嘿嘿视频

Research team regroups after greenhouse fire destroys hundreds of plants

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Photo of interior of greenhouse after fire.
The greenhouse Diane Ullman and her student researchers were using, as it appeared after a Jan. 21 fire.

A professor and her team of student researchers have dried their tears and are working to regroup and rebuild their project after destroyed all of their plants last month.

, of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, has spent the last three decades studying a tiny, flying insect, the Western flower thrip, and its role in transmitting viruses between plants.

Ullman, a graduate student, a post-doctoral student and several undergrads had been working with tomato plants in the greenhouse off Orchard Park Drive. Some of the plants survived but were so damaged by the fire鈥檚 heat that they died a short time later.

鈥淩eally, I never would have thought about a greenhouse burning down,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 on my radar at all.鈥

Ullman leads a nationwide group from seven universities researching how tomato plants can be made more resistant to the Western flower thrips and viruses in the genus Tospovirus that the thrips spread when feeding.

One possible solution lies in the tiny 鈥渉airs,鈥 called trichomes, of some tomato leaves. The hairs excrete a sugar that repels the thrips.

鈥淲e鈥檝e made some really important findings,鈥 Ullman said. 鈥淏y the time we reach the end of the grant I鈥檓 sure we鈥檒l be releasing new tomato lines.鈥

Her work is important because the viruses spread by thrips can infect more than 900 plant species, damaging lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, leafy greens, ornamental plants and more.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a global problem,鈥 she said.

She鈥檚 halfway through a five-year federal grant to study the issue and 鈥渃reate sustainable strategies for managing the insect and the viruses it transmits.鈥

That the 嘿嘿视频 greenhouse is part of a national study is both good and bad: Ullman鈥檚 lab has been collaborating with other researchers across the nation, so the greenhouse fire impacts the entire project. But it also means she can get up and running again more quickly, as other researchers can send her seeds for plants she needs that aren鈥檛 commercially available.

鈥淢y colleagues were wonderful about providing the seeds we needed to get our research back on line,鈥 she said. 鈥淥therwise our recovery would have been much more difficult.鈥

Ullman said she should be back in business in a month or two. That鈥檚 a short blip when you鈥檝e been studying the issue since 1987, but it鈥檚 little consolation for students rushing to finish degrees, she said.

鈥淭here were some tears, for sure,鈥 she said. 鈥淟osing something you鈥檝e been working on for months when you鈥檙e a graduate student or a post-doc 鈥 you don鈥檛 have that much time, and to lose it is pretty devastating.鈥

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Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu

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