Krisztina Christmon (PhD student, vanEngelsdorp Lab), who is studying the host-parasite-pathogen interaction of honeybees, is co-author of a paper published in Viruses special issue: Advances in Honey Bee Virus Research. Follow link to read Krisztina’s first ever publication titled, “Development of a Honeybee RNA Virus Vector Based on the Genome of a Deformed Wing Virus.” Krisztina and her fellow researchers are hopeful that the development of these vectors could lead to the further understanding of viruses like deformed wing virus including similar viruses affecting different bee species.

https://doi.org/10.3390/v12040374

Congratulations on reaching this milestone Krisztina!

written by:  Dongxu Chen, PhD student, Hawthorne lab and Katie Reding, PhD student, Pick lab

Every gardener, farmer, or landscaper will at some point find some mysterious spots on their prized plants, or perhaps find that a random subset of their crop has wilted overnight. To anyone who’s not an expert, the pathogens causing these diseases can be hard to identify and seemingly impossible to control. Indeed, it can take much more than a trained eye to properly diagnose many plant diseases; often, axenic culture (growing only the organism of interest without contaminants) of the pathogen is required, and in some cases molecular tests are warranted. Dr. Karen Rane, the entomology department’s resident plant pathologist and this week’s colloquium speaker, uses all of these tools and more to handle the roughly 700-900 diseased plant samples her plant diagnostic lab receives each year (Fig. 1)*.

​Unusually warm weather has bugs emerging sooner than expected. "People need to understand that as soon as the temperatures reach maybe 55 to 60 degrees, those ticks are going to be active -- they’re going to be looking for food and that’s going to be you,” Professor Emeritus, Mike Raupp tells WBALTV.  Raupp also reminds viewers, it’s not just pests that are emerging early it’s pollinators too.

Follow link to story: https://www.wbaltv.com/article/spring-like-temperatures-bugs-emerging/31262917?fbclid=IwAR1KByUyuwXxGF8D7uBW309zwn_Ql6gS2-3NR4FNCHuR5_B4MdniPZLStiM