Dr. Shawkat Ali

Current research and/or projects

Integrating innovative cover crop management practices for improved soil C sequestration and reduced GHG emissions in apple orchard

Large scale field trials with formulated phage-carrrier biopesticides

CLEan plAnt extractioN SEquencing Diagnostics (CLEANSED) for Clean Grapevines in Canada

Effect of rootstock genotype on the efficacy of clean technologies for combatting apple replant disease

Biovigilance-genomic crop disease management

Characterizing the genetic diversity of economically important grapevine viruses in Canada

Improving the production and storage of high quality apple cultivars

Application of apple root-associated fungal endophytes for the Control of Apple Replant Disease

Evaluation of fungal endophytes for protection of blueberry bushes and grapevines diseases

Grapevine cryotherapy as a tool for virus remediation  

Molecular identification of blueberry fungal pathogens

 

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

     

  1. Yang, Yu; Abuauf,  Haneen; Song, Shanshan; Wang, Jian You; Alagoz, Yagiz; Moreno, Juan; Mi, Jianing; Ablazov, Abdugaffor; Jamil, Muhammad; Ali, Shawkat; Zheng, Xiongjie; Balakrishna, Aparna; Blilou, Ikram; Al-Babili, Salim (2022) The Arabidopsis D27-LIKE1 is a cis/cis/trans--carotene Isomerase that Contributes to Strigolactone Biosynthesis and Negatively Impacts Abscisic Acid Level. The Plant Journal https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.16095.
  1. Michael S. McLaughlin, Svetlana N. Yurgel, Pervaiz A. Abbasi, Balakrishnan Prithiviraj and Shawkat Ali (2022). Impacts of Abiotic Factors on the Fungal Communities of ‘Honeycrisp’ Apples in Canada. Microbial Biotechnology DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.14207
  1. Shinsaku Ito, Justine Braguy, Jian You Wang, Akiyoshi Yoda, Valentina Fiorilli, Ikuo Takahashi, Muhammad Jamil, Abrar Felemban, Sho Miyazaki, Teresa Mazzarella, Guan-Ting Erica Chen, Akihisa Shinozawa, Aparna Balakrishna, Lamis Berqdar, Chakravarty Rajan, Shawkat Ali, Imran Haider, Yasuyuki Sasaki, Shunsuke Yajima, Kohki Akiyama, Luisa Lanfranco, Matias D. Zurbriggen, Takahito Nomura, Tadao Asami, Salim Al-Babili (2022) Canonical strigolactones are not the major determinant of tillering but important rhizospheric signals in rice. Sci. Adv. 8, eadd1278 (2022), doi: 10.1126/sciadv.add1278 (54500)
  1. Pervaiz A. Abbasi, Paul D. Hildebrand, Shawkat Ali, Harrison Wright, Jeff Franklin, and Willy E. Renderos (2022) Effects of temperature and wetness on components of the infection cycle of Valdensia heterodoxa in lowbush blueberry. Plant Disease doi: 10.1094/PDIS-10-21-2248-RE
  2. Rachel Grabka , Tyler W. d’Entremont , Sarah J. Adams , Allison K. Walker , Joey B. Tanney, Pervaiz A. Abbasi  and Shawkat Ali (2022) Fungal Endophytes and their Role in Agricultural Plant Protection against Pests and Pathogens. Plants 2022, 11, x. doi.org/10.3390/plants11030384. (Invited Review)
  3. Kun-Peng Jia#, Jianing Mi#, Shawkat Ali#, Hajime Ohyanagi, Juan C. Moreno, Abdugaffor Ablazov, Aparna Balakrishna, Lamis Berqdar, Alessia Fiore, Gianfranco Diretto, Claudio Martínez, Angel R. de Lera, Takashi Gojobori, and Salim Al-Babili (2021) An alternative, zeaxanthin epoxidase-independent abscisic acid biosynthetic pathway in plants. Molecular Plant DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2021.09.008.
  4. A. H. Wright, S. Ali, Z. Migicovsky, G. M. Douglas, S. Yurgel, A. Bunbury-Blanchette, J. Franklin, S. Adams, A. K. Walker (2021) A characterization of a cool climate organic vineyard’s microbiome. PhytoBiome e-ISSN:2471-2906.
  5. Pervaiz A. Abbasi, Paul D. Hildebrand, Shawkat Ali, Debra L. Moreau and Willy E. Renderos (2021). Effect of relative humidity, temperature, light and plant age on infection of lowbush blueberry by Sphaerulina vaccinia. Plant Disease doi: 10.1094/PDIS-12-20-2747-RE.
  6. Shawkat Ali, Sajid Rehman, Walid Ellouze and Pervaiz, A Abbasi (2021). First Report of Moldy Core of Minneiska Apples from New ZealandCaused by Alternaria arborescens. Plant Disease Note doi: 10.1094/PDIS-01-21-0025-PDN.
