Cereal Disease Laboratory, USDA Agricultural Research Service

Fungal Pathogen Genetics

My research involves the genetics of fungal plant pathogens in the genus Fusarium. We are using genomic approaches to better understand the mechanisms by which fungal pathogens cause disease in plants. Most of our effort focuses on Fusarium graminearum (Gibberella zeae), the head blight pathogen of cereal crops, and related fungi. We are also interested in the population genetics and evolution of plant pathogenic Fusarium species such as Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium oxysporum.

Selected Publications:

Seong, K., Zhao, X., Xu, J.-R., Güldener, U., and Kistler, H.C. 2008. Conidial germination in the filamentous fungus Fusarium graminearum.  Fungal Genetics and Biology 45: 389-399.

Cuomo, C.A.,  Güldener, U., Xu, J.-R.,  Trail, F., Turgeon, B.G., Di Pietro, A., Walton, J.D., Ma, L.-J., Baker, S.E., Rep, M., Adam, G., Antoniw, J., Baldwin, T., Calvo, S.,  Chang, Y.-L., DeCaprio, D., Gale, L.R., Gnerre, S., Goswami, R.S., Hammond-Kosack, K.,  Harris, L.J., Hilburn, K., Kennell, J.C., Kroken, S., Magnuson, J.K., Mannhaupt, G.,  Mauceli, E., Mewes, H.-W., Mitterbauer, R., Muehlbauer, G., Münsterkötter, M., Nelson, D., O'Donnell, K., Ouellet, T.,  Qi, W., Quesneville, H., Roncero, M.I.G., Seong, K.-Y., Tetko, I.V., Urban, M.,  Waalwijk, C., Ward, T.J.,  Yao, J.,  Birren, B.W., Kistler, H.C.  2007. The Fusarium graminearum genome reveals a link between localized polymorphism and pathogen specialization. Science 317:1400-1402.

Güldener, U., Seong, K.-Y., Boddu, J., Cho, S., Trail, F., Xu, J.-R., Adam, G., Mewes, H.-W., Muehlbauer, G.J., and Kistler, H.C. 2006. Development of a Fusarium graminearum Affymetrix GeneChip for profiling fungal gene expression in vitro and in planta. Fungal Genet. Biol. 43: 316-325.