Researchers develop method for gene disruption in destructive fungal pathogen

Abstract

Researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech, Colorado State University and Duke University Medical Center have developed a new method to determine gene function on a genome-wide scale in the fungal pathogen Alternaria brassicicola. A. brassicicola, which causes black spot disease in cultivated Brassica, is a destructive fungus that may lead to considerable leaf loss in economically important crops including canola, cabbage and broccoli.