Megan McDonald

Group membership

Divisional Visitor, Solomon Group - Wheat biosecurity

I am interested in the evolution of host/pathogen interactions within the agroecosystem. My research deals mainly with plant pathogenic fungi. Currently we are using comparative genomic and proteomic tools to elucidate proteins responsible for host specificiy and virulence.

Research interests

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Phylogeny And Comparative Analysis
  • Host Parasite Interactions
  • Genomics
  • Mycology
  • McDonald, M C, R P Oliver, T L Friesen, Patrick C Brunner, and Bruce A McDonald. 2013. Global Diversity and Distribution of Three Necrotrophic Effectors in Phaeosphaeria Nodorum And Related Species. New Phytologist. doi:10.1111/nph.12257.
  • McDonald, Megan C, Mohammad Razavi, Timothy L Friesen, Patrick C Brunner, and Bruce A McDonald. 2012. Phylogenetic and Population Genetic Analyses of Phaeosphaeria Nodorum and Its Close Relatives Indicate Cryptic Species and an Origin in the Fertile Crescent. Fungal Genetics and Biology :doi:10.1016/j.fgb.2012.08.001.
  • Gardiner, Donald M, Megan C McDonald, Lorenzo Covarelli, Peter S Solomon, Anca G Rusu, Mhairi Marshall, Kemal Kazan, Sukumar Chakraborty, Bruce A McDonald, and John M Manners. 2012. Comparative Pathogenomics Reveals Horizontally Acquired Novel Virulence Genes in Fungi Infecting Cereal Hosts. PLoS Pathogens 8 (9) e1002952. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002952.
  • Liu, Zhaohui, Zengcui Zhang, Justin D Faris, Richard P Oliver, Robert Syme, Megan C McDonald, Bruce A McDonald, et al. 2012. The Cysteine Rich Necrotrophic Effector SnTox1 Produced by Stagonospora Nodorum Triggers Susceptibility of Wheat Lines Harboring Snn1. PLoS Pathogens 8 (1): e1002467. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002467.
  • Liu, Zhaohui, Justin D Faris, Richard P Oliver, Kar-Chun Tan, Peter S Solomon, Megan C McDonald, Bruce A McDonald, et al. 2009. SnTox3 Acts in Effector Triggered Susceptibility to Induce Disease on Wheat Carrying the Snn3 Gene. PLoS Pathogens 5 (9): e1000581. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1000581.

Always interested in motivated PhB or Honours Students, please contact me or Peter Solomon for available projects.