Dr Doug Bailey, INRA Visiting Fellow
We regret to announce that Doug has died. More details here.
Brief Curriculum vitae
Career
- Director of Research, INRA. (2003-)
- Research Associate, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, (1997-2003).
- Research Assistant, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, (1989-1997).
- Plant Pathologist, Oilseeds Group, Plant Breeding Institute (Plant Breeding International from 1987), Cambridge. (1978-1989)
Education
- Ph.D. The Open University (1997).
- Bsc (Hons) 1st Class. Anglia University. Cambridge. (1992)
Research interests
-
As a Director of Research in the Epidemiology, Soil
and Systems group (EPSOS) based at INRA-Rennes, my
primary responsibility is to assist the group in
its aim to develop an epidemiological approach
towards integrated pest management of soil-borne
disease. This will contribute to sustainable
food production in agriculture and
horticulture.
The group's work is focused in three main areas- (i) pathosystem characterisation, including the development of molecular tools for the detection and quantification of soil-borne plant pathogens
- (ii) epidemiological analysis, including epidemiological modelling and controlled field and glasshouse experimentation and
- (iii) integration of disease control protocols to match changing disease risks.
- My current research focuses specifically on the development, testing and application of epidemiological concepts such as invasion and persistence to the spread and control of soil-borne pathogens in multi-cropping systems.
Soil-borne plant disease is a recurrent and recalcitrant problem in crop production. This is especially important in many horticultural crops where multiple cropping of the same species (e.g. lettuce, radish, onions) occurs within a single season but it also applies to many agricultural crops where there is mono-cropping or a short rotation (e.g. Wheat, sugar beet, potatoes). The economic importance of soil-borne disease has led to substantial research and industrial investment, giving rise to the release of new chemicals, together with increasing demands for biological and cultural methods of control. The application of these methods however has received relatively little formal epidemiological attention. Little is known about how the methods of control affect epidemiological mechanisms of transmission, invasion and persistence nor the variability between epidemics. Existing work is largely empirical and focused on control of disease in single crops. Strategies for sustainable control requires a shift in current emphasis from control in a single crop to consider the dynamics of control during a sequence of crops. Hence, my current research responds to two key questions
- (i) Why, when disease appears during a sequence of susceptible crops, does it either spread and invade or decline and even disappear?
It is now generally recognised that the spread of disease is highly non-linear which means that small changes at the beginning of an epidemic or sequence of epidemics, can have a large impact on the final levels and variability of disease within a single crop or on the long-term dynamics and persistence of disease in a sequence of crops. Moreover, threshold-like behaviour exists for which disease may continue to spread causing extensive crop loss or alternatively the spread of disease is limited and may eventually disappear. Such differences in the long-term trajectory of disease are due to the dynamic interplay between the pathogen, its host and their environment as well as the stochastic, chance events that occur during epidemic development. Moreover, factors affecting the long-term survival or extinction of a soil-borne plant pathogen naturally encompass issues of pathotype selection as the pathogen population evolves through cycles of parasitic and saprotrophic growth in response to sequential crop and inter-crop periods. The aim here is to demonstrate the presence and identify the scale of threshold-like behaviour using epidemiological modelling and controlled experimentation and then to examine the response of this threshold-like behaviour to increasing levels of system heterogeneity.
- (ii) Can we exploit threshold-like behaviour to organise existing, and introduce novel treatments forlong-term control of disease?
With a few notable exceptions, this theory remains untested and has yet to be exploited for optimising the control of soil-borne disease. The aim of the approach is not to eradicate disease but to manage a production system so that, when disease occurs, the risk of an invasive and persistent disease problem is minimised. Again, using a combination of epidemiological modelling and experimentation we will screen existing and novel control treatments against key model parameters that determine invasion and persistence of disease. The models will be used to organise one or more treatment options to minimise the risk of severe disease outbreaks in sequences of susceptible crops.
Publications
-
Bailey, D.J., Biran, G., Kerry, B.J. &
Gilligan, C.A. (2008) Pathozone dynamics of
Meloidogyne incognita in the rhizosphere
of tomato plants in the presence and absence of the
nematophagous fungus, Pochonia
chlamydosporia. Plant Pathology
(accepted)
-
Bailey, D.J., Kleczkowski, A. & Gilligan C.A.
(2006) An epidemiological analysis of the role of
disease-induced root growth in the differential
response of two cultivars of winter wheat to
infection by the take-all pathogen,
Gaeumannomyces graminis. var. tritici.
Phytopathology 96: 510-516.
-
Bailey, D.J., Foulks, J., Pillinger, C. Spink, J.
Paveley, N.A. & Gilligan, C.A. (2005)
Epidemiology and control of take-all on seminal and
adventitious roots of wheat.
Phytopathology 95 62-68.
-
Otten, W., Bailey, D. J., Ludlam, J. J. &
Gilligan, C.A. (2004) Can incomplete spatial
coverage of control measures prevent invasion of
fungal parasites? In Management of plant
diseases and arthropod pests by biocontrol agents
and their integration into agricultural
systems. S. Michelle all'Adige, Trentino,
Italy, 9-13 June 2004. (ed. I. Pertot, Y. Elad
& A. Engkegaard), pp. 251-254: IOBC.
-
Otten, W., Bailey, D.J. & Gilligan, C.A. (2004)
Empirical evidence of spatial thresholds to control
invasion of fungal parasites and saproptrophs.
New Phytologist 163: 125-132.
-
Bailey, D.J. & Gilligan, C.A. (2004) Modelling
and analysis of disease-induced root growth in the
epidemiology of take-all. Phytopathology.
94: 535-540.
-
Bailey, D.J., Kleczkowski, A. & Gilligan, C.A.
(2004) Epidemiological dynamics and the efficiency
of biological control of soil-borne disease in
consecutive crops. New Phytologist
161: 560-577.
-
Otten, W., Filipe, J., Bailey, D.J. & Gilligan,
C.A. (2003) Quantification and analysis of
transmission rates for soil-borne epidemics.
Ecology. 84: 3232-3239
-
Bailey, D.J., Thornton, C.R. Dewey, F.M. &
Gilligan, C.A. (2001) A non-destructive monoclonal
antibody-based technique for the visualisation and
quantification of saprotrophic growth dynamics of
the soil-borne plant pathogen Rhizoctonia
solani. Mycological research
105: 983-990.
-
Bailey, D.J., Otten, W.O. & Gilligan, C.A.
(2000) Percolation, heterogeneity and the
saprotrophic invasion of soil by the fungal plant
pathogen Rhizoctonia solani. New
Phytologist 146: 535-544.
-
Bailey, D.J. & Gilligan, C.A. (1999) The
dynamics of primary and secondary infection in
take-all epidemics. Phytopathology
89: 84-91.
-
Kleczkowski, A., Gilligan, C.A. & Bailey, D.J.
(1997) Scaling and spatial dynamics in plant
pathogen systems: from individuals to populations.
Proceedings of the Royal Society London, Series
B 264: 979-984.
-
Bailey, D.J. & Gilligan, C.A. (1997) Biological
control of pathozone behaviour and disease dynamics
of Rhizoctonia solani by Trichoderma
viride. New Phytologist 136:
359-367.
-
Gilligan, C.A. & Bailey, D.J. (1997) Components
of pathozone behaviour. New Phytologist
136: 343-358
- Kleczkowski, A., Bailey, D.J. & Gilligan, C.A. (1996) Dynamically generated variability in a plant pathogen system with biological control. Proceedings of the Royal Society London, Series B. 263: 777-783.
