SIPS Research

The Cornell-developed “PhytoPatholoBot” detects spectral signatures of three kinds of devastating grape diseases – powdery mildew, downy mildew and grapevine leafroll virus – leading to early management of pathogens without needing farmworkers to spot them. Ultimately, data collected by such robots will help to ground-truth NASA satellite data that could one day detect plant diseases from space.

Applied roboticist Yu Jiang, assistant professor the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Science, developed the PhytoPatholoBot with doctoral student Ertai Liu and plant pathologist Katie Gold, with funding from NASA Acres and U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture  (NIFA) and VitisGen3.

New York is the top beet-producing state, thanks in part to grower support from Cornell researchers working with UV light to suppress the leaf spot fungus using drone images to spot-treat infected plants rather than spraying entire fields. These light treatments may be used in conventional beet production as well as in organic systems where synthetic fungicides are not permitted.

A fungus, Cercospora causes the ugly leaf spots on beets sold into the fresh market, said Sarah Pethybridge, associate professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science’s Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section at Cornell AgriTech. The disease can also defoliate the plants, making it more difficult for mechanical harvesters to pull the vegetables from the soil by their tops, she said.

LakeEffect, the first winter malting barley released by the Cornell Small Grains Breeding Program, is set to take the New York craft beverage industry by storm.The new variety produces high yields, is disease resistant and has a good malting profile. “What’s truly remarkable is that we took this from first cross to commercial release in just seven years, which is incredibly fast to move a new variety to market,” said Mark Sorrells, professor of plant breeding and genetics in Cornell’s School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, who led the breeding effort. 

From colorful Galaxy and Yellow Submarine tomatoes to Unicorn kale and the new Northstar broccoli hybrid, plant breeder Phillip Griffiths develops vegetable varieties that combine flavor, appearance, nutrition and performance in the field. 

A professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science based at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, N.Y., Griffiths works closely with growers, seed companies and consumers to identify traits that matter most. Then he brings them together in new varieties that help farmers remain competitive, expand choices for gardeners and shoppers, and contribute to more resilient and sustainable food systems. 

By combining consumer preferences with agricultural needs, Griffiths is helping ensure that healthier, more productive crops also make it onto people's plates.

Find examples of Griffith's work in these Cornell Chronicle articles:

As solar development expands across New York, Cornell researchers are helping farmers and policymakers understand both its opportunities and its challenges. 

Toni DiTommaso, professor in the Soil and Crop Section, was co-principal investigator in one recent study that found that the shade cast by solar panels can reduce yields of some crops, such as fall-planted radishes and radicchio.  Justine Vanden Heuvel, professor in the Horticulture Section is a co-author of another study that suggests agrivoltaic systems could provide Concord grape growers with a valuable new source of income through renewable energy production. 

These findings highlight the importance of evaluating solar projects crop by crop and region by region, rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all approach. Drawing on expertise from across SIPS and partner disciplines, Cornell researchers are generating the independent, science-based evidence needed to balance food production, farm profitability and clean energy goals in a rapidly changing landscape.

How does a plant reliably produce smooth leaves, protective flower parts and other complex structures? Adrienne Roeder is uncovering the cellular and molecular mechanisms that allow plants to grow with remarkable precision despite the inherent randomness of life.

A professor in Cornell's School of Integrative Plant Science, Roeder studies how groups of cells coordinate their behavior to shape developing plant organs. Her recent research revealed how cells can buffer noisy genetic signals and how differences in growth patterns and mechanical forces determine whether plant structures remain smooth or become wrinkled.

While driven by fundamental questions about how living organisms develop, these discoveries are laying the groundwork for future advances in crop improvement, synthetic biology and the engineering of living materials. By revealing the rules that govern plant form, Roeder's work helps explain how biological complexity emerges from individual cells.

From alpine mountaintops to island ecosystems, Hannah Marx studies how plant diversity evolves and how species adapt to changing environments over time. Her research combines fieldwork, evolutionary biology and genomic tools to better understand the forces that shape plant communities and their responses to environmental change, including climate change. 

As an assistant professor in the Plant Biology Section, Marx also directs the L.H. Bailey Hortorium Herbarium – one of North America's largest collections of preserved plants totalling roughly one million specimens. 

Herbarium collections serve as biological time capsules, providing historical records and genetic material that help researchers track shifting species distributions, changes in biodiversity and long-term ecological trends. Together, Marx's research and stewardship of the herbarium are helping scientists better understand and predict how plant ecosystems may change in the future.

While a staple in much of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, most maize varieties fall dangerously short in key nutrients like vitamin A and vitamin E.  Rather than engineer a solution in the lab, Michael Gore, professor in Plant Breeding and Genetics Section, turned to maize itself.  Over 15 years, Gore's lab "scanned thousands of maize varieties from around the globe. Using high-resolution mapping and advanced gene sequencing, they uncovered rare but powerful variants that naturally produce higher levels of beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A. Some of these maize lines, bright orange and brimming with nutrients, are now growing in Zambian fields through collaborations with HarvestPlus and CIMMYT," reports SeedWorld. “We didn’t need to invent a miracle,” Gore said. “We just had to listen to what maize already knew.”

Researchers at Cornell have discovered a new grape downy mildew resistance gene – giving the wine and grape industry a powerful new tool to combat this devastating disease. “Of the downy mildew resistance genes found in the world to date, this is one of the strongest,” said Lance Cadle-Davidson, adjunct professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and a research plant pathologist with the USDA’s Grape Genetics Research Unit in Geneva. “The discovery could help breeders develop more resistant grape varieties.”

Imagine if a plant in a farmer’s field could warn a grower that it needs water? Or if a farmer could signal to plants that dry weather lies ahead. Margaret Frank, associate professor in the Plant Biology Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science, is one of the collaborators advancing our understanding of such two-way communication with plants through the efforts of the Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS), which is funded by a five-year, $25 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.