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College of Science | College of Agricultural Sciences

Department of Botany and Plant Pathology


Christopher C. Mundt

Professor,
Ph.D., 1985, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
mundtc@science.oregonstate.edu

 

Office/Lab: Cordley 3040/3039
Phone: 541-737-5256/5257

 

 

 

 

 








Research Area

Plant disease epidemiology; host plant resistance; population genetics of plant pathogens; sustainable agriculture.

Description of Research

Successes in breeding disease-resistant crops have often been countered by the ability of plant pathogen populations to evolve greater virulence. My research program focuses on development of strategies to increase the durability of host plant resistance. Specific interests include studying the influence of host genetic diversity on plant disease epidemics and using quantitative and population genetic approaches to analyze host-parasite interactions. The program has both basic and applied objectives, and utilizes a variety of methodologies including field experiments, controlled environment studies, and computer modeling.

Research Group Members

Faculty Research Assistants/Associates

Kathryn Sackett
LaRae Wallace

Graduate Students

Don Campanella (Ph.D. expected 2007)

Teaching

BOT 505 SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

BOT 505 HOST-PLANT RESISTANCE

BOT 552 PLANT DISEASE MANAGEMENT

BOT 668 PLANT DISEASE DYNAMICS

Publications

Boudreau, M.A. and C.C. Mundt. 1994. mechanisms of alteration in bean rust development due to intercropping, in computer-simulated epidemics. Ecol. Appl. 4:729-740.

DiLeone, J.A. and C.C. Mundt. 1994. Effect of wheat cultivar mixtures on populations of Puccinia striiformis races. Plant Pathol. 43:917-930.

Mundt, C.C. 1995. Models from plant pathology on the movement and fate of new genotypes of mircoorganisms in the environment. Annu. Rev. Phytopathol. 33:467-488.

Ahmed, H.U., C.C. Mundt, M.E. Hoffer and S.M. Coakley. 1996. Selective influence of wheat cultivars on pathogeneicity of Mycosphaerella graminicola (anamorph Septoria tritici). Phytopathology 86:454-458

Finckh, M.R. and C.C. Mundt. 1996. Temporal dynamics of plant competition in genetically diverse wheat populations in the presence and absence of stripe rust. J. Appl. Ecol. 33:1041-1052

Lannou, C and C.C. Mundt. 1997. Evolution of a pathogen population in host mixtures: rate of emergence of complex races. Theor. Appl. Genet. 94:991-999

Zhan, J., C.C. Mundt and B.A. MacDonald. 1998. Measuring immigration and sexual reproduction in field populations of Mycosphaerella graminicola. Phytopathology 88:1330-1337

Garrett, K.A., Nelson, R.J., Mundt, C.C., Chacon, G., Jaramillo, R.E., and Forbes, G.A. 2001. The effects of host diversity and other management components on epidemics of potato late blight in the humid highland tropics. Phytopathology 91:993-1000. 

Nelson, R.J., Mundt, C.C., Orrego, R., Ortiz, O., Fredrix, M., Tenorio, J., and Vien, N.V. 2001. Working with resource-poor farmers to manage plant diseases. Plant Dis. 85:684-695. 

Rahman, M., Mundt, C.C., Wolpert, T.J., and Riera-Lizarazu, O. 2001. Sensitivity of wheat genotypes to a toxic fraction produced by Cephalosporium gramineum and correlation with disease susceptibility. Phytopathology 91:702-707. 

Zhan, J., Mundt, C.C., and McDonald, B.A. 2001. Using restriction fragment length polymorphisms to assess temporal variation and estimate the number of ascospores that initiate epidemics in field populations of Mycosphaerella graminicola. Phytopathology 91:1011-1017. 

Mundt, C.C. 2001. Varietal diversification and disease control. Pages 135-142 in: Exploiting Biodiversity for Sustainable Pest Management, Proceedings of the Impact Symposium on Exploiting Biodiversity for Sustainable Pest Management, 21-23 August 2000, Kunming, China. T.W. Mew, E. Borromeo, and B. Hardy, eds. International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos (Philippines).