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Stefano Torriani

Affiliation / Function

Activity areas

  • Plant-pathogen interaction
  • Evolutionary mechanisms and population dynamics
  • Monitoring systems and environmental DNA
  • Data management and precision agriculture

Projects

StatusFiBLTitleStartEnd
ongoing CH Understanding late blight population dynamics to improve control strategies 01.10.2025 30.09.2029
ongoing CH Biocontrol of Dollar Spot Disease 01.01.2025 31.12.2030

Training / professional career

  • Since 2024 Head of the Department of Crop Sciences, FiBL Switzerland
  • 2023 - 2024 Crop Life International – FRAC Steering Commitee
  • 2014 - 2024 Global Lead of Fungicide Resistance Network, Syngenta
  • 2011 - 2014 Senior Scientist (Oberassistent), plant pathology group, ETH Zurich
  • 2009 - 2011 Postdoctoral researcher of European Integrated Project BIOEXPLOIT (ETHZ)
  • 2005 - 2009 PhD at the plant pathology group, ETH Zurich

Committee work / further activities

  • Grape4vine Advisory Board

Awards

  • 2010: ETH Medal for outstanding PhD dissertation
  • 2010: Plant Science Center Basel-Zurich, best poster prize
  • 2008: John Colhoun prize for best poster, British Society of Plant Pathology

