Population Genetics

Plant pathogens are notorious for their propensity to evolve rapidly to overcome control strategies based on resistance genes and fungicides. More knowledge of the evolutionary process is needed to develop sustainable disease management practices based on durable genetic resistance or biological control agents.

Our main achievements over the past five years include:

• Development of a theoretical framework for predicting the evolutionary potential of populations of plant pathogens. This framework has been tested against all major categories of pathogens, including fungi, viruses, nematodes and bacteria

• Development of model plant pathosystems for experimental evolution studies across several spatial and temporal scales, including the laboratory bench (in vitro, 3 months), the greenhouse (in planta controlled environment, 12 months), the field plot (in planta uncontrolled environment, multiyear), and a co-evolving wheat composite cross population (in planta uncontrolled environment, 20-year time frame, in collaboration with the research station at Changins)

• Quantitative parameter estimates of all five evolutionary factors for the fungal wheat pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola

• Development of novel molecular genetic tools for phylogeographical analysis of the important cereal plant pathogens M. graminicola, Rhynchosporium secalis and Phaeosphaeria nodorum

Research Projects