Bright field, phase contrast and epifluorescence microscopy for characterizing phenotypes of transgenic isolates of sclerotinia species

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Plant health is an important component of food, fibre and environmental sustainability in Canada and elsewhere.  Plant diseases are an important component of plant health and result in significant losses in agriculture, horticulture and forestry every year. Most plant pathogens are microorganisms and, therefore, a microscope is considered a core and critical piece of equipment in a plant pathology laboratory.   The microscope proposed in this application will be used in several research projects focused on the understanding and development of biological controls for plant diseases.  The influence and mechanisms of action of fungal viruses and how they influence their fungal hosts must be characterized to enable their development as effective procedures for disease management.  Selected fungal viruses associated with reduced virulence and debilitated growth in fungal plant pathogens have been identified in previous studies, and current studies are focused on determining how these viruses affect their fungal hosts.  Genetic transformation of fungal hosts with selected fragments of the viral genome requires a research-quality microscope for detection of the influence of these changes on the growth and development of these microscopic fungi.   This proposal will replace an existing and out-dated light microscope with a comparable unit that has an enhanced feature for epi-fluorescence illumination and digital photography.  Importantly, the digital photography system with this microscope is compatible with other equipment in the laboratory.   This microscope will enable highly qualified personnel (HQP) to continue currently-funded and on-going research and diagnostic activities, and expand into research areas that require more precise and technical application, such as observing fluorescent dyes and proteins (e.g. epi-fluorescence) in fungal and plant tissues during growth and infection.