Associate Professor

Lab web site: Bonello Lab

Program Description

My primary research interest is in the ecological role of tree diseases. Specific aspects being investigated are the chemical ecology of tree/fungal pathogen/insect interactions, with some attention to effects of disease on the host signals (semiochemicals) utilized by insect pests to locate and select suitable feeding and breeding substrate as well as the host's defensive chemistry. Connected to this primary interest is a focus on systemic disease and insect resistance induced in trees by fungal pathogens. Chemical, biochemical, molecular, and anatomical approaches are used to dissect these phenomena in pines, with particular emphasis on the model system represented by Austrian pine and the shoot blight and canker pathogen Diplodia pinea .

A second major area of interest is on the effects of soil type and soil management regimes on mycorrhizal community structure of trees in simulated urban environments. We are investigating the effects of soil type and management regime, fertility, and mycorrhizal inoculants on tree resistance to drought stress and patterns of within tree carbon allocation, with special emphasis on allocation to defense mechanisms against pathogens and insects. Our model tree in this research is paper birch.

A third, increasingly significant involvement is in the area of emerging pathogens and insect pests of trees, or disease syndromes, with particular attention to the ecological consequences of pathogen and insect pest invasions. Several projects are currently under way: 1) A study in California on the use of chemical markers for genetic resistance of coast live oak to the sudden oak death (SOD) pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum; 2) a study in California on wood decay fungi associated with xylophagous insects that preferentially attack coast live oak infected with P. ramorum; 3) a comparative analysis of mechanisms of resistance to the emerald ash borer in co-evolved and naïve ash species; and 4) an investigation into the etiology of a decline syndrome on white oaks recently discovered in SE Ohio. The lab is also in charge of a regional component of the national, US Forest Service-sponsored annual survey for the SOD pathogen. In 2004-2007 we conducted surveys and/or processed samples from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Besides my role as a faculty in Plant Pathology, I am a member of the interdisciplinary graduate program in Environmental Science (http://esgp.osu.edu/) as well as the specialization program in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (http://pmbb.osu.edu/).

Teaching and Extension Links

• Plant Pathology 610 Diseases of Forest and Shade Trees

• Plant Pathology 830 Fungi in Natural Ecosystems

• Plant Pathology 843 Ecology of Plant-Associated Microbes

Plant Disease Factsheets

Diplodia Tip Blight of Two-Needled Pines (pdf)

Mycorrhizae in Urban Landscapes (pdf)

Oak Wilt (pdf)

Dutch Elm Disease (pdf)

Sudden Oak Death (pdf)

