Position
Chief Off: Prof Services
Office
Biology Building 225
Cornel Bender grew up on a farm near Upington, South Africa and matriculated at the Hoërskool Upington in 1984. She obtained a B.Sc. degree (Majors: Genetics and Microbiology -1988) and B.Sc. Honours degree (Genetics - 1989) at the University of the Free State. She subsequently became involved in tobacco breeding while working as assistant agricultural researcher at the Tobacco and Cotton Research Institute, Rustenburg from January 1989 to April 1991. She designed, managed and implemented breeding programmes for the genetic improvement of air cured tobacco and was also responsible for the development of tobacco tissue and anther cultures and the in vitro development of cotton fibers.
Cornel commenced with postgraduate studies at the University of the Free State in 1991. Her M.Sc. obtained in 1996 (Genetics/Plant Pathology) was entitled “The expression of leaf rust resistance in wheat lines containing Lr12 and Lr13” and her PhD obtained in 2020 was "Stem rust resistance in South African wheat and triticale". She is currently employed as a professional officer, Department of Plant Sciences, Division of Plant Pathology. Her primary responsibility is academic and research assistance to students and personnel in Plant Pathology. She is also actively involved in the wheat rust research which includes breeding, cultivar evaluation and histopathology. She has delivered 12 formal and informal presentations and presented/co-author 52 papers/posters at local meetings and 19 at international meetings. She authored/co-authored 35 research articles in international journals.
PUBLICATIONS
1. C.M. Bender, Z.A. Pretorius, F.J. Kloppers & A.S. Jacobs. 1996. Histopathology of Lr35 resistance to leaf rust of wheat. Cereal Rusts and Powdery Mildews Bulletin 24:116
2. C.M. Bender, Z.A. Pretorius & J.J. Spies. 1997. Assessment of macroscopic components of leaf rust resistance in wheat genotypes containing Lr12 and Lr13. South African Journal of Plant and Soil 14: 71-80
3. C.M. Bender, Z.A. Pretorius, F.J. Kloppers & J.J. Spies. 2000. Histopathology of leaf rust infection and development in wheat genotypes containing Lr12 and Lr13. Journal of Phytopathology 148: 65-76
4. C.M. Bender & Z.A. Pretorius. 2000. Expression of Lr34 resistance to wheat leaf rust in apical and basal flag leaf segments. Acta Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica 35: 95-101
5. J.E. Snyman, Z.A. Pretorius, F.J. Kloppers & C.M. Bender. 2002. Partial resistance to Puccinia triticina in certain Triticum species. South African Journal of Plant and Soil 19: 127-132
6. B.J. Dunhin, Z.A. Pretorius, C.M. Bender, F.J. Kloppers & B. Flett. 2004. Description of spore stages of Puccinia sorghi in South Africa. South African Journal of Plant and Soil 21: 48-52
7. T. Negussie, Z.A. Pretorius & C.M. Bender. 2005 Effect of Environmental Factors on In Vitro Germination of Urediniospores and Infection of Lentils by Rust (Uromyces viciae-fabae). J. of Phytopathology 153: 43-47
8. T. Negussie, Z.A. Pretorius & C.M. Bender. 2005 Components of rust resistance in lentil. Euphytica 142: 55-64
9. Z. A. Pretorius, C. M. Bender, B.Visser & T. Terefe, 2010. First report of a Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici race virulent to the Sr24 and Sr31 wheat stem rust resistance genes in South Africa. Plant Disease 94 (6): 784-785. DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-94-6-0784C.
10. Z. A. Pretorius and C. M. Bender, 2010. First Report of Virulence for the Wheat Leaf Rust (Puccinia triticina) Resistance Gene Lr32 in South Africa Plant Disease 94(3):381. DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-94-3-0381A.
