By Rose Krebs
Drive down U.S. 70 toward Clayton, North Carolina, from Raleigh, and you’ll start to come across fields of corn, cotton and other crops not far off the road. While the Central Crops Research Station may look like one of the many farms you’ll find across North Carolina, it is one of 18 research stations supported by NC State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Among the many ongoing research projects there is a National Science Foundation-supported study focused on the genetic processes that underlie disease resistance in corn.
At the molecular level, plant defense begins within plant cells and the genes they carry. NC State Professor Terri Long, head of the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, and Peter Balint-Kurti, research geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service and adjunct professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, are exploring one aspect of how this process works.
Just like animals, plants encounter pathogens and pests every day, ranging from insects and fungi to viruses and bacteria. In order to survive, plants need ways to combat pathogens and pests when they can’t physically move away from them. While some of these defenses are visible, like thorns and a thick waxy layer called a cuticle that pathogens must cross to infect the plant, others are far too small for the eye to see.
Source : ncsu.edu