Objectives

By means of this close interplay between theory and experiments, we address questions such as:

• what arrangements of hosts of varying susceptibility most affect the spread of the disease and the selection for virulent strains of the pathogen (major resistance genes, patchiness, connectivity, scale etc.)?
• what pathogen features determine the interaction with the host and the evolution towards virulence (mutation rates, spatial continuity or isolation, mechanisms of dispersal, genetic diversity etc.)?
• what is the probability of evolution of virulence in fit backgrounds and to what extent can it be controlled?

Tools

We utilise morphological variants and different resistance types, as determined by QTL mapping and linked markers, in barley doubled-haploid lines. (The same genotypes are being used in our gene discovery and expression studies.) These are deployed in different proportions and geometric patterns to manipulate the host epidemiological and selection pressures. We analyse the pathogen population response by sampling and isolate analysis using AFLP markers, pathogenicity and fitness tests. We also use mathematical modelling approaches to help understand the dynamics we observe.