Specialty Areas
Crop Genetics
For years, scientists have studied how the soil bacterium Agrobacterium naturally genetically modifies crops to develop the undesirable crown gall disease. Researchers have since begun to replace disease genes with beneficial ones, and produce crops with desirable traits including enhanced nutritional value, herbicide tolerance, and improved disease resistance. But this process has proven difficult to master in other staple crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat. In the Purdue Department of Biological Sciences, researchers have discovered new means of improving Agrobacterium’s transformational efficiency that will pay dividends for farmers in Indiana and around the world.
In separate studies, the first genetic map of Sorghum has been completed as part of an effort to probe genetic evolution in crop plants and reveal other potential targets for beneficial genetic transposition. And increased understanding of the evolution of plant pathogens made possible by Purdue researchers has enabled rice growers to protect crops from an especially prevalent fungus.
