What is the Fusarium Research Center (FRC)?

The FRC has three missions: service, research and training

1.) Service: From its inception, the FRC has sought to assist the Fusarium research community by providing cultures and other research materials, and by performing species identifications and certifications. The FRC culture collection, which contains over 17,000 liophilized accessions of Fusarium strains from around the world, is the largest of its kind. We also provide sterilized carnation leaves, our preferred medium for growing Fusarium cultures. All such materials are provided for fees to cover our costs. Identifications are performed free of charge for 20 isolates or fewer if we are allowed to accession the isolates, for a fee if not. Molecular identifications can also be performed.

2.) Research: Dr. Paul E. Nelson, who founded the FRC and directed it until his passing in 1996, developed an extensive research program which looked at the taxonomy, pathology and toxicology of Fusarium species. Dr. David M. Geiser took over in 1998, and is applying his background in fungal molecular evolution to the study of speciation and species concepts in the genus Fusarium. The FRC now has a fully equipped molecular biology laboratory, and access to the Plant Pathology Department's ABI 377 automated DNA sequencer. See our research page for more details.

3.) Training: Many workers in the Fusarium field had the pleasure of learning Fusarium identification methods in one of Dr. Nelson's well-known workshops. Over the last few years, these workshops have been given by Ms. Jean Juba, mostly on an ad hoc basis. We hope to have regularly scheduled workshops going again in the not-too-distant future, and incorporate molecular methods.