11. Z.A. Pretorius, C.M. Bender, B. Visser and T. Terefe, 2010. First report of a Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici race virulent to the Sr24 and Sr31 wheat stem rust resistance genes in South Africa. Plant Disease 94, p. 784
12. Prins, R., Pretorius, Z.A., Bender, C.M. & Lehmensiek, A. 2011. QTL mapping of stripe, leaf and stem rust resistance genes in a Kariega x Avocet S doubled haploid wheat population. Molecular Breeding 27: 259-270 DOI 10.1007/s11032-010-9428-y
13. T. Terefe, Z. A. Pretorius, C. M. Bender, B. Visser, L. Herselman & T.G. Negussie, 2011. First Report of a new wheat leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) race with virulence for Lr12, 13 and 37 in South Africa 2011. Plant Disease 95: 611
14. Visser, B., Herselman, L., Park, R.F., Karaoglu, H., Bender, C.M. & Pretorius, Z.A. 2011. Characterization of two new Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici races within the Ug99 lineage in South Africa. Euphytica 179:119-127. DOI: 10.1007/s10681-010-0269-x.
15. Agenbag, G.M., Pretorius, Z.A., Boyd, L.A., Bender, C.M. & Prins, R. 2012. Identification of adult plant resistance to stripe rust in the wheat cultivar Cappelle-Desprez. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 125:109-120 DOI: 10.1007/s00122-012-1819-5.
16. Negussie, T.G., Bender, C.M., Van Wyk, P.W.J. & Pretorius, Z.A. 2012. Hypersensitivity of rust resistance in lentil. SA J Plant &Soil 29(1):25-29.
17. Pretorius, Z.A., Jin, Y., Bender, C.M., Herselman, L. & Prins, R. 2012. Seedling resistance to stem rust race Ug99 and marker analysis for Sr2, Sr24 and Sr31 in South African wheat cultivars and lines. Euphytica 186(1):15-23 DOI 10.1007/s10681-011-0476-0.
18. Visser, B., Herselman, L., Bender, C.M. & Pretorius, Z.A. 2012. Microsatellite analysis of selected Puccinia triticina races in South Africa. Australasian Plant Pathology 41:165-171. DOI:10.1007/s13313-011-0104-4.
19. G. M. Agenbag, Z. A. Pretorius, L. A. Boyd, C. M. Bender, R. MacCormack & R. Prins, 2014. High-resolution mapping and new marker development for adult plant stripe rust resistance QTL in the wheat cultivar Kariega, Molecular Breeding, DOI 10.1007/s11032-014-0158-4
20. Pretorius, Z.A., Bender, C.M. & Visser, B. 2015. The rusts of wild rye in South Africa. SA J Bot 96:94-98. DOI: 10.1016/j.sajb.2014.10.005
21. C. M. Bender; R. Prins; and Z. A. Pretorius 2016 Development of a Greenhouse Screening Method for Adult Plant Response in Wheat to Stem Rust. Plant Disease 100(8): 1627-1633 DOI:org/10.1094/PDIS-02-16-0163-RE
22. Lesley A. Boyd, Renee Prins, Susanne Dreisigacker, Zacharias Pretorius, Davinder Singh, Cornel Bender, Hester van Schalkwyk, Elsabet Wessels, Corneli Smit. 2016. Stem rust resistance in a geographically diverse collection of spring wheat lines collected from across Africa. Frontiers in Plant Science. 11 July 2016. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2016.00973
23. Z.A. Pretorius, C.X. Lan, R. Prins, V. Knight, N.W. McLaren, R.P. Singh C.M. Bender, & F.J. Kloppers. 2017. Application of remote sensing to identify adult plant resistance loci to stripe rust in two bread wheat mapping populations. Precision Agriculture (2016). doi:10.1007/s11119-016-9461-x
24. Willem H.P. Boshoff, Zacharias A. Pretorius, Tarekegn G. Terefe, Cornel M. Bender, Liezel Herselman, Gerrie M. Maree, Botma Visser. 2018. Phenotypic and genotypic description of Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici race 2SA55 in South Africa European Journal of Plant Pathology 152 (3), 783-789. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-018-1527-3
25. W.H.P. Boshoff, C.M. Bender & Z.A. Pretorius. 2019. Reaction of South African rye, triticale and barley forage cultivars to stem and leaf rust. SA Journal of Plant and Soil 36(2), 77-82. https://doi:10.1080/02571862.2018.1522381
26. W.H.P. Boshoff, R. Prins, C. de Klerk, S.G. Krattinger, C.M. Bender, G.J. Maree, L. Rothmann & Z.A. Pretorius. 2019. Point inoculation method for measuring adult plant response of wheat to stripe rust infection. Plant Disease. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-08-18-1312-RE
27. GJ. Maree, R. Prins, CM. Bender, WHP. Boshoff, TG. Negussie & ZA. Pretorius. 2019. Phenotyping Kariega x Avocet S doubled haploid lines containing individual and combined adult plant stripe rust resistance loci. Plant Pathology 68(4), 659-668. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppa.12985
