Congratulations to Sithembile Kunene on successfully completing her PhD! She presented a Prestige Seminar “Membrane vesicles from Pinus as mediators of host-pathogen dynamics in Pitch canker disease” on 30 September. The supervisors for her PhD were Dr Thabiso Motaung and Prof. Emma Steenkamp. Sithembile was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship which allowed her to visit the University of California, Merced, as a visiting student researcher from September 2025 to June 2026.
Plant-derived vesicles (PDVs) are increasingly recognized as key mediators of intercellular communication, stress responses, and plant-pathogen interactions, yet their biological roles in gymnosperms remain poorly understood. Sithembile’s study investigated membrane vesicles (MVs) from Pinus species to determine their composition, functional roles, and impact on the fungal pathogen Fusarium circinatum, integrating vesicle biology, pathogen physiology, and proteomic profiling. This work provides the first integrated functional and proteomic characterization of vesicles in a gymnosperm system and advances our understanding of their potential roles in plant immunity and pathogen interaction.