Dr Lilia Carvalhais

Senior Research Fellow

Centre for Horticultural Science
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
l.carvalhais@uq.edu.au
+61 7 344 32452

Overview

Lilia works to unravel the overwhelming complexity of the biological world and to assess ways to use it to solve problems of our time. She finds especially intriguing all the invisible interactions between plant and microbes. She investigates the drivers of these interactions and aims to address major societal challenges. Her purpose is to make use of nature’s arsenal to tackle problems that threaten environmental conservation and food security. She has worked with a range of beneficial and pathogenic microbes across model, forestry, grain, and horticultural plant species, grown in managed and natural habitats in different countries, including Brazil, Germany, Australia, USA, Costa Rica, and Papua New Guinea. Her expertise lies within plant pathology, molecular biology, plant nutrition, microbial ecology, biological indicators of soil health, bio-prospection of natural products produced by microbes, plant biotechnology, and molecular diagnostics.

Research Impacts

Lilia's research on plant microbe interactions is relevant to sustainable agriculture, plant protection and biosecurity. She has worked with interactions between plants and microbes at the community level, investigating the effect of plant defence signalling pathways on the associated microbiome. She has been studying the interactions between plants and pathogenic microbes, focussing on 1) the genetic diversity within microbial plant pathogen populations to identify genomic regions that can be targeted for molecular diagnostics; 2) the biology and epidemiology of different plant pathogens; 3) management strategies which allow the development of science based contingency plans to control plant diseases.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Universität Hohenheim
  • Doctor of Philosophy of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences, Universität Hohenheim
  • Masters (Research) of Microbial Ecology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
  • Bachelor of Science, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)

Publications

  • Carvalhais, Lilia C. and Davis, Richard (2024). Phytoplasma diseases of banana plants. Achieving sustainable cultivation of bananas: Volume 3: Diseases and pests. (pp. 297-312) edited by André Drenth and Gert H. J. Kema. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing. doi: 10.19103/as.2022.0108.12

  • Roberts, Janet M., Carvalhais, Lilia C., O'Dwyer, Cecilia, Rincón‐Flórez, Vivian A. and Drenth, Andre (2024). Diagnostics of Fusarium wilt in banana: Current status and challenges. Plant Pathology, 73 (4), 760-776. doi: 10.1111/ppa.13863

  • Batool, Maria, Carvalhais, Lilia C., Fu, Brendan and Schenk, Peer M. (2023). Customized plant microbiome engineering for food security. Trends in Plant Science, 29 (4), 482-494. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2023.10.012

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Grants

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Supervision

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Publications

Book Chapter

  • Carvalhais, Lilia C. and Davis, Richard (2024). Phytoplasma diseases of banana plants. Achieving sustainable cultivation of bananas: Volume 3: Diseases and pests. (pp. 297-312) edited by André Drenth and Gert H. J. Kema. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing. doi: 10.19103/as.2022.0108.12

  • Singh, Eugenie, Schenk, Peer M. and Carvalhais, Lilia C. (2021). Sample preparation for culture-independent profiling and isolation of phyllosphere bacteria to identify potential biopesticides. Methods in Molecular Biology. (pp. 193-208) New York, NY, United States: Humana Press. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1040-4_16

  • Liu, Hongwei, Mirzaee, Hooman, Rincon-Florez, Vivian, Moyle, Richard, Spohn, Marie, Carvalhais, Lilia C. and Schenk, Peer M. (2017). Emerging culture-independent tools to enhance our understanding of soil microbial ecology. Microbial Biomass. (pp. 207-225) edited by Kevin R. Tate. Hackensack, NJ United States: World Scientific Publishing. doi: 10.1142/9781786341310_0008

  • Fallath, Thorya, Rosli, Ahmad Bin, Kidd, Brendan, Carvalhais, Lilia C. and Schenk, Peer M. (2017). Toward plant defense mechanisms against root pathogens. Agriculturally Important Microbes for Sustainable Agriculture Volume 2: Applications in Crop Production and Protection. (pp. 293-313) edited by Vijay Singh Meena, Pankaj Kumar Mishra, Jaideep Kumar Bisht and Arunava Pattanayak. Gateway East, Singapore : Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-5343-6_10

  • Rincon-Florez, Vivian A., Carvalhais, Lilia C., Dang, Yash P. and Schenk, Peer M. (2016). Soil microbial community interactions under tillage systems in Australia. Plant, Soil and Microbes: Volume 1: Implications in Crop Science. (pp. 93-102) edited by Khalid Rehman Hakeem, Mohd Sayeed Akhtar and Siti Nor Akmar Abdullah. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-27455-3_5

  • Carvalhais, Lilia C., Rincon-Florez, Vivian and Schenk, Peer M. (2014). Soil functional gene microarrays and applications in plant-microbe interactions. Microarrays: current technology, innovations and applications. (pp. 169-180) edited by Zhili He. Norfolk, United Kingdom: Caister Academic Press.

  • Carvalhais, Lilia C., Dennis, Paul G., Tyson, Gene W. and Schenk, Peer M. (2013). Rhizosphere Metatranscriptomics: Challenges and Opportunities. Molecular Microbial Ecology of the Rhizosphere. (pp. 1137-1144) edited by Frans J. de Bruijn. Hoboken, NJ United States: Wiley-Blackwell. doi: 10.1002/9781118297674.ch109

  • Scotti, M. R., Sa, N., Marriel, I., Carvalhais, L. C., Matias, S. R., Correa, E. J., Freitas, N., Sugai, M. A. and Pagano, M. C. (2007). Effect of plant species and mycorrhizal inoculation on soil phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms in semi-arid Brazil: Growth promotion effect of rhizospheric phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms on Eucalyptus camaldulensis. First International Meeting on Microbial Phosphate Solubilization. (pp. 167-172) edited by E. Velazquez and C. Rodriguez-Barrueco. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Completed Supervision