Professor Plant Science Section: Plant Physiology and Biotechnology  Office: Plant Sciences Complex 3.43 Tel:  +27 (0)12 420 4634 Fax: +27 (0)12 420 6668 Email: dave.berger [AT] up.ac.za

Molecular Plant-Pathogen Interactions Group Leader

Lab website: Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)

Research Interests:

Molecular basis of plant-pathogen interactions
Pathosystems:
Maize - Grey Leaf Spot
Arabidopsis - Bacterial Wilt

Technologies:

Growth room, glasshouse and field trials
Molecular biology and biochemistry
Genome sequencing and bioinformatics
Transcriptomics (Microarrays and RNAseq)
Functional Genomics


The Molecular Plant-Pathogen Interactions (MPPI) Group is located in the Plant Sciences Complex at the University of Pretoria. The group is part of the Department of Plant Science and the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) and is headed by Prof Dave Berger. Research focuses on the molecular basis of plant-pathogen interactions and the mechanisms of plant defence using a range of approaches from whole plant phenotyping to functional genomics, as well as developing bioinformatics tools. The MPPI group has particular experience in transcriptomics using microarrays and is now increasingly using RNAseq.