Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL
Function
Postdoc
Contact
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Zürcherstrasse 111
8903 Birmensdorf
Site
WSL Birmensdorf Bi PL B 41
My research explores the potential of mycoviruses for the biocontrol of native and invasive pathogens of crops and trees.
At WSL, I have been working on Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, the fungal pathogen causing the catastrophic Ash dieback disease across Europe and on Armillaria spp., common root rot pathogens that can lead to tree instability and death.
Before WSL I worked as a Research Associate at the National Agriculture Research Centre on an “Aflatoxin biocontrol in Pakistan” project and undertook part of my PhD in Japan (Okayama University) where I focused on the characterization of several RNA viruses from crop plant pathogenic fungi.
Currently, I am trying to introduce hypovirulent-inducing mycoviruses from C. parasitica to H. fraxineus using the state-of-the-art protoplast transformation technique.
Sato, Y., Shamsi, W., Jamal, A., Bhatti, M.F., Kondo, H., Suzuki, N. (2020). Hadaka virus 1: a capsidless eleven-segmented positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus from a phytopathogenic fungus, Fusarium oxysporum. mBio 11: e00450-20.
Shamsi, W., Sato, Y., Jamal, A., Shahi, S., Kondo, H., Suzuki, N., Bhatti M.F. (2019). Molecular and biological characterization of a novel botybirnavirus identified from a Pakistani isolate of Alternaria alternata. Virus Research, 263, 119-128.
Jamal, A., Sato, Y., Shahi, S., Shamsi, W., Kondo, H. and Suzuki, N. (2019). Novel victorivirus from a Pakistani isolate of Alternaria alternata lacking a typical translational stop/restart sequence signature. Viruses, 11(6), p.577.
