Dr Graham Thomas

I am a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the lab of Helen Fones (Eyles). I am a molecular biologist and bioinformatician investigating host-pathogen interactions in the field of food security.

The Fones group is interested in the filamentous fungus Zymoseptoria tritici which causes disease in wheat. We are particularly interested in how this fungus survives as an epiphyte on the surface of a leaf before it goes inside. The questions we are asking include; what nutrients sustain it during this stage of it's lifecycle, what interactions is it having with other microbes and how does this vary between strains of the same fungus and under different environmental conditions?