Department of Plant Pathology
Tobin L. Peever
Developing Strains of Disease Resistant Plants
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Dr. Peever’s research program is focused on the population genetics and evolutionary biology of fungi that cause disease on economically important plants. His goal is to understand the significance of evolutionary forces that shape pathogen populations and to apply this knowledge to design more stable and environmentally sound management strategies to control plant disease. He works closely with plant geneticists and breeders to develop plants that are stably resistant to disease by incorporating genetic information about pathogen populations into the plant breeding process. Current research in the Peever lab focuses on the genetics of host specificity and speciation of a group of fungi that cause disease on several food legumes including chickpeas, peas, lentils, and their wild relatives. Dr. Peever is attempting to understand how pathogens are able to infect plants and cause disease, why they are specialized on certain plants, how they have co-evolved with their host plants, and the genetic control of host shifts. He uses a combination of phylogenetic, classical genetic, molecular genetic, and epidemiological tools to address these questions. He is also using molecular genetic markers to study historical and contemporary introductions of the legume pathogens on seed from their center of origin in the Middle East to other locations around the world where these legumes are currently grown. It is hoped that a better understanding of the genetics of host specificity and the historical patterns of movement of these fungi around the globe will lead to better models of emerging plant diseases and allow improved control of such diseases in the future.
Contact
Information
Tobin L. Peever, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Plant Pathology
Washington State University
P.O. Box 646430
Pullman, WA 99164-6430
Telephone: 509-335-3754
E-mail: tpeever@wsu.edu
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