Amnon Lichter Ph.D.

I did all my BSc in Tel Aviv University. MSc with the late Prof Gad Loebenstein in plant virology working on TMV and the plant response to it. I later joined the bacterial plant pathogen lab of Dr Shulamit Manulis in the Volcani Institute and the Plant Science Department in Tel Aviv University under the guidance of Prof. Itzhak Barash. Together with both my mentors I studied the reole of cytokinin in gall formation by the Erwinia herbicola now known as Pantoea Agglomerans. I identified the biosynthetic operon after cloning the pathogenoiity plasmid and tested its function in gall formation. I started a postdoc in Orgeon State University together with Prof. Dallice Mills working on the transition between filamentous to yeast like form by Ustilago hordei. After cloning one fungal chromosomes I transformed a mutant with the wild type library and was able to identify a G-protein as a responsible for the transition. Later I jointed the lab of Lynda Ciuffetti at the same department and worked on chromosomal structure of Pyrenofora tritici-repentis – a fungus that was known to produce a toxin as a major pathogenicity facto (1996-1997).
I joined the Department of Postharvest Science in the Volcani Center in 1998. Over the years I worked on various fruit types including grapes, litchi, tomato, peaches and dates. The work involved pathological aspects such as grey mold and sour rot, physiological aspects such as browning, cracking, abscission and dehydration and technological aspects such as disinfection, fumigation and plant growth regulators. One of the important topics that my lab worked on in the recent years was that of fruit flavor. During the research I developed different tools for quality analysis such as image analysis and fruit texture.