Mid South Area Happenings

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I.             MEETINGS, PRESENTATIONS AND WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS

July 28 - August 1: Catfish Genetics Research Scientists, Drs. Brian Small, Brian Peterson, and Natha Booth presented papers at the 8^th International Congress on the Biology Fish in Portland, Oregon.  Dr. Small’s presentation was entitled “Expression of Growth Related Genes during Gonadal Steroidogenesis and Gametogenesis in Channel Catfish”.  Dr. Peterson’s presentation was entitled “Nutritional Regulation of IGFs in Channel Catfish”. Dr. Booth’s presentation was entitled “Nramp, TNF, TLR5, and Hepcidin Expression in Resistant and Susceptible Families of Channel Catfish Following Challenge with E. ictaluri”.

July 30:  Catfish Genetics Research Scientists, Drs. Brian Small and Brian Peterson, hosted and chaired a symposium on the regulation of fish growth at the 8^th International Congress on the Biology Fish in Portland, Oregon.  The intent of the symposium was to bring recognized experts in the area of fish growth together to present the up-to-date research and facilitate national and international collaboration in support of the “Growth, Development, and Nutrition” component of the Program 106 Action Plan.  The symposium had a total of 31 delegates from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia.

August 2-7, 2008:  Dr. O. P. Perera, SIMRU, Stoneville, MS presented a poster titled “Expression Profiles of Aminopeptidase Genes in Heliothis virescens Larvae Exposed to Bt Toxin Cry1Ac” at the 42^nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology in Warwick, United Kingdom.  Dr. Perera also contributed to an invited oral presentation on “Cloning and Expression of the Cry1Ac-Binding Alkaline Phosphatase (HvALP) from Heliothis virescens” and a poster on “Characterization of the Heliothis virescens Midgut Regenerative Response upon Treatment with Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ac Toxin” by collaborators Dr. Juan Luis Jurat-Fuentes and Anais Castagnola, Department of Entomology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.

Dr. Phillip Klesius, Aquatic Animal Health Research Lab, Auburn, AL, served as Moderator of a session entitled "Use of Biologics in Aquaculture" at the 14th Annual Aquaculture Drug Approval Coordination Workshop in Bozeman, Montana. Dr. Craig Shoemaker, AL presented a paper entitled "Fish Vaccine Diversity: Pros and Cons of Types and Routes". Dr. Julie Bebak, presented a paper entitled "Research evaluation of a modified live Flavobacterium columnare vaccine in trout at a North Carolina hatchery" and served as a moderator of a round table biologics panel discussion "Research-to-Market" of Fish Vaccines.

Aug 4: Dr. Matt Moore, Water Quality & Ecology Research Unit, Oxford, MS presented a poster at the 5th World Congress of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry held in Sydney, Australia.  With over 1100 attendees, the Congress was the largest scientific gathering on environmental chemistry and toxicology ever held in Australia.  Dr. Moore's presentation was entitled, "Contributions of six species of aquatic macrophytes to nutrient mitigation in drainage ditch mesocosms."  Dr. Moore was also a co-author on another presentation entitled, "Utilization of common ditch vegetation in the reduction of phenyl-pyrazole (fipronil) and pyrethroid (permethrin) insecticides," given by collaborator Dr. Robbie Kroger of the University of Mississippi Field Station & Center for Water and Wetland Resources.

August 20 – 22:  Southern Horticultural Laboratory, Dr. Warren Copes participated in the 4th International Symposium on Rhizoctonia at the Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. Dr. Copes presented two papers titled: “Risk of Rhizoctonia web blight development on container-grown azalea" and "Rhizoctonia species associated with bark media and plant strata of container-grown azalea". The symposium had a total of 110 delegates from 20 countries. Presentations included an array of plant pathology research topics performed in many different cropping systems.

August 21:  Southern Horticultural Laboratory, Drs. Stephen Stringer, Blair Sampson and Donna Marshall participated in the Muscadine Field Day hosted by Mississippi State University.   Each scientists presented information on muscadine production.  Approximately 100 growers and interested public attended.

Dr. Hamed K. Abbas, Crop Genetics & Production Research Unit, Stoneville, MS, attended the 2008 American Phytopathological Society Centennial Meeting, Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Dr. Abbas chaired the biocontrol committee meeting, and he also presented a poster entitled, “Aflatoxins and Fumonisins Enhanced by Corn Infected with Common Smut”. On July 31, 2008, Dr. Abbas was invited by Dr. Dirk Hoffmeister, Plant Pathology Department, University of Minnesota, to give an alumni seminar entitled, “Mycotoxin from Plant Diseases and Their Impact on Food Safety”.  There were about 40 attendees including faculty, graduate students and visitors. Dr. Abbas met with many faculties and there to discuss collaboration.

