. Annu. Rpt. Northern Nut Growers 102: 18-26.
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Progress 01/01/11 to 12/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Information on the project was disseminated in a number of ways ranging from meetings with growers and landowners to talks and posters at national meetings. Dr. Fulbright took the lead with extension activities, acting as a strong advocate for commercial chestnut products. He met with growers on numerous occasions and under numerous settings. Dr. Fulbright also attended trade shows to advocate for the use of various chestnut products. Updates on the annual American chestnut census work were presented to landowners in West Salem, WI, Roscommon, Frankfort and Thompsonville, MI. Similar to 20009, we also met with Larry Severid about a project we have initiated with Dr. Anita Davelos Baines on his property. Joshua Springer, a graduate student in my lab, gave a talk at the national Ecological Society meetings in San Antonio, Texas in August. Professors Hao and Jarosz presented posters at the American Phytopathological Society meetings in Hawaii in August. Dr. Fulbright, Joshua Springer and Claire Moore gave talks at the annual chestnut meetings (NE1033) in Ivoryton, Connecticut in October. Finally, Matt Chansler and Claire Moore gave talks at the Michigan Academy of Arts and Letters meeting in Flint, Michigan in March PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Jianjun Hao from Plant Pathology and Dr. Dan Guyer and Mr. Irwin Donis-Gonzalez from Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering at Michigan State University are working with Dr. Fulbright to solve problems with nut storage diseases and in solving the IKB problem. Mr. Mario Mandujano, Ms. Carmen Medina-Mora and Ms. Sara Stadt from the Department of Plant Pathology at Michigan State University work with Dr. Fulbright in the improvement of chestnut orchard production. Josh Springer and Claire Moore, Department of Plant Biology, Michigan Sate University, are graduate students working on the Michigan populations of American chestnut. Mr. Springer's thesis work will examine the biological control aspects of hypovirus invasion and he will also investigate the evolutionary dynamics of the interaction between the pathogen and hypovirus. The American Chestnut Foundation and the Rogers Reserve fund at Michigan State University support this work. The work at West Salem Wisconsin is carried out in collaboration with Dennis Fulbright, Department of Plant Pathology, Michigan Sate University, and William MacDonald and Mark Double, West Virginia University. The American Chestnut Foundation supports this work. TARGET AUDIENCES: Our target audience is rather diverse. From a scientific standpoint, our work is of interest to ecologist and evolutionary biologists interested in host-pathogen, hyperparasites and tri-trophic interactions. Our work also has direct application to the field of Biological control of disease and has relevance to the area of invasion biology. We are also active participants in the American Chestnut Foundation, which has a mandate to restore American chestnuts to their native range in the United States. Any comprehensive blight control program will include hypoviruses as biological control agents. Finally, we are working with landowners to initiate hypovirus experiments aimed at implementing hypovirus mediated biological control of blight pathogen populations which will lead to the recovery of American chestnuts in Michigan and Wisconsin. Dr. Fulbright's work is targeted at improving chestnut production under orchard situations. He works closely with the Chestnut Growers Cooperative in the state of Michigan. Dr. Fulbright's work also has a national reach since he works closely with nurseries and growers in Missouri and California. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
Drs. Fulbright and Hao have tested extracts from chestnut shells and pellicles and found that it has anti-microbial activity towards several plant pathogens. The extract is not temperature sensitive indicating that the inhibitory activity is due to a chemical compound and is not biological in nature. Work on pollination of orchard chestnuts revealed some unexpected data in 2011. The Internal Kernel Breakdown (IKB) disease is associated with seed sired by the cultivar "Benton Harbor". This suggests that IKB may be caused by some level of genetic incompatibility between the nut producing Colossal cultivar and pollen source cultivar Benton Harbor. Drs. Fulbright, and Dan Guyer, and Mr. Irwin Donis-Gonzelez continue to work on treatments to prevent storage diseases of chestnut. Dr. Jarosz's lab has nearly completed work on vegetative compatibility group diversity in seven populations of Cryphonectria parasitica in Michigan. The additional data confirmed that each of the three recovering populations has a unique vegetative compatibility structure that differs from that found at the epidemic sites. Recovering sites have been invaded by hypovirus resulting in the recovery of American