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Professor Robert Park

Summary

I have a passion for plant pathology and genetics, particularly in the rust fungi that infect plants. The research group I lead has a long and proud history in cereal rust research, and has made major contributions to the global effort to control these diseases. Our major research interests include genetics of resistance (including classical, molecular and cytogenetics), pathogenic and molecular variability in rust pathogens, and more recently, functional genomics of host-pathogen interactions.

Research interests

I am particularly interested in the way in which fungal rust pathogens evolve and acquire virulence for resistance genes in their hosts. I have conducted Australia-wide race analyses for the rust pathogens that cause stem rust in wheat, leaf rust in wheat, leaf rust in barley, and crown rust in oats, for the past 20 years. My research group is now developing and applying DNA-based markers that allow us to test hypotheses on how rust pathogen populations have evolved in Australia over the past 90 years.

I am also interested in the genetics of resistance to these pathogens in their respective hosts, and my group works very closely with most cereal breeders in Australia to provide support in rust resistance breeding. We have strong linkages with rust researchers throughout Australia via my position as Director of the Australian Cereal Rust Control Program, which is funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

I am also actively involved in international rust research, notably via my participation in the global effort to tackle a new race of stem rust, known as Ug99, that has emerged in eastern Africa in recent years.

Background

My career began with completing a PhD in Plant Pathology at La Trobe University in 1984. My first appointment was with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, where I worked on the impact of wheat stripe rust in the north eastern Australian wheat belt. I was appointed as a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney’s Plant Breeding Institute in 1988, and have worked there since on rust diseases of cereals. In 1994, I received an Alexander von Humboldt Award and spent 10 months at the Technical University Munich.

My current position is the GRDC Chair of Cereal Rust Research, and I am Director of the Australian Cereal Rust Control Program that includes nodes at the University of Adelaide, CSIRO Plant Industry, and the International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre in Mexico (CIMMYT). My group at the University of Sydney currently comprises six scientific staff and 11 support staff, and I currently supervise six postgraduate students. I am currently on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Applied Genetics, Australian Journal of Agricultural Research, and Annals of Applied Biology.

Recent publications

  • Zhang, P., Friebe, B., Gill, B. and Park, R.F. (2007). Cytogenetics in the age of molecular genetics. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 58: 498-506.
  • Pathan, A.K., Park, R.F., Wellings, C.R. and Bariana, H.S. (2007). The expression and genetics of resistance to stripe (yellow) rust in three European and four New Zealand wheat cultivars. Journal of Applied Genetics 48: 199-210.
  • Pathan, A.K., Wellings, C.R., Bariana, H.S. and Park, R.F. (2008). Evaluation of seedling and adult plant resistance European wheat cultivars to Australian isolates of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici. Euphytica 163: 283-301.
  • Haque, S., Park, R.F., Keiper, F.J., Bariana, H.S. and Wellings, C.R. (2008). Pathogenic and molecular variation support the presence of genetically distinct clonal lineages in Australian populations of Puccinia graminis f. sp. avenae. Mycological Research 112: 663-673.
    Park, R.F. (2008). Breeding cereal for rust resistance in Australia. Plant Pathology 57: 591–602.
  • Nazari, K., Wellings, C.R. and Park, R.F. (2008). Characterisation of seedling resistance to rust diseases in wheat cultivars from Central Asia and the Caucasus. International Journal of Plant Breeding 2: 52–63.
  • Pathan, A.K., Wellings, C.R., Bariana, H.S. and Park, R.F. (2008). Evaluation of seedling and adult plant resistance in European wheat cultivars to Australian isolates of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici. Euphytica 163: 283–301.
  • Bansal, U.K., Bossolini, E., Miah, H., Keller, B., Park, R.F. and Bariana, H.S. (2008). Genetic mapping of adult plant stem rust resistance in two European winter wheat cultivars. Euphytica DOI 10.1007/s100681-008-9736-z.
  • Singh, D., Park, R.F., McIntosh, R.A. and Bariana, H.S. (2008). Characterisation of stem rust and stripe rust seedling resistance genes in selected wheat cultivars from the United Kingdom. Journal of Plant Pathology 90: 553–562.
  • Golegaonkar, P.G., Park, R.F. and Singh, D. (2009). Evaluation of seedling and adult plant resistance to Puccinia hordei in barley. Euphytica 166: 183–197.
  • Golegaonkar, P.G., Karaoglu, H. and Park, R.F. (2009). Molecular mapping of leaf rust resistance gene Rph14 in Hordeum vulgare. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 119: 1281-1288.

Contact

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