Academic and Professional Background

• Background:

  PhD (University of Wales Swansea, United Kingdom)

• Research:

  Andrew is a microbiologist who conducts both applied and basic research on plant pathogens. Andrew’s research at the centre is focused on the evolution of bacterial plant pathogens. In particular, he is interested in the role of mobile genetic elements such as plasmids and pathogenicity islands (PAIs) in the rapid adaptation of phytopathogens and the emergence of plant disease. Andrew leads a TEC-funded project focused on the molecular plant-microbe interactions associated with potato and Pectobacterium (formally Erwinia) within the Plant Bio-protection Systems Biology theme. This project is utilising a functional genomics approach to study novel virulence factors in Pectobacterium and the mechanisms involved in their acquisition via horizontal transfer. The results of this study will provide new insights into the impact of PAIs on the virulence of bacterial pathogens and how acquisition of mobile elements has resulted in their evolution. The group is also collaborating with researchers at Otago University to investigate whether the recently discovered CRISPR (clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats) phage resistance systems in bacteria can also provide protection against other mobile elements such as pathogenicity islands. This research may lead to novel strategies for the control of bacterial pathogens.

  Key collaborators:

  Ian Toth (Scottish Crop Research Institute, United Kingdom), Peter Fineran (University of Otago, New Zealand), Dawn Arnold (University of the West of England Bristol, United Kingdom), Mark Fiers (New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research, New Zealand), Tony Conner (New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research, New Zealand).

  Andrew is also a Research Scientist at the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Ltd (NZIPFR). At NZIPFR, he leads a small team whose research is primarily focused on the detection and management of plant pathogens. The group is involved in the design and implementation of molecular diagnostic tools, which are being used for both epidemiological studies and to develop decision support systems for growers and other endusers (e.g. BiosecurityNZ). As part of this research, the group is representing New Zealand’s potato industry in an International Potato Diagnostics Collaboration that includes scientists and industry representatives from the UK, S. Africa, Australia and NZ aimed at providing improved diagnostics for their respective industries. To date, the research has improved the detection of Rhizoctonia solani in soils and on potato tubers and demonstrated the importance of the different anastomosis groups of R. solani in potato production systems in New Zealand

  Key collaborators:

  Alison Lees (Scottish Crop Research Institute, United Kingdom), Jacquie van der Waals (University of Pretoria, South Africa), Kathy Ophel-Keller (South Australian Research & Development Institute, Australia), Richard Falloon (New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research, New Zealand), James Woodhall (FERA, United Kingdom).

• Publications:
  1. Pitman AR, Drayton GM, Kraberger SJ, Genet RA, Scott IAW (2010). Tuber transmission of ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ and its association with zebra chip in potato. European Journal of Plant Pathology (DOI: 10.1007/s10658-010-9702-1).
  2. Harrow SA, Farrokhi-Nejad R, Pitman AR, Scott IAW, Bentley A, Hide C, Cromey MG (2010). Characterisation of New Zealand Fusarium populations using a polyphasic approach differentiates the F. avenaceum/ F. acuminatum/ F. tricinctum species complex in cereal and grassland systems. Fungal Biology (formally Mycological Research) 114: 293-311.
  3. Pitman AR, Harrow S, Visnovsky SB (2010). Genetic characterization of Pectobacterium wasabiae causing soft rot disease of potatoes in New Zealand. European Journal of Plant Pathology 126: 423-435. (DOI: 10.1007/s10658-009-9551-y).
  4. Visnovsky, SB, Guerin-Laguette, A, Wang, Y, Pitman AR (2010). Traceability of Marketable Japanese Shoro in New Zealand: Using Multiplex PCR To Exploit Phylogeographic Variation among Taxa in the Rhizopogon Subgenus Roseoli. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 76: 294-302 (DOI: 10.1128/AEM.02191-09).
  5. Pitman AR, Wright P, Galbraith M, Harrow S, Marshall J (2008). Biochemical and molecular diversity among pectolytic Erwinia from potato in New Zealand. Australasian Plant Pathology 37, 559-568.
  6. Pitman AR, Jackson RW, Mansfield JW, Kaitell V, Thwaites R, Arnold DL (2005). Exposure to host resistance mechanisms drives evolution of bacterial virulence in plants. Current Biology 15, 2230-2235 (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.018).
  7. Arnold DL, Pitman A, Jackson RW (2003). Pathogenicity and other genomic islands in plant pathogenic bacteria. Molecular Plant Pathology 4, 407-420 (DOI: 10.1046/j.1364-3703.2003.00187.x).