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Professor Gavin Ash
BSc(Hons), PhD NE
Position Professor in Plant Pathology
School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences
Location Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga
Phone 02 6933 2765
Fax 02 6933 2765
Email gash@csu.edu.au
Career Brief
Professor Ash graduated with BSc (Hons) and a PhD from the University of New England in plant pathology. Professor Ash has wide experience in plant pathology on annual crops such as wheat, rice, canola and cotton and perennial crops such as grapevines, pistachios and jojoba. His research has focused on fungal and bacterial plant pathogens and their biological control, identifying and determining the risk posed by diseases in crops and exploring innovative approaches to the management of diseases, weeds, insects, nematodes and molluscs. In 2001 and 2007 he was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Individual Research Excellence for his work in agricultural sciences and his outstanding contribution to innovative research in plant pathology.
Research and Teaching
Research
- Biological control of snails using invertebrate parasitic nematodes (GRDC)
- The biology and epidemiology of the grapevine canker fungi, Botryosphaeria sp. (ARC Linkage)
- Biopesticides for sucking insect pests in Australia (GRDC)
- Capacity Building in Crop Disease Management and Spray Application (AusAID)
- Strengthening the Cambodian and Australian vegetable industries through adoption of improved production and postharvest practices (ACIAR)
- Fingerprinting the Microbial Soil Metagenome (ARC)
Professor Ash teaches microbiology, plant pathology and genetics at CSU.
Teaching
Professor Ash has an active interest in the supervision of Honours, Masters and PhD students, including:
- Qui Yu - Botryosphaeria diseases of grapevines.
- Nichola Wunderlich - Pathogenicity and molecular identification of Botryosphaeria spp.
- Raymond Cowley - Investigating the host-pathogen relationship between Lupinus albus and Phomopsis
- Cina Zacharia - Molecular markers for resistance to Pleiochaeta root rot resistance in narrow leafed lupins
- Dante Adorada - Developing breeding lines with resistance to an unknown pseudomonad causing a serious sheath brown rot disease of rice in the Kingdom of Cambodia
- Sunil Singh - Development of targeting, detection and risk assessment capability for exotic pest nematodes in the Australia-Pacific Region.
- Jennifer Spinner - Biological control of sucking pests using entomopathogenic fungi
- Amir Sohail - Genetic Diversity and Management of Black Scab of Jojoba
- Melanie Wagner – identification of pathogenicity factors in the secretome of the wheat pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola
- Ronnie Dotano - The use of Metarhizium anisopliae as a biological control agent against sweet potato weevil, Cylas formicarius Fabr. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Papua New Guinea.
Professional Links
- Member of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society, American Phytopathological Society and International Plant Pathology Society
- Member of editorial board of the Journal of Weed Research
Interests
- Plant pathology
- Microbiology
- Molecular biology
Selected Publications
Wunderlich N, Ash GJ, Steel CC, Raman H, Cowling A, Savocchia S (2011). Refining the biological factors affecting virulence of Botryosphaeriaceae on grapevines. Annals of Applied Biology 159: 467-477.
Yang SY, Saxena RK, Kulwal PL, Ash GJ, Dubey A, Harper JDI, Upadhyaya HD, Gothalwal R, Kilian A and Varshney RK (2011). The first genetic map of pigeon pea based on diversity arrays technology (DArT) markers. Journal of Genetics 90 (1): 103-109.
Ash GJ (2011). Biological control of weeds with mycoherbicides in the age of genomics. Pest Technology 5: (Special Issue 1): 41-47.
Cowley RB, Ash GJ, Harper JDI, Smith AB, Cullis BR, Luckett DJ (2011). Application of multi-phase experiments in plant pathology to identify genetic resistance to Diaporthe toxica in Lupinus albus. Euphytica. DOI 10.1007/s10681-011-0529-4
Guo YJ, Ni Y, Raman H, Wilson BAL, Ash GJ, Wang AS, Li GD (2012). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity in perennial pastures; response to long-term lime application. Plant and Soil 351: 389-403.