Biotech Updates

All Diseases and Pests in a Single Database

April 20, 2011

Learning from Nature to Protect Crops is the new research program established by the Wagenigen University. The program lead by entomology professor Marcel Dicke aims to create an overview of the key stress factors for crops, such as nematodes, fungi, insects and viruses, and stress factors such as drought, salt and heat.

Arabidopsis thaliana, the molecular biologists' model plant will be used to facilitate comparison of the interactions between the plant and the different sources of disease. Different research groups will evaluate the plant for specific stress factors, results of which will be entered in a central database, and bioinformatics scientists will determine the gene function.

For more on this news and to know the collaborating research facilities involved, see http://www.wur.nl/UK/newsagenda/news/All_diseases_and_pests_in_a_single_database.htm.