Author Archives: Mike

Genomic DNA Extraction From Fungi (maxi_DNA extraction)

Time: about 5-6 hours, Yield- 400 ug /gr of wet fungal tissue     ·               Use cut tips for pipetting (not necessary for C. graminicola, but some fungi create a viscous supernatant for which a cut pipette will help) ·               … Continue reading

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Fungal cultures preparation for maxi DNA extraction

1. Cut some mycelial plugs (like 5) from a 10 -14 days old PDA culture. 2. Place the agar plugs in 250 mL Erlenmeyer flask with 40 ml of Fries medium. 3. Add 5.2 microliters of HYGRO to each flask. … Continue reading

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Anthracnose Leaf Blight Assay

Maize plants are typically grown the V-4 stage (about 3 weeks old) in Cone-tainers (small narrow cone shaped pots). Plant Inoculation Assay Potting the plants 1. Corn seeds are planted in soil that is 2:2:1 College Station field soil: Metro … Continue reading

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Infection of maize roots by C. graminicola

Several Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) tagged strains of C. graminicola were prepared in my laboratory and used to study the plant root colonization process. We have shown that the leaf pathogen C. graminicola is also able to infect and colonize … Continue reading

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Transcriptional Profiling During Anthracnose Disease Development

The value of differential gene expression studies as tools to dissect the biological mechanisms is well established.  There is a growing list of fungal and plant genes that are reported to be expressed specifically during pathogenesis. One of the main drawbacks … Continue reading

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Infection of maize roots by C. graminicola

Several Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) tagged strains of C. graminicola were prepared in my laboratory and used to study the plant root colonization process. We have shown that the leaf pathogen C. graminicola is also able to infect and colonize corn roots but the … Continue reading

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Identification of Pathogenicity Genes in Colletotrichum graminicola

A variety of techniques are being employed to understand the genetic basis of pathogenicity of filamentous fungi to plants.  Virtually all genetic methods are centered on the characterization of individual genes and gene products through the construction of null mutants, … Continue reading

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Dimerization controls the activity of fungal elicitors that trigger systemic resistance in plants

Vargas, W.A.,  Djonović, S., Sukno, S.A., and Kenerley, C.M. 2008. JBC (Journal of Biological Chemestry). 283:19804-19815

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Serenella A Sukno, Ph.D.

Researcher email: ssukno@usal.es Professional Preparation B.S. Plant Genetics, Nat. Univ. of Mar del Plata, Argentina, 1992 M.S. Plant Genetics & Breeding, IAMZ, Zaragoza, Spain, 1993 Ph.D. Genetics, University of Córdoba, Spain, 1997 Postdoctoral Plant-Fungus Interactions, University of Kentucky, USA , 1998-2001 … Continue reading

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Functional Annotation of Proteins

As genome sequences of pathogenic fungi become increasingly available, our primary challenge is the integration of existing knowledge about gene function with the genome sequences. The genomes of more than 30 fungi have been sequenced, however our knowledge of the … Continue reading

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