Webinars

Breeding Better Downy Mildew Resistant Basils
With Robert Mattera III, MS, Research Project Coordinator and Ph.D Candidate

May 13, 2025, 1pm Eastern

Robert Mattera III, MS

The webinar will focus on the disease downy mildew in basil especially focusing on the available resistant basils and the pathogen. What does it mean for growers and home gardeners of basil that the pathogen is now infecting cultivars that were formerly resistant. Management techniques for this disease including using resistance, pesticides, and cultural practices will be discussed. A secondary focus of the talk will be discussing the diversity of basil and how we can use traditional breeding techniques to improve the resilience of basil in the face of disease and climate change.

Rob Mattera is currently the Research Project Coordinator overseeing the breeding of better basils in the New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program at Rutgers University. He is also simultaneously pursuing his Ph.D in plant breeding and genetics with a focus on developing modern molecular tools to aid traditional breeding. His main focus is understanding the underlying genetics of basil downy mildew (Peronospora belbahrii) resistance and aromatic volatiles in sweet and Thai basils (Ocimum basilicum). He's led the sequencing and publication of the first chromosome-level genome in sweet basil. He came to the New Use Lab with experience in population genetics and taxonomy of flowering and Japanese dogwoods, popular ornamental trees in North America and some parts of Europe. Additionally, as part of his Master’s thesis he formalized the botanical names of two hybrid species developed by Dr. Elwin Orton at Rutgers.

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