Dennis W. Fulbright  
 

Professor
Plant Pathology

Ph.D. 1979
 University of California, Riverside. 

Email:
fulbrigl@pilot.msu.edu 

Phone: (517) 353-4506 

Home Department:
Plant Pathology 

Elucidating the fundamental genetics of virulence ad pathogenicity in fungi and bacteria is the research object of my laboratory. The Chesnet blight gungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, can be isolated from nature in a state of reduced virulence termed hypovirulence. Some hypovirulent forms of the fungus carry double stranded RNA (dsRNA) biruses which cause the reduction in virulence. We are studying the biology of the hypovirulent isolates and characterizing the dsRNA viruses found in Michigan and Europe. Another form of hypovirulence is correlated with mitochondrial dysfunction and we are currently investigating the genetic aspects of mtDNA mutation in these hypovirulent strains. Frequently, these dsRNA­free hypovirulent strains die in culture upon transferring to fresh medium which brings to mind the senescence phenotypes in other fungi.

I am working with other colleges in Genetics and Botany and Plant Pathology to explore ways to genetically characterize pathogenic specialization in plant pathogenic bacteria. We are finding clonal chromosomal fingerprints using PCR technology that relate to specific pathogenic types of bacteria.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Louws F., D. Fulbright, C. Stephens and F.deBruijn (1994) Specific genomic fingerprints of phtopathogenic Xanthomonas and Pseudomonas pathovars and strains generated with repetitive sequences and the PCR. Applied and Enviromental Microbiology 60:(7) 2286­2295. Louws FJ, et al. 

Mahanti N., H. Bertrand, C. Monterio­Vitorello and D. Fulbright (1993) Elecated mictochondrial alternative oxidase activity in dsRNA­free, hypovirulent isolates of Cryphonectria parasitica. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 42:455­463.

Fulbright D. (1990) Molecular basis for hypovirulence ad its ecological relationships. New Directions in Biological Control, ed. R.R. Baker and P.E. Dunn, 693­702. New York: Alan R. Liss, Inc.

Other Publications
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