Skip to:

Angus Dawe

Office: 217 Harned Hall
Phone: 662-325-7577
Email: dawe@biology.msstate.edu

Education
 
B.S., Microbiology, University of Sheffield
M.S., Biotechnology, and
Ph.D., Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Biology
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
 
Dr. Angus L. Dawe came to Mississippi State University in the summer of 2016 as Department Head of Biological Sciences. Dr. Dawe grew up in Cornwall (southwest England) and completed his Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology at the University of Sheffield in 1989. Moving to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, for graduate work, he gained his MS (Biotechnology) in 1991 and Ph.D. (Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Biology) in 1996. Postdoctoral work followed at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now part of Rutgers University) through 1999. In 2000, he began work as a Senior Scientist in the Center for Agricultural Biotechnology (now the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research) at the University of Maryland. Immediately prior to coming to Starkville, Dr. Dawe was a faculty member in the Department of Biology at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, the Land Grant campus of the state of New Mexico, from 2004. In 2010 he was promoted to Associate Professor and to Professor in 2016. He played a key role in a successful application for funding from Undergraduate Science Education program of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2006, which was renewed in 2010 and 2014, awards that totaled over $5M to the NMSU campus and resulted in increased support for curriculum development, undergraduate research training, and outreach. Dr. Dawe served as Associate Department Head for the Department of Biology from 2012 to 2016, Director of Graduate Studies in the Department from 2014 to 2016, and also served on a wide variety of campus committees and governing bodies, including elected positions on the Faculty Senate and Graduate Council.
 
Research Interests
 
Dr. Dawe‘s primary research interest is in the biology of plant pathogenic fungi, particularly the molecular interactions of the pathogens and their hosts. Trained in molecular biology through his work with cellular communication between yeast cells (as a graduate student) and study of the mechanisms that control distribution of nuclei in filamentous fungi (as a postdoc), Dr. Dawe developed his interest in this area of research through work with the causative agent of chestnut blight, the disease that has almost eradicated the American chestnut. Dr. Dawe has graduated six Ph.D. students, one M.S. student, and has worked with more than 20 undergraduates and summer students. In 2011, Dr. Dawe spent six months at Exeter University in the UK working with the research group of Dr. Nick Talbot, studying a fungal pathogen of rice. Dr. Dawe has twice been the recipient of major research funding from the National Science Foundation (2007 and 2011) for individual and collaborative research projects on chestnut blight. He was also a co-PI on an NSF major research instrumentation grant that brought next generation sequencing technology to NMSU in 2008. He has served on grant review panels for the NSF and the US Department of Agriculture and is also a member and former chair of the USDA Multistate Research Project NE-1333, which is focused on management of the American chestnut and its pathogens.
 
Selected Recent Publications
 
D-X. Zhang, M. J. Spiering, A. L. Dawe and D. L. Nuss (2014). Vegetative incompatibility loci with dedicated roles in allorecognition restrict mycovirus transmission in chestnut blight fungus. Genetics 197, 701-714.
 
A. L. Dawe and D. L. Nuss (2013). Hypovirus Molecular Biology: from Koch’s postulates to host self-recognition genes that restrict virus transmission. Advances in Virus Research 86, 109-147.
 
D.M. Soanes, A. Chakrabarti, K. H. Paszkiewicz, A. J. Moorhouse, A. L. Dawe and N. J. Talbot. (2012) Genome-wide transcriptional profiling of appressorium development by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. PLoS Pathogens 8(2): e1002514. doi:10.1371/ journal.ppat.1002514.
 
G. H. Choi, A. L. Dawe, A. Churbanov, M. L. Smith, M. G. Milgroom, D. L. Nuss. (2012) Molecular characterization of fungal vegetative incompatibility genes restricting virus transmission. Genetics 190:113-127.
 
R. Mu, T. Romero, K. A. Hanley and A. L. Dawe (2011). Conserved and variable structural elements in the 5' UTR of Cryphonectria hypoviruses. Virus Research 161: 203-208.
 
J. A. Salamon, R. Acuña and A. L. Dawe (2010). Phosphorylation of phosducin-like protein BDM-1 by protein kinase 2 (CK2) is required for virulence and Gb subunit stability in the fungal plant pathogen Cryphonectria parasitica. Mol. Microbiol. 76: 848-860.
 
A. L. Dawe, W. A. Van Voorhies, T. A. Lau, A. V. Ulanovand Z. Li. (2009). Major impacts on the primary metabolism of the plant pathogen Cryphonectria parasitica by the virulence-attenuating virus CHV1-EP713. Microbiology 155: 3913 – 3921.
 
K. L. Willyerd, A. M. Kemp and A. L. Dawe(2009). Controlled gene expression in the plant pathogen Cryphonectria parasitica by use of a copper-responsive element. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75: 5417-5420.