Sudden oak death has been an emerging disease problem in coastal California and has caused significant losses in forest ecosystems in some regions of the state. The causal agent of this disease has been described as Phytophthora ramorum with two other less aggressive species, P. nemorosa and P. pseudosyringae, recovered from some symptomatic plants. The phylogenetic relationship of these specie...

The phytopathogenic fungi Phytophthora subspecies elicit hypersensitive-like necroses on their nonhost tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), with the exception of the tobacco pathogen Phytophthora nicotianae. In culture, these fungi-except P. nicotianae-secrete proteins, called elicitins, that cause these remote leaf necroses and are responsible for the incompatible reaction. These proteins protect toba...

The rapid and effective activation of disease resistance responses is essential for plant defense against pathogen attack. These responses are initiated when pathogen-derived molecules (elicitors) are recognized by the host. We have developed a strategy for creating novel disease resistance traits whereby transgenic plants respond to infection by a virulent pathogen with the production of an el...

Let p be an odd prime and S a finite p-group. B. Oliver’s conjecture arises from an open problem in the theory of p-local finite groups. It is the claim that a certain characteristic subgroup X(S) of S always contains the Thompson subgroup. In previous work the first two authors and M. Lilienthal recast Oliver’s conjecture as a statement about the representation theory of the factor group S/X(S...

Sixteen streams in middle and eastern Tennessee were surveyed for the sudden oak-death pathogen Phytophthora ramorum 2010-2012. Surveys were conducted in the spring and fall using healthy Rhododendron leaves, and a total of 354 oomycete isolates were recovered. Sequence analysis of the ITS region provisionally identified 151 Phytophthora, 200 Pythium, two Halophytophthora and one Phytopythium. ...