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karchuntan.bsky.social
KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
@karchuntan.bsky.social
140 followers 230 following 99 posts
A/Prof @theccdm.bsky.social, keen cook, gamer, Fender Strat fan, motorhead & proud dad. Agric and effector biology are my thing. Views are my own.
Posts Replies Media Videos
karchuntan.bsky.social
More glam shots from @ShotaMorikawa69's PhD graduation evening 🧑‍🎓. Got a special visit from Silke Jacques, our
@theccdm.bsky.social alumni post doc! 😍 @callumverdonk.bsky.social
February 9, 2026 at 4:24 AM
karchuntan.bsky.social
Proud @theccdm.bsky.social moment! Our PHD student Shota Morikawa earned his stripes! @callumverdonk.bsky.social
February 7, 2026 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
February webinar:
Cesaree Morier-Gxyiya @cesaree-mg.bsky.social on Improving wheat stem rust models under climate change with updated environmental parameters.
Tuesday, 3 Feb 2026, 16CET/9AM (Calgary) online.
www.wheatinitiative.org/new-events/f...
@karchuntan.bsky.social
@ReemWheat.bsky.social
January 21, 2026 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
🌾 Our Expert Working Group on Wheat Pathogens will be part of the International Symposium on Cereal Leaf Blight in Banff, Canada.

📅 Early Bird and Abstract Submission Deadline: March 31
✍️ Register now: isclb.com/registration

#WheatConnect
@ReemWheat.bsky.social @karchuntan.bsky.social
Registration — International Symposium on Cereal Leaf Blights 2026 — International Symposium on Cereal Leaf Blights 2026
isclb.com
January 20, 2026 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
First webinar of our Pathogens EWG in 2026!
Join Cesaree Morier-Gxyiya to give an online talk titled: Improving wheat stem rust models under climate change with updated environmental parameters.
www.wheatinitiative.org/new-events/f...
#WheatConnect
@karchuntan.bsky.social
@ReemWheat.bsky.social
January 14, 2026 at 7:01 AM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
“The exploitation of Epichloë endophytes for agricultural advantage – application to cereals” John CARADUS and Wayne SIMPSON
Our Expert Working Group on Wheat Pathogens made this webinar available!
www.wheatinitiative.org/ewg-pathogens
#WheatConnect
@karchuntan.bsky.social
@ReemWheat.bsky.social
EWG PATHOGENES — Wheat initiative
The Control of Wheat Pathogens EWG aims to bring together experts from the field of wheat research with an interest in minimising yield loss caused by microbial pathogens through open collaboration.…
www.wheatinitiative.org
January 13, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
Did you miss the lates Webinar of our Pathogens EWG? Watch the recording: “The exploitation of Epichloë endophytes for agricultural advantage – application to cereals” John CARADUS and Wayne SIMPSON 🌾
www.wheatinitiative.org/ewg-pathogens
#WheatConnect
@karchuntan.bsky.social
@ReemWheat.bsky.social
January 8, 2026 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
We highly recommend this excellent webinar series created by our Expert Working Group on Wheat Pathogens. A fantastic resource covering key wheat pathogen topics.
👉 youtube.com/playlist?lis...
It's free, please share!
@karchuntan.bsky.social
@ReemWheat.bsky.social
#WheatConnect #WheatPathogens
Pathogens Webinars
Share your videos with friends, family, and the world
youtube.com
January 6, 2026 at 3:01 PM
karchuntan.bsky.social
And that's a wrap for us in 2025! Our group at the @theccdm.bsky.social wishes you all a merry Xmas and happy New Year! 🎄🎅🎆🥳
December 19, 2025 at 12:04 AM
karchuntan.bsky.social
The paper submission smile @tony_ancy! 😃

Always been a pleasure to guide @theccdm.bsky.social post-graduate students in closing out a project with the submission of their first manuscript draft for peer review! 😍
December 15, 2025 at 4:52 AM
karchuntan.bsky.social
Our PhD student @tony_ancy 👩‍🎓identified evidence of distinct Australian wheat powdery mildew pathotypes and sources of strong resistance against the disease🌾

A @theccdm.bsky.social x @InterGrain1 collab! 🤝
Evidence of a distinct Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici pathotype structure in Australian wheat powdery mildew: implications for resistance breeding.
The obligate biotrophic fungus Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt) is the causal agent of wheat powdery mildew. To investigate virulence diversity, 30 Australian Bgt isolates collected between 2020...
www.biorxiv.org
December 15, 2025 at 2:13 AM
karchuntan.bsky.social
Our @theccdm.bsky.social preprint on the domain function and interactors of the effector-regulating transcription factor PnPf2 in Parastagonospora nodorum is live! 😁

