Dr Stephanie Watts-Fawkes

• Appointments

  Date	Position	Institution name
  2022 - ongoing	ARC DECRA Fellow	University of Adelaide
  2021 - ongoing	Future Making Fellow	University of Adelaide
  2020 - 2021	Research Scientist	New South Wales Department of Primary Industries
  2016 - 2020	Ramsay Fellow	University of Adelaide, Adelaide
  2015 - 2016	Postdoctoral Research Associate	Cornell University, Ithaca

• Education

  Date	Institution name	Country	Title
  2011 - 2014	Monash University, Melbourne	Australia	Doctor of Philosophy
  2007 - 2011	Monash University, Melbourne	Australia	Bachelor of Environmental Science (Hons)

• Journals

  Year	Citation
  2025	Nguyen, T. D., Sai, N., Johnson, A. A. T., Lombi, E., Smith, E., Doolette, C. L., . . . Watts-Williams, S. J. (2025). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi increase aleurone layer zinc concentration but reduce overall zinc bioavailability in rice grain. Plants People Planet, 12 pages. DOI
  2025	Watts-Williams, S. J., Gill, A. R., Nguyen, T. D., Tavakkoli, E., Jewell, N., & Brien, C. (2025). Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Can Improve the Water Use and Phosphorus Acquisition Efficiencies of Aerobically Grown Rice. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture and Environment, 4(1), 9 pages. DOI Scopus1
  2024	Frew, A., Weinberger, N., Powell, J. R., Watts-Williams, S. J., & Aguilar-Trigueros, C. A. (2024). Community assembly of root-colonizing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: beyond carbon and into defence?. The ISME Journal: multidisciplinary journal of microbial ecology, 18(1), wrae007-1-wrae007-6. DOI Scopus5 Europe PMC1
  2024	Tavakkoli, E., Watts-Williams, S. J., Rengasamy, P., & McDonald, G. K. (2024). Eliciting the aboveground physiological regulation that underlies salinity tolerance in faba bean (Vicia faba L.). Environmental and Experimental Botany, 226, 105849. DOI Scopus1
  2024	Zyngier, R. L., Archibald, C. L., Bryan, B. A., Lambert, H., Moallemi, E. A., Elliott, M., . . . Hadjikakou, M. (2024). Knowledge co-production for identifying indicators and prioritising solutions for food and land system sustainability in Australia. SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE, 19(6), 1897-1919. DOI
  2024	Salomon, M. J., & Watts-Williams, S. J. (2024). Realising the promise of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal biofertilisers through more applied research.. New Phytol, 3 pages. DOI
  2024	Nguyen, T. D., & Watts-Williams, S. J. (2024). Phytate content and micronutrient bioavailability of cereal and pulse products available in Australian supermarkets. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, 107165. DOI
  2023	Watts-Williams, S. J., Wege, S., Ramesh, S. A., Berkowitz, O., Xu, B., Gilliham, M., . . . Tyerman, S. D. (2023). The function of the Medicago truncatula ZIP transporter MtZIP14 is linked to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal colonisation. Plant, Cell and Environment, 46(5), 1691-1704. DOI Scopus4 Europe PMC1
  2023	Ngo, H. T. T., Cavagnaro, T. R., Jewell, N., Brien, C. J., Berger, B., & Watts-Williams, S. J. (2023). High-throughput shoot phenotyping reveals temporal growth responses to nitrogen and inorganic and organic phosphorus sources in tomato. AoB Plants, 15(2), plad011-1-plad011-11. DOI Scopus2 Europe PMC1
  2022	Salomon, M. J., Demarmels, R., Watts-Williams, S. J., McLaughlin, M. J., Kafle, A., Ketelsen, C., . . . van der Heijden, M. G. A. (2022). Global evaluation of commercial arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculants under greenhouse and field conditions. Applied Soil Ecology, 169, 11 pages. DOI Scopus88 WoS40
