Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fort Pierce, Florida » U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory » Subtropical Plant Pathology Research » People » William Turechek
William Turechek
headline bar

William Turechek, Ph.D.
Research Plant Pathologist

U. S. Horticultural Research Laboratory
2001 South Rock Road
Fort Pierce, FL 34945
Telephone: (772) 462-5857
Fax: (772) 462-5986

Email: William.Turechek@ars.usda.gov

 

 

  /ARSUserFiles/40663/Pictures/resize_Turechek Picture.jpeg

Current Research Projects   

  1. Development of preseason risk prediction models to facilitate areawide pest management of whitefly-transmitted viruses of vegetables in the Southeastern U.S.
  2. Areawide pest management of whitefly- and thrips-transmitted viruses in fruiting vegetables in four production regions of Florida
  3. Biology, detection and management of angular leaf spot of strawberry
  4. Thermotherapy for non-chemical management of cryptic infections of strawberry transplants and emerging fungicide resistant populations
  5. Improving cucurbit foliar disease management through improved scheduling and application of efficacious fungicides
  6. Evaluating the potential for commercial hop production in Florida 

  /ARSUserFiles/40663/Pictures/turechek lab banner.png

Selected Publications

1. Turechek, W.W., and Madden, L.V. 2001. Effect of Scale on Plant Disease Incidence and Heterogeneity in a Spatial Hierarchy. Ecological Modelling 144:75-93. 

2. Turechek, W.W., and Madden, L.V. 2003. A Generalized Linear Modeling Approach to Characterizing Disease Incidence in a Spatial Hierarchy. Phytopathology 93:458-466.

3. Pethybridge, S.J. and Turechek, W.W. 2003. Analysis of the Association among Three Viruses Infecting Hop (Humulus lupulus) in Australia. Plant Pathology 52:158-167.

4. Turechek, W.W.,and Mahaffee, W.F. 2004. Spatial Pattern of Hop Powdery Mildew in the Pacific Northwest. Phytopathology 94:1116-1128.

5. Turechek, W.W.,and Wilcox, W.F. 2005. Evaluating Predictors of Apple Scab with Receiver Operating Curve Analysis. Phytopathology 95:679-691.

6. Turechek, W.W.,Peres, N., and Werner, N. 2006. Pre- and Post-infection Activity of Pyraclostrobin for Control of Anthracnose Fruit Rot of Strawberry Caused by Colletotrichum acutatum. Plant Disease 90:862-868.

7. Gent, D.H., Mahaffee, W.F., and Turechek, W.W.2006. Spatial heterogeneity of the Incidence of Hop Powdery Mildew in Hop Cones. Plant Disease 90:1433-1440.

8. Gent, D.H.,Turechek, W.W., and Mahaffee, W.F. 2007. Sequential Sampling for Estimation and Classification of the Incidence of Hop Powdery Mildew I: Leaf Sampling. Plant Disease 91:1002-1012.

9. Dewdney, M.M., Biggs, A.R., and Turechek, W.W. 2007. A Statistical Comparison of the Reliability of the Blossom Blight Forecasts of MARYBLYT and Cougarblight with Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curve Analysis. Phytopathology 97:1164-1176.

10. Turechek, W.W., Heidenreich, M.C., Lakso, A.N., and Pritts, M.P. 2007. Photosynthesis and Estimation of Virtual Lesion Size of Strawberry Leaves Infected with Diplocarpon earliana. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 29:159-165.       

11. Lewers, K.S.,Turechek, W.W., Hokanson, S.C., Maas, J.L., Hancock, J.F., Serce, S., and Smith, B.J. 2007. Evaluation of Native Strawberry Germplasm for Resistance to Anthracnose Crown Rot Caused by Colletotrichum Species. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 132:842-849.

12. Turechek, W.W., Hartung, J.S., and McCallister, J. 2008. Development and Optimization of a Real Time Detection Assay for Xanthomonas fragariae in Strawberry Crown Tissue with Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curve Analysis. Phytopathology 98:359-368.

13. Gent, D.H.,Turechek, W.W., and Mahaffee, W.F. 2008. Spatial and Temporal Stability of the Parameters of the Binary Power Law. Phytopathology 98:1107-1117. 

14. Biggs, A.R.,Turechek, W.W., and Gottwald, T.R. 2008. Analysis of Fire Blight Shoot Infection Epidemics on Apple. Plant Disease 92:1349-1356.

