As a faculty member in the Department of Entomology and Nematology, my area of research responsibility encompasses insect/virus/plant interactions and development of management strategies for insect-transmitted plant pathogens. I have worked with many insect vector species (thrips, aphids, whiteflies, leafhoppers, mealybugs) and the plant pathogens they transmit, including viruses, phytoplasma and bacteria. During the past 30 years I have delved deeply into world of thrips and the orthotospoviruses they transmit. My work ranged from the organismal to the molecular and I have had the opportunity to move across disciplinary borders, working with entomologists, virologists, plant physiologists and plant breeders. Currently, I am exploring the interaction between the western flower thrips and the plant virus, Tomato spotted wilt orthotospovirus (TSWV), including characterizing and pursuing functional analysis of their salivary gland proteins. In the past decade, I led an AFRI NIFA Coordinated Agricultural Project addressing development of innovative strategies for management of thrips vectors and orthotospoviruses, served as a co-PI on an NSF grant aimed at revealing the early events in Sw-5 mediated resistance to TSWV in tomato, and led a NIFA grant exploring the transcriptome and proteome of the western flower thrips salivary gland.
