Between Dec 19, 2024 and Jan 2, 2025, datasets can be submitted to DRUM but will not be processed until after the break. Staff will not be available to answer email during this period, and will not be able to provide DOIs until after Jan 2. If you are in need of a DOI during this period, consider Dryad or OpenICPSR. Submission responses to the UDC may also be delayed during this time.

Browsing by Author "Bushley, Kathryn"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Evaluation of Endophytic Beauvaria bassiana as a Targeted Insecticide in Tomato
    (2015-09) Pai, Shantal; Bushley, Kathryn
    A targeted insecticide treatment has great value in agriculture because it would mitigate insect damage while causing no harm to non-harmful insects, especially pollinators. Beauvaria bassiana is an endophyte which has been shown to improve plant growth and is a known insect pathogen. It was hypothesized that the combination of these two traits would make B. bassiana a potential targeted insecticide. Two tomato (Solanum lycoperscicum) varieties, Early Girl and Heinz 1706-BG, were inoculated with Beauvaria bassiana. The Early Girl variety was tracked to assess plant-fungal interactions, while the Heinz variety was inoculated with beet armyworm larvae (Spodoptera exigua) to examine effects of Beauveria on herbivory. Our results show that B. bassiana was transferred from the leaf tissue to the beet armyworm larvae, infecting and killing some insects, and slowing insect damage. Our results also show some indication that B. bassiana of pathogenic, rather than mutualistic, interaction with the Early Girl variety of tomato.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Genetic Diversity and Aggressiveness of Fusarium virguliforme Isolates Across the Midwestern United States
    (Phytopathology, 2022) Olarte, Rodrigo A.; Hall, Rebecca; Tabima, Javier F.; Malvick, Dean; Bushley, Kathryn
    Sudden death syndrome (SDS) of soybean is a damaging disease caused by the fungus Fusarium virguliforme. Since this pathogen was first reported in the southern U.S. state of Arkansas in 1971, it has spread throughout the midwestern United States. The SDS pathogen primarily colonizes roots but also produces toxins that translocate to and damage leaves. Previous studies have detected little to no genetic differentiation among isolates, suggesting F. virguliforme in North America has limited genetic diversity and a clonal population structure. Yet, isolates vary in virulence to roots and leaves. We characterized a set of F. virguliforme isolates from the midwestern United States, representing a south to north latitudinal gradient from Arkansas to Minnesota. Ten previously tested microsatellite loci were used to genotype isolates, and plant assays were conducted to assess virulence. Three distinct population clusters were differentiated across isolates. Although isolates ranged in virulence classes from low to very high, little correlation was found between virulence phenotype and cluster membership. Similarly, population structure and geographic location were not highly correlated. However, the earliest diverging cluster had the lowest genetic diversity and was detected only in southern states, whereas the two other clusters were distributed across the Midwest and were predominant in Minnesota. One of the midwestern clusters had the greatest genetic diversity and was found along the northern edge of the known distribution. The results support three genetically distinct population clusters of F. virguliforme in the United States, with two clusters contributing most to spread of this fungus across the Midwest.