Matt Rouse

USDA-ARS Research Plant Pathologist and Adjunct Associate Professor
[email protected]
+1 612 625 7781
Cereal Disease Lab

1551 Lindig Avenue
USDA-ARS
St. Paul, MN 55108
United States

Grants and Publications
Education
  • PhD plant pathology, University of Minnesota 2010
  • MS plant pathology, Kansas State University 2007
  • BS zoology, statistics minor, Oklahoma State University 2005

Areas of Interest

Wheat and Barley Resistance to Cereal Rusts

The goal of my research group, as part of the USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Laboratory, is to identify solutions for preventing cereal yield losses to rust diseases. To achieve this goal we are currently researching (1) wheat and barley resistance to stem rust including emerging races of the stem rust pathogen such as TTKSK (Ug99) and (2) physiologic specialization of the barley leaf rust pathogen in the United States.

Rust pathogens often adapt to ‘break down’ genetic resistance used in cereal varieties. Our research seeks to identify and characterize resistance that will be durable and not ‘break down’. Strategies for durable resistance that we are currently pursuing include (1) the identification of multiple highly-effective genes that can be combined together to reduce the probability that the pathogen can ‘break down’ resistance, (2) the identification of genes that confer race non-specific resistance, and (3) basic research on host-pathogen interactions towards developing novel strategies for durable resistance.