Elsa Petit
Program Coordinator for Horticulture Associate and Bachelor of Science Programs
Senior Lecturer in Viticulture and Plant Pathology
Agriculture is one of the contributor to climate change and diminishing biodiversity. The goal of my research is to better understand plant-microbe interactions to help make agriculture one of the solutions to climate change and increase biodiversity. My model system is grape species and its associated microbes in the Northeast US, one of two grape's biodiversity centers. I contrast cultivated crops and their wild relatives to quantify the impact of human management on microbial dynamics and study disease resistance variations. I lead the Extension program for Grape production in Massachusetts, connecting academic research and grape growers. I also teach General Plant Pathology and Sustainable Grape Production and one large course for senior under-graduate students on Global Issues in Applied Biology.
Curriculum Vitae
Senior Lecturer
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Plant pathology, University of California, Davis, 2005
M.S. Agronomy, Bordeaux, France, 2000
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr. Petit specializes in evolution and ecology of plant-microbe interactions. She uses grapes in the Northeast US as her model system.
The Petit's lab focuses on the following themes:
- Impact of agricultural management on microbiomes
- Effect of temperatures on flowering time in wild grape species
- Variation in resistance to necrotrophic and biotrophic diseases caused by fungi on grape
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
- B. Goodell, J. Jellison and E. Petit. 2019. Mechanistic overview of the chelator-mediated Fenton (CMF) system in brown rot fungi and its potential role in fungal grapevine trunk diseases. p. 414. Phytopathologia Mediterranea 58(2): 395-449.
- E. Petit, C. Silver, A. Cornille, P. Gladieux, L. Rosenthal, E. Bruns, S. Yee, J. Antonovics, T. Giraud, M. E. Hood. 2017. Co-occurrence and hybridization of anther-smut pathogens specialized on Dianthus hosts. Molecular Ecology 26 (7), 1877-1890.
- F. Horns, E. Petit, M. E. Hood. 2017. Massive Expansion of Gypsy-Like Retrotransposons in Microbotryum Fungi. Genome biology and evolution 9 (2), 363-371.
- E. Petit, S. M. A. Ebong, P. Le Gall, P. P. Chen, N. Nieser, et al. 2016. Molecular species delimitation and morphology of aquatic and sub-aquatic bugs (Heteroptera) in Cameroon. PloS one 11 (5), e0154905.
- R. Green, H. Sang, T. Chang, E. Allan-Perkins, E. Petit, G. Jung. 2016. Draft genome sequences of the turfgrass pathogen Sclerotinia homoeocarpa. Genome Announcement 4(1), e01715-15.
- L. Xu, E. Petit, M. E. Hood. 2016. Variation in mate-recognition pheromones of the fungal genus Microbotryum. Heredity116 (1), 44-51
- A. Marchant, F. Mougel, V. Mendonça, M. Quartier, E. Jacquin-Joly, A. da Rosa, E. Petit, M. Harry. 2016. Comparing de novo and reference-based transcriptome assembly strategies by applying them to the blood-sucking bug Rhodnius prolixus.Insect biochemistry and molecular biology 69: 25-33.
For more, see Google Scholar listing: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9MY47ikAAAAJ&hl=en
EXTENSION
- Leader, MA Extension Grape Production
- Lead investigator on the NIFA Multistate project NE1720 for the MA Experiment Station Project #MAS00516: “Multi-state Coordinated Evaluation of Winegrape Cultivars and Clones”
- Editor, New England Grape Notes Newsletter -- Subscribe to New England Grape Notes for free
SERVICE OUTSIDE THE DEPARTMENT
- Chair - Ad Hoc Committee on Language Proficiency
- Member - International Studies Council
- Member - Faculty Senate - General Education Council
CLASSES TAUGHT
Fall
- STOCKSCH 505 General Plant Pathology
- PLANTBIO 891PB Topics in plant biology research (team teaching)
Spring
- STOCKSCH 394I Global issues in applied biology
- STOCKSCH 390G Sustainable grape production
- STOCKSCH 650 Global Challenges in Agriculture and the Environment" (team teaching)