Eucalyptus is one of the most important commercial forestry species planted globally but are increasingly challenged by pests and diseases. One of the most important foliar diseases of Eucalyptus is Teratosphaeria leaf blight (TLB) caused by the fungal pathogen Teratosphaeria destructans.

Myriam Solís Garcia’s PhD research focused on understanding the factors underlying the host infection by T. destructans to facilitate the development of accurate management strategies for the effective control of this devastating disease. She presented her Prestige Seminar “Factors affecting susceptibility of Eucalyptus to infection by Teratosphaeria destructans” in a packed FABI auditorium on 8 October followed by a thesis defence with her external examiners, and so successfully completed all requirements for her PhD degree.

Myriam conducted her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Sanushka Naidoo, Prof. Mike Wingfield and Prof. Almuth Hammerbacher. The examiners were Prof. Fred Asiegbu of the University of Helsinki, Finland and Prof. Sandra Denman of Forest Research in the United Kingdom, while Prof. Noëlani van den Berg (FABI) was the internal examiner.

Sanushka described Myriam as tenacious and that she was the ‘right person’ for what was a challenging research project. She also praised her for finishing her thesis while also being a mother to a young son and thanked her for also being a mentor to many FABIans. Her examiners also had high praise for her thesis describing her as “having the ability and a talent to do research and for presenting a fantastic piece of work of international significance”. Myriam has already published four papers from her PhD project, with two more underway.

Different environmental conditions were considered to study the infection establishment of the pathogen on a known Eucalyptus grandis x Eucalyptus urophylla susceptible host. Transcriptomic analysis of the host responses at different stages of infection revealed that hormone signaling, oxidative burst and plant-defense related genes were significantly differentially expressed only at the latest time point after inoculation. The results of this study provide the bases of the factors related to the infection of one of the most aggressive pathogens in Eucalyptus plantations, not only environmental factors, but biochemical and molecular factors that could be targeted to develop disease control strategies.