The USDA Wallace-Carver Fellowship program offers college students the opportunity to work one-on-one with research experts in science and agriculture during a three-month period. Through this paid fellowship, students are exposed to ground-breaking field and laboratory-based research and contribute to the ongoing research project.

Additionally, the fellows participate in a week long Wallace-Carver Symposium where they meet government officials and interact with international industry and business leaders in Washington DC to discuss current world challenges in agriculture and the environment. During the symposium the fellows participate in tours, leadership development activities, and learn about available opportunities through public service.

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The Crops Pathology and Genetics Research Unit housed two Wallace-Carver Fellows, James Pinkney Jr. and Kathryn Driscoll during the summer of 2019. They collaborated with Dr. Kluepfel and Dr. Poret-Peterson on a walnut research project focused on Agrobacterium tumefaciens, the causal agent of crown gall disease which is a major disease of walnut in California.

Front row left to right: David Leyva, USDA Pathways Intern; Emma Hsu, Young Scholar Program; Dr. Ali McClean, Biological Science Technician; Limin Chen, University of California, Davis Graduate Student; and Katie Driscoll, Wallace-Carver Fellow

Back row left to right: Dr. Amisha Poret-Peterson, Research Soil Microbiologist; James Pinkney Jr., Wallace-Carver Fellow; Dr. Daniel A. Kluepfel, Research Leader; Logan Kunkel, University of California, Davis Undergraduate Student

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James Pinkney Jr. had two projects. First, James characterized the sensitivity of thirty California walnut isolates of Agrobacterium tumefaciens isolates to eight different antibiotics. Each antibiotic represented a separate class of compounds with a distinct mode of action. Second, James examined the motility of the same thirty bacterial isolates on a limited nutrient medium (10% tryptic soy agar). 

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Kathryn Driscoll worked on two projects. Katie determined the individual growth rate of each of thirty California walnut isolates of Agrobacterium tumefaciens isolates in both rich and minimal culture medium. Then evaluated the sensitivity of each of the isolates to the biocontrol strain K84 which is used in some commercial products to control A. tumefaciens.   

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