The Ithaca, NY location consists of two Research Management Units, the Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research Unit (PSNRU), and the Protection Research Unit (PPRU). The research mission of the PPRU is to develop new innovative methods to protect crops from pests and diseases and develop crop production systems that improve crop yield and soil productivity. Key components of the research include host/plant resistance, fungal pathogens/antagonists of pests, organismal interference/manipulation, bioprocess development for natural pesticides, and cropping systems. The research mission of the PSNRU is to improve food crop security and nutritional quality through an interdisciplinary approach integrating molecular biology, molecular genetics, physiology, biochemistry, & microbiology with bioinformatics & genomics approaches. Key components of the research include improving the nutritional quality and abiotic stress tolerance of food crops, development of tools to dissect complex traits in plants, and modeling molecular mechanisms of plant pathogenesis.