Location: Soil Dynamics Research
Project Number: 6010-21600-001-002-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2024
End Date: Jun 30, 2028
Objective:
1. Determine biological, ecological, and molecular characteristics of cotton leaf roll dwarf virus (CLRDV) and other pathogens to prevent and mitigate diseases that may negatively impact agronomic crop production.
2. Mitigate negative impacts of CLRDV through improved understanding of pathogen epidemiology, including insect vectors, alternative plant hosts, and climate conditions.
3. Develop agronomic practices for diverse cotton germplasm in large- and small-scale production systems to minimize yield loss from CLRDV and other diseases.
Approach:
The funds will be used to study the key epidemiological factors responsible for spread of cotton leaf roll dwarf virus (CLRDV) in cotton.
Research will be undertaken on crop management to investigate production practices that minimize crop susceptibility to the disease, which include cultivar selection, crop health inputs, rotation, and cover crop selection as well as establish the relationship between symptom onset, host growth stage, and losses in lint yield and quality. Key epidemiological mechanisms for both the virus and the vector will be identified.
On the cotton production landscape, aphid vector host selection along with dispersal and colonization patterns will be studied. This will allow strategies to be tested for alternative and sustainable management practices. It will build on the current field knowledge and strengthen the tools necessary to mitigate yield impacts at the grower level.
Laboratory, field and controlled environment experiments will be utilized to build on the current knowledge to better understand the impact that winter crop production and common management practices have on virus and vector epidemiology.
In addition, germplasm response to the virus in terms of symptomology and genotypic response will be addressed in order to identify resistance to either the vector or the virus providing a GxExM approach to this research.
