BART

Abstract

Project Goals: The first project goal is to quantitatively model the disease triangle that describes sorghum, pathogenic bacteria, and the environment. Field and laboratory experiments are being combined to determine bacterial susceptibility of genetically diverse sorghum genotypes that differ in cell wall and sugar composition. Standard plant pathology techniques combined with powerful phenomics approaches are providing a holistic view of this pathosystem within variable environments. Further, transcriptomics is being employed to elucidate mechanisms used by bacterial pathogens to induce sorghum susceptibility. Microbial pathogens are known to manipulate the sugar and cell wall characteristics of their hosts. Consequently, these characteristics will be analyzed during pathogen invasion. This research will reveal the mechanisms underlying tolerance to pathogens that must be maintained during biofuel trait optimization.