15. Turechek, W.W., and Peres, N.A. 2009. Heat Treatment Effects on Strawberry Plant Survival and Angular Leaf Spot, Caused by Xanthomonas fragariae, in Nursery Production. Plant Disease 93:299-308.

16. Kousik, C.S., Adkins, S., Turechek, W.W., and Roberts, P.D. 2009. Sources of Resistance in U.S. Plant Introductions to Watermelon Vine Decline Caused by Squash Vein Yellowing Virus. HortScience 44:256-262.

17. Adkins, S., Webster, C.G., Baker, C.A., Weaver, R. Rosskopf, E.N., and Turechek, W.W. 2009. Detection of Three Whitefly-transmitted Viruses Infecting the Cucurbit Weed Cucumis melo var. dudaim in Florida. Plant Health Progress doi: 10.1094/PHP-2009-1118-01-BR.

18. Biggs, A.R., and Turechek, W.W. 2010. Fire Blight of Apples and Pears: Epidemiological Concepts Comprising the Maryblyt Forecasting Program. Plant Health Progress doi:10.1094/PHP-2010-0315-01-RS.

19. Peres, N.A., Siejo, T.E., and Turechek, W.W. 2010. Pre- and Post-Inoculation Activity of a Protectant and a Systemic Fungicide for Control of Anthracnose Fruit Rot of Strawberry under Different Wetness Durations. Crop Protection 29:1105-1110.

20. Turechek, W.W., Kousik, C.S., and Adkins, S. 2010. Distribution of Four Viruses in Single and Mixed Infections within Infected Watermelon Plants in Florida. Phytopathology 100:1194-1203.

21.Turechek, W.W., Roberts, P.D., Stansly, P.A., Webster, C.G., Kousik, C.S., and Adkins, S. 2014. Spatial and temporal analysis of Squash vein yellowing virus infections in watermelon. Plant Disease 98:1671-1680.

22. Kousik, C.S., Ling, K.S., Adkins, S., Webster, C.G., and Turechek, W.W. 2014. Phytophthora fruit rot-resistant watermelon germplasm lines; USVL489-PFR, USVL782-PFR, USVL203-PFR, and USVL020-PFR. HortScience 49:101-104.

23. Tantwanich, Y., Baker, C.A., Turechek, W.W., and Adkins, S. 2014. Detection of Papaya ring spot virus type W infecting the cucurbit weed Cucumis melo var. dudaim in Florida. Plant Health Progress doi:10.1019/PHP-BR-13-0126.

24. Webster, C.G., Frantz, G., Reitz, S.R., Funderburk, J.E., Mellinger, H.C., McAvoy, E., Turechek, W.W., Marshall, S.H., Tantiwanich, Y., McGrath, M.T., Daughtrey, M.L., and Adkins, S. 2015. Emergence of Groundnut ringspot virus and Tomato chlorotic spot virus in vegetables in Florida and the Southeastern United States. Phytopathology 105:388-398.

25. Kousik, C.S., Adkins, S., Webster, C.G., Turechek, W.W., Stansly, P., and Roberts, P.D. 2015. Influence of insecticides and reflective mulch on watermelon vine decline caused by Squash vein yellowing virus. Plant Health Progress doi:10.1094/PHP-RS-14-0040.

26. Turechek, W.W., and Biggs, A.R. 2015. Maryblyt v. 7.1 for Windows: An improved fire blight forecasting program for apples and pears. Plant Health Progress doi:10.1094/PHP-RS-14-0046.

27. Turechek, W.W., and Gent, D.H. 2015. Sequential sampling for disease incidence, Pp. 129-136, In: Exercises in Plant Disease Epidemiology, 2ndEd, APS Press, St. Paul. MN.

28. Gent, D.H., and Turechek, W.W. 2015. Evaluation of disease predictors by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Pp. 251-257, In: Exercises in Plant DiseaseEpidemiology,2nd Ed (eds. K. Stevenson and M. Jeger) APS Press.

29. Thiessen, L.D., Keune, J.A., Neill, T., Grove, G.G., Turechek, W.W., Mahaffee, W.F. 2016. The development of a grower performed inoculum detection assay for management of grape powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator). Plant Pathology 65:238-249.

30. Wang, H., and Turechek, W.W. 2016. A loop-mediated isothermal amplification with bacterial enrichment assay for detection of Xanthomonas fragariae in strawberry. PLoSONE 11:e0147122. Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147122.

31. Kousik, C.S., Brusca, J., and Turechek, W.W. 2016. Diseases and disease management strategies take top research priority in the Watermelon Research and Development Group members survey (2014 to 2015). Plant Health Progress doi:10.1094/PHP-S-15-0047.