  2022	Salomon, M. J., Watts-Williams, S. J., McLaughlin, M. J., & Cavagnaro, T. R. (2022). Spatiotemporal dynamics of soil health in urban agriculture. Science of the Total Environment, 805, 12 pages. DOI Scopus8 WoS2
  2022	Watts-Fawkes, S., Gill, A. R., Jewell, N., Brien, C. J., Berger, B., Tran, B. T. T., . . . Cavagnaro, T. R. (2022). Enhancement of sorghum grain yield and nutrition: A role for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi regardless of soil phosphorus availability. Plants, People, Planet, 4(2), 143-156. DOI Scopus22 WoS7
  2022	Tran, C. T. K., Watts-Williams, S. J., Smernik, R. J., & Cavagnaro, T. R. (2022). Arbuscular mycorrhizas increased tomato biomass and nutrition but did not affect local soil P availability or 16S bacterial community in the field. Science of the Total Environment, 819, 152620-1-152620-11. DOI Scopus10 WoS5 Europe PMC1
  2022	Watts-Williams, S. J. (2022). Track and trace: how soil labelling techniques have revealed the secrets of resource transport in the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis. Mycorrhiza, 32(3-4), 257-267. DOI Scopus4 WoS1 Europe PMC1
  2022	Salomon, M. J., Watts-Williams, S. J., McLaughlin, M. J., Bücking, H., Singh, B. K., Hutter, I., . . . van der Heijden, M. G. A. (2022). Establishing a quality management framework for commercial inoculants containing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. iScience, 25(7), 11 pages. DOI Scopus37 WoS2 Europe PMC8
  2022	Uddin, S., Williams, S. W., Aslam, N., Fang, Y., Parvin, S., Rust, J., . . . Tavakkoli, E. (2022). Ameliorating alkaline dispersive subsoils with organic amendments: Are productivity responses due to nutrition or improved soil structure?. Plant and Soil, 480(1-2), 227-244. DOI Scopus8 WoS4
  2021	Ngo, H. T. T., Watts-Williams, S. J., Panagaris, A., Baird, R., McLaughlin, M. J., & Cavagnaro, T. R. (2021). Development of an organomineral fertiliser formulation that improves tomato growth and sustains arbuscular mycorrhizal colonisation.. Sci Total Environ, 815, 10 pages. DOI Scopus9 WoS3 Europe PMC3
  2021	Tran, B. T. T., Cavagnaro, T. R., Jewell, N., Brien, C., Berger, B., & Watts‐Williams, S. J. (2021). High‐throughput phenotyping reveals growth of Medicago truncatula is positively affected by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi even at high soil phosphorus availability. PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET, 3(5), 600-613. DOI Scopus10 WoS8
  2021	Tran, B. T. T., Cavagnaro, T. R., Able, J. A., & Watts-Fawkes, S. J. (2021). Bioavailability of zinc and iron in durum wheat: A trade‐off between grain weight and nutrition?. PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET, 3(5), 627-639. DOI Scopus8 WoS7
  2021	Tran, C. T. K., Watts-Fawkes, S. J., Smernik, R. J., & Cavagnaro, T. R. (2021). Root and arbuscular mycorrhizal effects on soil nutrient loss are modulated by soil texture. Applied Soil Ecology, 167, 104097-1-104097-8. DOI Scopus12 WoS6
  2021	Ngo, H. T. T., Watts-Williams, S. J., & Cavagnaro, T. R. (2021). Mycorrhizal growth and phosphorus responses of tomato differ with source but not application rate of phosphorus fertilisers. Applied Soil Ecology, 166, 104089-1-104089-9. DOI Scopus11 WoS7
  2021	Salomon, M. J., Watts-Williams, S. J., McLaughlin, M. J., Brien, C. J., Jewell, N., Berger, B., & Cavagnaro, T. R. (2021). Evaluation of commercial composts and potting mixes and their ability to support arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi with maize (Zea mays) as host plant.. Waste Manag, 134, 187-196. DOI Scopus6 WoS4 Europe PMC2
  2021	Watts-Williams, S. J., & Gilbert, S. E. (2021). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affect the concentration and distribution of nutrients in the grain differently in barley compared with wheat. Plants People Planet, 3(5), 567-577. DOI Scopus19 WoS8
