Very glad to share our first venture/paper on the pathotyping of Australian Blumeria graminis f. sp tritici isolates. The study was led by our @theccdm.bsky.social and @InterGrain PhD student Ancy Tony 👩‍🔬 in collaboration with Ben Saunders of the Curtin Fish Ecology Lab.

Centre for Crop and Disease Management@theccdm.bsky.social · 3w ago

CCDM, InterGrain and Curtin University researchers have identified wheat powdery mildew resistance sources that remain effective against diverse Australian pathogen populations, supporting future wheat breeding. 🌾🔬 🔗 Read more: connectsci.au/cp/article/d... #GRDC, @curtinuniversity.bsky.social

💥 Out now! 💥 Our @MPMIjournal publication, led by @theccdm.bsky.social Shota Morikawa & @callumverdonk.bsky.social , looks at domain functions of a transcription factor involved in necrotrophic effector regulation and co-factor interactions in Parastagonospora nodorum, a fungal pathogen of wheat. 👇

Centre for Crop and Disease Management@theccdm.bsky.social · last mo.

🧬 New CCDM research reveals how the wheat pathogen Parastagonospora nodorum switches on genes needed to infect crops, uncovering potential targets for future disease control. 🌾 Read more: apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/... #GRDC, @curtinuniversity.bsky.social

Happy to have presented a talk at #IWC2026Bologna on @theccdm.bsky.social research, highlighting that wheat diseases may not follow a bipartite single pathogen-plant interaction. Glad that it stimulated some nice after-session discussions and potential collaborations.

The #IWC2026Bologna panel and audience discussion certainly provided plenty of discussion points on responsible pesticide usages and consequences from misuse. Big tks to @nicholahawkins.bsky.social @danielleybourne.bsky.social @teagasc.bsky.social @tobybruce.bsky.social francesco vidotto

Wheat Initiative@wheatinitiative.bsky.social · 2mo ago

#IWC2026Bologna LIMITING PESTICIDE USE FOR A SUSTAINABLE WHEAT WITH A LOWER ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT session was a great! Thanks to Louise McNamara and @karchuntan.bsky.social for chairing!

Chairing a discussion session with Dr Louise McNamara on the impact of pesticide usage on Wednesday #IWCBologna2026. Our panellists are ready to go! @wheatinitiative.bsky.social

Toby Bruce@tobybruce.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Plotting our crop protection panel discussion for tomorrow @danielleybourne.bsky.social @nicholahawkins.bsky.social @karchuntan.bsky.social #IWC2026Bologna 🌾

Come and check out my @theccdm.bsky.social poster on fungal co-infection of wheat at the @WheatInitiative-supported #IWC2026Bologna. I'll give a talk on this in the afternoon of 28th May.

Congrats to the winners of the presentation prizes of the Wheat Pathogens Symposium! #IWC2024Bologna @karchuntan.bsky.social @reemwheat.bsky.social

"Just" landed in Rome 🇮🇹 awaiting a transit flight! Excited to catch up with colleagues in Bologna at the 4th International Wheat Congress soon!

Centre for Crop and Disease Management@theccdm.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🌾 CCDM on the global stage A/Prof Kar‑Chan Tan is contributing at the Wheat Initiative & International Wheat Congress (Bologna), spanning research, leadership and collaboration—supporting more sustainable disease management 🌍 @curtinuniversity.bsky.social, #GRDC

Tackling a nasty coral disease off the Australian coast! 🪸 🌊 Check out our new co-author paper on microbial profiling of corals with growth anomalies. Led by Zoe Richards and her team at Curtin Molecular and Life Sciences (MLS) Trend and Western Australian Museum 🥳

Centre for Crop and Disease Management@theccdm.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🔬 Beyond plant pathology CCDM’s A/Prof Kar‑Chun Tan co‑authored new research on microbial communities in healthy vs diseased corals at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in collaboration with @ZoeR_Coral & team. 📖 Read more: www.researchgate.net/publication/... @curtinuniversity.bsky.social

Check out the @theccdm.bsky.social spotlight article on our recent @plantdisease publication on the impact of fungal co-infection in breaking down disease resistance in wheat!

Centre for Crop and Disease Management@theccdm.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🦠 When wheat diseases collide CCDM scientists reveal how yellow leaf spot × SNB coinfection can shape disease severity and impact yields 🌾 Read more: buff.ly/HiVHnvA @curtinuniversity.bsky.social, #GRDC

🔬 CCDM scientists found that the order of infection between yellow leaf spot and septoria nodorum blotch can dramatically change disease severity in wheat. 🌾 🔗 Read here groundcover.grdc.com.au/grdc/announc... 🎥 Hear what it means for growers & breeders. @curtinuniversity.bsky.social, #GRDC

In case you missed this video from our recent @theGRDC Groundcover article, summarising our recent publication (link in comment) on how fungal co-infection breaks down disease resistance in wheat...here it is! Produced by our @theccdm.bsky.social comms team😎 youtu.be/2vDf23B3hzE?...

Co-infection Dynamics in Wheat | CCDM Discovery Spotlight

YouTube video by Centre for Crop and Disease Management CCDM

youtu.be

"The order of fungal infection can influence disease severity and plant resistance" Our @theccdm.bsky.social paper on fungal co-infection of wheat is out @PlantDiseaseJ. Collab @agtbreeding @DPIRDbroadacre @evan-john.bsky.social. Link below @theGRDC Groundcover.

