Michaela Leroch
Professor
Department of plant physiology
State Research Center for Optics and Material Sciences
United States of America
Biography
2006: Dr. rer. nat. (PhD) at the Department of Plant Physiology (Prof. Dr. E. Neuhaus); Kaiserslautern University. since 2006: Research Associate at the Department of Plant Pathology (Prof. Dr. M. Hahn); Kaiserslautern University
Research Interest
The grey mold fungus Botrytis cinerea causes serious economic losses in fruit and vegetable cultures. My research interest is focusing on the early stages of interaction between the asexual fungal spore (conidium) and its host plant. We have recently shown in the lab that surface contact is a crucial factor for the induction both of the germination process as well as for initiation of invasion into the plant cell. We are using knock-out mutants defective in MAP kinase signal transduction as well as in structural and sensory extracellular proteins (e.g. hydrophobins) to elucidate the regulation as well as the mechanisms of the early infection process.
Publications
-
Amselem E (2011) Genomic analysis of the necrotrophic fungal pathogens Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Botrytis cinerea. PLoS Genet 7: e1002230.
-
Samuel S, Papayiannis LC, Leroch L, Veloukas T, Hahn M(2011) Evaluation of the incidence of the G143A mutation and cytb intron presence in the cytochrome bc-1 gene conferring QoI resistance in Botrytis cinerea populations from several hosts. Pest Manag Sci 67: 1029-1036.
-
Leroch M, Mernke D, Koppenhoefer D, Schneider P, Mosbach A (2011) Living colors in the gray mold pathogen Botrytis cinerea: Codon-optimized genes encoding green fluorescent protein and mCherry, which exhibit bright fluorescence. Appl Environ Microbiol 77: 2877-2897.
