Neil Gudmestad, university distinguished professor of plant pathology, is one of three project directors for a $6.9 million grant proposal funded by the Specialty Crops Research Initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. Charles Rush of Texas A&M University, John Trumble of the University of California-Riverside and Gudmestad coordinated the proposal, titled “Management of Zebra Chip to Enhance Profitability and Sustainability of U.S. Potato Production." The proposed research will focus efforts on disease etiology, pathogen variability and epidemiology, risk assessment and insect vector ecology. Texas A&M University acted as the lead institution for this proposal.
Gary Secor, NDSU professor of plant pathology, first identified zebra chip as a new potato disease in 2000 in south Texas. Since then, the disease and the pathogen that causes it has been confirmed in New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, California and Wyoming. The pathogen is a very primitive proteobacterium that cannot be cultured, but is disseminated by the potato psyllid insect and possibly through seed. In a very short time frame zebra chip has become one of the most economically damaging diseases of potatoes in the United States and Central America.
Gudmestad will lead an interdisciplinary team of five principal investigators who will concentrate their efforts on developing effective pathogen detection methods in addition to performing fundamental studies on the genetic diversity of the pathogen and the insect vector. Preliminary studies suggest that the zebra chip proteobacterium is capable of establishing epidemiologically important populations in perennial solanaceous plant hosts that may act as a reservoir of inoculum. Gudmestad’s research team will investigate the relationship of the zebra chip bacterium in nature to those associated with the disease at the molecular genetics level.
Congress established the Specialty Crops Research Initiative in 2007 to solve critical industry issues through research and Extension activities. Specialty crops are defined as fruits, vegetables (potato), tree nuts and horticulture and nursery crops. Priority is given to projects that are multi-state, multi-institutional and interdisciplinary. Projects must address at least one of five focus areas, one of which is to identify and address new threats to specialty crops from pests and diseases such as zebra chip of potato.
Research funding provided by U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service Specialty Crops Research Initiative must be matched from non-federal sources. In addition to the $6.9 million from Specialty Crops Research Initiative, project directors Rush, Gudmestad and Trumble and members of the project advisory board were able to secure matching dollars from a number of allied agricultural industries, grower consortia and potato processors making the total funding available for research approximately $10.2 million during the next five years.