Jan 9, 2021
That grey fuzz you find on your
strawberries after a day or two in the fridge has researchers busy
in the lab. White and grey molds often harm crops and Shinyi
Marzano is working to inhibit these pathogens that often strike
greenhouse crops like lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries.
Listen and learn
Shinyi Marzano is a molecular
biologist and recently started working with USDA's Agricultural
Research Service. She focuses on green house and high tunnel
production, both of which are used for crops highly susceptible to
these white and grey molds.
Plants are especially susceptible during flowering to white mold,
when sexually-produced spores germinate after they've attached to
flower petals. The fungi's mycelium forms and grows, causing a
systemic infection that leads to stem rot. Grey mold is
particularly a problem for fruit crops, spreading rapidly and
ruining the fruit production.
Shinyi and her colleagues are
studying both the RNA silencing process the fungi initiates as well
as the mycoviruses that infect the fungi. RNA silencing in plants
is really a function of the fungi. When they sense the
double-stranded RNA that's produced by many mycoviruses, they
attempt to silence or inhibit the RNA by releasing proteins that
cut up the RNA strands, creating small pieces of what's called
virus-derived small RNA.
Shinyi is looking at mechanisms to disarm the pathogen host of
those essential proteins that are part of the RNA silencing
pathway. The fungal pathogen would then be susceptible to those
mycoviruses. She explains other interesting avenues, including
delivery means of these mycoviruses.
For more about her work, she
recommends searching Google Scholar.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK