The society grants this honor to a current APS member in recognition of distinguished contributions to plant pathology or to The American Phytopathological Society. Fellow recognition is based on significant contributions in one or more of the following areas: original research, teaching, administration, professional and public service, and/or extension and outreach.
Dr. Ioannis E. Tzanetakis (Yannis) grew up in Athens, Greece; obtained his B.S. in soil science from the Agricultural University of Athens and Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology at Oregon State University (OSU) with Dr. Robert Martin. He returned to Greece for his military service before returning to OSU for a postdoc with Dr. Theo Dreher. Tzanetakis joined the University of Arkansas in 2008 as Assistant Professor and made Full Professor in 2017. He leads a widely recognized program focused on virus diseases of berry crops, ornamentals and soybean. Impacts of Tzanetakis' program range from discovery of virus species new to science to understanding how pathogen complexes are spread. Importantly, he has developed new pest management practices, and tools from his program continue to serve growers and the scientific community.
He has published more than 150 peer reviewed articles, several book chapters and 50 sections for Compendia for APS PRESS. He leads a diverse research team, mentoring graduate students, postdocs and visiting scholars that hail from 15 different countries.
Tzanetakis’ research has focused on characterizing plant viruses and their epidemiology. As a student, his work led to understanding a strawberry disease outbreak in California which cost growers approximately $25 million per year. This resulted in revised vector management in nurseries with improved disease control and reduced pesticide use. Emphasis on understanding virus diversity and virus complexes in disease management has become a hallmark of his work. He characterized the virus complex causing blackberry yellow vein disease (BYVD), in collaboration with colleagues in multiple states. His group developed infectious clones of several viruses infecting the three major berry crops to define virus complexes. This achievement also provides an invaluable tool to characterize details of virus interactions in the BYVD complex. Tzanetakis’ team characterized the causal agent of rose rosette disease (rose rosette virus, RRV), the most destructive disease of rose in the U.S., and has developed a rapid detection assay that combines vector ID and virus detection using a single eriophyid mite. He used similar approaches to unravel soybean vein necrosis disease and worked with breeders to identify resistance to soybean vein necrosis virus (SVNV), one of the most widespread viruses of the crop in the United States.
In collaboration with Dr. Thien Ho, Tzanetakis combined expertise in bioinformatics and plant virology to develop Virfind (Virfind.org), a widely used online pipeline for detecting known viruses and, crucially, discovering novel ones. He led development of a strategy to create artificial positive controls that mimic virus titers in planta. This work overcomes major issues of obtaining and maintaining positive controls, especially for quarantined viruses. With Dr. Jing Zhou they developed a novel approach using peptides to block transmission of SVNV. Tzanetakis has emphasized the importance of understanding virus diversity as a prerequisite to developing reliable diagnostic methods. He provides detection primers to colleagues for evaluation to ensure the robustness of diagnostic assays before use in surveys or clean plant programs.
Tzanetakis leads the Arkansas Clean Plant Center and spearheaded the development of National Certification Standards for Blueberry and Rubus, collaborating with APHIS regulators, state agencies, nursery owners, growers, and scientists to harmonize protocols across states. These certification standards are now used as models for other crops. This experience resulted in his selection as the lead virologist of an international team of experts for the Indian Clean Plant Program, funded by the Asian Development Bank.
Dr. Tzanetakis is known and respected by colleagues worldwide, as evidenced by frequent invitations he receives to present his work. Over a six-year period, he initiated and shepherded an international effort to identify ‘phantom’ diseases of eight plant genera and remove them from quarantine and certification lists. The group (185 scientists) published their efforts in Plant Disease with the goal to streamline quarantine and certification programs and remove disease names for which there are no type isolates available. This work has already produced results with some of those agents being eliminated from regulatory lists. He is active in the NCCC-212 (North Central Coordinating Committee on small fruit crops) and WERA-20 (Western Regional Committee on graft- transmissible diseases in tree fruit, nuts, grapes, citrus and berries).
He serves on multiple study groups of the International Committee for the Taxonomy of Viruses. He is the administrator of the International Council for the Study of Virus and other Graft Transmissible Diseases of Fruit Crops and is actively involved in APS serving as Senior Editor for Plant Disease (2010-2013), Associate Editor for Phytopathology (2009-2011), member of six subject matter committees, and chair of two. In addition, he has served on the editorial boards of five other journals, and reviewed manuscript for more than 60 others.
Tzanetakis has provided leadership and service in numerous ways at the University of Arkansas. Some of the highlights include his chairing the departmental Graduate Student Admissions, and Promotion and Tenure committees. He serves on multiple College committees and was elected by his peers as Chair of the Faculty Council. He was elected to the University Faculty Senate and Graduate Council and served on multiple University committees including Research Council, Peer Mentoring, and Cultural Competence Leadership. He served on search committees for both the Dean and the Vice President for Agriculture. Additionally, Tzanetakis chaired and participated in committees reviewing multiple academic institutions in Greece.
He was recognized by APS as the recipient of the Schroth Faces of the Future (2010) and Lee M. Hutchins award (2015), by the University of Arkansas Outstanding Faculty Award (2020); USDA Safeguarding Award (2013) and AAAS/Science Program for Excellence in Science (2006). In 2022 he received the John W. White Research Award, a top honor in the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.
Tzanetakis has made significant contributions to both fundamental and translational virology, effectively extending his research to stakeholders through publications, presentations, and field visits. He is a committed mentor and teacher, receiving glowing reviews for both. Tzanetakis’ research, extension, mentoring and service activities make him an excellent candidate for the honor of APS Fellow.
