I received a strong education in plant pathology in my Bachelor and Master studies at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen. Followed by a PhD in resistance breeding with focus on barley leaf diseases and genome-wide association studies. My main research interests include disease resistance and genetics in cereal crops, plant-pathogen interactions, virulence and genetic diversity in plant pathogenic fungi, and population genetics. I am interested in answering questions about the genetic diversity of plant pathogen populations, how they develop in planta, and which and how genes are involved in the host-pathogen interaction.
 

• Since May 2023: Researcher, Department of Crop Health, University of Rostock
• 2022 – 2023: Researcher, Agricultural University of Iceland, Iceland
• 2020 – 2022: Postdoc, Department of Plant Breeding at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
• 2015 – 2020: PhD (Doctor of Agricultural Sciences), Julius Kühn-Institute and Justus-Liebig-University, Gießen, Germany
  PhD-Thesis: “Identification of QTL for resistance against two fungal pathogens, Pyrenophora teres f. teres and Bipolaris sorokiniana, in a barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) diversity set”
• 2014: Research Assistant at Syngenta Crop Protection, Stein/Basel, Switzerland
• 2011 – 2013: MSc Crop Protection, Georg August University Göttingen, Germany
  MSc-Thesis: “Phenotyping host specificity of Verticillium longisporum and Verticillium dahliae lineages”
• 2008 – 2011: BSc Agricultural Sciences, Georg August University Göttingen, Germany
  BSc-Thesis: “Comparative studies on the susceptibility of Brazilian wheat genotypes towards Magnaporthe grisea and Fusarium graminearum after ear infection“
   

Member of the German Society of Plant Pathology (DPG), since 2012

Member of the German Society of Plant Breeding (GPZ), since 2015

Reviewer for the peer-reviewed scientific journals Theoretical and Applied Genetics, Plant Breeding, Molecular Breeding, Frontiers, BMC Genomics, Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection, and Plant Pathology.
 

Afanasenko O, Rozanova I, Gofman A, Lashina N, Novakazi F, Mironenko N, Baranova O, Zubkovich A, 2022. Validation of Molecular Markers of Barley Net Blotch Resistance Loci on Chromosome 3H for Marker-Assisted Selection. Agriculture, 12(4):439. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12040439

Novakazi F, Göransson M, Stefánsson TS, Hokka M, Jalli M, Hallsson JH, 2022. Virulence of Icelandic Pyrenophora teres f. teres populations and resistance of Icelandic spring barley lines. Journal of Plant Pathology. doi.org/10.1007/s42161-021-00972-5

Hautsalo J, Novakazi F, Jalli M, Göransson M, Manninen O, Isolahti M, Reitan L, Bergersen S, Krusell L, Charlotte Damsgård Robertsen C, Orabi J, Due Jensen J, Jahoor A, Bengtsson T, & the PPP Barley Consortium, 2021. Pyramiding of scald resistance genes in four spring barley MAGIC populations. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 134(12), 3829-3843.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-021-03930-y.

Novakazi F, Göransson M, Stefánsson TS, Jalli M, Hallsson JH, 2021. Virulence of Rhynchosporium commune isolates collected in Iceland. Journal of Plant Pathology, 103:935–942, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42161-021-00888-0.

Novakazi F, Krusell L, Due Jensen J, Orabi J, Jahoor A, Bengtsson T, & the PPP Barley Consortium. You Had Me at “MAGIC”!: Four Barley MAGIC Populations Reveal Novel Resistance QTL for Powdery Mildew. Genes, 2020, 11(12), 1512.

Novakazi F, Afanasenko O, Lashina N, Platz GJ, Snowdon R, Loskutov I, Ordon F, 2020. Genome-wide association studies in a barley (Hordeum vulgare) diversity set reveal a limited number of loci for resistance to spot blotch (Bipolaris sorokiniana). Plant Breeding, 00:1-15, https://doi.org/10.1111/pbr.12792.

Novakazi F, Afanasenko O, Anisimova A, Platz GJ, Snowdon R, Kovaleva O, Zubkovich A, Ordon F, 2019. Genetic analysis of a worldwide barley collection for resistance to net blotch disease (Pyrenophora teres f. teres). Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 132(9):2633-2650, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-019-03378-1.

Serfling A, Kopahnke D, Habekuß A, Novakazi F, Ordon F, 2017.Wheat diseases: an overview. In: Langridge, P. (ed.): Achieving sustainable cultivation of wheat. Volume 1: Breeding, quality traits, pests and diseases (Burleigh Dodds Series in Agricultural Science 1), 1-32.

Novakazi F, Inderbitzin P, Sandoya G, von Tiedemann A, Subbarao KV, 2015. The three lineages of the diploid hybrid Verticillium longisporum differ in virulence and pathogenicity. Phytopathology, 105(5):662-73.