32. Badillo-Vargas, I.E., Baker, C.A., Turechek, W.W., Frantz, G., Mellinger, H.C., Funderburk, J.E. and Adkins, S. 2016. Genomic and biological characterization of Tomato necrotic streak virus, a novel subgroup 2 Ilarvirus infecting tomato in Florida. Plant Disease 100:1046-1053.

33. Brown, R., Wang, H., Slovin, J., and Turechek, W.W. 2016. The effects of heat treatment on the gene expression of several heat shock protein genes in two cultivars of strawberry. International Journal of Fruit Science 16:239-248.

34. Estévezde Jensen, C., Badillo-Vargas, I.E., Frantz, G., Mellinger, H.C., Turechek, W.W., Hutton, S.F., Funderburk, J.E., Naidu, R.A., and Adkins, S. 2017. First report of Tomato chlorotic spot virus in non-solanaceous weeds Erect Spiderling (Boerhavia erecta) and Asian Spiderflower (Cleome viscosa), and Sweet Chili Pepper (Capsicum chinense) in Puerto Rico. Plant Health Progress 18:17-18 doi:10.1094/PHP-12-16-0072-BR.

35. Bhattarai, G.P., Diaz, R., Manrique, V., Turechek, W.W., Buss, L., Stange, B., and Overholt, W.A. 2017. Impact of herbivorous insects on Brazilian peppertree in Florida prior to release of biological control agents. Biocontrol Sci. and Technology 27:703-722.

36. Gigot, C., Turechek, W.W., and McRoberts, N. 2017. Analysis of the spatial pattern of strawberry angular leaf spot in California nursery production. Phytopathol. 107:1243-1255.

37. Kousik, S., Ikerd, J.L., and Turechek, W.W. 2018. Development of Phytophthora fruit rot caused by Phytophthora capsicion resistant and susceptible watermelon fruit of different ages. Plant Disease 102:370-374.

38. Madden, L.V., Hughes, G., Bucker-Moraes, W., Xu, X.-M., and Turechek, W.W. 2018. Twenty-five years of the binary power law for characterizing heterogeneity of disease incidence. Phytopathology 108:656-680.

39. Wang, H, McTavish, C, and Turechek, W.W. 2018. Colonization and movement of Xanthomonas fragariae in strawberry tissues. Phytopathology 108:681-690.

40. Kousik, C.S., Ikerd, J., Mandal, M., Adkins, S., and Turechek, W.W. 2018. Watermelon germplasm lines: USVL608-PMR, USVL255-PMR, USVL313-PMR and USVL585-PMR with broad resistance to powdery mildew. Hortscience 53:1212-1217.

41. Kousik, C.S., Ikerd, J., Mandal, M., Adkins, S., and Turechek, W.W.2018. Powdery mildew resistant bottle gourd germplasm lines: USVL351-PMR and USVL482-PMR. Hortscience 53:1224-1227.

42. Gent, D.H., Mahaffee, W. F., Turechek, W.W., Ocamb, C.M., Twomey, M.C., Woods, J.L., and Probst, C. 2019. Risk factors for bud perennation of Podosphaera macularis on hop. Phytopathology 109:74-83.

43. Hong, J.C., DiGioia, F., Jones, J., Turechek, W., Johns, C., Finley, N., Ozores-Hampton, M., McCollum, G.T., Rosskopf, E.N., and Burelle, N.K. 2019. Defining anaerobic soildis infestation through changes in the microbiome. Acta Horticulturae (Submitted).

44. Anco, D.J., Rouse, L., Lucas, L, Parks, F., Mellinger, H.C., Adkins, S., Kousik, C. S., Roberts, P. D., Stansly, P. A., Ha, M., and Turechek, W.W. 2020. Spatial and temporal physiognomies of whitefly and Tomato yellow leaf curl virus epidemics in southwestern Florida tomato fields. Phytopathology 110:130-145.

45. Wang, H., and Turechek, W.W. 2020. Detection of viable Xanthomonas fragariae cells in strawberry using propidium monoazide and long-amplicon quantitative PCR. Plant Disease (In press).

46. Miller, M., Deiulio, A., Holland, C., Douthitt, C., McMahon, J., Wiersma-Koch, H., Turechek, W.W., and D’Elia, T. 2020. Complete genome sequence of Xanthomonas phage RiverRider, a novel N4-like bacteriophage that infects the strawberry pathogen Xanthomonas fragariae. Archives of Virology (In press).