ORAL PRESENTATIONS KEYNOTE LECTURE KEYNOTE LECTURE Feedback with soil microbes drives plant community composition in temperate ecosystems John Klironomos University of British Columbia, Canada SHORT BIO John Klironomos, Professor, Biology /BRAES Institute, Associate Dean of Research, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, The University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, Canada. Prof. Klironomos is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His research group “focuses on one group of mycorrhizal fungi (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi – Phylum Glomeromycota), although they often include other fungi (mycorrhizal, saprobic, pathogenic), and other soil biota as well (e.g., bacteria, protists, fungi, invertebrates), using two approaches in studying mycorrhizal ecology: (a) comparative and manipulative field studies, and (b) controlled experiments under laboratory and greenhouse conditions”. More information may be found at https://biodiversity.ubc.ca/people/faculty/john- klironomos. 1 KEYNOTE LECTURE O1. PLENARY LECTURE I Plant disease susceptibility; on host genes and pathogen effectors controlling infection Guido Van den Ackerveken Plant-Microbe Interactions, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
[email protected] Susceptibility to infectious diseases caused by pathogens affects most plants in their natural habitat and leads to yield losses in agriculture. But plants are not helpless because their immune system can deal with the vast majority of attackers that our recognized through molecular patterns by specialized receptors. Nevertheless, adapted pathogens have evolved effectors to circumvent or avert host immunity making plants susceptible to these uninvited guests. In addition to the failure of the plant immune system, there are other host processes that contribute to plant disease susceptibility.