Mysterious Soybean Fungus Identified By LSU Student

By Don Molino

Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network

LSU AgCenter Plant Pathologist Dr. Vinson Doyle says a fungus that has been devastating to soybeans has been identified and named by one of his grad students, Teddy Garcia Aroca. Doyle says they discovered the pathogen was probably mis-identified a long time ago.

“USDA, for well over 100 years, pathologists, microbiologists, working for the USDA, have been depositing collections of pathogens, at least since the late 1800’s,” said Doyie.

“So this collection of specimens became really useful if you want to try to virtually travel back in time to understand what has been present in the environment. So we decided to go in and look for specimens that might be related to this pathogen that had been deposited over time”

(This Report a service of the Louisiana Soybean, Grain Research and Promotion Board)