Mrs Liesl Van der Linden

MSc Student

Research Interests

I completed my undergraduate and honours course at the University of Pretoria where I majored in Microbiology and Plant Biotechnology. I am currently busy completing my Masters in Plant Biotechnology under the supervision of Prof. Dave Berger and Dr. Sanushka Naidoo. I am part of a project that focuses on host responses against bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. Ralstonia solanacearum is a soil-borne, vascular pathogen infecting several hosts, such as tomato, potato, tobacco, banana and Eucalyptus. There are various strategies that have been developed to control bacterial wilt and the preferred strategy is selective breeding for resistant cultivars. A. thaliana is used as a model plant in this study to elucidate the mechanism employed by the host during resistance against bacterial wilt. Previous work by Joanne Fouchè-Weich (2004) revealed a unique A. thaliana-R. solanacearum African pathosystem characterized by a susceptible ecotype, which were killed two weeks after infection, and a resistant ecotype, which remained healthy two weeks after infection. The aim of my MSc project is to characterize the genetic basis of resistance in the resistant ecotype. This information can be used to design new and effective disease control strategies for economically important plants in the future

 

Posters and Presentations

Van der Linden L.E., Naidoo S and Berger D.K. 2008. Arabidopsis thaliana, ecotype Kil-0, shows single gene resistance to a bacterial wilt isolate from Eucalyptus . Congress of the South African Genetics Society (SAGS), University of Pretoria. (Poster Presentation).

Van der Linden L.E., Naidoo S and Berger D.K. 2009. Genetic analysis of an Arabidopsis thaliana ecotype showing resistance to a bacterial wilt isolate from Eucalyptus. South African Association of Botanists (SAAB) Conference, Stellenbosch University. (Presentation)

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