DST Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology at FABI

This Centre acknowledges the outstanding contribution made by the Forestry and Agriculture Biotechnology Institute (FABI) to the field of biotechnology as applied to trees. This Centre will focus on the field of tree health, which is of tremendous importance, both nationally and internationally, yet which is not particularly well known outside the agricultural and forestry domain.

Other than being highly relevant to South Africa, a country that depends heavily on agriculture and forestry, this field has the attraction of being strongly multidisciplinary. This is because the environment, the inherent nature of trees themselves and a wide range of organisms which impact negatively upon them, crucially affect tree health. Thus the fields of silviculture, agronomy, genetics, plant pathology, microbiology, entomology, molecular genetics and others are all important and relevant to this domain. The proposed Centre will seek to integrate research in these fields.

Contact: Prof Mike Wingfield
Tel: +27 12 420 3938/3939
Hosted by the University of Pretoria