Tasks

• Senior scientist within the interdepartmental working group on phytonematologyResearch interests: Nematodes that directly or indirectly affect plants (phytonematodes) in agroecosystems; Their microbiome at different life stages, microbe-plant-nematode interactions; Metabarcoding of communities of nematodes and microbes; Soil biome management for suppression of plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN); Molecular differentiation of populations of PPN, their distribution, dynamics, and infectivity
• Current projects investigate
  (1) the role of microbes that are attached to infective stages of PPN,
  (2) priming of crops or modulation of their microbiome for enhanced defense against PPN,
  (3) nematode-microbe interactions that induce apple replant disease,
  (4) differentiation of cyst nematode populations using profiles of sequence variants of effector genes