Led by Shota Morikawa @callumverdonk.bsky.social

Collabs 👉 @danielcroll.bsky.social @evan-john.bsky.social
A conserved fungal transcription factor domain drives protein-protein interactions and necrotrophic effector-mediated virulence in Parastagonospora nodorum
The fungal pathogen Parastagonospora nodorum utilises necrotrophic effectors (NEs) to cause chlorosis and necrosis on wheat. NE expression is mediated by an assortment of transcription factors (TF), t...
www.biorxiv.org
December 12, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
Tomorrow, 3 Dec! Join our Wheat Pathogens Expert Working Group for
“The exploitation of Epichloë endophytes for agricultural advantage.”
www.wheatinitiative.org/new-events/j...
@karchuntan.bsky.social
@ReemWheat.bsky.social
#WheatConnect
December 2, 2025 at 3:00 PM
karchuntan.bsky.social
Enjoying a midnight @wheatinitiative.bsky.social webinar on a transposon masterclass👩‍🔬 while setting up a slow-cook smoked BBQ🍖 for @theccdm.bsky.social work sundowner tomorrow to wind the week down😎
November 20, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
Save the date: 20 Nov 2025 at 17h. Megan McDonald will present: Jumping Genes and Pathogenic Schemes: the diverse roles that transposons play in pathogen evolution.
A must for the pathology community!
Info here: www.wheatinitiative.org/new-events/m...
@karchuntan.bsky.social
@ReemWheat.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
How is wheat blast expanding into Uruguay? 🌾
Find out in the latest webinar with Paula Silva INIA UY!
“Genomic and Pathogenic Insights into the Range Expansion of Wheat Blast into Uruguay”
www.wheatinitiative.org/ewg-pathogens
#WheatConnect
@karchuntan.bsky.social
@ReemWheat.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
We are very happt to share the latest recording of the webinar organised by our Expert Working Group on Wheat Pathogens! “Genomic and Pathogenic Insights into the Range Expansion of Wheat Blast into Uruguay” by Paula SILVA
#WheatConnect
@karchuntan.bsky.social
@ReemWheat.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 6:25 AM
karchuntan.bsky.social
@theccdm.bsky.social Student success! @callumverdonk.bsky.social
theccdm.bsky.social Centre for Crop and Disease Management @theccdm.bsky.social · Oct 29
Student spotlight🌾 Isobel Screaigh was an Honours student at CCDM whose research on fungal transcription factors just led to a published paper - doi.org/10.1099/acmi...
She now works at DAFF as a molecular biologist, identifying plant pathogens using DNA sequencing. #theGRDC #CurtinUni
October 30, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
🌾 We are very happy to announce that the Pest and Disease Diagnosis and Monitoring Workshop recordings are now online!
Catch up on all the sessions here: www.wheatinitiative.org/watcha

#WheatConnect #PlantHealth
Watch-A Programme — Wheat initiative
The Wheat initiATive Crop Health Alliance – WATCH-A was established in 2022 as a result of consultations from the then joint Pests and Pathogens Expert Working Group of the Wheat Initiative (WI). Its…
www.wheatinitiative.org
October 27, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
📅 TOMORRW - 23 Oct: Join Paula Silva (INIA Uruguay) on wheat blast’s genomic spread in Uruguay.
Hosted by Pathogens EWG.
🔗 www.wheatinitiative.org/new-events/p...
#WheatConnect
@karchuntan.bsky.social
@ReemWheat.bsky.social
Paula Silva at THE EWG ON WHEAT PATHOGENS WEBINAR SERIES — Wheat initiative
Our Expert Working Group on Control of Wheat Pathogens has invited Dr. Paula Silva from the Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA), Uruguay to this online talk. The title  of…
www.wheatinitiative.org
October 22, 2025 at 7:02 AM
karchuntan.bsky.social
WHY USE #YEAST AS A TOOL WHEN YOU'VE GOT STAGO?😁

Out now on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, our collab @theccdm.bsky.social led by @labkatz.bsky.social and Fran Lopez-Ruiz developed Parastagonospora nodorum as a tool to study #fungicideresistance genes.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Dissecting allele-specific fungicide resistance mechanisms by heterologous expression of the demethylase inhibitor target gene Cyp51 in a phytopathogen model
BACKGROUND Fungicide resistance is a major concern both in agriculture and clinical disease control. Whilst several mechanisms of resistance have been elucidated, assigning phenotype to genotype is of...
www.biorxiv.org
October 22, 2025 at 1:37 AM
karchuntan.bsky.social
Our @theccdm.bsky.social @CurtinEand #advancedscience student @CarliaHerbst turn to present her research on protein-protein interactions in Parastagonospora nodorum 😎. @callumverdonk.bsky.social
October 21, 2025 at 7:29 AM
karchuntan.bsky.social
Our @CurtinEandA @theccdm.bsky.social #advancedscience student 👨‍🎓Keshara Thanthrige (right) presenting his research assessment on the development of selectable marker recycling♻️ in a fungal pathogen.

Well done mate! 👏
@ShotaMorikawa69 @callumverdonk.bsky.social
October 21, 2025 at 3:19 AM
karchuntan.bsky.social
Do we need to reassess how disease resistance ratings on crops are determined? 🤔

Our @theccdm.bsky.social preprint revealed co-infection of wheat by P. nodorum & P. tritici-repentis breaks down resistance BUT there is a CAVEAT

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Fair-weather friends: Unequal partnerships between Parastagonospora nodorum and Pyrenophora tritici-repentis define disease dynamics in wheat
Parastagonospora nodorum and Pyrenophora tritici-repentis are the causal agents of septoria nodorum blotch and tan spot of wheat, respectively. Though these fungal phytopathogens have been found to fr...
www.biorxiv.org
October 13, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Reposted by KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
Upcoming Webinar 23 October - Join online!
Paula Silva from INIA Uruguay:
Genomic and Pathogenic Insights into the Range Expansion of Wheat Blast in Uruguay.
Hosted by our Pathogens Expert Working Group.
🔗 wheatinitiative.org/new-events/p...
@karchuntan.bsky.social
@ReemWheat.bsky.social
Paula Silva at THE EWG ON WHEAT PATHOGENS WEBINAR SERIES — Wheat initiative
Our Expert Working Group on Control of Wheat Pathogens has invited Dr. Paula Silva from the Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA), Uruguay to this online talk. The title  of…
wheatinitiative.org
October 10, 2025 at 2:01 PM