NEWS RELEASE
Media Contacts:Dr. David Bird, 919/515-6813 or [email protected]Kevin Potter, NC State News Services, 919/515-3470 or [email protected]
Sept. 29, 2000
NC State Receives $2.6 Million NSF Grant to Study Parasite's Genetics
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A $2.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will allow North Carolina State University to lead a research study on the genetics of a common parasite that causes billions of dollars in damage to U.S. crops every year.
Dr. David Bird, associate professor of plant pathology at NC State, will head the study, which will focus on the genetic interaction between root-knot nematode worms and the food and fiber crops they devastate. The researchers' goal is to understand the genes involved in the interaction between the nematodes and plants during the infection process, which results in $2 billion to $3 billion in crop damage annually in the United States.
With a decrease in the use of some chemical pesticides for health and environmental reasons, the negative economic impact of the root-knot nematode is increasing worldwide. The three-year study on the microscopic worms could result in the development of new environmentally safe and affordable nematode control strategies.
"Our goal is to identify the weak links in the host-parasite interaction that can be targeted for nematode control," Bird says. "The approach we have in mind should help family farmers as well as agribusiness, and be applicable to a wide range of crops in the U.S., and food and fiber staples in the developing world."
The grant is a part of the NSF's national Plant Genome Research Project, which aims to understand the structure and function of genes in plants important to agriculture, environmental management, energy and health. Genomics is an important new area of scientific research focused on identifying and mapping the genes of living organisms.
NC State is a national leader in genomics research. Last September, the NSF awarded NC State more than $4.4 million to head a multi-university research team sequencing and mapping the genes of the loblolly pine, one of the Southeast's most economically and ecologically important species. Bird says a substantial investment in genomics research infrastructure by the university and its College of Agriculture and Life Sciences -- including NC State's Genome Research Laboratory -- has helped facilitate research funding such as the NSF grant to study nematode-plant interactions.
Root-knot nematodes -- soil-dwelling organisms which belong to the genus Meloidogyne -- are named for the swellings they cause on the roots of vegetable, cotton, ornamental and many other plants. The nematodes attack more than 2,000 plant species, a fact that leads scientists to believe the parasites are able to alter the basic biology of their plant hosts.
Bird said the research funded by the NSF should identify and quantify many nematode and plant genes that enable the microscopic organisms to establish a parasitic relationship with their plant hosts. Additionally, he said, the research should help shed light on certain basic plant processes that are currently not well understood.
In addition to NC State scientists, researchers at the Santa Fe Institute, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Washington University in St. Louis are participating in the study.
More information about the NC State nematode research grant -- titled "Genomic Analysis of a Nematode-Plant Interaction: A Tool to Study Plant Biology" -- is on the Web at www.nsf.gov/bio/pubs/awards/genome00.htm.
-- potter --
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