Melania Figueroa

This study uses AlphaFold2 to analyze the structural diversity of effector proteins in rust fungi secretomes, identifying structurally related clusters and metal-binding effector candidates.

The paper investigates the structural role of zinc coordination in the wheat rust effector AvrSr33, showing it provides a scaffold necessary for immune recognition by Sr33.

The paper presents haplotype-phased, chromosome-scale genomes of Puccinia hordei isolates, revealing repeat expansion, somatic hybridization, and genome plasticity.

EffectorGeneP improves gene annotation in pathogen genomes by predicting coding sequences from transcript data, outperforming existing methods and expanding the predicted secretome.

The paper characterizes novel clonal lineages of wheat stem rust in South America using genomic data and finds a predominant lineage unique to the region with stepwise mutation patterns.

The paper analyzes 30 Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae isolates from Australia to identify new races and a novel lineage, highlighting shifts in virulence and population structure.

The paper identifies AvrPm4, a mildew effector recognised by the wheat resistance gene Pm4, and shows that virulent isolates evade resistance via SvrPm4, which suppresses AvrPm4-induced cell death.

This paper identifies a QTL for oat crown rust resistance linked to the Pc61 gene and develops KASP markers for breeding programs.

The paper identifies a two-component resistance mechanism in wheat where a tandem kinase sensor recruits an NLR helper to trigger immunity against fungal pathogens.

The paper characterizes the virulence of Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae isolates in Australia during the 2023 growing season and identifies new or increased virulence on resistance genes.

This study develops and validates KASP markers for crown rust resistance genes in oats, identifying new carriers and correcting previous classifications.

This study identifies the oat crown rust pathogen in Taiwan as Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae through molecular and phenotypic analysis of field samples collected between 2019 and 2021.

The paper reports the crystal structure of AvrSr27, a Pgt effector, revealing its modular zinc-bound fold and its role in immune recognition by Sr27.

This study constructs a high-resolution haplotype pangenome of oat crown rust, revealing somatic hybridization, recombination, and intercontinental migration as drivers of genetic diversity.

The paper characterizes virulence patterns of Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae isolates from Australia, finding higher virulence diversity in Eastern Australia compared to Western Australia.

The paper compares virulence profiles of Pca isolates using two differential sets and identifies discrepancies, validating molecular markers for rust resistance gene stacking in oat.

This study analyzes population dynamics and virulence-associated loci in the oat crown rust fungus using genomic and phenotypic data from isolates in the USA and South Africa.

The paper shows that somatic nuclear exchange in Puccinia triticina generates genetic diversity, leading to new strains through repeated shuffling of haploid nuclei between clonal lineages.

This paper assembles the haplotype-phased and chromosome-level genome of Puccinia polysora using HiFi and Hi-C data, revealing genomic features and population structure.

The paper presents a near telomere-to-telomere, haplotype-phased genome of Rhizoctonia cerealis, revealing gene enrichment and population genomic patterns.

The paper identifies and corrects phase switches in Hi-C data for dikaryotic fungus assemblies using Nanopore and HiFi sequencing, showing HiFi's superiority in phasing low heterozygosity genomes.

The paper shows that the Ug99 wheat stem rust pathogen emerged through somatic hybridisation and nuclear exchange between dikaryons, with one haploid nucleus genotype shared with an older African lineage.

This study presents haplotype-phased genome assemblies of two dikaryotic Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae isolates, revealing structural variation and heterozygous SNPs, and identifies co-expressed effector candidates associated with virulence differences.