Dave Berger is a Professor in the Department of Plant Science at the University of Pretoria where he is a member of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI).
He obtained his PhD (1990) from the University of Cape Town, followed by a period of postdoctoral research (1991-1993) at University of California, Berkeley, USA.
His research interests are focussed on the molecular basis of plant-pathogen interactions.
Prof Berger has a NRF rating of C1.
Dave Berger leads the Molecular Plant-Pathogen Interactions (MPPI) group that forms part of the Department of Plant Science and the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI).
The MPPI group investigates the molecular mechanisms of plant defence using a range of approaches, including whole plant phenotyping, genome sequencing, functional genomics and the development of bioinformatics tools. Pathosystems under study are grey leaf spot (Cercospora spp.) in maize in collaboration with Dr Bridget Crampton’s research group, and bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum) using an Arabidopsis model.
Korsman, JK, Meisel, B, Klopper, FJ, Crampton, BG, Berger, DK (2011) Quantitative phenotyping of grey leaf spot disease in maize using real time PCR. Euro J Plant Pathol. 133: 461-471
Van Schalkwyk, A, Wenzl, P, Smit, S, Lopez-Cobollo, R, Kilian, A, Bishop, G, Hefer, C Berger, DK. (2012) Bin mapping of tomato Diversity Array (DArT) markers to genomic regions of Solanum lycopersicum x Solanum pennellii introgression lines, Theoret Appl Genet. 124: 947-956
Coetzer, N, Myburg, AA, Berger, DK (2011). Maize microarray annotation database. Plant Meth. 7: 31
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