The Innovative Research Groups of Plant Protection of Oilcrops was set up in 2016, aiming at integral management over plant pathogens and pests of oil crops to ensure the edible oil security of our country. Presently, our group possesses 11 members, among them 5 with doctorates and 6 with master degrees. In recent years, we have published academic papers in PNAS, Frontiers in Microbiology, PLoS One, Plant Disease, Journal of General Virology, etc.

Orientations

Our group mainly works on diseases, pests and weeds of oil crops, focused on the clubroot (caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae) and Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR, caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum) of oilseed rape. The research covers biological and molecular interaction of pathogen-host, epidemiology and integrated control strategies of main diseases. To meet the present and future demand by farmers, we have formed 3 research orientations from theories to application.

  1. Screening ＆breeding of germplasms to improve disease resistance. We have established     the    screening methods of SSR and clubroot resistance in field and in greenhouse. Genes related to resistance were identified and work on disease resistance breeding is progressing.

  2. Pathogenicity of pathogens and resistance of hosts. Diversity in populations of S. sclerotiorum and P. brassicae, putative role of glucosinolates, IAA and JA in earlier stages of the infection by P. brassicae were analyzed. Genome-resequencing-based genome wide analysis association was used to exploit new clubroot-resistant resources and genes.

  3. Integrated management of diseases. We have developed the integrated management strategy for control of SSR and clubroot on oilseed rape, including application of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and prochloraz to control SSR, calcium cyanamide and cyazofamid to control clubroot.