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Member Institutions:
Don Gordon Professor |
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Research Interests
Dr. Gordon's research focuses on virus diseases of plants, with special emphasis on those of maize (corn). This research is done in collaboration with graduate students and with faculty of a six-member Ohio State University-U.S. Department of Agriculture maize virus disease research group. His research interests include virus identification, characterization, relationships, etiology, replication, genome functions, symptom induction and epidemiology. Present studies involve strains of two viruses which are of major economic importance to maize production in the U.S., namely the maize dwarf mosaic virus (MDMV), a member of the Potyvirus group, and maize chlorotic dwarf virus (MCDV), a Picorna-like virus. Studies of the MDMV strains concern: 1) the variability within this group as it relates to strain identification and classification and 2) viral genome control of plant response (symptom induction). For MCDV, the interest is in defining characteristics of the viral genome for differentiating isolates and strains. Current work emphasizes characteristics of viral proteins including peptide and eptiope mapping involving polyclonal antisera and monoclonal antibodies to viral proteins; organization and function of the viral RNA genomes of both viruses, and the relationship of these genomic features to phenotypic differences among strains of each virus. In addition, he conducts research on the maize streak virus (MSV), a virus of major importance on maize in subsahara Africa. For MSV the goal is to identify serological variability among field isolates and to describe the epidemiology of the disease.
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