Ames, Iowa
November 11, 2004
With financial commitment from the
Iowa Soybean Promotion Board,
Iowa State University will fund new research on soybean
rust, a potentially devastating fungal disease that was found
for the first time in North America this week.
On Wednesday, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture confirmed that soybean rust had
been discovered on soybean plants in Louisiana. The disease,
which can substantially reduce soybean yields, has affected
crops in every continent where soybeans are grown.
"For the
past two years, Iowa State has been a national leader in
extension and educational efforts to prepare soybean growers
for the arrival of soybean rust. With the support of Iowa
soybean growers, we'll be well-positioned to lead the search
for research solutions to soybean rust," said Catherine
Woteki, dean of the College of Agriculture.
"Iowa is the nation's leading soybean-growing state with
more than 338 million bushels harvested last year and a $2.6
billion economic impact," said Alan Karkosh, chairman of the
Iowa Soybean Promotion Board and a grower from Hudson, Iowa.
"Now that soybean rust has been confirmed in the United
States, we need to focus on research areas that will help
soybean growers address the problem."
The Iowa Soybean Promotion Board is a volunteer board of 17
Iowa soybean farmers elected by soybean producers to
maximize the profitability of Iowa soybean producers by
investing and administering checkoff funds in research,
market development and educational activities.
Earlier this year, representatives of Iowa State and the
Iowa Soybean Promotion Board began developing plans for a
new research initiative on the disease.
As part of the new effort, Iowa State will create two new
faculty positions in the colleges of agriculture and liberal
arts and sciences, as well as a postdoctoral scientist
position. The Iowa Soybean Promotion Board will provide
$500,000 over three years to help fund salaries of the new
faculty. After three years, the university will fully fund
the positions. Iowa State will fund costs involved in
starting up the new research programs, including setting up
laboratories. ISU's Plant Sciences Institute will fund the
postdoctoral scientist position and other research costs.
Searches for the new positions will begin soon. The soybean
organization also has pledged additional support for
research when the faculty members are hired.
"The new faculty positions will provide essential links from
fundamental research on the molecular level to the more
applied research with practical applications," said David
Wright, director of production technology for the Iowa
Soybean Promotion Board.
The new faculty members and postdoctoral scientist will
conduct studies on fungal biology of soybean diseases and
molecular-level research on how plants respond to attacks by
pathogens. The primary emphasis will be on soybean rust.
They also will work closely with ISU agronomists on
identifying potential new sources of disease resistance in
soybean.
ISU
research currently underway on soybean rust includes:
-
X.B. Yang,
a professor of plant pathology, has studied soybean rust
since 1989 - one of only a handful of scientists in the
nation who has conducted research on the disease. The
Iowa Soybean Promotion Board currently funds Yang's
research on using environmental models to assess the
movement of the disease.
-
A research
initiative underway in the Plant Sciences Institute
addresses soybean rust at the molecular level. Plant
pathology faculty Thomas Baum and Steve Whitham are
embarking on research to analyze the molecular
host-pathogen interactions of soybean rust. Knowledge
gained from the work may lead to rust-resistant soybean
cultivars or new management strategies to control the
disease. Because U.S. quarantine regulations prohibit
research with infected tissue at Iowa State, Baum and
Whitham will conduct some of their experiments in South
America. They have obtained permission to transport RNA
from infected soybean tissue to ISU and have hired a
postdoctoral researcher who will start in January.
The Iowa
Soybean Rust Team has been preparing for the arrival of the new
disease for the past two years. The team has trained
approximately 400 Iowa crop professionals as "first detectors"
to identify soybean rust. This winter, 12 additional meetings in
ISU's Crop Advantage Series are planned to educate soybean
producers about the disease. The team is encouraging Iowa's
growers to attend the meetings. Members represent Iowa State
University, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land
Stewardship, the Iowa Soybean Association, the Iowa Soybean
Promotion Board and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Service. More information about the
team and soybean rust is available on the Web at
www.soybeanrust.info.
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