Mary Lewis spent six weeks traveling around Costa Rica working
on research designed to shed light on one of the most important
diseases affecting bananas. While her focus was the fungal
disease black sigatoka, the College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences student says the experience taught her just as much –
or more – about what it takes to work in a foreign country and
to interact with people from other cultures. Over the years he’s
spent studying cassava mosaic disease, Tanzanian scientist Dr.
Joseph Ndunguru has noted something curious: Wherever there are
DNA molecules called satellites associated with the
geminiviruses contributing to the disease, symptoms are greater
and losses are heavier – even in plants bred specifically to
resist the disease. Figuring out more about those subviral
particles could be key, Ndunguru believes, to developing a
strategy to beat the disease for good. That’s why he has teamed
with CALS’ Dr. Linda Hanley-Bowdoin on a project designed to
yield the scientific insight necessary t