Teaching
Undergraduate teaching
Bacteriology (MBY-251)
Honors teaching
Project Proposal, Trends in Microbiology, and Joint Techniques course
Lecturer
I spent the years between 2016 and 2019 working as a postdoctoral scholar at the Agricultural Research Council and the South African Sugarcane Research Institute after finishing my doctoral degree at the University of the Free State in 2015. Then, in September 2019, I joined the academic staff at the University of Pretoria, where I now supervise postgraduate research projects in several departments, including the Department of Biochemistry, Genetics, and Microbiology, as well as lecture on occasion. I also actively participate in the dynamic FABI (Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute) team, lending my knowledge to various groups like the Grain Research Program, the Tree Protection Cooperative Program, and the DSI-NRF Centre Of Excellence In Plant Health Biotechnology. My research focus is understanding how plants and fungi interact at a molecular level, focusing on extracellular vesicles (EVs) from plants and fungal pathogens. I also research biofilms in plant-damaging fungi, such as Fusarium circinatum, a serious pathogen infecting pine trees, as well as Fusarium verticillioides and Exerohilum turcicum, both important maize fungal pathogens causing Fusarium ear rot and northern leaf blight, respectively.
Undergraduate teaching
Bacteriology (MBY-251)
Honors teaching
Project Proposal, Trends in Microbiology, and Joint Techniques course
Professional Engagements
**eLife’s Board of Reviewing Editors | (2023—Present)
Primary Supervisor
**Fulbright Scholar, University of California Merced | (2023-2024)
**ASAPbio Community Lead (Pretoria) | (2023—Present)
**ASAPbio Board of Directors |(2021—Present)
**Ethics Division Coordinator, University of Pretoria | (2020—Present)
**Reviewer, GMO Advisory Committee, National Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment | (2017—Present)
**Peer Reviewer at Various Science Journals
Masuku SK, De Vos L, Thabiso TE, Steenkamp ET, Wingfield BD. (2026) Baseline sensitivity of South African Fusarium circinatum to tebuconazole. Journal of Plant Pathology 10.1007/s42161-026-02197-w
Motaung TE, Ratsoma FM, Kunene S, Santana QC, Steenkamp ET, Wingfield BD. (2025) Harnessing exogenous membrane vesicles for studying Fusarium circinatum and its biofilm communities. Microbial Pathogenesis 10.1016/j.micpath.2025.107368
Kunene S, Mmushi TJ, Steenkamp E, Motaung T. (2025) Pinus-derived membrane vesicles disrupt pathogenic metabolism in fungi. plant biology 10.1111/plb.70069
Ratsoma MF, Santana QC, Wingfield BD, Steenkamp ET, Motaung TE. (2025) Understanding cargo sorting and interactive effects of membrane vesicles in fungal phytopathogens: Current knowledge and research gaps. Fungal Biology Reviews 10.1016/j.fbr.2025.100411
MISEV Consortium, Motaung T. (2024) Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles (MISEV2023): From basic to advanced approaches. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles 10.1002/jev2.12404
Francinah M. Ratsoma, Nthabiseng Z. Mokoena, Quentin C. Santana, Brenda D. Wingfield, Emma T. Steenkamp, Thabiso E. Motaung. (2024) Characterization of the Fusarium circinatum biofilm environmental response role. Journal of Basic Microbiology 10.1002/jobm.202300536
Ratsoma FM, Mokoena NZ, Santana QC, Wingfield BD, Steenkamp ET, Motaung TE. (2023) Characterization of Fusarium circinatum biofilm and its matrix’s environmental response role. RsearchSquare 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3040583/v1
Kunene S, Steenkamp E, Motaung T. (2023) Isolation of extracellular vesicles from pine (Pinus sp.) leaves and roots. RsearchSquare 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2912064/v1
Thabiso E Motaung, Emma T Steenkamp. (2021) Extracellular Vesicles in Teasing Apart Complex Plant-Microbiota Links: Implications for Microbiome-Based Biotechnology. mSystems 10.1128/mSystems.00734-21.
Jane Chepsergon, Thabiso E. Motaung, Lucy Novungayo Moleleki. (2021) “Core” RxLR effectors in phytopathogenic oomycetes: A promising way to breeding for durable resistance in plants?. Virulence 10.1080/21505594.2021.1948277