Congratulations to Shae Cooper on the successful completion of her PhD. She presented her Prestige Seminar “The defence potential of Eucalyptus grandis” to a packed FABI auditorium on 31 July with many more joining online. Shae completed her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Sanushka Naidoo, and Prof. Tuan Duong and in cooperation with Prof. Almuth Hammerbacher. The external examiners were Prof. Jim Leebens-Mack (University of Georgia, USA) and Prof. Susan McEvoy (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Prof. Eshchar Mizrachi was the internal examiner for her thesis.

Prof. Naidoo recalled how she first supervised Shae for her Honours degree and subsequently her Masters and PhD, the completion of which was celebrated with her Prestige seminar. She described her as resilient and persevered to complete her PhD. She was also a team player who mentored junior students and the person who kept the morale up in her lab and group.

Eucalyptus is a globally important plantation forest tree that is widely planted for its superior wood quality and rapid growth. However, shifting climate conditions and increased global trade have contributed to the emergence of novel pests and pathogens that threaten the sustainability of eucalypt forestry. Although several studies have investigated host transcriptomic responses to individual stressors, little is known about the core defence mechanisms that exist across diverse biotic challenges in Eucalyptus. To address this gap, Shae’s PhD sought to determine whether Eucalyptus has a conserved defence system across multiple pathosystems.

The results from her study advances the understanding of the defence potential of Eucalyptus grandis and show that immunity is a multi-layered system governed by interconnected gene responses. Shae also showed that E. grandis possesses a core defensome that operates across diverse biotic challenges, and that defences vary across individuals within a natural population. Together, this work provides a systems genetics framework for dissecting defence responses in E. grandis and identifies key candidate genes and pathways that can support future research and breeding strategies for improving resilience in forest trees.