chestnut trees on the site. A small number of vegetative compatibility groups dominate each recovering population. Hypoviruses have not invaded the epidemic sites where American chestnut trees continue to be devastated by blight. At these epidemic sites vegetative compatibility group diversity is higher and specific vegetative compatibility groups are shared among populations. Dr. Jarosz's lab is expanding this work in two ways. First we are beginning to investigate the underlying genetics of the vegetative compatibility to determine if the differences found at recovering populations are due to differences at a one or a few loci controlling vegetative incompatibility (vic loci), or is due to a large number changes at vic loci. We have also begun to utilize microsatellite probes with the aim of determining the extent to which the differences in vegetative incompatibility mirror differences in the overall genetic structure of pathogen populations. A serendipitous off shoot of this work indicates that hypoviruses do not survive well in stored cultures. Joshua Springer initiated an experiment to determine the longevity of hypoviruses in stored cultures. We have begun to expand our work on intra-canker variability for vegetative compatibility groups. Work in 2009 found that about 25% of the cankers at West Salem, Wisconsin contained more than one vegetative compatibility group. We sampled four additional populations in Michigan and preliminary data suggests that the percentage of cankers with more than one vegetative compatibility group may be as high as 40%. We also extended our hypovirus introductions to include orchard chestnut trees. The Grand Haven hypovirus was introduced onto Colossal chestnut trees (European by Asian hybrids) to determine whether hypovirus can allow Colossal trees to continue producing commercially viable nut crops after infection by Cryphonectria parasitica.
Publications
- Baidyaroy, D., Hausner, G., Fulbright, D.W., and Bertrand, H. 2011. Mitochondrial plasmid-like elements in some hypovirulent strains of Cryphonectria parasitica. Fungal Genetics and Biology 48: 764 -774.
- Baidyaroy, D., Hausner, G., Hafez, M., Michel, F., Fulbright, D.W., and Bertrand, H. 2011. A 971-bp insertion in the rns gene is associated with mitochondrial hypovirulence. Fungal Genetics and Biology 48: 775 - 783.
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Progress 01/01/10 to 12/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The Midwest Chestnut Farm Conference was held in Jackson, Michigan in August. Researchers from the University of Missouri, University of Notre Dame, Michigan State University and chestnut growers met for two days to discuss research priorities of the chestnut growers in the state. Each researcher presented data from their investigations on chestnut research including genetics, cultivars, pollination, packaging, extension goals, quality and standards, electronic scanning for poor chestnuts, harvesting and equipment, storage, and economics of chestnut production. In addition, three other meetings were held during the year with growers: Chestnut pruning, grafting, and the annual meeting of the Midwest Nut Producers Council. Two researchers, two technicians, one graduate student and a Michigan chestnut grower attended a class offered by FACMA, an agricultural equipment manufacturer in Italy where they learned how to mechanical harvest chestnuts including harvesting techniques, orchard floor management, and maintenance of mechanical harvesters A mechanical chestnut harvester was purchased as was a chestnut scoring machine used for cutting chestnuts before roasting. One researcher and a graduate student attended 95th meeting of the Ecological Society of America, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where a paper was presented on the diversity of chestnut blight pathogen strains in Michigan. PARTICIPANTS: Associate Professor Andrew Jarosz and Josh Springer, a graduate student in the Department of Plant Biology, Michigan Sate University, iare working on the Michigan populations of American chestnut. This work is supported by the American Chestnut Foundation. Those involved with chestnut farm establishment and management of chestnuts in the midwest are Professors Dennis Fulbright, Dan Guyer, assistant professors Eva Almenar, R. Brent Ross and Jianjun Hao of the School of Packaging, Ag Economics and Plant Pathology departments at Michigan State University. Graduate student Carmen Medina-Mora and technician Mario Mandujano also are involved in chestnut studies at MSU. TARGET AUDIENCES: We have presented our data at professional meetings across the country. We are also active participants on the American Chestnut Foundation. Finally, we are working with landowners to initiate hypovirus experiments aimed at implementing hypovirus mediated biological control of blight pathogen populations. Those interested in this work include chestnut growers in Michigan and world wide, researchers involved with growing chestnut trees and studying chestnut blight. Chestnut processors and market managers would also be interested in our work. