INTRODUCTION Collectively, a team of researchers (Lindow, Dandekar, and Gilchrist) identified, constructed and advanced to field evaluation five novel DNA constructs (Table 1) that, when engineered into grapevines, suppress symptoms of Pierce’s Disease (PD) by a) reducing the titer of Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) in the plant, b) reducing systemic spread of the bacteria or c) blocking Xf’s ability t...

A digital image analysis method previously used to evaluate leaf color changes due to nutritional changes was modified to measure the severity of several foliar fungal diseases. Images captured with a flatbed scanner or digital camera were analyzed with a freely available software package, Scion Image, to measure changes in leaf color caused by fungal sporulation or tissue damage. High correlat...

1 Principal Investigator of Horticulture and Curator, USDA Naitonal Clonal Germplasm Repository for Asimina species, Atwood Research Facility, Kentucky State University, Frankfort, KY 40601-2355. To whom reprint requests should be addressed. 2 Co-Investigator of Horticulture, Atwood Research Facility, Kentucky State University, Frankfort, KY 40601-2355 Abstract The pawpaw [Asimina triloba (L.) ...

The objectives of this research are to develop the grafting robots and an acclimatization chamber for watermelon, and tomato seedlings. For watermelon seedlings, a top plug-in robotic grafting system has been developed, which is applicable for grafting a scion into a mature rootstock before the scion’s cotyledons spread. It thus makes the scion to be very tender and greatly different from the r...

Citrus roots have rare root hairs and thus heavily depend on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) for mineral nutrient uptake. However, the AMF community structure of citrus is largely unknown. By using 454-pyrosequencing of 18S rRNA gene fragment, we investigated the genetic diversity of AMF colonizing citrus roots, and evaluated the impact of habitats and rootstock and scion genotypes on the AM...

* The extreme phenotype of zinc (Zn) hyperaccumulation, which is found in several Brassicaceae species, is determined by mechanisms that promote elevated Zn tolerance and high Zn accumulation in shoots. * We used reciprocal grafting between a Zn hyperaccumulator, Thlaspi caerulescens, and a Zn nonaccumulator, Thlaspi perfoliatum, to determine the relative importance of roots and shoots in Zn hy...

We investigated the hydraulic architecture of young olive trees either self-rooted or grafted on rootstocks with contrasting size-controlling potential. Clones of Olea europea L. (Olive) cv 'Leccino' inducing vigorous scion growth (Leccino 'Minerva', LM) or scion dwarfing (Leccino 'Dwarf', LD) were studied in different scion/rootstock combinations (LD, LM, LD/LD, LM/LM, LD/LM and LM/LD). Shoots...

Although grafting is broadly used in the production of crops, no information is available about the proteins involved in vascular connections between rootstock and scion. Similarly, proteome changes under the light intensities widely used for grafted seedlings are of practical use. The objective of this study was to determine the proteome of vascular connections using watermelon (Citrullus vulg...

This study was conducted during two successive seasons 2021 and 2022 to evaluate the performance of some scion foreign imported mango cultivars (Keitt, Naomi, Osten Shelly) on three rootstocks (Sukkary, Zebda 4/9) grown in sandy soil with drip irrigation systemin a private orchard nursery at Almansoria, Giza Governorate, Egypt. experiment laid out split-plot design success, initial growthperfor...