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Project properties |
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| Title | Are grasses with low genetic diversity more susceptible to infection by fungal pathogens? |
| Group | Biosystematics Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 30-36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Dr. Casper Quist and/or Dr. Klaas Bouwmeester |
| Examiner(s) | Dr. Klaas Bouwmeester and/or Dr. Casper Quist |
| Contact info | casper.quist@wur.nl; klaas.bouwmeester@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2022/09/01 |
| End date | 2026/04/01 |
| Description | Pathogenic fungi are of great economic importance, as they cause serious losses in the production of grasses, such as cereal crops and turf-grasses. To prevent these losses, fungicides are applied. The diversity-disease hypothesis (Elton 1958) suggests that greater plant diversity results in a lower severity of plant diseases.
The severity of pathogens in a population may depend not only on the diversity of co-occurring species, but also on the degree of genotypic variation within species. Grass species in natural systems are often found in near monocultures, which can be the effect of intraspecific variation in which individual plants cope in diverse ways with pathogen attack. To test this hypothesis and gain mechanistic understanding on the interaction between intraspecific genetic diversity and plant pathogens we want 1) to analyse within-species genetic variation of grass species in monoculture and polyculture and (2) test if the degree of genetic variation is related to the disease incidence. |
| Used skills | Field work: identification of grass species and identification of pathogenic fungi (Puccinia rusts).
Lab work: Genotyping grass species |
| Requirements | |