The unique and different forests, wild flowers, and grasses provide the most beautiful colors found anywhere. Unfortunately, these valuable plants are being threatened by various plant pathogens, such as the chestnut blight pathogen. Bacteria are one of major groups causing plant diseases. However, there is no record of pathogenic bacteria of plants in the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) database.

The objective of proposed research of this project is to survey pathogenic bacteria of plants growing in the Park to enrich the ATBI database. Molecular techniques and biochemical tests will be employed to identify plant pathogenic bacteria present in the Park. Bacterial disease samples will be prepared as permanent specimens.

The expected findings of this project will generate a list of pathogenic bacteria present in the Park, which will be added into the ATBI database, and will provide valuable clues to effectively managing these pathogenic bacteria.

Species Ranking: SpeciesDistributionRanking.pdf

Species Report: Taxonomy.pdf

Principal Investigator

PI Name:  Dr. Shien Lu

PI Organization:  Mississippi State University