College of Agriculture

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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.

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    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.
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    Abutilon theophrasti’s Resilience against Allelochemical-Based Weed Management in Sustainable Agriculture – Due to Collection of Highly Advantageous Microorganisms?
    (MDPI AG, 2023-02) Tabaglio, Vincenzo; Fiorini, Andrea; Sterling, Tracy M.; Schulz, Margot
    Abutilon theophrasti Medik. (velvetleaf) is a problematic annual weed in field crops which has invaded many temperate parts of the world. Since the loss of crop yields can be extensive, approaches to manage the weed include not only conventional methods, but also biological methods, for instance by microorganisms releasing phytotoxins and plant-derived allelochemicals. Additionally, benzoxazinoid-rich rye mulches effective in managing common weeds like Amaranthus retroflexus L. have been tested for this purpose. However, recent methods for biological control are still unreliable in terms of intensity and duration. Rye mulches were also ineffective in managing velvetleaf. In this review, we present the attempts to reduce velvetleaf infestation by biological methods and discuss possible reasons for the failure. The resilience of velvetleaf may be due to the extraordinary capacity of the plant to collect, for its own survival, the most suitable microorganisms from a given farming site, genetic and epigenetic adaptations, and a high stress memory. Such properties may have developed together with other advantageous abilities during selection by humans when the plant was used as a crop. Rewilding could be responsible for improving the microbiomes of A. theophrasti.
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