Role in the project
The main responsibility of MendelU will be to coordinate the studies on the “Diversity and role of pathogens in restoration of marine macrophytes” with the objective of clarifying the diversity, distribution, potential origin and pathogenic role of oomycetes in different ecosystems of marine macrophytes and connected freshwater/brackish transitional waters by (i) studying oomycete diversity in the target habitats; (ii) testing oomycete aggressiveness to different macrophytes; (iii) clarifying whether the most aggressive oomycetes are non-native; and (iv) predicting environmental factors affecting different marine oomycete-macrophyte pathosystems.
Oomycete surveys will be performed using both classical isolation methods and a metagenomic approach followed by multigene phylogenetic analyses. The pathogenic potential of the obtained oomycete species to various macrophytes will be tested by adopting established pathogenicity testing methods for terrestrial oomycetes. The hypothesis that the most aggressive oomycete species are invasive exotic pathogens will be tested using population genetic analyses.
Team members
Thomas Jung
PI
Websites: http://www.phytophthora.org/team/thomas-jung/
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2034-0718
As head scientific researcher of the Phytophthora Research Centre my main research interests are studies on the genera Phytophthora, Halophytophthora and Nothophytophthora: factors driving diversity and speciation in different ecosystems and climatic zones; detection and description of new species in Europe and other continents; assessment of their potential host ranges among European tree, crop and marine plant species; roles of introduced and endemic species in declines of forest and marine ecosystems on a global scale; behaviour and role of invasive species in their centres of origin; biogeography, evolutionary history, adaptability and evolutionary trends; the role of interspecific hybridisations in their evolution; factors triggering the onset of epidemics; pathways and survival mechanisms; disease control and management.
Marília Horta Jung
Researcher
Website: http://www.phytophthora.org/team/marilia-horta-jung/
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2219-8647
As team member of the Phytophthora Research Centre my main research interests are 1) the genomic basis of aggressiveness and invasiveness of Phytophthora spp. and of susceptibility and resistance of forest tree species and 2) the detection and description of new Phytophthora spp. in Europe and other continents and assessment of their potential host ranges among European forest tree species.
As team member of Restoreseas, I will have the privilege to work also on marine forests! Looking forward to dive deeply on the fantastic world of marine oomycetes and contribute to increase the knowledge about their diversity and ecological roles.
Latest blog posts
Fantastic Oomycetes and where to find them!
The Phytophthora Research Centre team based at Mendel University in Brno has a long history of uncovering Oomycete diversity on terrestrial forest ecosystems all over the world… and now, within the RestoreSeas project, we are taking this challenge to another...
Detection of oomycetes on seagrasses using state-of-the-art Nanopore sequencing
In a short research project, Kaïn van Calcar, a BSc student at the University of Amsterdam, investigated the role of oomycetes in the decline of seagrass meadows. Seagrass meadows are essential for providing various ecosystem services, including acting as habitats for...
Join the Oomycete Molecular Genetics Network Meeting!
The 21st Oomycete Molecular Genetics Network Meeting, aims at bringing together people to discuss oomycetes’ ecology, biology and role in different ecological contexts.