2025 - Your Commission at Work

YOUR RESEARCH COMMITTEE AT WORK

General Assembly Funded GRKN Projects In 2022, the North Carolina General Assembly awarded a $5 million grant to combat Guava Root Knot Nematode (M. enterolobii), a destructive pest that threatens not only sweetpotatoes but numerous other crops. Recognizing the severity of this risk, lawmakers tasked the North Carolina Sweetpotato Commission with leading GRKN-focused research aimed at eradicating the pest once and for all. To support this effort, NCSC recently appointed Ann Gallagher as NCSC GRKN Research Project Manager. Serving as the liaison among all agencies engaged in both General Assembly– and Commission-funded projects, Ann leverages her extensive field expertise and strong industry relationships to keep research activities on track and aligned with the grant’s objectives.

Ongoing GRKN Projects TITLE: Renovation of Method Road Nematology Laboratory and Greenhouse Range facilities for work with the Guava root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne enterolobii) (22-01)

LEADER(S): Adrienne M. Gorny (Lead),1 Eric L. Davis,1, and Craig Yencho2

IMPACT STATEMENT

The development of a Meloidogyne enterolobii-resistant sweetpotato cultivar is greatly needed to provide growers in North Carolina the ability to remain global leaders in the production of high quality, healthy sweetpotatoes, with minimal inputs such as nematicides. Development of such a cultivar requires screening of thousands of unique sweetpotato cultivars and breeding lines for potential resistance to M. enterolobii in greenhouse bioassay tests. NC State University is a world leader in this endeavor and occupies a unique position to perform this research. Dr. Adrienne Gorny and her lab possess the nematological expertise to perform the work. They maintain cultures of this nematode species, and they maintain the USDA-APHIS permits required to work with M. enterolobii and receive isolates from outside of NC. Dr. Gorny’s team collaborates closely with Dr. Craig Yencho’s lab, which is recognized as a leader in knowledge and application of sweetpotato breeding for superior agronomic and disease resistance traits. Dr. Yencho and Dr. Gorny use the Method Road Nematology Laboratory and Greenhouse Ranges to perform these resistance screening bioassay tests. This project is to renovate and upgrade facilities at the Method Road Nematology Laboratory and Greenhouse Ranges used to complete the greenhouse bioassay work. Completion of these renovations will increase throughput of the sweetpotato resistance screening process.

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