  2020	Watts-Williams, S. J., Nguyen, T. D., Kabiri, S., Losic, D., & McLaughlin, M. J. (2020). Potential of zinc-loaded graphene oxide and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to improve the growth and zinc nutrition of Hordeum vulgare and Medicago truncatula. Applied Soil Ecology, 150, 1-8. DOI Scopus17 WoS8
  2020	Al Mutairi, A. A., Cavagnaro, T. R., Khor, S. F., Neumann, K., Burton, R. A., & Watts-Williams, S. J. (2020). The effect of zinc fertilisation and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on grain quality and yield of contrasting barley cultivars. Functional Plant Biology, 47(2), 122-133. DOI Scopus19 WoS13 Europe PMC3
  2020	Pickles, B. J., Truong, C., Watts-Williams, S. J., & Bueno, C. G. (2020). Mycorrhizas for a sustainable world. New Phytologist, 225(3), 1065-1069. DOI Scopus14 WoS10 Europe PMC6
  2020	Wissuwa, M., Gonzalez, D., & Watts-Williams, S. J. (2020). The contribution of plant traits and soil microbes to phosphorus uptake from low-phosphorus soil in upland rice varieties. Plant and Soil, 448(1-2), 523-537. DOI Scopus30 WoS26
  2020	Brien, C., Jewell, N., Watts-Williams, S. J., Garnett, T., & Berger, B. (2020). Smoothing and extraction of traits in the growth analysis of noninvasive phenotypic data.. Plant Methods, 16(1), 1-21. DOI Scopus19 WoS15 Europe PMC7
  2020	Tran, C. T. K., Watts-Williams, S. J., Smernik, R. J., & Cavagnaro, T. R. (2020). Effects of plant roots and arbuscular mycorrhizas on soil phosphorus leaching. Science of the Total Environment, 722, 137847-1-137847-9. DOI Scopus38 WoS24
  2020	Salomon, M. J., Watts-Williams, S. J., McLaughlin, M. J., & Cavagnaro, T. R. (2020). Urban soil health: A city-wide survey of chemical and biological properties of urban agriculture soils. Journal of Cleaner Production, 275, 122900-1-122900-11. DOI Scopus36 WoS17 Europe PMC2
  2020	Martin, F. M., Dickie, I., Lindahl, B. D., Lennon, S., Öpik, M., Polle, A., . . . Cavagnaro, T. R. (2020). A tribute to Sally E. Smith. New Phytologist, 228(2), 397-402. DOI WoS1
  2020	Watts-Williams, S., Wege, S., Ramesh, S., Berkowitz, O., Gilliham, M., Whelan, J., & Tyerman, S. (2020). Identification of a unique ZIP transporter involved in zinc uptake via the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal pathway. DOI
  2019	Watts-Fawkes, S. J., Jewell, N., Brien, C., Berger, B., Garnett, T., & Cavagnaro, T. R. (2019). Using High-Throughput Phenotyping to Explore Growth Responses to Mycorrhizal Fungi and Zinc in Three Plant Species. Plant Phenomics, 2019, 5893953-1-5893953-12. DOI Scopus20 WoS16 Europe PMC4
  2019	Watts-Williams, S. J., Smith, F. A., & Jakobsen, I. (2019). Soil phosphorus availability is a driver of the responses of maize (Zea mays) to elevated CO₂ concentration and arbuscular mycorrhizal colonisation. Symbiosis, 77(1), 73-82. DOI Scopus10 WoS10
  2019	Watts-Williams, S., Emmett, B., Levesque-Tremblay, V., MacLean, A., Sun, X., Satterlee, J., . . . Harrison, M. (2019). Diverse Sorghum bicolor accessions show marked variation in growth and transcriptional responses to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Plant Cell and Environment, 42(5), 1758-1774. DOI Scopus58 WoS47 Europe PMC31
  2019	Coccina, A., Cavagnaro, T. R., Pellegrino, E., Ercoli, L., McLaughlin, M. J., & Watts-Williams, S. J. (2019). The mycorrhizal pathway of zinc uptake contributes to zinc accumulation in barley and wheat grain. BMC Plant Biology, 19(1), 133-1-133-14. DOI Scopus93 WoS61 Europe PMC16
  2019	Tran, B. T. T., Watts-Williams, S. J., & Cavagnaro, T. R. (2019). Impact of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus on the growth and nutrition of fifteen crop and pasture plant species. Functional Plant Biology, 46(8), 732-742. DOI Scopus43 WoS25 Europe PMC10
