Canada: University of Manitoba seeking candidates to study potato early dying disease

The laboratory for Applied Soil Ecology at the University of Manitoba in Canada (soilecology.ca; Twitter @soilecologyUMan) is seeking highly motivated and talented candidates for training leading to MSc or PhD degrees. Students will undertake graduate research to limit yield loses from the disease, Potato Early Dying. Field research will be conducted examining treatments including fungicides, green manures, compost, and fumigation to reduce levels of the pathogen, Verticillium dahliae in soil, and farm surveys of disease incidence, yield and pathogens. Where potatoes have been in production for a number of years, premature vine death and declining yields are often a problem. Potato early-dying disease (PED) is a complex with the lesion nematode, Pratylenchus penetrans and the wilt causing fungus, Verticillium dahliae, usually implicated as the causal agents.Supervisor: Professor Mario Tenuta: mario.tenuta@umanitoba.ca. More details