Dr Dodds is part of a team at CSIRO Plant Industry that researches the plant disease rust – one of the most significant and devastating crop diseases in the world, especially in grain crops.

His ground-breaking research has led to the discovery of the rust ‘avirulence gene’ and could result in the development of new wheat varieties with improved and longer lasting rust resistance.

“Every day most Australians rely on the research of scientists like Dr Dodds because we eat wheat products like bread and pasta,” says Dr Jeremy Burdon, chief of CSIRO Plant Industry.

“Wheat grown in Australia that gives us these products has had rust resistance bred into it.

"Without this resistance, we would produce less wheat, and wheat products might be more expensive.

“But rusts are adaptable and evolve to overcome resistance, so it’s an ongoing battle to keep developing new wheat varieties that are resistant.”

The avirulence gene identified by Dr Dodds is the white flag that surrenders rust to the plant’s defences - research that is helping Dr Dodds identify and ‘design’ plant genes that more effectively recognise the avirulence gene to help the plant fight rust infection better.

“Other plants have rust resistance genes which we could potentially transfer to wheat and likewise we can develop ‘designer’ genes with durable resistance,” says Dr Dodds.

“Our aim is to stack a number of these resistance genes into a single wheat variety, significantly increasing its resistance and the length of time we expect it to remain resistant.”

Nature’s acknowledgement of Dr Dodds comes as a new and highly virulent strain of rust called Ug99 encroaches on Asia’s major wheat growing areas and threatens Australia’s biosecurity.

“Science has an important role in helping address new and existing environmental challenges to improve the sustainability of agriculture, feed the world and reduce poverty,” Dr Dodds says.

“Our research may lead to new varieties of wheat that can help farmers in Australia and elsewhere to help supply wheat and wheat products to people worldwide.”

Dr Dodds’ research is supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.