Fungal pathogens that cause die-back in grape, avocado, citrus, nut and other crops has found a new host and is infecting conifer trees causing Pine Ghost Canker in urban forest areas of Southern California.

The canker can be deadly to trees.

Viral communities across a grassland area are not uniform, and understanding viral dynamics could lead to better insight into how bacteria in soil will react to drought and other climate changes, according to research out of UC Davis.

Viruses can affect microbes, the food web, the carbon cycle and other ecosystem processes, including controlling bacteria.

Plant pathologist Joanne Emerson is one of 76 scientists from across the nation to receive significant federal funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) in its Early Career Research Program.

Emerson is an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology who studies soil viruses, virtually unknown members of the soil microbiome with a potentially significant influence on biogeochemical processes in many different terrestrial ecosystems. She will receive at least $150,000 per year from DOE for five years to cover personnel and research expenses.

California’s drought and bark-beetle infestation killed more than 129 million trees between 2012 and 2016 in the Sierra Nevada. But amid the devastation stood some survivors.

In an orange grove outside Exeter, California, workers climb aluminum ladders to pick fruit with expert speed. California produces 80 percent of the nation’s fresh oranges, tangerines and lemons, most of it in small Central California communities like these.

Postdoctoral scholar María Florencia Ercoli, a researcher in the laboratory of plant pathology professor Pamela Ronald, has been named to the 2019 class of Pew Latin American Fellows in Biomedical Sciences. Her research focuses on the strategies infectious bacteria use to invade plant hosts.

The National Academy of Sciences announced today (April 30) the election of 125 members, including UC Davis’ Pam Ronald, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Genome Center.

Of the 100 new national members, 40 are women — a record number and percentage in an academy election. This year’s class also includes 25 foreign associates. They join an academy that includes 190 Nobel Prize winners.