Dr Jeff Ellis: unravelling plant diseases

Dr Jeff Ellis is applying molecular biology to improve disease and pest resistance in crops.

• 18 May 2010 | Updated 24 November 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Ellis is currently involved in the:

• use of gene transfer technology to unravel fundamental aspects of plant biology
• application of molecular biology to crop plant improvement through disease and pest resistance.

He has applied this technology to identifying and isolating genes involved in plant resistance to rust fungi. These genes include:

• host plant resistance genes of the nucleotide binding-leucine rich repeat class
• avirulence genes from the flax rust fungus that encode small secreted proteins.

Current research activities include:

• molecular basis of recognition of rust avirulence proteins by plant resistance proteins
• route of entry of avirulence proteins from the fungus into the plant cell
• biological function of rust-secreted proteins in disease.

This work is done in flax, wheat and Arabidopsis thaliana. It aims to improve understanding of the biological basis of rust resistance and rust disease for improved control of these diseases in crop plants.

Background

Dr Ellis has worked at CSIRO Plant Industry since 1982, researching gene regulation and host-rust disease interactions in plants. 

Academic qualifications

Dr Ellis holds the following qualifications:

• Bachelor Agricultural Science (Honours) from The University of Adelaide, South Australia, 1976
• Doctor of Philosophy, also from The University of Adelaide, 1980.

See a list of scientific papers published by Dr Ellis on the next page.

Achievements

Dr Ellis was elected to the Royal Society of London in May 2009 for his contributions to the understanding of plant disease resistance.  He was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2005 and was made a CSIRO Fellow in 2008.