Tomas Rush
Graduate Student
E-mail: trush@agcenter.lsu.edu      

Major Professor: Dr. Cathie Aime

• Education:
  Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA:
  B.S. Biological Engineering, December 2008

• Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada
  Study abroad program in Chemical Engineering 2006-2007

Area of Research:

Phakopsora pachyrhizi, which is the casual agent of Asian Soybean Rust (ASR), has been known to infect a variety of legume species in greenhouse studies and field evaluations as possible alternative hosts. A few of the known susceptible legume species in the USA include: kudzu (Pueraria lobata), Florida beggar weed (Desmodium tortuosum), dry bean (Phaseoulus vulgaris), lima bean (P. lunatus), scarlet runner bean (P. coccineus), and coral bean (Erythrina herbacea). ASR is a potentially devastating disease of soybean that can drastically reduce soybean yield and productivity, and thus the disease is carefully monitored in the United States. Based on the information in the Integrated Pest Management for Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education monitoring system (Ipm-PIPE), New Iberia and Iberville Parish in south Louisiana are generally the first point of soybean infection after P. pachyrhizi overwinters. This suggests that there are alternative hosts in these parishes on which P. pachyrhizi is capable of overwintering. Over 100 different species of legumes will be tested in a field evaluation experiment to determine naturally occurring alternative host that could be susceptible to P. pachyrhizi. The most widely used tool for detecting and monitoring the spread of ASR is the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Assay for detecting and discriminating between P. pachyrhizi and P. meibomiae, based on the ITS gene. Samples of Phakopsora pachyrhizi will be collected from different parishes by random sampling and used to evaluate the appropriateness of the ITS region as a diagnostic assay.

Publications/Presentations:

• Kaur, R., Rush, T. A., Ferrin, D. M., and Aime, M. C. 2010. First report of Puccinia thaliae rust on Canna indica in Louisiana. Plant Disease, Vol. 95, No. 3:353.

• Rush, T.A. and Aime, M.C. 2010. Placement of the yeast genus Moniliella in the Ustilaginomycotina and description of a novel Moniliella species. Inoculum 61:72.

• Assessing the Validity of Diagnostic Quantitative PCR Assays for Phakopsora pachyrhizi and P. meibomiae. A presentation presented at the Southern Soybean Disease Workshop on March 2011 in Pensacola, FL.

• The decline of commercial and natural pine populations due to rust diseases. A seminar presented at Louisiana State University on October 2010 in Baton Rouge, LA.

• Placement of the yeast genus Moniliella in the Ustilaginomycotina and description of a novel Moniliella sp. A poster presentation at the Mycological Society of America meeting on July 2010 in Lexington Ky.

• Design and Fabrication of a Device for Measurement of Running Shoe Degeneration. A poster, presented with three other colleagues at Louisiana State University on May 2008 in Baton Rouge, LA.

• Aspergillus flavus, the Silent Killer. A poster presented at Lakehead University on March 2007 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, CA.

Grant Awarded:

• Louisiana Board of Regents: $8,000. Does Phakopsora pachyrhizi have an alternate host in Taiwan? 2011.

• Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research: $400.  2010.

Honors and Achievements:

LSU Graduate Assistantship, Mycological Society of America Travel Grant 2010, Mycological Society of America Best Student Poster Award 2010, Wiley D. Poole Memorial Scholarship 2008, Study Abroad Scholarship 2006-2007, NAFTA Scholarship 2006-2007, TOPS Award 2004-2008, Dean’s List 2004, 2007.

Memberships:

Explorers Club Student Member, Mycological Society of America Member, American Phytopathological Society Member, National Society of Collegiate Scholars Member, NAFTA Undergraduate Member, Big Buddy Program 2005, Biological Engineering Student Organization 2007, Graduate Student Association.