Potato Late Blight Expert: Jean Beagle Ristaino

Jean Ristaino's lab at NC State works on emerging plant diseases that threaten global food security. A major focus of research is to understand the factors that contribute to disease emergence including the epidemiology and population genetics of Oomycete plant pathogens in the genus Phytophthora.
Phytophthora infestans caused the Great Famine of Ireland in the 1840s, and is a reemerging threat to global food security. She studies the population genetics and migrations of both historic and present day strains of the pathogen. Her lab was part of a multi-investigator group that sequenced the genome of the pathogen. She is now using the genome sequence to develop novel strategies for managing disease in the field.
Her team has developed a web portal called USAblight.org that can be used to track recent outbreaks of disease using geospatial analytics. She also works on other pathogens of tropical crop plants including black Sigatoka on banana, downy mildew of tobacco, soilborne fungi and coffee rust that are threats to global food security.