The Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology's weekly Plant Pathology 250 seminar series is presented this week by Alex Blacutt, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Microbiology & Plant Pathology, UC Riverside.

Seminar Title: "Mining the Citrus microbiome: Natural products discovery towards control of HLB"

Biography: After earning a B.S. in Biology at Virginia Tech with a focus on Biochemistry, Alex worked at Novozymes Biologicals in their agriculture division  studying potential inoculants. From there he was motivated to pursue a higher degree and was accepted to the University of Georgia in the Plant Pathology  department, where he completed his PhD under Scott Gold at the USDA-ARS working on secondary metabolites involved in maize endophyte interactions.  Following graduation he took his current position in the Roper Lab at UCR.

Abstract: Huanglongbing (HLB) poses a serious threat to citriculture around the world. While the causative bacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, has not yet been detected in Californian production groves, surveillance programs have identified its presence in residential Citrus trees. Both conventional and more novel disease control methods are being investigated to mitigate the impact of this disease, with the Citrus microbiome a  source of both descriptive data and potentially impactful biocontrol agents. As we assess citrus-associated microbes for their potential value as control  agents, their secondary metabolite repertoire is of particular interest in construction of HLB-protective consortia or single-agent biocontrol applications.

Faculty Host: Caroline Roper; caroline.roper@ucr.edu