Senior Scientist - Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology, DK-4200 Slagelse, Denmark
Session Five:
Global Landscapes of Cereal Rust and Powdery Mildew Fungi
In my early career at Aarhus University, Annemarie Fejer Justesen established the genotyping laboratory for characterisation and diagnostics of plant pathogenic fungi, and Annemarie has been involved in the GRRC activities since the beginning.
|Annemarie's work with rust began more than 25 years ago studying the population structure and population dynamics of the Danish and European yellow rust populations, which revealed the clonal population structure. Subsequent studies of the distribution and spread of Puccinia striiformis strains at a global scale showed that world-wide epidemics were caused by two aggressive and high temperature adapted strains. In recent years the genetic studies of yellow rust involving the alternate host Barberry has been a focus area.
As part of the BGRI, Annemarie started the genotyping activities of stem rust at GRRC. This work has been extended in their recent project RUSTWATCH funded by EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The main aim has been to identify drivers for the emergence of new rust strains in Europe. This has involved alignment activities with rust research laboratories in Europe and outside in order to display the European genotyping and phenotyping results in a global context as visualised in the wheat rust toolbox.