New Mexico State University Associate Professor Stephanie Walker has earned a $759,000 grant for research to develop a new strain of green chile that’s resistant to a damaging disease.
Project Goal
The goal of the project is to create a strain of green chile that is resistant to Phytophthora capsici, a disease that can lead to root rot. One of Walker’s collaborators at NMSU, Denise Coon, says the disease is soil-born and moves with water to any part of the chile, which can kill the entire crop.
The team is partnering with Cornell University vegetable breeder Michael Mazourek, whose team has done similar work with a strain of bell peppers. The project plan involves cross-breeding the bell peppers with the green chiles. The Cornell team will handle most of the lab testing, while the NMSU team handles most of the field testing.
Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
