This summer I worked in Elsa Petit’s Lab focusing on comparing pathogen resistance in different varieties of grapes. My focus was in running our leaf plug assay experiment and expanding our collection of grape fungi from the wild. I would go scouting in the Amherst area to find and collect infected grape leaves. In the lab I would take the infected leaves and cut out the infected portion. Then in a process that involved growing it on PDA and then saving fungi on filter paper we were able to expand the collection. When running our leaf plug assay experiment I would collect healthy leafs from Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown. These leaves were washed and then infected with 3 different pathogens. Observations were made over a ten day period to see if the fungi produced lesions. The leaf plug assay experiment was updated throughout the summer, different protocols were put in place and the use of software and hyperspectral imaging helped enhance the quality of our experiment. Further research is required to determine if there is a relationship between resistances of necrotrophic and biotrophic pathogens, but I am grateful to have the opportunity to work in Elsa Petit’s lab this year to continue my research.