  2019	Tran, B. T. T., Cavagnaro, T. R., & Watts-Williams, S. J. (2019). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculation and soil zinc fertilisation affect the productivity and the bioavailability of zinc and iron in durum wheat. Mycorrhiza, 29(5), 445-457. DOI Scopus18 WoS11 Europe PMC3
  2019	Nguyen, T. D., Cavagnaro, T. R., & Watts-Williams, S. J. (2019). The effects of soil phosphorus and zinc availability on plant responses to mycorrhizal fungi: a physiological and molecular assessment. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 14880-1-14880-13. DOI Scopus62 WoS30 Europe PMC12
  2019	Watts-Williams, S., Cavagnaro, T., & Tyerman, S. (2019). Variable effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculation on physiological and molecular measures of root and stomatal conductance of diverse Medicago truncatula accessions. Plant Cell and Environment, 42(1), 285-294. DOI Scopus35 WoS26 Europe PMC8
  2018	Watts-Williams, S., & Cavagnaro, T. (2018). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi increase grain zinc concentration and modify the expression of root ZIP transporter genes in a modern barley (Hordeum vulgare) cultivar. Plant Science, 274, 163-170. DOI Scopus80 WoS43 Europe PMC14
  2018	Svenningsen, N., Watts-Williams, S., Joner, E., Battini, F., Efthymiou, A., Cruz-Paredes, C., . . . Jakobsen, I. (2018). Suppression of the activity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi by the soil microbiota. ISME Journal, 12(5), 1296-1307. DOI Scopus118 WoS85 Europe PMC39
  2017	Watts-Williams, S., Cavagnaro, T., & Tyerman, S. (2017). The dual benefit of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi under soil zinc deficiency and toxicity: linking plant physiology and gene expression. Plant and Soil, 420(1-2), 375-388. DOI Scopus50 WoS36
  2016	Jakobsen, I., Smith, S., Smith, F., Watts-Williams, S., Clausen, S., & Grønlund, M. (2016). Plant growth responses to elevated atmospheric CO₂ are increased by phosphorus sufficiency but not by arbuscular mycorrhizas. Journal of Experimental Botany, 67(21), 6173-6186. DOI Scopus39 WoS34 Europe PMC18
  2015	Watts-Williams, S., Smith, F., McLaughlin, M., Patti, A., & Cavagnaro, T. (2015). How important is the mycorrhizal pathway for plant Zn uptake?. Plant and Soil, 390(1-2), 157-166. DOI Scopus72 WoS55
  2015	Watts-Williams, S., & Cavagnaro, T. (2015). Using mycorrhiza-defective mutant genotypes of non-legume plant species to study the formation and functioning of arbuscular mycorrhiza: a review. Mycorrhiza, 25(8), 587-597. DOI Scopus20 WoS15 Europe PMC9
  2015	Watts-Williams, S. J., Jakobsen, I., Cavagnaro, T. R., & Grønlund, M. (2015). Local and distal effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization on direct pathway Pi uptake and root growth in medicago truncatula. Journal of Experimental Botany, 66(13), 4061-4073. DOI Scopus39 WoS33 Europe PMC19
  2014	Watts-Williams, S., Turney, T., Patti, A., & Cavagnaro, T. (2014). Uptake of zinc and phosphorus by plants is affected by zinc fertiliser material and arbuscular mycorrhizas. Plant and Soil, 376(1-2), 165-175. DOI Scopus78 WoS55
  2014	Watts-Williams, S., & Cavagnaro, T. (2014). Nutrient interactions and arbuscular mycorrhizas: a meta-analysis of a mycorrhiza-defective mutant and wild-type tomato genotype pair. Plant and Soil, 384(1-2), 79-92. DOI Scopus54 WoS45
  2013	Watts-Williams, S., Patti, A., & Cavagnaro, T. (2013). Arbuscular mycorrhizas are beneficial under both deficient and toxic soil zinc conditions. Plant and Soil, 371(1-2), 299-312. DOI Scopus84 WoS68
  2012	Watts-Williams, S., & Cavagnaro, T. (2012). Arbuscular mycorrhizas modify tomato responses to soil zinc and phosphorus addition. Biology and Fertility of Soils, 48(3), 285-294. DOI Scopus73 WoS61 Europe PMC15

