9303520 Davies This U.S.-Mexico award will support a research collaboration between Professor Frederick Davies of Texas A&M University and Professor V. Olalde Portugal of the Biotechnology Institute (CIVESTAV) at Irapuato, and Professors H. Escamilla and H. Chirinos of the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) in Mexico. The researchers intend to collect and screen Mexican mycorrhizal isolates for enhanced drought resistance of pepper plants, and determine how drought resistance mechanisms in the pepper-mycorrhizal fungi symbiosis differ among selected mycorrhizal isolates. Scientists at the Biotechnology Institute in Irapuato and at ITESM have been collecting beneficial mycorrhizal fungi from arid sites in Mexico that have potential promise for increasing plant drought resistance. The U.S. investigator has shown that mycorrhizal fungi will enhance drought resistance of pepper plants. Their collaboration should increase our understanding of the mechanisms of drought resistance and allow the development of superior strains of fungi that enhance water relations and yield of pepper plants under reduced irrigation regimes. ***