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The annual census of seven chestnut populations in Michigan was continued. Studies indicate that trees continue to decline at two diseased populations and both populations are now declining rapidly. Trees continue to recover at two of the three recovering sites, but one site is experiencing a period where average tree size is declining over the past five years. The cause of the decline is not known. Cryphonectria parasitica was isolated from 30 cankers samples collected in 2009 from each of the seven populations included in our annual census. Patterns of vegetative compatibility (VC) diversity were compared across populations and over time. VC structure at each of the three recovering populations was unique. VC structure at two of the recovering sites was dominated by a single VC group with a frequency exceeding 97% in both 1996 and 2009. However, VC the pattern changed significantly from 1996 to 2009 at the third recovering site, where the frequency of existing VC groups changed over time and four new VC groups were detected in 2009. Perhaps not coincidentally, the trees at this site have been in decline over the past 5 years. VC diversity at the four sites without hypovirus was generally higher than that found at the three recovering sites. Further, common VC groups were often shared among sites, but surprisingly, distance between sites was not correlated with the sharing of VC groups. In 2008, we began a project aimed at introducing the GH2 hypovirus into three chestnut populations in Michigan. Our previous demographic work suggests that inoculating understory trees in the 1 to 10cm DBH size range will result in the fastest recovery of a chestnut population. Trees within this size range were inoculated in July, 2009 and again in May, 2010. In August of 2010, healing cankers were found on some of the inoculated trees at each site. In newly established orchards in Michigan, based on commercial cultivars, limited amounts of chestnut are produced in the first few years due to pollination issues. Our preliminary studies have lead us to the hypothesis that limited amounts of pollen from young trees, improper timing of dehiscence, and/or pollen-stigma incompatibility may be playing significant factors in the lack of nut set. During 2008-2010 growing seasons, we performed controlled-pollination experiments and monitored natural-pollination to determine the appropriate (timing) phenological phases between catkin and pistillate flower resulting in high nut production and quality. In our controlled-pollination experiments, pollen was applied onto flowers once, twice, or three times during blooming. We observed that one pollen application at anthesis is critical for nut set, and that anthesis of the 'Colossal' flowers occurred by 7 July and 3 July for the 2008 and 2009 growing seasons, respectively. In natural-pollination experiments, pistillate flowers are receptive to pollen as early as 24 June, and as late as 3 August for cv. 'Colossal' growing in mid-Michigan. Climatic conditions in 2009 lead to speculation that the general cool, wet summer reduced crop load.
Publications
- Fulbright, D.W. 2006. Chestnut culture in Italy. Annual Report Northern Nut Growers Association. 1-41 (published in 2010). Donis Gonzalez, I. R., M. Mandujano, C. Medina-Mora, D. W. Fulbright. 2009. Presence of mycotoxins after 90 days of storage in fresh chestnuts. 4th International Chestnut Symposium, Beijing, China. Acta Horticulturae 844: 69-74. Springer, Joshua C., Anita L. Davelos Baines, and Andrew M. Jarosz. 2009. Hypovirus mediated recovery of blight infected American chestnut trees in Michigan. Phytopathology 99:S123 Donis-Gonzalez, I., Ryser, E.T., Guyer, D., and Fulbright, D.W. 2010. Efficacy of postharvest treatments for reduction of molds and decay in fresh Michigan chestnuts. First European Chestnut Conference. Acta Horticulturae 866: 563-570. Donis-Gonzalez, I., Ryser, E.T., Guyer, D., and Fulbright, D.W. 2010. Shell mold and kernel decay of fresh chestnuts in Michigan. First European Chestnut Conference. Acta Horticulturae 866: 353-358. Fulbright, D.W., Mandujan, M. and Stadt, S. 2010. Chestnut production in Michigan. First European Chestnut Conference. Acta Horticulturae 866: 531-537. Guyer, D., Xing, J., Mandujano, M., Fulbright, D.W. 2010. Influence of selected factors on efficiency and effectiveness of a peeling machine for chestnut. First European Chestnut Conference. Acta Horticulturae 866: 595-603. Medina Mora, C.M., and Fulbright, D.W. 2010. Evaluation of simple sequence repeats (SSR) for genetic analysis of chestnut trees in Michigan orchards. First European Chestnut Conference. Acta Horticulturae 866:127-133. Springer, Joshua C., Matthew T. Chansler, Anita L. Davelos Baines, and Andrew M. Jarosz. 2010. Vegetative incompatibility diversity in Michigan populations of the chestnut blight fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica. 95th meeting of the Ecological Society of America, Pittsburgh, PA.
