This fall, thousands of college freshmen across the U.S. will attend a fundamental class in biology, and Marilyn Roossinck’s work will be there to teach them.
A virologist and professor with The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Roossinck, Ph.D., performed a four-year study on a three-way symbiotic relationship between a virus, a fungus and a plant that was published in McGraw Hill’s new college textbook, “Biology: Concepts and Investigations.” The textbook entered circulation this semester.
“I am passionate about educating people about science and its importance in understanding the world around us,” Roossinck said. “It is particularly fulfilling to be included in a textbook that will be seen by countless students for years to come.”
The textbook excerpt describes Roossinck’s successful efforts to better understand the mutually beneficial relationship between plants and endophytes –– naturally occurring fungi that impart beneficial characteristics to host plants, including improved tolerances to environmental conditions.
In 2002, Roossinck read a fascinating story about panic grass, which grows in the geothermal soils in Yellowstone National Park. The article detailed how fungal endophytes within the grass were enabling it to survive in soil with temperatures too high for most plants.
“I wanted to study persistent viruses, which are viruses that can stay with hosts for generations,” Roossinck said.
“Since fungal viruses are often persistent, I wondered if they were involved with the plant-endophyte interactions and to what extent.”
She contacted Drs. Regina Redman, Rusty Rodriguez and Joan Henson, who had performed the original panic grass study, and asked to examine endophytes isolated from harvested plant material. Soon she was analyzing countless samples from their work. Roossinck found what she was looking for — evidence of a virus within the endophytes.
“I hope people think differently about viruses,” Roossinck said. “Most people think of disease when they think of viruses, but this research clearly demonstrates how they can be beneficial. The plant, the endophyte and the virus have formed a mutualistic relationship that benefits all three entities.”
The research performed by Roossinck, along with her collaborators, Drs. Luis Márquez, Redman and Rodriguez, could yield important information for naturally improving environmental tolerances in plants.
“With climate shifts and depleted soil conditions, agricultural crops are going to have to survive in more extreme environments,” Roossinck said.
“Knowing how plants naturally survive in these environments will be important to the future of agriculture.”