  7. Ahmed Abdelfattah, Shiri Freilich, Rotem Bartuv, Yeka V. Zhimo, Ajay Kumar, Antonio Biasi, Shoshana Salim, Oleg Feygenberg, Erik Burchard, Christopher Dardick, Jia Liu, Awais Khan, Achour Amiri,  Oualid Ellouze, Shawkat Ali, Davide Spadaro, Rosario Torres, Neus Teixido, Okan Ozkaya, Andreas Buehlmann, Gabriele Berg, Susan Whitehead, Michael Wisniewski, Samir Droby (2021). Global analysis of the apple fruit microbiome: Are all apples the same? Environmental Microbiology doi:10.1111/1462-2920.15469.
  8. Kun-Peng Jia, Jianing Mi, Abdugaffor Ablazov, Shawkat Ali, Yu Yang, Aparna Balakrishna, Lamis Berqdar, Qitong Feng, Ikram Blilou and Salim Al-Babili (2021). iso-Anchorene is an endogenous metabolite that inhibits primary root growth in Arabidopsis. The Plant Journal, 107, 54–66 https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.15271.
  9. Shawkat Ali, Pervaiz A Abbasi, Paul Hildebrand and Willy Renderos (2021). Characterization of Sphaerulina vaccinii sp. nov. as the cause of leaf spot and stem canker in lowbush blueberry and its epidemiology. Journal of Phytopathology. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-04-20-0143-R.
  10. Ana Priscilla Montenegro Alonso, Shawkat Ali, Xiao Song, Rob Linning and Guus Bakkeren (2020) UhAVR1, an HR-triggering avirulence effector of Ustilago hordei, is secreted viathe ER-Golgi pathway to the cytosol of barley coleoptile cells and contributes to virulence early in infection. J. Fungi, 6, 178; doi:10.3390/jof6030178.
  11. Michael Parcey, Steven Gayder, Vivian Morley-Senkler, Guus Bakkeren, José Ramón Úrbez-Torres, Shawkat Ali, Alan J Castle, Antonet M Svircev (2020). Comparative genomic analysis of Erwinia amylovora reveals novel insights in phylogenetic arrangement, plasmid diversity, and streptomycin resistance,  Genomics, 112, Issue 5, 3762-3772, Doi.org/1016/j.ygeno.2020.04.001.
  12. Sudarsana Poojari, Debra L. Moreau, Dieter Kahl, Mark Ritchie, Shawkat Ali & José Ramon Úrbez-Torres (2020). Disease incidence and genetic variability of economically important grapevine viruses in Nova Scotia, Can. J. Plant Pathol. 42:4, 584-594,DOI: 10.1080/07060661.2020.1730443.
  13. Shawkat Ali, Willy Renderos, Eric Bevis, Joan Hebb & Pervaiz A. Abbasi (2020) Diaporthe eres causes stem cankers and death of young apple rootstocks in Canada, Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology, 42:2, 218-227, DOI: 10.1080/07060661.2019.1653377.
  14. Pervaiz A. Abbasi, Shawkat Ali, Gordon Braun, Eric Bevis & Sherry Fillmore (2019). Reducing apple scab and frogeye or black rot infections with salicylic acid or its analogue on field-established apple trees. Can. J. Plant Pathol. 41:3, 345-354, DOI: 10.1080/07060661.2019.1610070.
  15. Alshareef NO, Wang JY, Ali S, Al-Babili S, Tester M and Schmöckel SM. (2019). Overexpression of the NAC transcription factor JUNGBRUNNEN1 (JUB1) increases salinity tolerance in tomato. Plant Physiol Biochem. 2019 Jul;140:113-121. doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2019.04.038.
  16. Syed Haleem Shah, Yoseline Angel, Rasmus Houborg, Shawkat Ali and Matthew McCabe (2019). A Random Forest Machine Learning Approach for the Retrieval of Leaf Chlorophyll Content in Wheat. Remote Sens. 2019, 11(8), 920; Doi.org/10.3390/rs11080920.
  17. Paul A. Wiersma, Deniz Erogul, Shawkat Ali (2018). DNA fingerprinting of closely related cultivars of sweet cherry (Prunus avium). J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 143(4):282–288. Doi.org/10.21273/JASHS04454-18.
  18. Pervaiz A. Abbasi, Shawkat Ali, Willy Renderos, Hamid A. Naeem & Yousef Papadopoulos (2018). First report of Alternaria alternata causing leaf spot and blight symptoms on alfalfa in Canada. Can. J. Plant Pathol.  Doi: 10.1080/07060661.2018.1470111.
  19. Shah ZH, Rehman HM, Akhtar T, Alsamadany H, Hamooh BT, Mujtaba T, Daur I, Al Zahrani Y, Alzahrani HAS, Ali S, Yang SH and Chung G (2018).  Humic Substances: Determining Potential Molecular Regulatory Processes in Plants. Front. Plant Sci. 9:263. Doi: 10.3389/fpls.2000263.
  20. Muhammad Jamil, Boubacar A. Kountche, Imran Haider, Xiujie Guo, Valentine O. Ntui, Kun-Peng Jia, Shawkat Ali, Umar S. Hameed, Hidemitsu Nakamura, Ying Lyu, Kai Jiang, Kei Hirabayashi, Masaru Tanokura, Stefan T. Arold, Tadao Asami, and Salim Al-Babili (2017). Methyl phenlactonoates are efficient strigolactone analogs with simple structure. Journal of Experimental Botany. Doi: 10.1093/jxb/erx438.
