College of Agriculture

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/4

As the foundation of the land grant mission at Montana State University, the College of Agriculture and the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station provide instruction in traditional and innovative degree programs and conduct research on old and new challenges for Montana’s agricultural community. This integration creates opportunities for students and faculty to excel through hands-on learning, to serve through campus and community engagement, to explore unique solutions to distinct and interesting questions and to connect Montanans with the global community through research discoveries and outreach.

Browse

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Exopolysaccharide is required for motility, stress tolerance, and plant colonization by the endophytic bacterium Paraburkholderia phytofirmans PsJN
    (Frontiers Media SA, 2023-08) Fu, Benzhong; Yan, Qing
    Paraburkholderia phytofirmans PsJN is an endophytic bacterium and has been shown to promote the growth and health of many different plants. Exopolysaccharide (EPS) plays important roles in plant-bacteria interaction and tolerance to environmental stresses. However, the function of EPS in PsJN and its interaction with plants remain largely unknown. In this study, a deletion mutation of bceQ gene, encoding a putative flippase for the EPS biosynthesis, was introduced in the genome of PsJN. The ΔbceQ mutant produced a significantly lower level of EPS than the wild type strain in culture media. Compared to the wild type PsJN, the ΔbceQ mutant was more sensitive to desiccation, UV damage, salt (NaCl) and iron (FeCl3) stresses, and bacteriophage infection. More importantly, the mutation of bceQ decreased the endophytic colonization of PsJN in camelina (Camelina sativa) and pea (Camelina sativa) under plant drought stress conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that EPS production is required for the maximal colonization of an endophytic bacterium in the plant tissues under stress conditions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Optimized High Throughput Ascochyta Blight Screening Protocols and Immunity to A. pisi in Pea
    (MDPI AG, 2023-03) Annan, Emmanuel N.; Nyamesorto, Bernard; Yan, Qing; McPhee, Kevin; Huang, Li
    Ascochyta blight (AB) is a destructive disease of the field pea (Pisum sativum L.) caused by necrotrophic fungal pathogens known as the AB-disease complex. To identify resistant individuals to assist AB resistance breeding, low-cost, high throughput, and reliable protocols for AB screening are needed. We tested and optimized three protocols to determine the optimum type of pathogen inoculum, the optimal development stage for host inoculation, and the timing of inoculation for detached-leaf assays. We found that different plant development stages do not affect AB infection type on peas, but the timing of inoculation affects the infection type of detached leaves due to wound-induced host defense response. After screening nine pea cultivars, we discovered that cultivar Fallon was immune to A. pisi but not to A. pinodes or the mixture of the two species. Our findings suggest that AB screening can be done with any of the three protocols. A whole-plant inoculation assay is necessary for identifying resistance to stem/node infection. Pathogen inoculation must be completed within 1.5 h post-detachment to avoid false positives of resistance for detach-leaf assays. It is essential to use a purified single-species inoculum for resistant resource screenings to identify the host resistance to each single species.
Copyright (c) 2002-2022, LYRASIS. All rights reserved.