IV.         AWARDS/RECOGNITION

Drs. O. P. Perera, SIMRU, Stoneville and Juan Luis Jurat-Fuentes, Dept. of Entomology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, were awarded $179,388 under the USDA Biotechnology Risk Assessment Grants (BRAG) Program for a collaborative research project on the “Risk of resistance to pyramided Bt toxins.” They proposed to use microarray and real-time PCR technology to profile gene expression in tobacco budworm strains resistant to Bt toxins.

V.          VISITORS TO ARS

Institute of Food Technologist Meeting Attendees visit SRRC. Twenty-seven ARS colleagues from across the country took part in an after hours tour of the SRRC while they were attending the Institute of Food Technologists annual meeting in New Orleans.  Dr. John Beaulieu from the Food Processing & Sensory Quality Unit hosted the visit. Among the visitors were the National Program Leader, Dr. Frank Flora and former ERRC Center Director, Dr. John Cherry.  Dr. Deepak Bhatnagar presented an overview of the Center’s current research followed by a facilities tour where Drs. Alan Lax and Steve Boue described the termite and phytoestrogen programs, respectively.  Dr. Harmeet Guraya explained several pilot plant processes and equipment, and Dr. Beaulieu highlighted the sensory appraisal system in the sensory lab. Drs. John Bland, Karen Bett-Garber, Elaine Champagne, Ed Cleveland, Alfred French and Isabel Lima actively participated. .

Visitors from LSU's Department of Human Ecology and China Hunan Agricultural University visited SRRC.  Dr. Jonathan (Yan) Chen, LSU, with Professors Xirong and Cui (China Hunan Agricultural University) gave a seminar at 11:00 a.m. entitled, “A Survey of Ramie Research and Industrialization in Hunan, China” in the Main Conference Room. They also were able to visit with SRRC staff after the seminar.

July 17-18:  Dr. Mary Torrence, the new National Program Leader for Food Safety, visited SRRC to get acquainted with the aflatoxin research program. She met individually with Food and Feed Safety Research Unit SYs and support staff. During the individual meetings, scientists discussed their research, as well as emphasized: (a) how their research is helping in solving the toxin problem; and (b) their interactions with others in the unit, as well as with other ARS and University/ Industry scientists. In addition, Dr. Torrence met with all the Research Leaders at SRRC, and was given a tour of the facilities at the Center.

On August 18, 2008 Dr. Abbas, Crop Genetics and Production Research Unit, began hosting a volunteer employee in his lab. Ms. Elizabeth Caston is a teacher in the Cleveland Public School District. She is here to learn about lab and field procedures to enhance her skills and knowledge. She will spend a semester in Dr. Abbas' lab assisting in his laboratory and field and gaining experience in the mycotoxin research.

             VI.   NEW EMPLOYEES     

Dr. Efrem Bechere is the New Research Geneticist for the Crop Genetics and Production Research Unit’s Cotton Genetics Team supervised by Dr. Bill Meredith.  Dr. Bechere received his Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics from Oklahoma State University in 1987.  His B.S. in plant sciences and M.S. in agronomy are from Alemaya University of Agriculture in Ethiopia.  During the past 10 years, Dr. Bechere held different positions at Texas Tech University in Lubbock before he joined USDA-ARS.

Dr. David Fang is the New Research Plant Geneticist on the on the Crop Genetics and Production Research Unit’s project to introgress resistance to reniform nematode into upland cotton from diploid cotton. He received his Ph.D. from Huazhong Agricultural University, China in 1990.  Later, he had a postdoctoral appointment at University of California, Riverside.  In late 1998, Dr. Fang joined Delta and Pine Land Company as its first molecular cotton breeder and became the director of molecular cotton breeding in 2006. He returned to the University of California, Riverside in February 2008 and worked at the Institute for Integrative Genome Biology before he joined USDA-ARS.

VII.   RESEARCH           

United Soybean Board via Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, has funded Dr. Prakash R. Arelli’s research project, “Application of Biotechnology to Control of the Soybean Cyst Nematode: Soybean Resistance Genes” for FY 2009. The estimated funding of $68,000 is to develop homogeneous nematode populations for stable phenotypic reaction of soybean plants, identify new sources of resistance in soybean germplasm and phenotype soybean mapping populations for identifying molecular markers associated with nematode resistance for marker assisted selection.