  21. Thirumalaikumar Venkatesh, Devkar, Vikas Mehterov, Nikolay, Shawkat Ali, Ozgur Rengin, Turkan Ismail, Mueller-Roeber Berndt, Balazadeh Salma (2017). NAC transcription factor JUNGBRUNNEN1 enhances drought tolerance in tomato. Plant Biotechnol J. pp. 1–13. Doi: 10.1111/pbi.12776.
  22. Mohamed E. Abdelaziz, Dongjin Kim, Shawkat Ali, Nina V. Fedoroff, Salim Al-Babili (2017). Endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica enhances salt stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Science (263) 107-115.
  23. Sajid Mahmood, Daur I, Al-Solaimani SG, Ahmad S, Madkour MH, Yasir M, Hirt H, Shawkat Ali and Ali Z (2016). Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria and Silicon Synergistically Enhance Salinity Tolerance of Mung Bean. Front. Plant Sci. 7: 876. Doi: 10.3389/fpls.2016.00876.
  24. Andreas Savvides, Shawkat Ali, Mark Tester, and Vasileios Fotopoulos (2016). Chemical priming against multiple abiotic stresses: mission possible? Trends in Plant Sciences 21(4):329-40. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.
  25. Shawkat Ali, Maxime Magne, Shiyan Chen, Natasa Obradovic, Lubna Jamshaid, Xiaohong Wang, Guy Bélair and Peter Moffett (2015). Analysis of Globodera rostochiensis effectors reveals conserved functions of SPRYSEC proteins in suppressing plant immune responses Front. Plant Sci. 6:623. Doi:  10.3389/fpls.2015.00623. (Impact factor 4.4)
  26. Shawkat Ali, Maxime Magne, Shiyan Chen, Olivier Côté, Barbara Gerič Stare, Natasa Obradovic, Lubna Jamshaid, Xiaohong Wang, Guy Bélair and Peter Moffett (2015). Analysis of putative apoplastic effectors from the nematode, Globodera rostochiensis, and identification of an expansin-like protein that can induce and suppress host defenses. PLoS ONE 10 (1): e0115042. Doi: 10.1371/ journal.pone.0115042.
  27. Shawkat Ali and Guus Bakkeren (2015). Conversion of BAC Clones into Binary BAC (BIBAC) Vectors and their Delivery into Basidiomycete Fungal Cells using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Methods in Molecular Biology. (Clifton, N.J.), vol. 1227, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-1652-8.
  28. Shawkat Ali, John, D Laurie, Rob Lining, José Antonio Cervantes-Chávez, Denis Gaudet and Guus Bakkeren (2014). An immunity-triggering effector from the barley smut fungus Ustilago hordei resides in an Ustilaginaceae-specific cluster bearing signs of transposable element-assisted evolution. PLoS Pathogens 10 (7): e1004223.
  29. John D. Laurie, Shawkat Ali, Rob Linning, Gertrud Mannhaupt, Philip Wong, Ulrich Güldener, Martin Münsterkötter, Richard Moore, Regine Kahmann, Guus Bakkeren and JanSchirawskie. (2012). Genome comparison of barley and maize smut fungi reveals targeted loss of RNA silencing components and species-specific presence of TEs. The Plant Cell. 24 (5): 1733-45.
  30. Shawkat Ali, Abdul Manan, Oirdi ME, Abdul Waheed & Bushra Mirza (2012). Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of rough lemon (Citrus jambhiri Lush.) with yeast HAL2 gene. BMC Res Notes. 5 (1): 285.
  31. Shawkat Ali & Guus Bakkeren (2011). Introduction of large DNA inserts into the barley pathogenic fungus, Ustilago hordei, via recombined binary BAC vectors and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Current Genetics 57 (1): 63-73.
  32. José Antonio Cervantes-Chávez, Shawkat Ali and Guus Bakkeren (2011). Response to environmental stresses, cell wall integrity and virulence are orchestrated through the calcineurin pathway in Ustilago hordei. Molecular Plant Microbe Interaction 24 (2): 219-232.
  33. Shawkat Ali & Guus Bakkeren (2011). Fungal and oomycete effectors – strategies to subdue a host. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology, 33 (4): 425-46.
  34. Abida Yasmeen, Bushra Mirza, Samia Inayatullah, Naila Safdar, Maryam Jamil,  Shawkat Ali & M. Fayyaz Choudhry (2009). In Planta transformation of tomato. Plant Mol. Biol. Rep. 27: 20-28.
  35. Shawkat Ali & Bushra Mirza (2006). Micropropagation of rough lemon (Citrus jambhiri Lush.): Effect of explants type and hormone concentration. Acta Bot. Croat. 65 (2) 137-146.

