February 22, 2023
Shahideh Nouri to present Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Seminar today
Submitted by Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
Shahideh Nouri, professor of plant pathology at Kansas State University, will be the featured speaker for this week’s Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Seminar. She will present "Genome Evolution and Emergence of Plant and Insect Viruses" at 4 p.m. today, Wednesday, Feb. 22, in 120 Ackert Hall.
Presentation abstract: Viruses are the most abundant habitants of the earth, infecting both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. With the introduction of next-generation sequencing and advanced bioinformatics tools, a new age of virus discovery has commenced, and many novel pathogenic and non-pathogenic viruses have been identified. Studying viral communities associated with a particular organism — virome — in the metagenomics era has been a significant contribution to the field of virology, including plant and insect virology. The identification of persistent viruses which may have potential to serve as new biological controls either as wild-type or recombinant viruses — viral vectors — the discovery of novel and newly emerging viruses, and the determining of evolutionary relationships of economically important viral pathogens are some of these contributions. In the lab, we focus on genome evolution and emergence of viruses in important crops such as wheat and insect vectors of important plant pathogens such as the Asian citrus psyllid.