Western Flower trhips genome sequenced

Congratulations to Dorith Rotenberg for her leadership in the efforts to sequence the genome of the western flower thrips. The western flower thrips — an invasive insect that’s not much bigger than a pinhead — takes a huge bite out of agriculture around the world, racking up billions of dollars’ worth of damage on a wide range of food, fiber and ornamental crops each year. Scientists now have a complete genetic blueprint to help them better understand the pest and to find ways to control it.

The Consequences of Disease. Listen to a podcast given by Dr. Ristaino to incoming freshman at NC State in Wicked Problems: Wolfpack Solutions class on “The Consequences of Plant Diseases and the Irish Famine”. She shares here own experience in plant patholology, her global travels to track outbreaks and talks about efforts to inderstand the history of the famine and why it is relavent to controlling emerging pathogens today.

Listen to her daughter Sarah Ristaino since a song on the impact of the loss of potatoes on the Irish food supply “Oh the Praties they Grow Small”