Books and Book chapters

  1.  Abbasi, P.A., Braun, G., Bevis, E., Luo, H., Song, J., Fillmore, S., and Ali, S. 2020. Impact of trunk injections and foliar sprays of salicylic acid and Actigard® on apple scab and frogeye or black rot infections and changes in leaf protein profiles. Acta Hortic. 1269. ISHS 2020. DOI 10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1269.7

Professional activities / interests

  • Plant-pathogens-host relationships
  • Plant-microbe association
  • Role of effectors in promoting and suppressing plant diseases such as study of fungal and bacterial virulence, avirulence and pathogenicity genes
  • Molecular genetics of phytopathogens and plant-associated microorganisms
  • Plant tissue culture and gene transformation
  • Plant abiotic stress response

Education and awards

Education

B.Sc. (Hons) Agriculture, Gomal University, 2001

M.Phil. Biotechnology,  Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 2004.

Ph.D.  Department of Botany, University of British Columbia Vancouver Canada, 2011

Awards

FQRNT Postdoctoral Fellowship, Quebec, Canada 2013

NSERC, visiting fellowships in Canadian Government Laboratories, 2011-2013

Gold Medal, B.Sc. (Hons)

Merit Scholarship, B.Sc. (Hons)

International experience and/or work

January 2014 to June 2017, Post-doctoral Fellow, Center for Desert Agriculture, Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, 4700 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal KSA.

October 2015 to November 2015, Visiting Research Scientist, Max-Plank Institute of Molecular Physiology, Potsdam, Germany.

November 2015 to December 2015, Visiting Research Scientist, Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences, University of Edinburgh UK.

 

 

Key publications

  1. Salicylic acid and fungicides as an integrated approach for management
    of apple summer diseases

    2024 - View publication details

  2. Application of fungal endophytes isolated from apple (Malus domestica) trees for apple replant disease management

    2023 - View publication details

  3. Neopestalotiopsis leaf spot and fruit rot of strawberry, an emerging disease in Canadian strawberry industry?

    2023 - View publication details

  4. Use of Alternative Methods for Apple Disease Management

    2023 - View publication details

  5. Use of Alternative Methods for Apple Disease Management

    2023 - View publication details

  6. How to disinfect raspberry germ plasm from viruses using thermotherapy, chemotherapy and cryotherapy

    2023 - View publication details

  7. Using Fungal Endophytes to Fight Apple Replant Disease

    2022 - View publication details

  8. AAFC’s annual publication, Agricultural Innovations Volume 5

    2022 - View publication details

  9. Apple Replant Disease Management by fungal endophytes.

    2022 - View publication details

  10. Apple Replant Disease Management by fungal endophytes.

    2022 - View publication details

  11. Apple root endophytes as biological control agents of Apple Replant Disease.

    2022 - View publication details

  12. In vitro elimination of raspberry virus using thermotherapy, chemotherapy, cryotherapy and their combination

    2022 - View publication details

  13. What is living below the surface of a cool climate vineyard?

    2022 - View publication details

  14. Nursery and orchard deaths of apple and pear trees

    2022 - View publication details

  15. How the Abiotic Factors shapes the Fungal Communities of ‘Honeycrisp’ Apples

    2022 - View publication details

  16. Updates of Apple Summer Disease Project

    2022 - View publication details

  17. Apple Disease projects at Kentville Research and Development Centre

    2022 - View publication details

  18. Ellouze, W., Schneider, K. and Ali, S. 2021. Apples to apples: An international study of local and global apple fruit microbiomes has implications for future pathogen control strategies. Fruit & Vegetable, September 22, 2021. https://www.fruitandveggie.com/apples-to-apples/

    2021 - View publication details

  19. Apple Peel Holds the Key to Controlling Pathogens

    2021 - View publication details

  20. Getting to the Root Cause: Sudden Death of Young Apple and Pear Trees

    2021 - View publication details

Research facility

32 Main Street
Kentville, NS B4N 1J5
Canada

Expertise

Affiliations

Language

English