Professor Marc Cubeta from the Department of Plant Pathology,  North Carolina State University is visiting the department until September 2012. His web page at the NC State Univeristy can be found here.

Research Publications

Professional Experience

His laboratory is interested in understanding the ecology and population dynamics of soil fungi that cause plant disease. For many years they have studied the soil fungus Rhizoctonia solani, which is an economically important pathogen of agricultural and forestry crops throughout the world. However, this fungus is also of ecological importance as a recycler of nutrients in soil and because it can stimulate the germination of orchid seeds.

Research conducted in his laboratory has provided a conceptual framework for identifying species of R. solani to better define populations to advance our understanding of the evolutionary history and disease ecology of the fungus. Their research suggests that R. solani is not a single species, but is rather a genetically diverse assemblage of species that represent an important early diverging and transitional group of the mushroom forming fungi. Research in his lab is currently focused on understanding the genetic basis of how Rhizoctonia fungi produce sclerotia, which are structures that promote their long-term survival in soil in absence of a plant host. They are also conducting studies with fungi that are closely related to R. solani which are associated with orchids and decayed wood but do not cause plant disease to better understand the complex interactions of these organisms with plants. This new area of research involves bioinformatics and genomics-based methods and is beginning to provide new insight into many fundamental research questions. The ultimate goal of his research program is to generate knowledge that will result in the deployment of improved approaches to reduce economic losses to plant disease while promoting increased productivity and sustainability.