Publications

Publications in the Organic Eprints archive

Publications that are not in the Organic Eprints archive

  • Toffolatti S.L., Lecchi B., Maddalena G., Marcianò D., Stuknytė M., Arioli S., Mora D., Bianco P.A., Borsa P., Coatti M., Waldner-Zulauf M., Borghi L., Torriani S.F.F. (2024) The management of grapevine downy mildew: from anti-resistance strategies to innovative approaches for fungicide resistance monitoring. Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection:1-8.
  • Ballu A., Ugazio C., Duplaix C., Noly A., Wullschleger J., Torriani S.F.F., Dérédec A., Carpentier F., Walker A.-S. (2023) Preventing multiple resistance above all: new insights for managing fungal adaptation. bioRxiv:2022.12.17.520869.
  • Chen H., King R., Smith D., Bayon C., Ashfield T., Torriani S.F.F., Kanyuka K., Hammond-Kosack K., Bieri S., Rudd J. (2023) Combined pangenomics and transcriptomics reveals core and redundant virulence processes in a rapidly evolving fungal plant pathogen. BMC Biology 21:24.
  • Feurtey A., Lorrain C., McDonald M.C., Milgate A., Solomon P.S., Warren R., Puccetti G., Scalliet G., Torriani S.F.F., Gout L., Marcel T.C., Suffert F., Alassimone J., Lipzen A., Yoshinaga Y., Daum C., Barry K., Grigoriev I.V., Goodwin S.B., Genissel A., Seidl M.F., Stukenbrock E.H., Lebrun M.-H., Kema G.H.J., McDonald B.A., Croll D. (2023) A thousand-genome panel retraces the global spread and adaptation of a major fungal crop pathogen. Nature Communications 14:1059.
  • Assinger T., Fountaine J., Torriani S.F.F., Accardo S., Bernhard-Frey R., Gottula J., Steinkellner S. (2022) Detection of Ramularia collo-cygni DMI- and SDHI-resistant field populations in Austria and the effect of fungicides on the population and genetic diversity. European Journal of Plant Pathology 162:575–594.
  • Assinger T., Torriani S.F.F., Accardo S., Fountaine J., Steinkellner S. (2021) Fungicide strategies and resistance of Ramularia collo-cygni to demethylation and succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors in Austrian winter barley (Hordeum vulgare). Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection 128:735-748.
  • Massi F., Torriani S.F.F., Borghi L., Toffolatti S.L. (2021) Fungicide Resistance Evolution and Detection in Plant Pathogens: Plasmopara viticola as a Case Study. Microorganisms 9:119
  • Steinhauer D., Salat M., Frey R., Mosbach A., Luksch T., Balmer D., Hansen R., Widdison S., Logan G., Dietrich R.A., Kema G.H., Bieri S., Sierotzki H., Torriani S.F.F., Scalliet G. (2019) A dispensable paralog of succinate dehydrogenase subunit C mediates standing resistance towards a subclass of SDHI fungicides in Zymoseptoria tritici. bioRxiv:616904
  • Toffolatti S.L., Russo G., Campia P., Bianco P.A., Borsa P., Coatti M., Torriani S.F.F., Sierotzki H. (2018) A time‐course investigation of resistance to the carboxylic acid amide mandipropamid in field populations of Plasmopara viticola treated with anti‐resistance strategies. Pest Management Science 74:2822-2834.
  • Palma-Guerrero J., Ma X., Torriani S.F.F., Zala M., Francisco C.S., Hartmann F.E., Croll D., McDonald B.A. (2017) Comparative Transcriptome Analyses in Zymoseptoria tritici Reveal Significant Differences in Gene Expression Among Strains During Plant Infection. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions® 30:231-244.
  • Palma‐Guerrero J., Torriani S.F.F., Zala M., Carter D., Courbot M., Rudd J.J., McDonald B.A., Croll D. (2016) Comparative transcriptomic analyses of Zymoseptoria tritici strains show complex lifestyle transitions and intraspecific variability in transcription profiles. Molecular Plant Pathology 17:845-859.
  • Estep L.K., Torriani S.F.F., Zala M., Anderson N.P., Flowers M.D., McDonald B.A., Mundt C.C., Brunner P.C. (2015) Emergence and early evolution of fungicide resistance in North American populations of Zymoseptoria tritici. Plant Pathology 64:961-971.
  • Tisato N., Torriani S.F.F., Monteux S., Sauro F., Waele J.D., Tavagna M.L., D’Angeli I.M., Chailloux D., Renda M., Eglinton T.I., Bontognali T.R.R. (2015) Microbial mediation of complex subterranean mineral structures. Scientific Reports 5:15525
  • Torriani S.F.F., Melichar J.P.E., Mills C., Pain N., Sierotzki H., Courbot M. (2015) Zymoseptoria tritici: A major threat to wheat production, integrated approaches to control. Fungal Genetics and Biology 79:8-12.
  • Torriani S.F.F., Penselin D., Knogge W., Felder M., Taudien S., Platzer M., McDonald B.A., Brunner P.C. (2014) Comparative analysis of mitochondrial genomes from closely related Rhynchosporium species reveals extensive intron invasion. Fungal Genetics and Biology 62:34-42.
  • Brunner P.C., Torriani S.F.F., Croll D., Stukenbrock E.H., McDonald B.A. (2014) Hitchhiking Selection Is Driving Intron Gain in a Pathogenic Fungus. Molecular Biology and Evolution 31:1741-1749.
  • Siah A., Elbekali A.Y., Ramdani A., Reignault P., Torriani S.F.F., Brunner P.C., Halama P. (2014) QoI Resistance and Mitochondrial Genetic Structure of Zymoseptoria tritici in Morocco. Plant Disease 98:1138-1144.
  • Brunner P.C., Torriani S.F.F., Croll D., Stukenbrock E.H., McDonald B.A. (2013) Coevolution and Life Cycle Specialization of Plant Cell Wall Degrading Enzymes in a Hemibiotrophic Pathogen. Molecular Biology and Evolution 30:1337-1347.
  • Torriani S.F.F., Brunner P.C., McDonald B.A. (2011) Evolutionary history of the mitochondrial genome in Mycosphaerella populations infecting bread wheat, durum wheat and wild grasses. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 58:192-197.
  • Torriani S.F.F., Stukenbrock E.H., Brunner P.C., McDonald B.A., Croll D. (2011) Evidence for Extensive Recent Intron Transposition in Closely Related Fungi. Current Biology 21:2017-2022.
  • Goodwin S.B., M’Barek S.B., Dhillon B., Wittenberg A.H.J., Crane C.F., Hane J.K., Foster A.J., Lee T.A.J.V. der, Grimwood J., Aerts A., Antoniw J., Bailey A., Bluhm B., Bowler J., Bristow J., Burgt A. van der, Canto-Canché B., Churchill A.C.L., Conde-Ferràez L., Cools H.J., Coutinho P.M., Csukai M., Dehal P., Wit P.D., Donzelli B., Geest H.C. van de, Ham R.C.H.J. van, Hammond-Kosack K.E., Henrissat B., Kilian A., Kobayashi A.K., Koopmann E., Kourmpetis Y., Kuzniar A., Lindquist E., Lombard V., Maliepaard C., Martins N., Mehrabi R., Nap J.P.H., Ponomarenko A., Rudd J.J., Salamov A., Schmutz J., Schouten H.J., Shapiro H., Stergiopoulos I., Torriani S.F.F., Tu H., Vries R.P. de, Waalwijk C., Ware S.B., Wiebenga A., Zwiers L.-H., Oliver R.P., Grigoriev I.V., Kema G.H.J. (2011) Finished Genome of the Fungal Wheat Pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola Reveals Dispensome Structure, Chromosome Plasticity, and Stealth Pathogenesis. PLoS Genetics 7:e1002070.
  • Torriani S.F.F., Brunner P.C., McDonald B.A., Sierotzki H. (2009) QoI resistance emerged independently at least 4 times in European populations of Mycosphaerella graminicola. Pest Management Science 65:155-162.
  • Torriani S.F.F., Linde C.C., McDonald B.A. (2009) Sequence conservation in the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and lack of G143A QoI resistance allele in a global sample of Rhynchosporium secalis. Australasian Plant Pathology 38:202-207.
  • Torriani S.F.F., Goodwin S.B., Kema G.H.J., Pangilinan J.L., McDonald B.A. (2008) Intraspecific comparison and annotation of two complete mitochondrial genome sequences from the plant pathogenic fungus Mycosphaerella graminicola. Fungal Genetics and Biology 45:628-637.
  • Hane J.K., Lowe R.G.T., Solomon P.S., Tan K.-C., Schoch C.L., Spatafora J.W., Crous P.W., Kodira C., Birren B.W., Galagan J.E., Torriani S.F.F., McDonald B.A., Oliver R.P. (2007) Dothideomycete–Plant Interactions Illuminated by Genome Sequencing and EST Analysis of the Wheat Pathogen Stagonospora nodorum. The Plant Cell 19:3347-3368.
  • Zhan J., Torriani S.F.F., McDonald B.A. (2007) Significant difference in pathogenicity between MAT1-1 and MAT1-2 isolates in the wheat pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola. Fungal Genetics and Biology 44:339-346.