Professional Preparation

Publications

• Wallis, C.M., Eyles, A., Chorbadjian, R., McSpadden-Gardner, B.B., Hansen, R., Cipollini, D.F., Herms, D.A. and P. Bonello. Systemic induction of phloem secondary metabolism and its relationship to resistance to a canker pathogen in Austrian pine. New Phytologist (accepted).
• Ockels, F.S., A. Eyles, B.A. McPherson, D.L. Wood, and P. Bonello. 2007. Chemistry of coast live oak response to Phytophthora ramorum infection. Journal of Chemical Ecology 33, 1721-1732.
• Luchi, N., P. Capretti, and P. Bonello. 2007. Production of Diplodia scrobiculata and Diplodia pinea pycnidia on ground Austrian pine needle agar medium. Phytopathologia Mediterranea 46, 230-235.
• Eyles, A., R. Chorbadjian, C.M. Wallis, R.C. Hansen, D.F. Cipollini, D.A. Herms, and P. Bonello. 2007. Cross-induction of systemic induced resistance between an insect and a fungal pathogen in Austrian pine over a fertility gradient. Oecologia 153: 365-374.
• Eyles, A., K. Riedl, W. Jones, S. Schwartz, K. Chan, D.A. Herms, D.F. Cipollini, and P. Bonello. 2007. Comparative phloem chemistry of Manchurian (Fraxinus mandshurica) and two North American ash species (F. americana and F. pennsylvanica). Journal of Chemical Ecology 33: 1430–1448.
• Mihail, J. D., J. N. Bruhn, and P. Bonello. 2007. Spatial and temporal patterns of morel fruiting. Mycological Research 111: 339-346.
• Ockels, F.S., M.V. DiLeo, and P. Bonello. 2007. Desiccation at ambient temperature effectively preserves plant tissues infected with Phytophthoras. Plant Health Progress. http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/sub/php/research/2007/desiccation/
• Whitehill, J., J. S. Lehman, and P. Bonello. 2007. Ips pini (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) is a vector of the fungal pathogen, Sphaeropsis sapinea (Coelomycetes), to Austrian pines, Pinus nigra (Pinaceae). Environmental Entomology 36:114-120.
• Blodgett, J. T., A. Eyles, and P. Bonello. 2007. Organ-dependent induction of systemic resistance and systemic susceptibility in Pinus nigra inoculated with Sphaeropsis sapinea and Diplodia scrobiculata. Tree Physiology 27:511-517.
• Bonello, P., T. R. Gordon, D. A. Herms, D. L. Wood, and N. Erbilgin. 2006. Nature and ecological implications of pathogen-induced systemic resistance in conifers: A novel hypothesis. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 68: 95-104. (Invited review article.)
• Wang, D., A. Eyles, and P. Bonello. 2006. Systemic aspects of host-pathogen interactions in Austrian pine (Pinus nigra): a proteomics approach. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 68:149-157.
• Thomas SL, Bonello P, Lipps PE, Boehm MJ (2006) Avenacin production in creeping bentgrass ( Agrostis stolonifera) and its influence on the host range of Gaeumannomyces graminis . Plant Disease 90: 33-38
• Testa, A., M. Schilb, J.S. Lehman, G. Cristinzio, and P. Bonello. 2005. First report of Phytophthora insolita and Phytophthora inflata on rhododendron in Ohio. Plant Disease 89, 1128.
• Luchi, N., R. Ma, P. Capretti, and P. Bonello. 2005. Systemic induction of traumatic resin ducts and resin flow in Austrian pine by wounding and inoculation with Sphaeropsis sapinea and Diplodia scrobiculata . Planta 221 (1):75-84.
• Blodgett, J.T., D.A. Herms, and P. Bonello. 2005. Effects of fertilization on red pine defense chemistry and resistance to Sphaeropsis sapinea . Forest Ecology and Management 208:373-382.
• Graham, T. L., and P. Bonello. 2004. Pathogen resistance in plants. In McGraw-Hill 2004 Yearbook of Science and Technology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• McNee, W.R., P. Bonello, D.L. Wood, A.J. Storer, and T.R. Gordon. 2003. Feeding response of Ips paraconfusus to phloem and phloem metabolites of Heterobasidion annosum -inoculated ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa . Journal of Chemical Ecology 29 (5):1183-1202.
• Dias, A.P., J. Brown, P. Bonello, and E. Grotewold. 2003. Metabolite profiling as a functional genomics tool. In Plant Functional Genomics: Methods & Protocols, edited by E. Grotewold. New Jersey: Humana Press.
• Bonello, P., and J. T. Blodgett. 2003. Pinus nigra-Sphaeropsis sapinea as a model pathosystem to investigate local and systemic effects of fungal infection of pines. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 63 (5):249-261.
• Bonello, P., A.J. Storer, T.R. Gordon, D.L. Wood, and W. Heller. 2003. Systemic effects of Heterobasidion annosum on ferulic acid glucoside and lignin of pre-symptomatic ponderosa pine phloem, and potential effects on bark beetle-associated fungi. Journal of Chemical Ecology 29 (5):1167-1182.
• Blodgett, J. T., P. Bonello, and G. R. Stanosz. 2003. An effective medium for isolating Sphaeropsis sapinea from asymptomatic pines. Forest Pathology 33:395–404.
• Blodgett, J.T., and P. Bonello. 2003. The aggressiveness of Sphaeropsis sapinea on Austrian pine varies with isolate group and site of infection. Forest Pathology 33:15-19.

• Bonello, P., T.R. Gordon, and A.J. Storer. 2001. Systemic induced resistance in Monterey pine. Forest Pathology 31:99-106.

• Bonello, P., McNee, W., Storer, A.J., Wood, D.L. and T.R. Gordon. 2001. The role of olfactory stimuli in the location of weakened hosts by twig infesting Pityophthorus spp. (Coleoptera: Scolytidae). Ecological Entomology 26 (1):8-15.

• Storer, A.J., Bonello, P., Wood, D.L. and Gordon, T.R. (1999). Evidence of resistance to the pitch canker pathogen (Fusarium circinatum) in native stands of Monterey pine (Pinus radiata). Forest Science 45 (4): 500-505.

• Gordon, T.R., Wikler, K.R., Clark, S.L., Okamoto, D., Storer, A.J. and Bonello, P. 1998. Resistance to pitch canker disease, caused by Fusarium subglutinans f.sp. pini in Monterey pine (Pinus radiata). Plant Pathology 47: 706-711.

• Bonello, P., Bruns, T.D. and Gardes, M. Genetic structure of a natural population of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Suillus pungens (1998). New Phytologist 138 (4), 533-542.

• Storer, A.J., Wood, D.L., Gordon, T.R. , and Bonello, P. (1997) Current and future impacts of pitch canker disease of pines. Journal of Forestry 95, 21-26.

• Subbarao, K., Chassot, A., Gordon, T.R., Hubbard, J.C., Bonello, P., Mullin, R., Okamoto, D., Davis, R.M., and Koike, S.T. (1995). Genetic relationships and cross pathogenicities of Verticillium dahliae isolates from cauliflower and other crops. Phytopathology 85, 1105-1112.

• Bonello, P., Heller, W. and Sandermann, H. Jr. (1993). Ozone effects on root-disease susceptibility and defence responses in mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seedlings. New Phytologist 124(4), 653-663.

• Bonello, P. and Pearce, R.B. (1993). Biochemical defence responses in primary roots of Scots pine challenged in vitro with Cylindrocarpon destructans. Plant Pathology 42, 203-211.

• Bonello, P., Pearce, R.B., Watt, F. and Grime, G.W. (1991). An induced papilla response in primary roots of Scots pine challenged in vitro with Cylindrocarpon destructans. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 39, 213-228.

Contact Information

Pierluigi Bonello
Kottman Hall, Office 483C
The Ohio State University
2021 Coffey Road
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1087

Phone: (614) 688-5401
FAX: (614) 292-4455
Email address: bonello.2@osu.edu