Molecular analysis of rust diseases

Supervisors: Dr Peter Dodds (02 6246 5039), Dr Michael Ayliffe (02 6246 5221), Dr Greg Lawrence (02 6246 5155) and Dr Jeff Ellis (02 6246 5421)
Location: Canberra
Financial support: To be determined

The understanding of how rust fungi cause disease and how plants resist rust infection is important information for the development of new measures for control of these diseases in crops. This project seeks to understand how plants recognize invading pathogens by determining the cellular location of plant resistance proteins and determining the molecular structure of these proteins.

Resistance proteins recognize avirulence proteins produced and secreted into plant cells by rust fungi. This project also seeks to understand the biological function of rust avirulence proteins in triggering disease, how they enter plants cells and also how these proteins evolve to avoid detection by plant disease resistance proteins.

The project will involve work with plants and rust fungi and techniques in molecular biology and genomics, immunology and protein chemistry.