28. G.J. Maree, R. Prins, L.A. Boyd, H.D. Castelyn, C.M. Bender, W.H.P. Boshoff & Z.A. Pretorius 2019. Assessing the individual and combined effects of QTL for adult plant stripe rust resistance derived from Cappelle-Desprez. Agronomy. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9030154
29. W.H.P. Boshoff, C.M. Bender & Z.A. Pretorius 2019. The value of field ratings of differential lines for pathotyping Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici. European Journal of Plant Pathology. https://doi10.1007/s10658-019-01754-7
30. N. Yekelo, L. Rothmann, C.M. Bender, Z.A. Pretorius & W.H.P. Boshoff 2019. Response of an international triticale collection to Puccinia triticina and Puccinia recondita and assessment of temperature sensitivity in leaf rust isolates. Cereal Research Communications 47 (3), 496–505. https://doi.org/10.1556/0806.47.2019.23
31. G.J. Maree, H.D. Castelyn, C.M. Bender, W.H.P. Boshoff and Z.A. Pretorius. 2020. Comparing infection and colonisation of Puccinia graminis in barley and wheat. Australasian Journal of Plant Pathology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-020-00715-7
32. Zacharias A. Pretorius, Renée Prins, Elsabet Wessels, Cornel M. Bender, Botma Visser, Willem H.P. Boshoff. 2020. Accomplishments in wheat rust research in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 116 review article. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2020/7688
33. C.M. Bender, W.H.P. Boshoff, Z.A. Pretorius 2021. Infection and colonization of triticale by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 43: (sup2), S198-S210. https://doi.org/10.1080/07060661.2021.1931453
34. W.H.P. Boshoff, A.R. Wood, B. Visser, C.M. Bender, L. Jouberta, J. Richterd, M. Catherine Aime, and Z.A. Pretorius. 2022. The life cycle of Puccinia digitariae on Digitaria eriantha and Solanum species in South Africa. Mycologia online April 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/00275514.2022.2031493
35. WH.P. Boshoff, B. Visser, C.M. Bender, A.R. Wood, L. Rothmann, K. Wilson, V.L. Hamilton-Attwell, Z.A. Pretorius. 2022. Fig rust caused by Phakopsora nishidana in South Africa. Phytopathologia Mediterranea 61(2): 283-298. https://doi.org/10.36253/phyto-13034
Publications (Short List)
1. C.M. Bender, Z.A. Pretorius, F.J. Kloppers & A.S. Jacobs. 1996. Histopathology of Lr35 resistance to leaf rust of wheat. Cereal Rusts and Powdery Mildews Bulletin 24:116
2. C.M. Bender, Z.A. Pretorius & J.J. Spies. 1997. Assessment of macroscopic components of leaf rust resistance in wheat genotypes containing Lr12 and Lr13. South African Journal of Plant and Soil 14: 71-80
3. C.M. Bender, Z.A. Pretorius, F.J. Kloppers & J.J. Spies. 2000. Histopathology of leaf rust infection and development in wheat genotypes containing Lr12 and Lr13. Journal of Phytopathology 148: 65-76
4. C.M. Bender & Z.A. Pretorius. 2000. Expression of Lr34 resistance to wheat leaf rust in apical and basal flag leaf segments. Acta Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica 35: 95-101
5. J.E. Snyman, Z.A. Pretorius, F.J. Kloppers & C.M. Bender. 2002. Partial resistance to Puccinia triticina in certain Triticum species. South African Journal of Plant and Soil 19: 127-132
6. B.J. Dunhin, Z.A. Pretorius, C.M. Bender, F.J. Kloppers & B. Flett. 2004. Description of spore stages of Puccinia sorghi in South Africa. South African Journal of Plant and Soil 21: 48-52
7. T. Negussie, Z.A. Pretorius & C.M. Bender. 2005 Effect of Environmental Factors on In Vitro Germination of Urediniospores and Infection of Lentils by Rust (Uromyces viciae-fabae). J. of Phytopathology 153: 43-47
8. T. Negussie, Z.A. Pretorius & C.M. Bender. 2005 Components of rust resistance in lentil. Euphytica 142: 55-64
9. Z. A. Pretorius, C. M. Bender, B.Visser & T. Terefe, 2010. First Report of Virulence for the Sr31 Wheat Stem Rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici) resistance gene in South Africa. Plant Disease 94:784
10. Z. A. Pretorius and C. M. Bender, 2010. First Report of Virulence for the Wheat Leaf Rust (Puccinia triticina) Resistance Gene Lr32 in South Africa Plant Disease 94(3):381 DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-94-3-0381A
11. Z. A. Pretorius, C. M. Bender, B.Visser & T. Terefe, 2010. First report of a Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici race virulent to the Sr24 and Sr31 wheat stem rust resistance genes in South Africa. Plant Disease 94 (6): 784-785. DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-94-6-0784C.
