Plant pathology

Winter 2022

In praise of simple things

In a world that’s beset with huge changes, it is sometimes hard to appreciate small things.

Consider the mouse-ear cress, Arabidopsis thaliana, which grows by roads and sidewalks. Not much to see, the little weed has a very small genome and in 2000 was the first plant to be completely sequenced. Its very simplicity has made Arabidopsis a powerful research tool for plant scientists at Washington State University and around the world.

WSU scientists have used it to identify a gene that allows the elimination of trans fats from many cooking oils and fats, find ways to help plants adapt to climate change, and investigate many other … » More …

Spring 2021

From the president

Washington State University President Kirk Schulz writes about new buildings will further WSU research and support for the state for COVID-19 vaccination. » More ...

Summer 2016

Morels

Mysterious. Elusive. Delicious.

The smell of rain-soaked earth permeated the logged-over clearing in the woods in mid-May as my friend Mike and I peered closely at the ground and walked slowly. We were hunting mushrooms.

Mike’s more adept eyes spotted a cluster of light brown, honeycombed caps. He sliced the morel mushrooms with his knife. After a while we filled a small bucket, which we took back to Mike’s mom. She battered and fried them and, as a teenager in northeast Washington years ago, I had my first taste of the rich flavor of the wild Northwest mushroom.

Mike and I had likely picked Morchella … » More …

Summer 2013

Why aren’t plants more sick than they are?

Why are plants immune to most of the diseases surrounding them in the environment? Lee Hadwiger, Washington State University professor of plant pathology, has been wrestling with this question most of his career.

Were it not for a commonplace but mysterious trait called non-host resistance (NHR), plants would be constantly attacked by fungi, bacteria, and other pathogens swarming in the air, soil, and bodies. For the most part, plants are immune to those challenges because NHR gives them their robust and durable immunity to the myriad pathogens challenging them.

In the January issue of Phytopathology, Hadwiger and his colleague, USDA Agricultural Research Service plant pathologist … » More …

Spring 2013

Spinach is suspect: A pathological mystery

The case started a few years ago when a farmer approached seed pathologist Lindsey du Toit at WSU Mount Vernon wondering what was damaging his spinach seed crop out in the field. He had planted on clean ground that hadn’t had spinach before. He wondered if maybe the stock seed had a problem.

“It didn’t make sense,” says du Toit, explaining that what happened to the plants didn’t fit with the known diseases. At the time, du Toit and one of her graduate students were looking at fungal pathogens in the seeds of spinach plants. About 75 percent of the spinach seed grown in … » More …