Michigan State University researchers investigating seedling pathogens for corn, soybean and wheat

In Michigan, a group of scientists in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University set out to gain a better understanding of the composition of seedling pathogens, with results that will aid disease management research not only in corn but in rotational crops such as soybean and wheat.

This research focused on oomycetes, also known as water molds, which comprise several hundred organisms that include some of the most devastating plant pathogens some of which cause seedling disease and root rot. They used both traditional pathogen isolation methods and amplicon sequencing to identify the most abundant oomycetes from corn seedlings and characterize the isolates for their ability to cause disease on corn.