Bill’s career started as assistant professor in the Central Connecticut state College, after receiving his PhD from Cornell University in 1970.  In 1971, he accepted an assistant professor position at the Department of Plant Pathology at Cornell University, where he later became professor in 1984, a position that he is currently still holding.  During his career at Cornell University he served the university as chair of the Department of Plant Pathology (1981 to 1995), as well as Senior Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (2001 to Jan 2007).  He has been honored for his contributions to plant pathology by being awarded a fellow of the American Phytopathological Society in 1990, and an honorary member of the British Society of Plant Pathology in 2003. He was furthermore president of the American Phytopathological Society (1995 to 1996), and also served on several committees of the society including the special committee on pest management, as well as the teaching and epidemiological committees.

Bill Fry’s main areas of research include the epidemiology and management of plant diseases, with a special emphasis on late blight of potato, as well as the biology (genetics, developmental biology, ecology and pathogenicity) of the late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans.  He has helped to advance our understanding of the epidemiology of late blight of potato through the employment of field experiments, simulation modeling and laboratory and greenhouse experiments.  His laboratory has also made valued contributions on the impact of historical migration pathways of P. infestans.  His research further contributed to our understanding of the genetic control of specific biological traits of the pathogen, as well as host-pathogen interactions (with potatoes and tomatoes). During his research career he has had numerous co-workers in various countries, with which he shared his research resources, guidance and expertise. The plant pathology community in South Africa is privileged, that he has now made his way to the most southern tip of Africa. 
 

The sabbatical visit of Bill Fry at Stellenbosch is aimed at furthering studies on his laboratory’s recent discovery of RNA viruses in P. infestans. The Fry laboratory (http://www.plantpath.cornell.edu/Fry/index.htm) recently discovered four different viruses in Phytophthora infestans (still unpublished).  At least one of these appears to be a bipartite, single stranded, positive sense RNA virus.  This virus is tentatively named Phytophthora infestans RNA Virus 1 (PiRV1).  From analysis of the sequence of the RNA dependent RNA Polymerase of PiRV1, it appears to be only distantly related to any known virus, and therefore appears to be the prototype of a new virus family.  The goal of Bill’s lab. is to use this virus to construct a tool for gene expression/silencing in P. infestans.  They have preliminary evidence that a crude vector (target gene between the 5' and 3' UTRs) can drive GFP expression. 

His primary goal at Stellenbosch is to survey populations of several different Phytophthora species for the occurrence of this or other novel viruses.  To that end, populations of P. infestans and P. cinnamomi have been obtained in South Africa to supplement pre-existing collections.  Initial analyses have focused on P. infestans and P. capsici, but will extend to isolates of P. cinnamomi, P. nicotianae, and P. citricola.  Secondarily, he will assess the host range of PiRV1 by attempting transfections with the virus in several different Phytophthora spp.  In order to attain this goal Barbara Fry (to whom Bill Fry is married) is working with Adéle McLeod to improve transformation protocols for P. infestans and to develop a transformation protocol for P. capsici.  Together they are also improving Phytophthora transfection protocols so that the host range of PiRV1 can be assessed more efficiently.

The Phytophthora and Pythium transformation team, Julia Meitz (far left), Barb Fry (centre) and Adele McLeod (far right), on a field trip where isolates were collected.