011: Sick as a…plant? Yep, plants get viruses too – David Bisaro, Ph.D

Dr. David Bisaro is a Professor at the Ohio State University. Dr. Bisaro studies plant viruses, which are a major source of economic loss for farmers. Plants, just like humans, can be infected with viruses, but unlike humans they don’t have antibodies and immune cells to fight off virus infections. This can be devastating for farmers who can lose large amounts of their crops from plant viruses. Dr. Bisaro studies how plants can survive virus infections by their own type of immune system, which suppresses the virus once it gets inside the plant. Dr. Bisaro discusses how plants protect themselves from viruses, and talks about genetically modified plants, epigenetics, and how he almost became a career musician. The MicroCase for listeners to solve is about Snowflake, a young vegetarian child who gets very sick after eating spinach salad.

Discussants (in alphabetical order):

Dr. Karl Klose (Professor and Director of STCEID, UTSA)

Jesus Romo (PhD candidate of STCEID, UTSA)

Dr. Garry Sunter (Professor of STCEID and Chair of the Biology Department, UTSA)