Plants, especially those produced for human consumption or those that provide fiber for clothing and other goods, are potential targets for bioterrorism. Moreover, an attack on important agricultural crops could decimate long-term agricultural productivity with resulting critical shortages of food and fiber. Early recognition of bioterrorism directed toward plants is essential to institute effective response from agricultural extension services and other appropriate governmental agencies to combat the specific strains of phytopathogens with appropriate chemical or biological measures, as well as to educate farm workers and owners on how to minimize damage. The University of West Florida's Center for Environmental Diagnostics (CEDB) through its relationships with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties and the Florida Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services (FDACS) will identify pathogen-infested fields and plants. The long-term goals of this research are to develop a comprehensive suite of probes/tests for in situ detection of fungal and bacterial phytopathogens that affect crops such as wheat, rice, cotton, flax, corn, oats, beans and barley. For proof of concept we will focus on detection of two pathogens of cotton and the plant response to massive inoculation with these two pathogens. In addition, because infection induces plant defense responses, we will determine if these responses may be utilized as biomarkers of terrorist attacks on our major crops.
The UWF component, described above, is one part of a larger research initiative addressing bioterrorism, which is being conducted at the University of South Florida Center for Biological Defense.
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These two cotton seedlings are victims of post-emergent
"damping off" that is caused by infestation with the fungus
Rhizoctonia solani. The plant vascular system is destroyed by tissue damage
to the seedling at the soil surface and the plant is starved of nutrients
and water. |
This cottonseed is the infested withthe fungus Pythium ultimum, the cause of pre-emergent damping off disease, which kills cotton plants in the stage of the nascent hypocotyl (projecting from seed to the left beneath the fungal mycelium). |