Studying Aphid Damage in Sorghum
Office of Research
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04/15/2019
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Description
Nebraska entomologist Joe Louis is investigating ways to help sorghum naturally resist sugarcane aphids, the crop’s most damaging pest in the United States. Louis earned a five-year, $1.5 million Faculty Early Career Development Program award from the National Science Foundation to continue his research.
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- [0:00] I'm Joe Louis and I'm an assistant professor
- [0:02] in the department of entomology and biochemistry
- [0:04] at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
- [0:07] The global population is expected to reach
- [0:09] 9 billion by the year 2040 and it is critical
- [0:13] that we should increase the global
- [0:15] food production to meet our needs.
- [0:19] My research is on sorghum-insect interaction
- [0:22] and sorghum is one of the top five
- [0:24] cereal crops grown in the world.
- [0:26] And it's predominately grown for food, feed, and fuel.
- [0:29] But at the same time, sorghum is also attacked
- [0:32] by different insect pests,
- [0:33] and one being the aphids.
- [0:35] And these aphids are, you know,
- [0:37] tiny insects, which uses their
- [0:39] needle-like mouth part to consume
- [0:41] those, the sap, and by doing so,
- [0:44] it interferes with the photosynthetic ability of the plant.
- [0:48] And also, at the same time, they transmit several
- [0:51] of those plant viruses that considerably reduces
- [0:55] the yield of the plant.
- [0:57] So the crop loss due to insect infestation
- [0:59] remain as a major concern in the field of agriculture.
- [1:02] So what we are trying to understand
- [1:04] is what are those underlying genetic networks
- [1:08] and phenotypic traits that are contributing
- [1:10] to the sorghum resistance to these sap-sucking insects.
- [1:15] Regarding the educational and outreach
- [1:18] component of the proposal,
- [1:20] I'm collaborating with the school
- [1:22] and the secondary school teachers.
- [1:23] I will be also collaborating
- [1:25] with a middle school in Lincoln.
- [1:27] The program is known as Visit by a Scientist program
- [1:30] and overall, it will help them to have an greater
- [1:34] appreciation of these different food systems.
- [1:36] During the summer, I will provide training
- [1:39] for undergraduate students both from UNL
- [1:42] and also from a different institution in Texas.
- [1:45] In the department of entomology,
- [1:47] we organize an outreach educational event every year
- [1:51] which is known as the Bug Fest
- [1:53] and we get more than 1,000 people
- [1:56] coming to this, giving their time
- [1:58] and we will open up the department
- [1:59] to the public.
- [2:01] We will explain them what we are doing in the lab
- [2:04] and how we are doing this research to make
- [2:06] their lives much better.
- [2:08] (upbeat music)
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