Forest pathology in the genomics era : combining comparative genomics and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to gain new insights into the genetics of filamentous plant pathogens
department or school: Forestry, Faculty of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Dort, Erika
issued: 2024-04-08T18:38:52Z
issued: 2024
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Filamentous plant pathogens, comprising fungi and oomycetes, are some of the most economically and ecologically damaging species in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. These pathogens are well-suited to invade novel ecosystems, and the current era of globalization and climate change has facilitated the global spread of invasive filamentous pathogens. The introduction of invasive pathogens is particularly problematic in forestry as native host trees have no co-evolved defense mechanisms against novel invaders, which can lead some invasive pathogens to spread rapidly through forest ecosystems and cause landscape-level impacts. Significant efforts are therefore being directed towards improving the management and mitigation of forest invasive pathogens. As next generation sequencing technologies and molecular techniques have evolved and improved, management research has shifted to elucidating the genetic and genomic mechanisms that filamentous pathogens employ to infect their plant hosts, cause disease, and spread through ecosystems. The purpose of the research presented in this dissertation was to apply modern genomics methods in a forest pathology context with the goal of creating foundational techniques that can be used to further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms driving phytopathogenic lifestyles and traits in filamentous forest pathogens. In the first part of this work, large-scale comparative genomic analyses were performed on fungal genomes using a novel machine-learning method that was able to uncover distinct genomic patterns associated with phytopathogenic lifestyles and traits. These results provided a proof of concept for the use of predictive genomics in the biosurveillance of forest invasive filamentous pathogens. The second part of this work focused on developing molecular techniques for filamentous forest pathogens in the oomycete genus Phytophthora. First, a polyethylene glycol-mediated plasmid transformation method was tested in five …
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/87706
note: FOREST PATHOLOGY IN THE GENOMICS ERA: COMBINING COMPARATIVE GENOMICS AND CRISPR-CAS9 GENE EDITING TO GAIN NEW INSIGHTS INTO THE GENETICS OF FILAMENTOUS PLANT PATHOGENS by Erika Dort B.Sc., The University of Victoria, 2011 M.Sc., The University of Victoria, 2015 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Forestry) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2024 © Erika Dort, 2024 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Forest pathology in the genomics era: combining comparative genomics and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to gain new insights into the genetics of filamentous plant pathogens submitted by Erika Dort in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry Examining Committee: Dr. Richard Hamelin, Professor, Forest and Conservation Sciences, UBC Supervisor Dr. Nicolas Feau, Research Scientist, Natural Resources Canada Supervisory Committee Member Dr. José Úrbez-Torres, Adjunct Professor, Biology, UBCO Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Kayla King, Professor, Zoology, UBC University Examiner Dr. Guus Bakkeren, Adjunct Professor, Botany, UBC University Examiner Dr. Monica Gerth, Professor, Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington External Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Dr. Jim Kronstad, Professor, Michael Smith Laboratories, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Filamentous plant pathogens, comprising fungi and oomycetes, are some of the most economically and ecologically damaging species in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. These pathogens are well-suited to invade novel ecosystems, and the current era of globalization and climate change has facilitated the global spread of invasive filamentous pathogens. The introduction of invas…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2024-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0441005
language: eng
degree discipline: Forestry
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Hamelin, Richard C.
type: Text
type: Dataset
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/87706