Faculty Directory

Membership in graduate groups: Plant Pathology, Plant Biology.

Research includes studies of stress signaling networks in plant disease resistance and susceptibility to pathogens and the etiology and management of fungal diseases of orchard crops.  A current focus is on abscisic acid as a key factor in mediating root stress predisposition and susceptibility to Phytophthora species.    We also study the infection biology of the brown rot fungus, Monilinia fructicola, and collaborate with geneticists in the Plant Science Department in the development of genetic markers for disease resistance in peach (Prunus persica).   This research includes identification of virulence and pathogenicity factors in the brown rot pathogen and examines the influence of fruit surface components in regulation of their expression.  I also serve as the Executive Director of the National Plant Diagnostic Network, a system funded by the USDA-NIFA that coordinates and provides resources for plant diagnostic laboratories at state departments of agriculture and land grant universities throughout the nation.  The NPDN is an important component in the national effort to protect U.S. agriculture from new and emerging plant pests and diseases. (www.npdn.org)

Teaching: Plant Pathology 210 (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plant-Microbe Interactions); Plant Pathology 120 (Introductory Plant Pathology); Plant Pathology 291 (Seminar in Molecular Plant Pathology); Science and Society 2 (Feeding the Planet).

1. Bostock, RM. 2005. Signal crosstalk and induced resistance: straddling the line between cost and benefit. Annu. Rev. Phytopathol.  43:545-80
2. Stack J, Cardwell K, Hammerschmidt R, Byrne J, Loria R, Snover-Clift K, Baldwin W, Wisler G, Beck H, Bostock R, Thomas C, Luke E. 2006. The National Plant Diagnostic Network. Plant Disease 90:128-136.
3. Weyman PD, Pan Z, Feng Q, Gilchrist DG, and Bostock RM. 2006. A circadian rhythm-regulated tomato gene is induced by arachidonic acid and Phythophthora infestans infection.  Plant Physiology 140:235-248.
4. Lee M-H and Bostock RM. 2006. Agrobacterium T-DNA-mediated integration and gene replacement in the brown rot pathogen Monilinia fructicola.  Current Genetics 49:309-322.
5. Lee M-H and Bostock RM.  2006. Induction, regulation, and role in pathogenesis of appressoria in Monilinia fructicola.  Phytopathology 96:1072-1080.
6. Weyman PD, Pan Z, Feng Q, Gilchrist DG, and Bostock RM. 2006. DEA1, a Circadian- and Cold-Regulated Tomato Gene, Protects Yeast Cells from Freezing Death. Plant Molecular Biology 62:547-559
7. Lee, M-H., and Bostock, R.M.  2007. Fruit exocarp phenols in relation to quiescence and development of Monilinia fructicola infections in Prunus: a role for cellular redox? Phytopathology 97:269-277.
8. Roubtsova, T. V., and Bostock, R. M. 2009. Episodic abiotic stress as a potential contributing factor to onset and severity of disease caused by Phytophthora ramorum in Rhododendron and Viburnum. Plant Disease 93:912-918.
9. DiLeo MV, Bostock RM, and Rizzo DM.  2009. Phytophthora ramorum does not cause physiologically significant systemic injury to California bay laurel, its primary reservoir host. Phytopathology 99:1307-1311.
10. Su SYW, Beck HW, Xiao X, DePree J, Degwekar S, Zhou C, Lee M, Thomas C, Coggeshall A, and Bostock R. 2010. ETKnet: A Distributed Network System for Sharing Event Data and Multi-faceted Knowledge in a Collaboration Federation. In Yang, C.C., M.C.-L Chau, J. -H Wang, and H. Chen (eds.) Security Informatics.  VII, pp. 135-154.
11. Lee M-H, Chiu C-M, Roubtsova T, Chou C-M, and Bostock RM. 2010. Overexpression of a redox-regulated cutinase gene MfCUT1 increases virulence of the brown rot pathogen Monilinia fructicola on Prunus spp.  Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions 23:176-186.
12. DiLeo MV, Pye MF, Roubtsova TV, Duniway JM, MacDonald JD, Rizzo DM, and Bostock RM. 2010. Abscisic acid in salt stress predisposition to Phytophthora root and crown rot in tomato and chrysanthemum. Phytopathology 100:871-879
13. Savchenko T, Walley JW, Chehab EW, Xiao Y, Kaspi R, Pye MF, Mohamed ME, Lazarus CM, Bostock RM, and Dehesh K. 2010. Arachidonic acid: an evolutionarily conserved signaling molecule modulates plant stress signaling networks.  Plant Cell  www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.110.073858