January 20, 2021
Lindsey du Toit transplanting carrots in a seed crop experimental plot.
Lindsey du Toit has battled pathogens on carrot seed crops for 20 years as a scientist at Washington State University.
She is now part of a new $3 million USDA Specialty Crops Research Initiative (SCRI) project, led by Jeremiah Dung at Oregon State University, that aims to defeat a common bacterial pathogen that causes problems for carrot farmers.
Du Toit, a professor and Extension specialist in WSU’s Department of Plant Pathology, will look at integrated pest management approaches to dealing with bacterial blight of carrot seed crops, the methods used to reduce disease pressure in fields, and how the pathogen survives. Her research will be used to finds ways to reduce that survival.