Dr Louise Morin is using biological control to tackle Australia’s weed problems.

Dr Louise Morin: using fungi to fight Australia’s weeds

Dr Louise Morin is using her knowledge of plant diseases to develop environmentally friendly ways of controlling some of Australia’s major weeds.

• 12 December 2007 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities 
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Morin is currently the Task Leader for biological control projects in the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Weed Management Systems.

Dr Morin is using her plant pathology expertise to develop environmentally-friendly solutions to troublesome and widespread invasive plant species of agricultural and natural ecosystems in Australia.

She is particularly interested in the genetic structure and interactions of host-pathogen systems, as these are key factors contributing to the ultimate success of weed biological control programs involving pathogens.

The longer-term changes in the population structures of a weed and its biological control agent in the country where the weed is a problem is also an area of interest.

Dr Morin’s current research efforts focus on a number of weeds that are recognised as having a major negative impact on the Australian economy and/or ecosystems. These include:

• bridal creeper (Asparagus asparagoides)
• blackberry (Rubus fruticosus agg.)
• noogoora burr (Xanthium occidentale).

In the latter two projects, Dr Morin is exploring whether increasing the genetic diversity of a pathogen can enhance its capacity to adapt to its weed host and different environmental conditions.

Molecular tools are also being used to monitor the establishment and spatio-temporal dynamics of new strains of the blackberry rust, Phragmidium violaceum, released in April 2004.

The current focus in the project on bridal creeper is to measure the impact of the rust fungus, Puccinia myrsiphylli, which has been well above all expectations.

Background

Dr Morin has been involved in the area of plant protection since her undergraduate studies when she developed a passion for plant diseases.

She combined her plant pathology expertise with weed science during her postgraduate studies and concentrated on biological control of weeds using plant pathogens following both the classical and inundative (bioherbicide) approaches.

Since then, Dr Morin has been actively involved in this field of research and has worked with a wide range of fungal pathogens (facultative parasites and biotrophes) and weeds of:

• crops
• pastures
• natural ecosystems.

Because of this dual interest, she has kept abreast of developments in the fields of:

• plant pathology
• weed science
• ecology.

Before joining CSIRO in 1996, Dr Morin acquired experience as a Research Scientist with New Zealand's Landcare Research, 1994-96.

Prior to this she worked 1993-94 in research institute in Canada, as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Academic qualifications

Dr Morin has been awarded a

• Bachelor of Science from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1987
• Master of Science in Plant Science, also from McGill University, in 1988
• Doctorate in Botany from the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia in 1993.

Achievements

Over the years Dr Morin has been involved in a number of research projects with partners in:

• Argentina
• South Africa
• England
• Hawaii
• France.

Her research activities have included:

• overseas surveys for weed pathogens
• molecular characterisation of weed and pathogen genotypes
• host-specificity testing
• studies of biology and ecology of pathogens and target weeds
• monitoring spread, epidemic and impact of newly released pathogens.

Learn more about Ecology and management of Australian weeds.