Purdue University - The Cruz Lab

AI Fusion seed grants help rapidly advance research Purdue researchers in the colleges of Agriculture, Engineering and Science are collaborating to advance AI applications.

How do tar spot epidemics really develop in corn fields?
Tar spot often starts almost invisibly; sometimes with few stromata across an entire field, yet weeks later severity can increase explosively. Until now, we’ve lacked a field‑scale, mechanistic explanation for how that transition occurs.
In a short video, we summarize a multi‑year, field‑validated study (Lane et al., Plant Disease, First Look) that combines high‑resolution field data with canopy‑explicit epidemiological modeling to show how tar spot epidemics:
• Establish at ultra‑low severity,
• Spread vertically through the canopy (often not bottom‑up), and
• Transition into rapid exponential intensification.
The work challenges long‑standing assumptions about foliar disease progression and lays a foundation for precision disease surveillance and future integration with digital and AI‑enabled detection tools.
▶️ Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAxM3bZ9TYg
📄 Lane et al., Plant Disease (First Look)
https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/.../10.../PDIS-07-25-1506-RE
Original image credit: Crop Protection Network See less

Purdue University Cruz Lab 1 like. "Unraveling the Dynamics of Tar Spot Epidemics in Corn Fields"

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Feeling very fortunate to have attended Barbara Valent’s retirement celebration at K-State. Beyond years of top-notch scientific collaboration, Barbara (and her partner in life and science, Forrest Chumley) have offered enduring generosity, support, and friendship. I was honored to share a few heartfelt words, and it was a joy to reconnect with scientific heroes, collaborators, and mentees from my time at K-State. I had an absolute blast!

🌽 Huge thanks to Dr. César Falconí (ESPE, Ecuador) for his excellent talk at Purdue! Through a USDA NIFA funded project, we are working together to address corn tar spot, a threat to crops in the Midwest and the Americas. hashtag 🌎🌱

Thrilled our paper on optical sensing & epidemio modelling is out in Phytopathology – First Look! 🌿📊

Huge thanks to all co-authors for 3.5 yrs of teamwork — and special shoutout to Alexey Mikaberidze & Nik Cunniffe for their inspiring leadership!
👉 https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-11-24-0359-FI

Thanks to the North Central IPM Center for the kind invitation and opportunity to contribute! Feel free to check out the webinar here:

Innovative Approaches in Phytopathometry and Epidemiology: Focus on Corn Tar Spot-Cruz This presentation will delve into innovative approaches in phytopathometry, epidemiology, and microbiology, with a focus on tar spot disease in corn. Key top...

Thrilled and honored to be part of this incredible global initiative! 🌍✨ 💪

Tar spot disease is spreading both in the corn belt and internationally. Take a look under the microscope and over the globe with Purdue Botany and Plant Pathology's Goodwin's lab and Purdue University - The Cruz Lab to better understand how tar spot's appearance and microbiology changes across the world. https://purdueag.exposure.co/revealing-tar-spot-microbiology