Chong Mei Dong

Dr Chong Mei Dong is a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney's School of Life and Environmental Sciences, affiliated with the Sydney Institute of Agriculture. She joined the university in 2002 and focuses on non-transgenic gene modification methods and cereal genetics.

Education:

• Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Fudan University, Shanghai, China
• PhD in wheat cell cycle gene research at Australian National University
• Postdoctoral research on wheat meiosis at University of Adelaide

Research Interests: Cloning/functional analysis of genes, association studies linking genes to traits, TILLING technology for wheat breeding, cereal genetics, functional genomics, and molecular biology. Her work aligns with the university's research strengths in crop improvement and genomics.

Key Research Trends: Recent studies emphasize genetic resistance to rust pathogens, genomic analysis of fungal pathogens (e.g., Austropuccinia psidii), and the application of modern biotechnologies like TILLING. Publications highlight wheat-rust interactions, carotenoid biosynthesis in fungi, and introgression line development for disease resistance.

Grants & Collaborations:

• 2021: Accelerating genetic gain in wheat hybrid breeding (ACIAR)
• 2020: Stomatal manipulation for wheat yield improvement (GRDC)

Labs & Teams: Active in Plant Breeding Institute (Cobbitty) and collaborates with international teams on hybrid breeding and pathogen genomics.