BIOGRAPHY

2012-present Science leader at CSIRO Plant Industry Canberra
2007-2012 Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Plant Industry Canberra.
2004-2007 Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO Plant Industry Canberra.
2000-2004 Research Scientist at CSIRO Plant Industry Canberra.
1997-2000 ARC Postdoctoral Fellow at CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra.
1996-1997 Postdoctoral Researcher, Plant Gene Expression Center, UC Berkeley, USA
1996 PhD, School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Australia

Research Fields and Interests:
Mechanisms of plant immune system function in plants and its manipulation to improve protection against important agricultural diseases. Understanding how immune receptor proteins bind to and recognise pathogen-derived protein ligands and the structural changes associated with activation of the receptors. We are also investigating the function of the pathogen proteins in causing disease and how they evolve in response to host recognition.

Selected Publications:
Mago R, Zhang P, Vautrin S, Bansal U, Simkove H, Luo M-C, Rouse M, Karaoglu H, Periyannan S, Kolmer J, Jin Y, Ayliffe M, Bariana H, park RA, Mcintosh R, Dolezel J, Berges H, Lagudah ES, Ellis JG, Dodds PN (2015). The wheat Sr50 gene reveals rich diversity at a cereal disease resistance locus. Nature Plants under review.

Cesari S, Kanzaki H, Fujiwara T, Bernoux M, Chalvon V, Kawano Y, Shimamoto K, Dodds P, Terauchi R, Kroj T. (2014). The rice CC-NB-LRR resistance protein pair RGA4-RGA5 interacts functionally and physically to mediate AVR-Pia recognition. EMBO J, 33: 1941–1959.

Williams SJ, Sohn KH, Wan L, Bernoux M, Sarris PF, Segonzac C, Ve T, Ma Y, Saucet SB, Ericson D, Casey LW, Lonhienne T, Winzor DJ, Zhang X, Coerdt A, Parker JE, Dodds PN, Kobe B, Jones JDG. (2014). Structural basis for assembly and function of a heterodimeric plant immune receptor. Science, 344: 299-303.

Ve T, Williams S, Catanzariti A-M, Rafiqi M, Rahman M, Ellis JG, Hardham AR, Jones DA, Anderson PA, Dodds PN, Kobe B (2013). Structures of the flax rust effector AvrM reveal insights into the molecular basis of host-cell entry and effector-triggered immunity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110: 17594-17599.

Ravensdale M, Bernoux M, Ve T, Kobe B, Thrall PH, Ellis JG, Dodds PN (2012). Intramolecular interaction influences binding of the flax L5 and L6 resistance proteins to their AvrL567 ligands. PLoS Pathogens, 11: e1003004.