Research opportunities in my lab

Honours projects: you will have the opportunity to investigate the effects of beneficial mycorrhizal fungi on crop nutrition (i) or water use efficiency (ii).

(i) The mycorrhizal pathway of phosphorus uptake is important for plants, but may lead to increased accumulation of the anti-nutrient compound phytate in grains and pulses. Honours projects will uncover how mycorrhizal fungi affect phytate accumulation in the edible portion of crops, and how this modifies the bioavailability of micronutrients such as zinc and iron for human consumption.

(ii) Rice is typically grown in flooded paddies, where symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi is not functional. As we move to aerobic (non-flooded) rice production, we have an opportunity to see whether mycorrhizal fungi can improve nutrient and water uptake in rice. Honours projects will inoculate Australian rice varieties with mycorrhizal fungi and trial different water and nutrient availabilites to understand where mycorrhizal fungi have the greatest benefits.

• Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

  Date	Role	Research Topic	Program	Degree Type	Student Load	Student Name
  2024	Principal Supervisor	Enhancing phosphorus use efficiency in macadamia production using beneficial soil microbes	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Chrysanthea Claire Budiman
  2023	Principal Supervisor	Assessing the impact of mycorrhizal fungi on legume crop nutritional quality	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Miss Yan Wen
  2022	Principal Supervisor	Exploring the impact of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on cereal grain nutrition	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Thi Diem Nguyen

• Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

  Date	Role	Research Topic	Program	Degree Type	Student Load	Student Name
  2017 - 2020	Co-Supervisor	The impact of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculation on the growth and nutrition of agricultural plant species	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Binh Thi Thanh Tran
  2017 - 2021	Co-Supervisor	Soil Health in Urban Agriculture with an Emphasis on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Matthias Johannes Salomon
  2017 - 2021	Co-Supervisor	The Effects Of Arbuscular Mycorrhizas On Phosphorus Cycling And Leaching In Soils	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Cuc Thi Kim Tran
  2017 - 2021	Co-Supervisor	Optimising Phosphorus Supply to Plants by Combining Inorganic P Fertilisers and Organic Amendments, and the Roles of Arbuscular Mycorrhizas	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Thi Thanh Hue Ngo

• Other Supervision Activities

  Date	Role	Research Topic	Location	Program	Supervision Type	Student Load	Student Name
  2023 - ongoing	Principal Supervisor	The effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on faba bean yield and nutrition	The University of Adelaide	-	Honours	Part Time	Sebastian Smith
  2022 - ongoing	External Supervisor	Manipulation of plant-derived phytonutrients and antinutrients in bread to improve iron bioavailability	The University of Melbourne	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Rucha Patil
  2021 - ongoing	External Supervisor	The potential benefits of dual placement phosphorus fertiliser application to south-eastern Australian crop species	Charles Sturt University	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Olivia Brunton

• Committee Memberships

  Date	Role	Committee	Institution	Country
  2023 - ongoing	Representative	University of Adelaide Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology EMCR forum	The University of Adelaide	Australia
  2021 - ongoing	Representative	Australian Society of Plant Scientists Discipline Representative Plant-Microbe Interactions	The University of Adelaide	Australia

• Memberships

  Date	Role	Membership	Country
  2018 - ongoing	Member	Australasian Mycological Society	Australia
  2016 - ongoing	Member	Australian Society of Plant Scientists	Australia

• Event Participation

  Date	Event Name	Event Type	Institution	Country
  2022 - ongoing	Australian Society of Plant Scientists Conference	Conference	The University of Adelaide	-

• Position: Internal Grant-Funded Researcher B
• Phone: 83137224
• Email: stephanie.watts-fawkes@adelaide.edu.au
• Campus: Waite
• Building: Plant Research Centre, floor 2
• Org Unit: Waite Research Institute