12. Prins, R., Pretorius, Z.A., Bender, C.M. & Lehmensiek, A. 2011. QTL mapping of stripe, leaf and stem rust resistance genes in a Kariega x Avocet S doubled haploid wheat population. Molecular Breeding DOI 10.1007/s11032-010-9428-y
13. T. Terefe, Z. A. Pretorius, C. M. Bender, B. Visser, L. Herselman & T.G. Negussie, 2011. First Report of a new wheat leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) race with virulence for Lr12, 13 and 37 in South Africa 2011. Plant Disease 95: 611
14. Visser, B., Herselman, L., Park, R.F., Karaoglu, H., Bender, C.M. & Pretorius, Z.A. 2011. Characterization of two new Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici races within the Ug99 lineage in South Africa. Euphytica 179:119-127. DOI: 10.1007/s10681-010-0269-x.
15. Agenbag, G.M., Pretorius, Z.A., Boyd, L.A., Bender, C.M. & Prins, R. 2012. Identification of adult plant resistance to stripe rust in the wheat cultivar Cappelle-Desprez. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 125:109-120 DOI: 10.1007/s00122-012-1819-5.
16. Negussie, T.G., Bender, C.M., Van Wyk, P.W.J. & Pretorius, Z.A. 2012. Hypersensitivity of rust resistance in lentil. SA J Plant &Soil 29(1):25-29.
17. Pretorius, Z.A., Jin, Y., Bender, C.M., Herselman, L. & Prins, R. 2012. Seedling resistance to stem rust race Ug99 and marker analysis for Sr2, Sr24 and Sr31 in South African wheat cultivars and lines. Euphytica 186(1):15-23 DOI 10.1007/s10681-011-0476-0.
18. Visser, B., Herselman, L., Bender, C.M. & Pretorius, Z.A. 2012. Microsatellite analysis of selected Puccinia triticina races in South Africa. Australasian Plant Pathology 41:165-171. Doi:10.1007/s13313-011-0104-4.
19. G. M. Agenbag, Z. A. Pretorius, L. A. Boyd, C. M. Bender, R. MacCormack & R. Prins, 2014. High-resolution mapping and new marker development for adult plant stripe rust resistance QTL in the wheat cultivar Kariega, Mol Breeding, DOI 10.1007/s11032-014-0158-4
