Date of Award

2019

Publisher

North Dakota State University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Awarded

Master of Science (MS)

Program

Plant Pathology

Department

Plant Sciences

College

Agriculture, Food Systems and Natural Resources

Faculty Advisor

Brueggeman, Robert

Description

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is one of the most destructive pathogens of sunflower in the United States and worldwide. Distinctive symptoms include mid-stalk rot, basal stalk rot and head rot from subsequent infection of the sunflower head. This fungal pathogen has a remarkably broad host range of over 400 dicot plants. However, little is currently known about the virulence strategies that allow S. sclerotiorum to successfully infect a wide range of plant hosts. The goal of our project was to identify S. sclerotiorum virulence determinants and effectors that contribute to disease development on sunflower. We evaluated a diverse collection of 232 S. sclerotiorum isolates for aggressiveness of mid-stalk lesion formation on two sunflower inbred lines. In addition, we performed genotyping-by-sequencing on 191 isolates to identify genetic markers for genome-wide association mapping to identify candidate genes associated with aggressiveness. A total of eight loci associated with variation in aggressiveness were identified.

Rights

NDSU policy 190.6.2

Rights Link

https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf

Handle Identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/10365/31547

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