Manamele Mashabela

Mr Manamele Mashabela is an emerging researcher and academic. His studies focus on developing innovative solutions for sustainable agriculture, with a particular interest in plant-microbe interactions and biostimulants research. Mr Mashabela employs omics-based tools and computational biology to advance his research and has a solid background in plant metabolomics. His master's (MSc) degree explored the tripartite interactions in the rhizosphere and the role of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in mediating metabolic reprogramming towards induced systemic resistance (ISR) and plant priming. During this time, he developed scientific protocols for analysing the chemical landscape of the rhizosphere using metabolomics-based analytical biochemical techniques. His current PhD research aims to explore and discover the mode of action of biostimulants (PGPR and Laminaria extracts) and their effects on plant growth and development, as well as plant priming for defence and stress tolerance, through an untargeted LC-MS-based metabolomics study.

For his four-month secondment at CPSBB as part of the CropPrime project, Manamele will undertake training on RNA-seq and transcriptomics-based bioinformatics data analysis, working closely with Dr Rafe Lyall. Work in this project will include an RNA-seq study with Laminarin-treated tomatoes subjected to biotic stress by Pseudomonas syringae DC3000 pathovar tomato. This will include a comprehensive transcriptomics data analysis to investigate the functional gene expression patterns resulting from the pathogen and laminarin treatments, aiming to gain insight into the cellular regulatory processes involved.