Dr. Yahya Z. A. Gaafar

Molecular Plant Virology
Virus-Vector-Host interactions
Virus diagnostics
Professional activities / interests
Plant viruses and viroids characterisation (biological, morphological, serological, and molecular).
Plant viruses and viroids molecular epidemiology.
Investigating Virus-Vector-Host interactions (histology, cytology, genomes, and proteomics).
Development of molecular and biotechnological approaches for plant virus/ viroid diseases’ control.
Development and optimisation of innovative methods for plant viruses and viroids’ propagation, purification, detection, and identification.
Education and awards
Doctor of natural sciences 2019
Georg August University of Göttingen, Germany
Thesis: Plant virus identification and virus-vector-host interactions
Master of science 2014
Ghent University, Belgium
Thesis: Caenorhabditis elegans - Orsay virus interaction: infection dynamics, antiviral inheritance, and genetic architecture of susceptibility
Bachelor of sciences 2007
Cairo University, Egypt
Major: Biotechnology
International experience and/or work
Research Scientist 2020 – 2022
Julius Kühn-Institut, Institute for Epidemiology and Pathogen Diagnostics, Germany
Additional links
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7833-1542
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yahya_Gaafar
Key publications
Gaafar, Y. Z. A.; Westenberg, M.; Botermans, M.; László, K.; Jonghe, K. de; Foucart, Y.; Ferretti, L.; Kutnjak, D.; Pecman, A.; Mehle, N.; Kreuze, J.; Muller, G.; Vakirlis, N.; Beris, D.; Varveri, C.; Ziebell, H. (2021). Interlaboratory comparison study on ribodepleted total RNA high-throughput sequencing for plant virus diagnostics and bioinformatic competence. In Pathogens 10. DOI: 10.3390/pathogens10091174.
Gaafar, Y. Z. A.; Rabenstein, F.; Zia, A.; Gaafar, A. Z. A.; Ziebell, H. (2021): Molecular characterisation of a new tenuivirus from Festuca sp. In Virus Res. 304, 198509. DOI: 10.1016/j.virusres.2021.198509.
Gaafar, Y. Z. A.; Herz, K.; Hartrick, J.; Fletcher, J.; Blouin, A. G.; MacDiarmid, R.; Ziebell, H. (2020): Investigating the pea virome in Germany - old friends and new players in the field(s). In Front. Micro. 11, 583242. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.583242.
Gaafar, Y. Z. A.; Ziebell, H. (2020): Comparative study on three viral enrichment procedures based on RNA extraction for plant virus/viroid detection using high throughput sequencing. In PLOS One. 15, e0237951. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237951.
Gaafar, Y. Z. A.; Ziebell, H. (2019): Aphid transmission of nanoviruses. In Arch. Insect Biochem. Physiol. 104, e21668. doi: 10.1002/arch.21668.
Gaafar, Y. Z. A.; Richert-Pöggeler, K. R.; Maaß, C.; Vetten, H.-J.; Ziebell, H. (2019): Characterisation of a novel nucleorhabdovirus infecting alfalfa (Medicago sativa). In Virol. J. 16 (1), p. 113. DOI: 10.1186/s12985-019-1147-3.
Contact
Research facility
Expertise
Affiliations
Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Centre for Plant Health, North Saanich, Canada