Cesare Gessler

Cesare Gessler, 2013

Cesare Valentin Gessler (born April 8, 1949 in Wädenswil ) is a Swiss agronomist .

Life

Gessler studied agronomy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ( ETH Zurich ) and received his doctorate in 1977 at the then Institute for Special Botany on the subject of "Studio sulla resistenza della Botrytis cinerea all MBC".

After a stay as a post-doctoral student at the University of Kentucky , he returned to ETH Zurich in 1980, where he took on a position as senior assistant at the Institute for Phytomedicine. In 1990 he became a scientific adjunct at the same institute.

As a senior assistant, he began working as a lecturer in the subjects of systematic biology, cryptogams , plant pathology ( epidemiology , ecology , diagnostics) and tropical plant pathology. From 2003 to 2007 he headed the project / Research Center Safecrop / of the Autonomous Province of Trento in Italy.

In 2006 he became titular professor at the ETH, which recognized his diverse and original research activities. In 2009 the American Phytopathological Society (APS) honored him with the title "Fellow", which is awarded for exceptional achievements. Cesare Gessler retired at the end of April 2014.

Gessler is married to Piera Gessler-Manini and has two sons.

Scientific contribution

Cesare Gessler became internationally known for his research on apple scab ( Venturia inaequalis ) and downy mildew of grapevines ( Plasmopara viticola ).

Gessler's work covers a wide area: from practical epidemiology and biological control of plant diseases to molecular genetic projects. In cooperation with European research institutes, he and his team succeeded in identifying the apple's resistance genes to plant diseases and transferring them to another, disease-prone apple variety.

• Worldwide first cloned resistance gene against apple scab (HcrVf2, in collaboration with the University of Bologna, group Prof. Silviero Sansavini)
• Cloning of the world's second resistance gene against apple scab (Vr2, in cooperation with PRI, group Dr. Henk Schouten)
• World's first cloned fire blight resistance gene (MR5, in collaboration with JKI Dresden, group Prof. Viola Hanke)

Understanding of grapevine downy mildew has also been greatly expanded through Gessler's research. Through the development and application of microsatellites - DNA markers, he was able to show that the so-called primary inoculum is more important throughout the season than the secondary inoculum, which usually controls the course of the disease in polycyclic diseases.

Gessler always tried to communicate and collaborate with researchers in his research areas. For example, he was instrumental in founding “SafeCrop”, the research and development center for crop protection at the Edmund Mach Foundation in San Michele all'Adige , Italy. From 2003 to 2007 he was scientific director of this institute, which sees itself as a center for research and development of plant protection measures with a low impact on the environment and consumer health.

Together with international research institutes (members of CGIAR ), he also supervised doctoral theses that were carried out in emerging or developing countries with the aim of making a contribution to improving food production there. For example, an epidemiological study of the potato virus helped to improve the quality of the potatoes harvested in Peru . Another research project in Ecuador identified the most important biological causes of the prevailing potato seed degeneration and thereby also made an improvement in quality possible.

Honors

• Awarded the title " Fellow " by the American Phytopathological Society
• Honorary member of the International Organization for Biological Control IOBC-WPRS

Publications

• with A. Patocchi: Recombinant DNA technology in apple. Green Gene Technology, 2007, pp. 113-132. PMID 17522823
• with E. Belfanti, E. Silfverberg-Dilworth, S. Tartarini, A. Patocchi, M. Barbieri, J. Zhu, BA Vinatzer, L. Gianfranceschi and S. Sansavini: The HcrVf2 gene from a wild apple confers scab resistance to a transgenic cultivated variety. In: Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2004, 101, pp. 886-890. PMID 14715897
• with HJ Schouten, J. Brinkhuis, A. van der Burgh, JG Schaart, R. Groenwold and GAL Broggini: Cloning and functional characterization of the Rvi15 (Vr2) gene for apple scab resistance. In: Tree Genetics & Genomes. 2013. doi: 10.1007 / s11295-013-0678-9
• with G. Broggini, T. Wöhner, J. Fahrentrapp, T. Kost, H. Flachowsky, A. Peil, MV Hanke, K. Richter, A. Patocchi: Engineering fire blight resistance into the apple cultivar 'Gala' using the FB_MR5 CC-NBS-LRR resistance gene of 'Malus × robusta' 5. In: Plant Biotechnology Journal. 2014 Aug; 12 (6), pp. 728-733. PMID 24618178
• with A. Patocchi and others: Venturia inaequalis resistance in apple. In: Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences. 25.6, 2006, pp. 473-503. doi: 10.1080 / 07352680601015975
• with WE MacHardy and DM Gadoury: Parasitic and biological fitness of Venturia inaequalis : relationship to disease management strategies. In: Plant Disease. 85.10, 2001, pp. 1036-1051. doi: 10.1094 / PDIS.2001.85.10.1036
• with I. Pertot and M. Perazzolli: Plasmopara viticola: a review of knowledge on downy mildew of grapevine and effective disease management. In: Phytopathologia Mediterranea. 2011, 50, pp. 3-44.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cesare Gessler: Studio sulla resistenza della Botrytis cinerea all MBC. Dissertation . ETH Zurich, 1977.
2. ↑ List of adjunct professors in the USYS department at ETH Zurich.
3. ↑ Fellow award page of the “American Phytopathological Society”
4. ↑ Modeling of potato virus pathosystems by means of quantitative epidemiology: An exemplary case based on virus degeneration studies in Peru. Lukas Bertschinger, Dissertation No. 9759 ETH Zurich, 1992.
5. ↑ Corinne Fankhauser: Seed-transmitted diseases as constraints for potato production in the tropical highlands of Ecuador. Dissertation No. 13770, ETH Zurich, 2000.