Profile

Working area:

Present area:

Plant virology.
Leader of the Research Unit of Plant Pathology.
Former area:
Application technique in tree and soft fruit and in glasshouse.
Biology and control of the black currant gall mite (Cecidophyopsis ribis).

Current research activities:

• Potato mop-top virus and its vector Spongospora subterranea. Development of a PCR based method to direct detection of PMTV in resting spores of Spongospora subterranea. Investigation of at which level potato cultivar resistance to PMTV and powdery scab is produced. Looking for alternative hosts of PMTV and powdery scab.
• Tobacco rattle virus and its vectors of trichodorid nematods. Implementation of a method to propagate virus infected trichodorid nematods in glasshouse.
• Potato virus Y, the tuber necrotic ringspot strain (PVYNTN). Characterization of isolates of PVYNTN. The present results indicates that most Danish isolates deviate from other European isolates both in sequence and in symptom development in indicator plants. We are looking for a method to distinguish these isolates from PVYN
• Soil-borne wheat mosaic virus and soil-borne rye mosaic virus. Soil-borne rye mosaic virus was detected in rye in 1999 for the first time in Denmark. Investigation of the occurrence of these and other soil-borne viruses in cereals will be initiated in 2000.
• The Danish Potato Nuclear Stock Collection. The activities are focused on detection methods of potato quarantine viruses.
• Nordic-Estonian cooperation on investigation of genetically stability of potato meristematic clones. Four potato cultivars with ten meristematic clones of each are grown in parallel field trials in Estonia, Sweden and for one clone also in Denmark and a lot of parameters are recorded to compare the clones.