Madison Araujo Biomedical Sciences
Emily Landolt Organismal Biology
Terry Jo Leiterman Associate Professor of Mathematics
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Abstract
Stem canker disease in potatoes is caused by the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani, resulting in plant stem death and reduced crop yields. Potato plants are exposed to the fungus through the soil and contract the disease through their roots. SIR models are used to help understand disease transmission and mitigate these adverse effects by offering insight into the future behavior of a system under various conditions. These classic compartmental models take into account the rate of change in susceptible (S), infected (I), and removed (R) subpopulations. The SIR models used in this study explore the effects of a high and low infectious load revealing that effective disease control relies on the reduction of infectious load for the potato plants. Along with additional studies, this work can further investigate the reliability of the SIR model for the botanical epidemiology of economically important plant pathogens.
