UF/IFAS scientist secures $3.5M grant to study soil micro-predators

Ever-present but undetectable to the naked eye, micro-predators like viruses, nematodes, protists, and some bacteria are constantly working in the soil to hunt and kill the pathogens that threaten plants. But how they do this “dirty” work is not well understood.

The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has awarded $3.5 million to a UF/IFAS scientist and his team to study these powerful organisms and share research findings to promote crop productivity and sustainable soil-health management.

Samuel Martins, a UF/IFAS assistant professor of plant pathology, is leading eight researchers from six institutions: the University of Florida; Pennsylvania State University; the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station; the University of California, Davis; William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey; and the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

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