The Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology's weekly Plant Pathology 250 seminar series is presented this week by:

Sara Dorhmi, PLPA Graduate Student 

Seminar Title: : “Natural and Applied Host Induced Gene Silencing  During Phytophthora Infection” 

Biography: Sara is a third year PhD candidate in Dr. Wenbo Ma's lab. She works on the host induced gene silencing mechanism in Phytophthora Arabidopsis/Soybean pathosystems.

&

Gabriel Ortiz, PLPA Graduate Student 

Seminar Title: “Nematode resistance in cowpea and its effects on rhizobial symbiosis"

Biography: I'm a 3rd year PhD candidate at Joel Sachs lab. I'm currently studying how plant domestication affects legume symbiosis with rhizobia. I'm interested in understanding the evolutionary effects of agricultural practices in legume crop production and how both mutualistic and parasitic interactions are affected by these different selection pressures. These knowledge offers potential tools to generate long term sustainable strategies to increase and guarantee food production in the future.