Zachary is a Ph.D. candidate in the Plant Biology Graduate Group. replica uhren His research is focused on the interactions between polygalacturonases (PGs) of pathogens and PG-inhibiting proteins (PGIPs) of various plant species that lead to either disease susceptibility or resistance. Pierce’s Disease in grapevines is caused by the bacteria Xylella fastidiosa, whose PG is an important virulence factor. His work predicts and analyzes different PGIPs for their ability to inhibit the Xylella PG and thereby, reduce Pierce’s uhren replica Disease susceptibility. PGIPs are graft-transmissible so transgenic grapevines expressing an inhibitory PGIP can be used as rootstocks to transfer some degree of resistance to wild-type scions. The end result would be non-transgenic fruiting scion tissue resistance to Pierce’s Disease. Zachary earned his B.Sc. degree in Applied Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology.