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Lily Pereg

Lily Pereg

Senior Lecturer, School of Science and Technology

Qualifications

BSc (BGU), MSc (TAU), PhD (Syd)

Contact

Email:
Room: McClymont Building (W34) 341
Phone: 02 6773 2708 (or +61 2 6773 2708 overseas)
Fax: 02 6773 3267

Additional:

Affiliated researcher at the National Marine Science Centre
Participant in the Cotton Catchment Community CRC (30% FTE contribution)

Research interests

Lily has a PhD from the University of Sydney (1998). She worked in Germany at the Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne (1998-2001), before joining UNE in mid 2001. Her main research interests include soil and marine microbial interactions in pathogenic and beneficial associations and their genetic regulations. Her research group conduct projects in agriculture and in the marine environment. Other interests include the genetics of microorganisms from extreme environments, such as hyperthermophiles.

Current research projects in Lily's lab include:

  1. Pathogenicity factors in the interactions of the soil fungal pathogen, T. basicola, with plants (Microbiology, Fungal genetics, Proteomics).
  2. Bio-control of the soil-borne fungal disease Black Root rot, using soil amendments, including beneficial bacterial and protein agents.
  3. Signal transduction in the soil bacterium Azospirillum and its relation to bacterial-plant interactions (Microbiology, genetics and proteomics).
  4. Coral disease - environmental and microbial aspects of stony coral disease in subtropical regions of the Australian East Coast.
  5. Microbial indicators of ecosystem health - microbial diversity and Vibrio related diseases in shrimps (natural environments) and lobsters (aquaculture).
  6. Nitrogen cycle in soil and in the marine benthos.
  7. Protein biotechnology - engineering Lac Repressor for thermostability and for modification of functional traits.

Teaching

BCHM220 Introductory Biochemistry II
BCHM240 Biochemistry and Microbiology for Rural Science
MICR360 Biotechnology and Industrial Microbiology
BCHM320 Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
GENE340 Molecular Genetics and Developmental Biology

Research grants

Pereg-Gerk L., Backhouse D., Katz M., Nehl D and Driessen S., Linking cotton-pathogen molecular interactions and black root rot management, Cotton Research and Development Corp., $476,405, 2007-2010.

Zhulin I., (leader, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta) and a group of international collaborators, including L. Pereg-Gerk, Sequencing the genome of Azospirillum brasilense, US Department of Agriculture (USDA)/National Science Foundation (NSF), 2005-2008.

Pereg-Gerk L., Backhouse D, Katz M. and Nehl D., Molecular Factors determining Thielaviopsis basicola-cotton interactions leading to Black Root Rot disease, Cotton Research and Development Corp., $181,119, 2004-2007.

L. Pereg-Gerk, D. Backhouse, M. Katz, B. Cheetham and B. Entsch, Application of molecular methods for controlling microbial diseases of plants, VC-supported Postdoctoral Fellowship, UNE, $230,000, 2003-2006.

Walkden-Brown S.W., Le Jambre L.F., Groves P.J., Cheetham B.F., Windon R.G., Katz M.E., McClure S.J., Backhouse D., Pereg Gerk L.L. and Islam A.F., Quantitative PCR facility for New England Region, ARC Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities Grant, Partner Organisations: UNE, CSIRO, Baiada Poultry, $102,000, 2003.

S.A. Glover, M.J. Gunter, J.R. McFarlane, P.R. Grave, T.C. Brown, D. Backhouse, D.J. Tucker, L. Pereg-Gerk, D.J. Brunckhorst, K. Watson, D. Lamb, M. Choct and P.C. Gregg, LC-MS system for Faculty of Sciences, ARC Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities Grant, UNE, $ 250,000, 2003.

Selected publications

J.V.F. Coumans, A. Poljak, M.J. Raftery, D. Backhouse and L. Pereg-Gerk, Analysis of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) root proteomes during a compatible interaction with the black root rot fungus Thielaviopsis basicola, Proteomics 9, pp. 335-349, 2009.

Pereg Gerk L., Expression of flcA, a gene regulating differentiation and plant interaction in Azospirillum, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, vol. 36, pp. 1245-1252, 2004.

Pereg Gerk L., N. Sar and Y. Lipkin, In situ nitrogen fixation associated with seagrasses in the Gulf of Elat (Red Sea), Aquatic Ecology, vol. 36, pp. 387-394, 2002.

Pereg Gerk L., O. Leven and B. Müller-Hill, Strengthening the dimerisation interface of Lac repressor increases its thermostability by 40 deg. C, Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 299, pp. 805-812, 2000.

Pereg Gerk L., K. Gilchrist and I.R. Kennedy, Mutants with enhanced nitrogenase activity in hydroponic Azospirillum brasilense-wheat associations, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 66, pp. 2175-2184, 2000.

Pereg Gerk L., A. Paquelin, P. Gounon, I.R. Kennedy and C. Elmerich, A transcriptional regulator of the LuxR-UhpA family, FlcA, controls flocculation and wheat root surface colonisation by Azospirillum brasilense Sp7, Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, vol. 11, pp. 177-187, 1998.

Kennedy I.R., L. Pereg Gerk, C. Wood, R. Deaker, K. Gilchrist and S. Katupitiya, Biological nitrogen fixation in non-leguminous field crops: facilitating the evolution of an effective association between Azospirillum and wheat, Plant and Soil, vol. 194, pp. 65-79, 1997.

Elmerich C., M. de Zamaroczy, F. Arsène, L. Pereg, A. Paquelin and A. Kaminski, Regulation of nif gene expression and nitrogen metabolism in Azospirillum, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, vol. 29, pp. 847-852, 1996.

Pereg L., N. Sar and Y. Lipkin, Different niches of the Halophila stipulacea seagrass bed harbor distinct populations of nitrogen fixing bacteria, Marine Biology, vol. 119, pp. 327-333, 1994.