**AWARDS ISSUED PRIOR TO JANUARY 20, 2025, WERE FUNDED UNDER PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE PRIORITIES AND POLICIES OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.** POTATO VIRUS Y (PVY) IS ONE OF THE MOST SERIOUS CHALLENGES FACING POTATO PRODUCTION WORLDWIDE. PVY INFECTION OF POTATO CAUSES DECREASES IN TUBER YIELD AND QUALITY. IN THE UNITED STATES, POTATO TUBER YIELD LOSS MAY BE UP TO 80% AND MORE THAN 40% OF U.S. SEED LOTS HAVE DETECTABLE LEVELS OF PVY, DESPITE COSTLY SEED CERTIFICATION PROGRAMS.THE LACK OF RESISTANCE AND THE POPULARITY OF SEVERAL WIDELY PLANTED VARIETIES THAT ARE SYMPTOMLESS CARRIERS OF PVY HAVE FACILITATED AN INCREASE IN PVY INCIDENCE AND CONTRIBUTED TO THE EMERGENCE OFPOTATO TUBER NECROTIC RINGSPOT DISEASE (PTNRD), WHICH CAUSES REDUCTIONS IN YIELD AND QUALITY AND MAY CAUSE A TOTAL CROP LOSS. RECENT RESEARCH HAS IDENTIFIED THE C-TERMINAL REGION OF PVY HC-PRO PROTEIN AS THE PTNRD DETERMINANT; LOCI CONTROLLING PTNRD, HR, AND OTHER PVY SYMPTOMS HAVE ALSO BEEN MAPPED TO THE CENTRAL REGION OF POTATO CHROMOSOME IV. TO ELUCIDATE THE MECHANISM OF DISEASE PRODUCTION, THEREFORE, WE WILL USE NEXT GENERATION SEQUENCING CAPABILITIES AND SOPHISTICATED BIOINFORMATICS APPROACHES TO UNCOVER KEY FACTORS PLAYING A ROLE IN THE PRODUCTION OF PVY INDUCED DISEASE IN POTATO. SUCH INFORMATION IS KEY TO DESIGNING CONTROL STRATEGIES TO CONTAIN THIS VIRUS IN POTATO, AND INDEED OTHER CROP PLANTS.ADDITIONALLY, WE WILL DEVELOP A CONTROL METHOD BASED ON GENETIC ENGINEERING. THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE OF CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH INTRODUCTION OF NATURAL RESISTANCES INTO CULTIVATED POTATO VARIETIES. HENCE, WE HAVE SHOWN IN PRELIMINARY WORK THATTRANS-ACTING SMALL INTERFERING RNAS (TASIRNAS), A WIDESPREAD AND DEEPLY CONSERVED PHENOMENON IN DIVERSE LAND PLANTS, CAN BE EMPLOYED IN THE CONTROL OF PVY. IN THIS PROCEDURE, TASIRNAS-DERIVED FROM THE VIRUS ARE PROCESSED IN THE PLANT AND THESE TASIRNAS DEGRADE COMPLEMENTARY VIRAL RNAS, THEREBY CONTROLLING THE VIRUS. WE WILL ALSO CHARACTERIZE NATURAL RESISTANCE TO PVY AS FOUND INRANDNGENES--WHICH ARE FOUND IN A LIMITED NUMBER OF POTATO VARIETIES--BY MOLECULARLY CHARACTERIZING POTATO VARIETIES EXHIBITINGRANDNGENE RESISTANCES TO PVY STRAINS. IDENTIFICATION OF GENES IMPLICATED INRANDNGENE RESISTANCE, WILL BE CONDUCTED BY INVESTIGATING SPECIFIC TYPES OF RNAS (INCLUDING SMALL RNAS OR MRNAS) PRODUCED DURING PVY INFECTION.THIS PROJECT ALSO HAS AN IMPORTANT WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT COMPONENT, NOTABLY, TRAINING OF MINORITY SCIENTISTS.INDEED, HBCUS, INCLUDING DSU, PLAY KEY ROLES IN EXPANDING ACCESS TO EXCELLENCE FOR MINORITY STUDENTS IN STEM. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION STATISTICS SHOW THAT BETWEEN 2005 AND 2010, HBCUS ENROLLED ONLY 14% OF AFRICAN AMERICAN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS, YET 35% OF BLACK RECIPIENTS OF STEM PHDS HAD RECEIVED THEIR BS DEGREE AT AN HBCU. IN STEM DISCIPLINES, A KEY REASON FOR LOW RETENTION AND GRADUATION RATES AMONGST MINORITY STUDENTS IS UNPREPAREDNESS, FREQUENTLY DUE TO LACK OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES. TO CONTRIBUTE TO ADDRESSING THIS PROBLEM, EACH YEAR, AT LEAST TWO UNDERGRADS WILL BE TRAINED IN GENOMICS AND BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPROACHES. FURTHERMORE, TO IMPROVE THE WRITING SKILLS OF THESE STUDENTS, WE WILL ESTABLISH A SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL WRITING MODULE WITHIN SELECTED INQUIRY-BASED LAB PROJECTS. WE WILL ALSO PROVIDE AN 11-WEEK SUMMER RESEARCH-TRAINING PROGRAM IN GENOMICS AND BIOINFORMATICS EVERY YEAR FOR DSU UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AT THE DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER. ADDITIONALLY, TWO MS STUDENTS WILL BE TRAINED IN GENOMICS AND NEXT GENERATION SEQUENCING DATA ANALYSIS. THEIR THESIS RESEARCH WILL BE ON VARIOUS COMPONENTS OF THIS PROPOSAL.IMPORTANTLY, THE DATA OBTAINED, AND TECHNIQUES DEVELOPED WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE IN A FREELY ACCESSIBLE, PUBLIC DATABASE FOR THE WIDER RESEARCH COMMUNITY.