Centre for Crop and Disease Management@theccdm.bsky.social · 4mo ago

🔬 New insights from CCDM reveal infection order matters. When yellow leaf spot (YLS) infects first, it primes wheat for septoria nodorum blotch (SNB) — but when SNB strikes first, it suppresses YLS. 🔗 Read here: groundcover.grdc.com.au/grdc/announc... @curtinuniversity.bsky.social, #GRDC

Had the pleasure of hosting Dr Giovana Cruppe & @theGRDC visiting fellow Prof Romulo Lollato from KSU at the @theccdm.bsky.social today. Excellent presos on wheat blast and agronomy! 🔥🔥🔥

Getting some B-roll filming done by the @theccdm.bsky.social comms crew for our next sciency press release 😎🤘

More glam shots from @ShotaMorikawa69's PhD graduation evening 🧑‍🎓. Got a special visit from Silke Jacques, our @theccdm.bsky.social alumni post doc! 😍 @callumverdonk.bsky.social

Proud @theccdm.bsky.social moment! Our PHD student Shota Morikawa earned his stripes! @callumverdonk.bsky.social

February webinar: Cesaree Morier-Gxyiya @cesaree-mg.bsky.social on Improving wheat stem rust models under climate change with updated environmental parameters. Tuesday, 3 Feb 2026, 16CET/9AM (Calgary) online. www.wheatinitiative.org/new-events/f... @karchuntan.bsky.social @ReemWheat.bsky.social

🌾 Our Expert Working Group on Wheat Pathogens will be part of the International Symposium on Cereal Leaf Blight in Banff, Canada. 📅 Early Bird and Abstract Submission Deadline: March 31 ✍️ Register now: isclb.com/registration #WheatConnect @ReemWheat.bsky.social @karchuntan.bsky.social

Registration — International Symposium on Cereal Leaf Blights 2026 — International Symposium on Cereal Leaf Blights 2026

isclb.com

First webinar of our Pathogens EWG in 2026! Join Cesaree Morier-Gxyiya to give an online talk titled: Improving wheat stem rust models under climate change with updated environmental parameters. www.wheatinitiative.org/new-events/f... #WheatConnect @karchuntan.bsky.social @ReemWheat.bsky.social

“The exploitation of Epichloë endophytes for agricultural advantage – application to cereals” John CARADUS and Wayne SIMPSON Our Expert Working Group on Wheat Pathogens made this webinar available! www.wheatinitiative.org/ewg-pathogens #WheatConnect @karchuntan.bsky.social @ReemWheat.bsky.social

EWG PATHOGENES — Wheat initiative

The Control of Wheat Pathogens EWG aims to bring together experts from the field of wheat research with an interest in minimising yield loss caused by microbial pathogens through open collaboration.…

wheatinitiative.org

Did you miss the lates Webinar of our Pathogens EWG? Watch the recording: “The exploitation of Epichloë endophytes for agricultural advantage – application to cereals” John CARADUS and Wayne SIMPSON 🌾 www.wheatinitiative.org/ewg-pathogens #WheatConnect @karchuntan.bsky.social @ReemWheat.bsky.social

We highly recommend this excellent webinar series created by our Expert Working Group on Wheat Pathogens. A fantastic resource covering key wheat pathogen topics. 👉 youtube.com/playlist?lis... It's free, please share! @karchuntan.bsky.social @ReemWheat.bsky.social #WheatConnect #WheatPathogens

Pathogens Webinars

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

youtube.com

And that's a wrap for us in 2025! Our group at the @theccdm.bsky.social wishes you all a merry Xmas and happy New Year! 🎄🎅🎆🥳

The paper submission smile @tony_ancy! 😃 Always been a pleasure to guide @theccdm.bsky.social post-graduate students in closing out a project with the submission of their first manuscript draft for peer review! 😍

Our PhD student @tony_ancy 👩‍🎓identified evidence of distinct Australian wheat powdery mildew pathotypes and sources of strong resistance against the disease🌾 A @theccdm.bsky.social x @InterGrain1 collab! 🤝

Evidence of a distinct Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici pathotype structure in Australian wheat powdery mildew: implications for resistance breeding.

The obligate biotrophic fungus Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt) is the causal agent of wheat powdery mildew. To investigate virulence diversity, 30 Australian Bgt isolates collected between 2020...

biorxiv.org

Our @theccdm.bsky.social preprint on the domain function and interactors of the effector-regulating transcription factor PnPf2 in Parastagonospora nodorum is live! 😁 Led by Shota Morikawa @callumverdonk.bsky.social Collabs 👉 @danielcroll.bsky.social @evan-john.bsky.social

A conserved fungal transcription factor domain drives protein-protein interactions and necrotrophic effector-mediated virulence in Parastagonospora nodorum

The fungal pathogen Parastagonospora nodorum utilises necrotrophic effectors (NEs) to cause chlorosis and necrosis on wheat. NE expression is mediated by an assortment of transcription factors (TF), t...

biorxiv.org

Tomorrow, 3 Dec! Join our Wheat Pathogens Expert Working Group for “The exploitation of Epichloë endophytes for agricultural advantage.” www.wheatinitiative.org/new-events/j... @karchuntan.bsky.social @ReemWheat.bsky.social #WheatConnect

Enjoying a midnight @wheatinitiative.bsky.social webinar on a transposon masterclass👩‍🔬 while setting up a slow-cook smoked BBQ🍖 for @theccdm.bsky.social work sundowner tomorrow to wind the week down😎

Save the date: 20 Nov 2025 at 17h. Megan McDonald will present: Jumping Genes and Pathogenic Schemes: the diverse roles that transposons play in pathogen evolution. A must for the pathology community! Info here: www.wheatinitiative.org/new-events/m... @karchuntan.bsky.social @ReemWheat.bsky.social