PhD Student

The soil-borne ascomycete Fusarium verticillioides is a hemibiotrophic fungus that colonizes maize plants, prevalently existing as an asymptomatic endophyte during its biotrophic stage. In contrast, the pathogenic biotrophic basidiomycetes Ustilago maydis and Sporisorium reilianum are closely related smut fungi that exhibit highly conserved genomes with a high degree of synteny. U. maydis infects all aerial parts of its maize host and induces local tumor formation. S. reilianum, on the other hand, is soil-borne and initially colonizes the plant systemically without causing any symptoms until it reaches the floral tissue, where it alters tissue differentiation and replaces the inflorescences with sori containing black masses of teliospores. 

My PhD project aims to investigate the intermicrobial interactions between F. verticillioides, U. maydis, and S. reilianum through identifying and functionally characterizing genes in the endophyte F. verticillioides that are involved in the antagonism and interaction with the smut fungi across multiple maize lines and tissues. Furthermore, I am investigating the effects of the colonization by these fungi, individually and in combination, on microbial communities in the maize phyllosphere.

University of Cologne

CEPLAS / Institiute for Plant Sciences
Chair of Terrestrial Microbiology
Zülpicher Straße 47a
D-50674 Cologne

E-Mail sdaher1@smail.uni-koeln.de
Tel:  +49 221-470-7831
Fax: +49 221-470-7406