20. Pretorius, Z.A., Bender, C.M. & Visser, B. The rusts of wild rye in South Africa. SA J Bot 96:94-98.
21. C. M. Bender, R. Prins, and Z. A. Pretorius Development of a Greenhouse Screening Method for Adult Plant Response in Wheat to Stem Rust. Plant Disease 100(8): 1627-1633 DOI:org/10.1094/PDIS-02-16-0163-RE
22. Lesley A. Boyd, Renee Prins, Susanne Dreisigacker, Zacharias Pretorius, Davinder Singh, Cornel Bender, Hester van Schalkwyk, Elsabet Wessels, Corneli Smit. 2016. Stem rust resistance in a geographically diverse collection of spring wheat lines collected from across Africa. Frontiers in Plant Science. 11 July 2016. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2016.00973
23. Z.A. Pretorius, C.X. Lan, R. Prins, V. Knight, N.W. McLaren, R.P. Singh C.M. Bender, & F.J. Kloppers. 2016. Application of remote sensing to identify adult plant resistance loci to stripe rust in two bread wheat mapping populations. Precision Agriculture (2016). doi:10.1007/s11119- 016-9461-x
24. Willem H.P. Boshoff, Zacharias A. Pretorius, Tarekegn G. Terefe, Cornel M. Bender, Liezel Herselman, Gerrie M. Maree, Botma Visser. 2018. Phenotypic and genotypic description of Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici race 2SA55 in South Africa European Journal of Plant Pathology 152 (3), 783-789. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-018-1527-3
25. W.H.P. Boshoff, C.M. Bender & Z.A. Pretorius. 2019. Reaction of South African rye, triticale and barley forage cultivars to stem and leaf rust. SA Journal of Plant and Soil 36(2), 77-82. https://doi:10.1080/02571862.2018.1522381
26. W.H.P. Boshoff, R. Prins, C. de Klerk, S.G. Krattinger, C.M. Bender, G.J. Maree, L. Rothmann & Z.A. Pretorius. 2019. Point inoculation method for measuring adult plant response of wheat to stripe rust infection. Plant Disease. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-08-18-1312-RE
27. G.J. Maree, R. Prins, C.M. Bender, W.H.P. Boshoff, T.G. Negussie & Z. A. Pretorius. 2019. Phenotyping Kariega x Avocet S doubled haploid lines containing individual and combined adult plant stripe rust resistance loci. Plant Pathology 68 (4), 659- 668. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppa.12985
28. G.J. Maree, R. Prins, L.A. Boyd, H.D. Castelyn, C.M. Bender, W.H.P. Boshoff & Z.A. Pretorius 2019. Assessing the individual and combined effects of QTL for adult plant stripe rust resistance derived from Cappelle-Desprez. Agronomy. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9030154
29. W.H.P. Boshoff, C.M. Bender & Z.A. Pretorius 2019. The value of field ratings of differential lines for pathotyping Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici. European Journal of Plant Pathology. https://doi10.1007/s10658-019-01754-7
30. N. Yekelo, L. Rothmann, C.M. Bender, Z.A. Pretorius & W.H.P. Boshoff 2019. Response of an international triticale collection to Puccinia triticina and Puccinia recondita and assessment of temperature sensitivity in leaf rust isolates. Cereal Research Communications 47 (3), 496– 505. https://doi.org/10.1556/0806.47.2019.23
31. G.J. Maree, H.D. Castelyn, C.M. Bender, W.H.P. Boshoff and Z.A. Pretorius. 2020. Comparing infection and colonisation of Puccinia graminis in barley and wheat. Australasian Journal of Plant Pathology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-020-00715-7
32. Zacharias A. Pretorius, Renée Prins, Elsabet Wessels, Cornel M. Bender, Botma Visser, Willem H.P. Boshoff. 2020. Accomplishments in wheat rust research in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 116 review article. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2020/7688
33. C.M. Bender, W.H.P. Boshoff, Z.A. Pretorius 2021. Infection and colonization of triticale by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 43: (sup2), S198-S210. https://doi.org/10.1080/07060661.2021.1931453
34. W.H.P. Boshoff, A.R. Wood, B. Visser, C.M. Bender, L. Jouberta, J. Richterd, M. Catherine Aime, and Z.A. Pretorius. 2022. The life cycle of Puccinia digitariae on Digitaria eriantha and Solanum species in South Africa. Mycologia online April 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/00275514.2022.2031493
35. WH.P. Boshoff, B. Visser, C.M. Bender, A.R. Wood, L. Rothmann, K. Wilson, V.L. Hamilton-Attwell, Z.A. Pretorius. 2022. Fig rust caused by Phakopsora nishidana in South Africa. Phytopathologia Mediterranea 61(2): 283-298. https://doi.org/10.36253/phyto-13034
Research on wheat rust diseases that focused on expression of adult plant resistance in the greenhouse instead of in field trials.
My main interest include host-pathogen interactions with the emphasis on rust of different species. I love histological methods such as microscopy to elucidate the infection structures, on and in the plant, and the subsequent colonization process of the host.