John N. Sacalis

Department of Plant Biology and Pathology Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 59 Dudley Road New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8520 732-932-9711, Ext. 131 Fax: 732-932-9441 sacalis@aesop.rutgers.edu

Research Interests:

Most of my past work has dealt with post production physiology of cut flowers and flowering plants, but my research direction has changed in the past year. Although still maintaining an interest in post-harvest physiology, I am also now working with grasses, studying the effects of infection with fungal endophytes. These symbiotic organisms act as a protective mechanism for the grass host in a number of ways.

The objective is twofold: the first is to develop simple bioassays to indicate the presence of the endophyte in grass tissues, and to roughly quantify the effects observed; the second is to isolate and/or characterize or identify the compound or group of compounds responsible for the inhibitory response.