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Progress 01/01/09 to 12/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Presentations were made at the following meetings: Michigan Nut Growers Association, Midwest Nut Producers Council annual meeting, Chestnut Growers, Incorporated annual meeting, the Northern Nut Growers Association Annual meeting, and the NE-1033 regional research annual meeting. In addition, four presentations and one poster were presented at the First European Conference on Chestnut. Results of a tree growth analysis were presented at the annual meeting of the American Phytopathological Society in Portland, Oregon in August of 2009. A refereed journal was published on the chestnut research. PARTICIPANTS: Faculty members Dennis Fulbright and Andrew Jarosz, Department of Plant Pathology, Daniel Guyer, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Bruce Harte and Eva Almenar, School of Packaging; graduate students Carmen Medina Mora and Josh Springer, Department of Plant Biology, and Irwin Donis Gonzalez, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Michigan Sate University; technical help, Mario Mandujano, Department of Plant Pathology, Michigan State University. Faculty member William MacDonald and Technician Mark Double, West Virginia University. This work is supported by the Michigan Nut Growers Asssociation, Midwest Nut Producers Council, Chestnut Growers, Inc., Ernie and Mabel Rogers Endowment of Michigan State University, and the American Chestnut Foundation. TARGET AUDIENCES: Chestnut growers, companies interested in processing and marketing chestnuts, consumers, environmentalists interested in re-establishing the American chestnut tree. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: None.
Impacts
Fresh edible chestnuts without external or internal decay due to microbial infection are now being produced by Michigan chestnut growers. A new problem, internal kernel breakdown determined to be non-microbial is becoming common primarily in the hybrid cultivar Colossal. Distinguishing the microbial decay from the non-microbial decayed chestnut will help researchers and growers approach management of the non-microbial kernel breakdown. A new cultivar is being offered to Michigan growers. This cultivar has an extended shelf life. American chestnut plots are being studied to determine if the naturally occurring biological control called hypovirulence can manage chestnut blight. This will allow American chestnut trees to grow in Michigan.
Publications
- Monteiro-Vitorello, C. B., Hausner, G., Searles, D. B., Gibb, E. A., Fulbright, D. W., and Bertrand, H. 2009. The cryphonectria parasitica mitochondrial rns gene: Plasmid-like elements, introns and homing endonucleases. Fungal Genetics and Biology 46: 837-848.
- Springer, J.C., Davelos-Baines, A.L., and Jarosz, A.M. 2009. Hypovirus mediated recovery of blight infected American chestnut trees in Michigan. Phytopathology 99:S123
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Progress 01/01/08 to 12/31/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This new project started at the end of 2008 and we just finished our 5 year project NE-1015. We have not had a chance to report outputs for this project year yet. PARTICIPANTS: Dennis W. Fulbright, Professor, Dept. Plant Pathology Andrew M. Jarosz, Assistant Professor, Dept. Plant Biology, Daniel Guyer, Professor, Biosystems and Ag. Engineering Mario Mandujano, Technician, Carmen M. Medina-Ferrer, graduate student, Irwin Donis Gonzalez, graduate student Joshua C. Springer, graduate student TARGET AUDIENCES: The audience of our research is varied. Organizations included the American Chestnut Foundation, the Michigan Nut Growers Association, Midwest Nut Producers Council, Chestnut Growers, Inc., Chestnut Growers of America, plant pathologists, plant ecologists, food scientists, growers, consumers, chefs, food processors PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Outcomes have not been made as this we have only been working on this project for 2 months.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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