Professor Bradshaw's main research focus is the application of molecular and comparative genomics tools to study how fungi interact with plants. Her group is interested in plant pathogens, endophytes, forest pathology, mycotoxins, fungal gene clusters and biocontrol. As part of an initiative by the Dothideomycete Comparative Genomics Consortium and the Joint Genome Institute, she was PI for the project to sequence the genome of the pine needle pathogen Dothistroma septosporum. The Bradshaw laboratory elucidated the genetics of dothistromin toxin biosynthesis and discovered it is a virulence factor in needle blight disease. They also found that dothistromin genes are unusual in being dispersed across one chromosome in a 'fragmented cluster' and gathered evidence that this is a fragmented form of a tighter ancestral aflatoxin-like gene cluster and is subject to chromatin-level regulation of gene expression.
The Bradshaw laboratory's research interests also include Phytophthora species that are pathogens of forest trees. A project looking at the pine needle pathogen Phytophthora pluvialis suggests there were two introductions of this pathogen into New Zealand and a transcriptomics study is unravelling how this pathogen interacts with its host. A major initiative to study the kauri dieback pathogen Phytophthora agathidicida is in progress, using effector biology to help determine the best way to achieve durable resistance of kauri in the forest.
