9417839 Carling This award will partially support the travel and living expenses for Dr. Donald E. Carling, Department of Plant, Animal and Soil Science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, while he is on sabbatical leave in Australia. Dr. Carling will be working in collaboration with Dr. Philip O'Brien of the School of Biological and Environmental Science at Murdoch University located in Perth, Western Australia. The research will focus on the genetic and molecular characterization of Rhizoctonia solani, a parasitic plant fungi. R. solani is an important pathogen among crop plants, yet little is known about its genetics, pathogenicity characteristics, and molecular biology. R.solani is divided into a number of subspecific groups called anastomosis groups (AG) based upon the ability of hyphae of related isolates to interconnect. Research will be conducted on collections of R. solani AG-3 that are virulent on potato and tobacco plants and on heterokaryotic and homokaryotic isolates of AG-8 that are either virulent or avirulent on the roots of potato and wheat plants. Dr. O'Brien and his colleagues have been studying the molecular biology of R. solani and have perfected a technique of generating homokaryotic isolates with a protoplast procedure used in studying mating and incompatibility systems. Dr. Carling and his group have been active in the characterization of new anastomosis groupings. The study brings together the complementary skills of the two research groups. The research activity could ultimately lead to increasing crop yields while using fewer chemical agents to control disease. The award is supported under the U.S.-Australia Cooperative Science Program. ***
