Dr. Alexander Karasev - Assistant Professor - Plant Virology

Viruses in the Native Pacific Northwest Flora

Alexander Karasev

Dept. of PSES, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID

akarasev@uidaho.edu

In the wild, viruses co-evolve with their plant hosts and insect vectors that transmit them between plants. In most cases, virus infections in wild plants are symptomless, and cannot be identified visually, only through the laboratory diagnostic methods. Humans notice only a fraction of the plant viruses that infect agricultural crops and only those that cause various diseases. However, due to the latent nature of the majority of viruses, wild plants represent a vast reservoir of unknown virus pathogens that needs attention, careful research, and documentation. Palouse Prairie is a large area spanning border regions of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon, with considerable fragments of the original prairie with well-preserved wild vegetation. We will collect samples of the native plant species across undisturbed or minimally disturbed areas of the Palouse Prairie, and analyze them for the presence of plant viruses in a completely unbiased manner. The purpose of the project will be to get a snapshot of the plant viruses present in this ancient Pacific Northwestern habitat, and shed light on the evolution of plant viruses. The newly found viruses will be characterized, cloned, sequenced, and taxonomically defined. Possible relationships between viruses in wild plants and agriculturally relevant diseases will be determined.

Dr. Christine Moffitt - Professor and Assistant Unit Leader

Idaho Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit

Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources

Redband Trout physiology:

Redband trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri) are native to the Snake River drainage below Shoshone Falls in southern Idaho. The habitat redband trout occupy within this drainage varies from high elevation mountain streams with high flows and cool temperatures to low elevation desert streams with little flow and warm temperatures. We are conducting a laboratory study to evaluate the physiology and growth of selected wild populations exposed to simulated desert or montane daily water temperature treatments. Response variables evaluated include growth and survival, feed efficiency, plasma cortisol, heat shock proteins, and body proximate analysis. Student assistants will help in rearing, monitoring, and sampling these fish stocks and maintaining the controlled environment.

New Zealand mudsnails:

The New Zealand mudsnail (NZMS) is an aquatic invasive species of high risk. They were first discovered in North America in 1987 in the Hagerman Valley of Idaho and have since they spread to locations in most of the western United States. . In high densities, they alter the functional nature of the food web. One vector of snail transport can be stocking of fish from infested waters to areas that do not contain snails. Since the snails are resident in water sources of several fish hatcheries in the Hagerman Valley, we are working with the Fish and Wildlife Service to determine ways to remove NZMS from hatchery water sources to assure that fish could be reared and stocked in snail free waters. Student assistants will work on defining the toxicology of CO2 and cold water on populations of snails. These two treatments could serve as a safe and effective way to remove snails from the infested waters. They will learn how to test snails in controlled tests, measure important variables and determine and model the mortality versus concentration or dose.

Dr. George Newcombe - Associate Professor - Forest Pathology/Plant Symbiosis