Virus-Host Interactions:

Viruses cause significant reductions in food, fiber and forage throughout the world. Yet despite their importance we still understand relatively little of the disease processes through which viruses reduce crop productivity. Our biological studies focus on understanding how plant viruses cause disease or induce resistance responses.  One area of study is directed at understanding the molecular mechanisms used by viruses to usurp the plant’s vascular tissues and facilitate their movement throughout the plant.   We are currently characterizing specific plant–virus interactions and cell responses that occur within the vascular tissues of infected plants.  These studies utilize a variety of pathosystems including a Tobacco mosaic virus – Arabidopsis system and a Plum Pox Virus - Prunus fruit trees system.   

 

Another focus area addresses the identification of signaling pathways involved in disease development.  These studies utilize genomic approaches, such as  RNAseq, gene editing and tissue specific translatome approaches to identify host genes and pathways that are disrupted during the infection process. We then seek to link disrupted genes or pathways to specific disease responses as well as to specific virus-host interactions and functions. Our long-term goal is to utilize information from these studies to develop crop plants that are incapable of supporting virus spread and/or disease development.

 

Virus Based Nanotechnology:

Advances in nanotechnology offer significant improvements in a range of applications including, lightweight materials with greater strength, increased energy efficiency for electronic devices, and better sensors for a range of environmental and manufacturing uses. Furthermore, since size constraints often produce qualitative changes in the characteristics of matter, it is anticipated that the exploitation of nanotechnology will result in the identification of new phenomena and functionalities derived from the physics, chemistry, and biology of matter at the nanoscale level. However, these advances will require the development of systems for the design, modeling, and synthesis of nanoscale materials. Interestingly, many biological molecules function on this scale and possess unique properties that impart the ability to assume defined conformations and assemblies, as well as interact with specific chemical or biological substrates. Specific studies in our laboratory utilize simple RNA plant viruses as templates for the self-assembly and patterning of novel nanomaterials. We are interested in developing methodologies to produce assembled arrays of functionalized viruses for use in sensors, energy harvesting and drug delivery. We combine both genetic and chemical approaches to address our bioengineering efforts with the long-term aim of integrating renewable biological components into the manufacture of nanoscale materials and devices.