Member Institutions:

• Bowling Green State U.
• Cleveland State U.
• Kent State U.
• Medical College of Ohio
• Miami U.
• The Ohio State U.
• Ohio U.
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Toledo
• Wright State U.
• Youngstown State U.

Research Interests

• Phytophthora species are serious pathogens of many important crop plants resulting in crop losses in the billions of dollars annually. A major portion of our work has been on the mechanism of chemotaxis of P. sojae zoospores and hyphae towards the soybean isoflavones. A putative isoflavone binding protein has been purified by affinity chromatography, and some DNA sequence information is now available. An immediate goal of the lab is to clone this gene and characterize its expression in zoospores, hyphae, and plant infections. A second focus of the lab is on the role of calcium as a key second messenger in the cellular response to soybean isoflavones and also as a signal affecting zoospore swimming encystment and spore germination. The calcium studies include both physiological approaches (Ca-sensitive fluorescent dyes) and molecular approaches (cloning and monitoring the expression of calcium regulatory genes).

Selected Publications:

• Connolly, Mary S., Williams, Nicole, Heckman, Carol A., and Morris, Paul F. 1999. Soybean isoflavones trigger a calcium influx in Phytophthora sojae. Fungal Genetics and Biology. (in press)
• Morris, Paul F., Bone, Elizabeth; and Tyler, Brett M. 1998 Chemotropic and touch-sensitive responses of Phytophthora sojae hyphae to soybean isoflavonoids. Plant Physiology 117: 1171 - 1178.
• Xu, Chang, and Morris, Paul F., 1998. External calcium controls the developmental strategy of Phytophthora sojae cysts. Mycologia. 90 (2) 269-275.
• Tyler, Brett, M., Wu, Ming-Hoi, Wang, Jo-Man; Cheung, Winnie, W.S., Morris, Paul F. 1996. Chemotactic preferences and strain variation in the response of Phytophthora sojae zoospores to host isoflavones. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 62: 2811-2817.
• Morris, Paul F., and. Ward, E. W. B. 1992. Chemoattraction of zoospores of the soybean pathogen Phytophthora sojae by isoflavones. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 40: 17-22.

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