Roshani Baral

“Disease-Suppressive Soils as a Tool for Disease Management”
Roshani Baral, M.S. Student, Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University

Abstract
As soilborne diseases continue to challenge crop production, suppressive soils offer a way to manage the disease condition even in the presence of a susceptible host and a virulent pathogen. To date, several microbial species have been identified as contributors to disease suppression. Introducing such strains to problematic soils can offer long-term disease control (Liu et al. 1995) and may promote plant growth (Meng et al. 2012). In this talk, I will present the role of suppressive soils to manage pathogens such as Streptomyces scabies (causing common scab of potato) (Liu et al. 1995; Meng et al. 2012), Fusarium oxysporum (causing Fusarium wilt) (Cha et al. 2016), and Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici (causing take-all of wheat) (Raaijmakers and Weller 1998). I will also discuss the attributes of disease-suppressive soils, mechanisms involved in disease suppression, and understand the importance of soil microbiomes in disease management (Jayaraman et al. 2021).

For more information regarding Roshani’s seminar please see the seminar announcement.