During his PhD project, Mattia Fois studied the genetics underlying the resistance to crown rust disease in perennial ryegrass. Crown rust is the most damaging fungal disease in perennial ryegrass, affecting seed production and forage crop quality. He studied the plant's genome to identify genetic markers and genes associated with the resistance, which provide insight into the potential of improving rust resistance breeding in perennial ryegrass. Investigating the plant's transcriptome, he detected differentially expressed genes outlining the pathways involved in the perennial ryegrass's resistance to different crown rust' races.

He also studied the critical role of the environment in driving the plant-pathogen interaction, outlining the benefit of multi-environment observations to evaluate varieties and location performances and enhancing genomic prediction for crown rust resistance. 

The PhD study was completed at Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics (QGG), Faculty of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Thursday, 17 June 2021 at 13:00

Place: The PhD defence will be held online. To receive a link to the event, please send an e-mail to Torben Asp, torben.asp@qgg.au.dk.

Title of PhD thesis: Genetic dissection of crown rust (Puccinia coronata f.sp. lolii) resistance in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.)

Contact information: Mattia Fois, e-mail: foismatt@qgg.au.dk

Members of the assessment committee:
Professor Thomas Lübbersstedt, Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, USA
Associate professor Hans Jørgen Lyngs Jørgensen, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Copenhagen University, Denmark
Senior researcher Goutam Sahana (chairman), Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Denmark

Main supervisor:
Professor MSO Torben Asp, Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Denmark

Co-supervisor:
Assistant Professor Marta Malinowska, Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Denmark

Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.

Due to the coronavirus situation, the PhD thesis will not be available for reading at the offices of the PhD administration. Instead, interested parties may send an e-mail to gradschool.tech@au.dk to receive a digital copy of the PhD thesis. Please note, it may in certain cases be necessary to make an individual arrangement to read the PhD thesis.