Research interests

• Taxonomy of Australian species of Septoria and related genera
• Taxonomy of Australian species of Albugo and its segregate genera
• Taxonomy of Australian anamorphic fungi on agricultural and native hosts

Background

Dr. Michael Priest is a Research Officer with a specialisation in the taxonomy of the fungi and is curator of the Plant Pathology Herbarium, the largest repository of specimen based records of plant diseases in Australia. The herbarium is part of the Agricultural Scientific Collections Unit at the Orange Agricultural Institute.

Dr. Priest has over twenty five years experience in the identification of fungi causing diseases of agricultural plants, weeds and the Australian native flora and is the author of the recent book on the Australian species of Septoria which is the first authoritative account of the genus for Australia and details the morphology and host range of 132 species.

Qualifications

• B.Sc. (Hons) – University of Tasmania 1981 
• PhD  – University of New England 1999

Current projects

• Taxonomy of the Australian species of Albugo and its segregate genera 
• New fungi on Australian native plants

Recent Publications

Cunnington JH, Priest M, Powney RA and Cother NJ (2007) Diversity of Botryosphaeria species on horticultural plants in Victoria and New South Wales. Australasian Plant Pathology 36: 157-159.

Walker J and Priest M (2007) A new species of Albugo on Pterostylis (Orchidaceae) from Australia: confirmation of the genus Albugo on a monocotyledonous host. Australasian Plant Pathology 36: 181-185

Wang B, Priest M, Davidson A, Brubaker C Woods M and Burdon J (2007) Fungal endophytes of native Gossypium species in Australia. Mycological Research 111: 347-354

Priest M (2006) Septoria, Fungi of Australia. ABRS/CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 259pp.

Priest M and Conde B (2006) The occurrence of Vovariella volvacea (Bull.: Fr.) Singer in the Northern Territory, Australia. Australasian Mycologist 25 (2): 65-67

Pascoe IG, Priest M, Shivas RG and Cunnington JH (2005) Ustilospores of Tilletia ehrhartae, a smut of Ehrharta calycina, are common contaminants of Australian wheat grain, and a potential source of confusion with Tilletia indica, the cause of Karnal bunt of wheat. Plant Pathology 54: 161-168

Sergeeva V, Priest M and Nair NG (2005) Species of Pestalotiopsis and related genera occurring on grapevines in Australia. Australian Plant Pathology 34: 255-258 

Braun U, Cunnington J, Priest M, Shivas R and Schubert K (2005) An annotated checklist of Ramularia species in Australia. Australasian Plant Pathology 34: 509-515

Pendle S, Weeks K, Priest M, Gill A, Hudson B, Kotsiou G and Pritchard R (2004) Phaeohyphomycotic soft tissue infections caused by the coelomycetous fungus Microsphaeropsis arundinis. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 42: 5315-5319

Verkley GJM and Priest M (2000) Septoria and similar anamorphs of Mycosphaerella. Studies in Mycology 45: 123-128

Fields of Research

• 060310 Plant Systematics and Taxonomy
• 060505 Mycology
• 060704 Plant Pathology

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

Keyword/phrase list of research interests

• Fungal taxonomy 
• Plant Pathology