Post-doctoral research

My current research looks at the evolution of resistance to azole fungicides in the wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici. This is a system of major practical importance for crop protection, but also a fascinating system in which to test hypotheses regarding the predictability of evolution across an adaptive landscape. The azole target-site encoding gene, CYP51, has over 30 known mutations, in over 80 combinations, with up to eight CYP51 mutations in any one haplotype. I am especially interested in epistatic interactions between the different mutations, evolutionary trade-offs between selection for resistance and functional constraints to maintain enzyme activity, the impacts on navigability of the resulting adaptive landscape and the implications for the predictability of evolution. I have used a combination of evolutionary and functional genetic approaches, including experimental evolution and fungal transformations.

Previously, I worked with the then newly-introduced SDHI fungicides, to predict the evolution of resistance in Z. tritici. SDHI resistance had yet to emerge in Z. tritici in the field, so my research used an experimental evolutionary approach (mutagenesis and in vitro selection) to assess the resistance risk and to anticipate the likely resistance mechanisms. I then used functional genetics to confirm causal relationships between the mutations detected in laboratory mutants and the associated SDHI resistance phenotypes.