Research in this program is conducted on soil borne and foliar diseases of fruit, vegetable and ornamental crops. Work occurs on a wide range of fungal pathogens and the diseases they cause with the ultimate objective of enabling effective, environmentally benign disease management for south Florida producers. Research includes studying the ecology of the associated pathogens and epidemiology of the diseases that they cause, investigating the genetic and pathogenic diversity, and origins and phylogenies of these pathogens, identifying and developing disease-resistant host germ plasm, identifying and developing cultural and chemical disease control measures, and looking at the influence of abiotic factors on disease development and host physiology, particularly flooding and suboptimal host nutrition.

Further Information:

This research program develops information and technologies needed to manage plant diseases affecting south Florida's agricultural industries, especially those that threaten the vegetable, fruit and sugar crops. The research entails investigations into the etiology, epidemiology and control of these diseases. At the present time, development of new papaya varieties with transgenic resistance to Papaya ringspot virus is a major focus of the program.