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Thesis
LEAF-EPIPHYTIC PSEUDOMONADS AS DIAGNOSTIC INDICATORS OF DISEASE AND STRESS IN COTTON (GOSSYPIUM SPP.)
University of West Florida
Master of Science (MS), University of West Florida
2009
Abstract
The use of microbial phytopathogens would be an efficient and low-cost means of carrying out a terrorism attack on the nation's crops. Cotton was valued at $5.2 billion in 2007 in the U.S. and crop losses from natural cotton diseases cost $171 million over the last decade in Alabama. Pseudomonas spp. are dominant members of the natural leafepiphytic microbial flora and ubiquitous on leaves of most vascular plants. I hypothesized that by utilizing the characteristics of ubiquity and dominance to study changes in leaf epiphytic pseudomonad community structure in both healthy and diseased/chemically stressed cotton plants, diagnostic patterns would be evident. Greenhouse manipulation studies combined with molecular detection techniques (automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis and real-time PCR) were used to study changes in leaf epiphytic pseudomonad diversity and density. Changes in pseudomonad cell density show detectable differences caused by the applied stressor. However, changes in diversity were largely a result of temporal effects rather than being due to treatment. Although variability within treatments was too great to yield patterns that are diagnostic of disease or stress to cotton plants, the differences between treatments and over time do provide information on pseudomonad epiphytic community structure.
Details
- Title
- LEAF-EPIPHYTIC PSEUDOMONADS AS DIAGNOSTIC INDICATORS OF DISEASE AND STRESS IN COTTON (GOSSYPIUM SPP.)
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Publisher
- University of West Florida
- Format
- text
- Identifiers
- 99380090758706600
- Academic Unit
- Biology
- Language
- English
- Awarding Institution
- University of West Florida; Master of Science (MS)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), University of West Florida