Personnel

Eco‐friendly alternatives to chemical herbicides offer great advantages, especially to organic farmers.  Some research has focused on the exploitation of plant pathogens for the development of novel biocontrol agents. Pseudomonads are considered to be a promising group of microorganisms for biotechnological applications. They produce a large spectrum of bioactive phytotoxic compounds. Pseudomonas syringae pv. tagetis is a foliar pathogen that causes chlorosis and stunting in infected plants.  One advantage to this pathogen is its specificity to members of the Asteraceae.

Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) is a major concern for organic farmers in Canada.  It is a hardy perennial weed that easily regenerates from an extensive root system, and which significantly reduces crop yield. The main aim of my research is to develop a single and polymicrobial formulations of P. syringae pv. tagetis that can be used as a potential bioherbicide against Canada thistle. In addition, I am exploring the one of the major phytotoxins produced by P. syringae, tagetitoxin, which induces prominent chlorosis by disrupting photosynthesis. As it can directly affect the chloroplast and its function, I am evaluating tagetitoxin as a possible standalone herbicide.

Every year, antimicrobial resistance is responsible for millions of deaths. One approach to mitigating this problem is to develop novel antimicrobials that can kill resistant pathogens. Natural products from bacteria and fungi are an important reservoir in the discovery of such novel antibiotics. One genus of bacteria, Pantoea has been shown to produce antibiotics effective against both plant and human pathogens including pantocins, herbicolins, and Pantoea Natural Products 1-4.

My work focuses on further exploring the antibiotic-producing capabilities of Pantoea. I am surveying both clinical and environmental Pantoea isolates against a panel of human pathogens to identify any that produce compounds capable of killing multidrug-resistant species. I have developed a high-throughput screening technique that can then be used to quickly identify the biosynthetic gene clusters that encode the antimicrobial compound. Identification of such gene clusters will allow me to overproduce and isolate the antimicrobial compound for analysis of its chemical structure. This work could lead to the identification of novel antibiotic scaffolds that are able to fight multi-drug resistant human pathogens.