You've reached the homepage of:
Plant Virus Biodiversity and Ecology | Plant Virus Ecology Network (RCN)
2008 lab graduate students:
This is what the lab's about, in general:
The molecular evolution of viruses is fascinating, relevant to the evolution of living organisms, a determinant in pathogenesis by viruses, and amenable to detailed study in the laboratory. Evolution is the product of variation and selection. Genetic recombination is a major source of variation for evolutionary selection. The mission of the lab is to explore the importance for evolution of interactions of viruses with one another and with genomes of their hosts. Among the topics being explored are: understanding the role of recombination in the origin and evolution of viruses; documenting interaction between viral genomes such as recombination, competition and synergy; determining the effect of viral recombination on viral pathogenicity; understanding the role of viruses in ecosystems; and development of methods to determine the diversity of extant viruses and their distribution.
Specific areas of current interest are:
- previously unnoticed viruses, discovered in plants of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, are being more fully characterized;
- nucleotide polymorphisms in viral genomes are being explored to understand virus evolution better and to serve as a tool for microbial forensics;
- the extent of distribution of locally discovered viruses is being explored to understand the limits to their geographic spread;
- exploration of bacteria and archaea associated with plants and how they may affect virus infection has begun;
- the application of techniques developed for exploration of biodiversity, ecology and evolution to homeland security is under investigation;
- examination of virus evolutionary paths may reveal interesting aspects of earth's history.
Information on current research in these areas
in the lab and on past research in these and
other areas is available. We offer additional information on tobamovirus sequence relationships, the turnip vein-clearing tobamovirus (TVCV) and alignments of the movement proteins of the 30K
superfamily.
This webpage is listed with: The
Plant Pathology Internet Guide Book, by Thorsten Kraska. A subject
oriented internet resource guide for Phytopathology, Applied Entomology,
and all related fields.
The lab's tobamovirus
page is listed with All
the Virology on the WWW.
Collaborator: Jacqueline
Fletcher 
Alumni and other former associates:
Tidbits
Alums whose listing has been overlooked and wish to be listed or who have
updates should contact U.
Melcher
or write us at
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, NRC 246
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater OK 74078-3035
USA
Others, of course may also send us letters or other goodies using that address. If you need a conversation, call 405-744-6210 or to send a facsimile document, 405-744-7799.
Last Updated: 13 November, 2009
