Junrey completed his Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture (Plant Pathology) and Master of Science in Plant Breeding minor in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at Central Mindanao University and the University of the Philippines Los Banos, respectively. He worked as a researcher in the salinity and problem soils tolerance breeding team at the International Rice Research Institute for 5 years before moving to the Philippines' Department of Agriculture as a senior science research specialist. He was accepted to pursue Ph.D. at the University of Western Australia and joined the Batley Lab in October 2019.

Mining for novel resistance against Blackleg (Leptosphaeria maculans) in diverse Brassica germplasm

Summary: Blackleg, caused by Leptosphaeria maculans, is one of the most devastating fungal diseases affecting global canola (Brassica napus) production. In severe cases, yield reduction due to this pathogen can reach up to 90%, which translates to significant economic loss. Planting resistant varieties has been employed as a sustainable management option to circumvent such damage in canola production. However, the continuous deployment of the same resistance genes in cultivated varieties has led to the pathogen developing virulence mechanisms to overcome these resistance genes. The monitoring of blackleg populations indicates a breakdown of resistance in the genes Rlm1, Rlm2, Rlm3, Rlm4, Rlm9 and LepR3, which are or have been present in Australian varieties. These resistance-breakdown events will have a negative impact in the canola industry if not immediately addressed. Hence, there is an urgent need to identify new sources of resistance to sustainably protect the canola industry from this devastating disease. In this project, we aim to identify novel qualitative and quantitative resistance in a wide array of plant materials previously described to express resistance, which include B. napus introgression lines, wild relatives, synthetic napus (SN), advanced and elite breeding lines. Approaches involving genomics and bioinformatics will be undertaken to subsequently identify, characterize, and verify new gene(s) for blackleg resistance. With the identification of these new genes, we hope to dissect further the complex mechanisms involved in blackleg resistance and reinforce breeding efforts to accelerate the development of resistant varieties.