News Stories - Page 10

Henry Ssendagire, a master's student at Makerere University in Uganda, is working on a project with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut at UGA to find the alternative hosts for a devastating peanut disease, Groundnut Rosette Virus. CAES News
Student Profile: For Ssendagire, fighting viruses isn’t just about medicine
Henry Ssendagire was supposed to become a medical doctor. At least, that was his mother’s dream. She may have to settle for a doctor of virology. Ssendagire, who grew up in a poor neighborhood in Kampala, Uganda, found himself studying horticulture on a government scholarship. Today, his research may help farmers control one of the most troublesome plant diseases that ruins groundnut yields and threatens food security.
Assistant Professor Li Yang works in a controlled environment growth room for Arabidopsis thaliana research. CAES News
CAES researcher receives $1.75 million to study age-related disease resistance — and the molecular link between aging and immunity
Like people, plants face challenges from microbial pathogens throughout their lifespan. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has provided Li Yang, an assistant professor of plant immunity at the University of Georgia, with the Maximizing Investors’ Research Award (MIRA) totalling $1.75 million to continue his research on the molecular mechanisms of age-related resistance in plants.
Alfredo Espinoza-Martinez received the 2021 Excellence in Extension award from the American Phytopathological Society for his work in Extension focusing on disease management in turfgrass, as well as working with small grains and non-legume forages. CAES News
UGA professor earns award from American Phytopathological Society
It is said that if you find a job you love, you will never work a day in your life. For Alfredo Martinez-Espinoza, this has come true through his work as a plant pathologist with University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. His passion and hard work have been recognized with the American Phytopathological Society’s (APS) 2021 Excellence in Extension award.
Professor David Bertioli and senior research scientist Soraya Leal-Bertioli work together with peanut plants in their greenhouses at the Center for Applied Genetic Technologies. CAES News
New peanut has a wild past and domesticated present
The wild relatives of modern peanut plants have the ability to withstand disease in ways that modern peanut plants can’t. The genetic diversity of these wild relatives means that they can shrug off the diseases that kill farmers’ peanut crops, but they also produce tiny nuts that are difficult to harvest because they burrow deep in the soil.
Three graduate students in the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) have been honored with an E. Broadus Browne Award for Outstanding Graduate Research: plant pathology student Shaun Stice took first place in the Ph.D. category; Sam McDonald, a plant breeding, genetics and genomics student placed second in the Ph.D category; and plant pathology student Caroline Burks received first place in the master’s category. CAES News
Graduate students honored with research awards
Three graduate students in the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences have been honored with an E. Broadus Browne Award for Outstanding Graduate Research.
Boxwood blight symptoms clockwise from upper left: tan to gray leaf lesions with a darker purplish border on an English boxwood; circular, tan spots with a brown border on upper leaves; tan blighted leaves and bare stems on an infected plant; blackening of stems and browning foliage; and black stem lesions on bare branch tips. (photos by Jean Williams-Woodward) CAES News
Wet weather can cause influx of disease to evergreens
If you're seeing brown areas in your landscape trees or hedges where you should be seeing green, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension can help. Wet winters and severe weather have been causing disease and other issues in landscape plants, especially Leyland cypress and boxwood.