Abstracts of Invited Talks, Oral and Poster Presentations Given at the 15Th Congress of the Mediterranean Phytopathological Union, June 20–23, 2017, in Córdoba, Spain
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Phytopathologia Mediterranea (2017) 56, 2, 278−378 DOI: 10.14601/Phytopathol_Mediterr-20879 ABSTRACTS Abstracts of invited talks, oral and poster presentations given at the 15th Congress of the Mediterranean Phytopathological Union, June 20–23, 2017, in Córdoba, Spain The 15th Congress of the Mediterranean Phytopathological Union entitled “Plant health sustaining Mediterra- nean Ecosystems”, was held in Córdoba, Spain on June 20–23, 2017. The mission of the meeting was to promote dissemination of the latest scientific advances and encourage dialogue, interaction and collaboration between researchers from different disciplines interested in all aspects of Phytopathology. More than 200 participants from 26 countries attended the congress, making this an outstanding scientific event. The presentations cov- ered a broad range of aspects related to plant diseases including Genome Analysis, Invasive Emerging Patho- gens, Integrated Disease Management, Food Safety, New Tools In Diagnostics and Management, Molecular Pathogen-Host Interactions, Biocontrol, Epidemiology and Modelling, and Microbiomes and their Role in Plant Health. Abstracts of the invited talks, and the oral and poster presentations are given in this issue. Key note lectures pact of the bacterial infections, included restrictions for new plantations and movement of propagating Olive quick decline and Xylella fastidiosa in materials, and removal of infected trees. The severe Southern Italy: the state of the art. D. BOSCIA, M. damage and the imposed phytosanitary restrictions SAPONARI. CNR – Institute for Sustainable Plant Pro- caused severe economic and social impacts in the lo- tection, University of Bari, Via Amendola 122/D, 70126, cal community, raising concerns against the contain- Bari, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] ment measures and failure to implement timely, ef- fective and coordinated preventive measures. Due to The identification in 2013 of an outbreak of Xylella the novelty of the Xylella-associated disease in olives fastidiosa (Xf) in olive groves in the Salento penin- and the new outbreak in the EU, the EU Commis- sula (southern Italy) resulted in a plant health emer- sion mobilized dedicated resources to build research gency of unprecedented proportions for the EU. activity to address research gaps for this emerging Infected olive trees show extensive canopy desic- pathogen. Between 2015 and 2016, two projects in cation and severe quick decline symptoms. In the the H2020 framework have been funded. These are: outbreak area, the bacterium was found to be effi- “Pest Organisms Threatening Europe” (POnTE) and ciently spread by the meadow spittlebug Philaenus “Xylella fastidiosa Active Containment Through a spumarius, abundant on the olive canopies during multidisciplinary-Oriented Research Strategy” (XF- the dry season. The initial demarcated foci rapidly ACTORS), the latter exclusively targeting Xf. From expanded over the following 4 years, establishing a the increased research activity developed in the past new demarcation line 80 km from the first reported 3 years, new knowledge is providing data on the ge- outbreak; while few species were found infected in netic and biological properties of the Xf population, 2013 the currently known susceptible hosts reached the host range, vector identification and biology, and approx. 30 different plant species. Phytosanitary identification of olive cultivars with promising re- measures to combat the spread and mitigate the im- sistance traits. 278 ISSN (print): 0031-9465 www.fupress.com/pm ISSN (online): 1593-2095 © Firenze University Press © 2017 Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 15th Congress of the Mediterranean Phytopathological Union, June 20–23, 2017, Córdoba, Spain Keeping up with the plant destroyers in the post- tive meta-transcriptomics were employed to study genomics era. S. KAMOUN. The Sainsbury Labora- compatible (inoculation of a F. oxysporum strain tory, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, United Kingdom. results in diseased plants) and incompatible (F. ox- http://www.KamounLab.net ysporum inoculation has no negative effect on plant health) interactions by inoculating the same plant Infectious plant diseases cause severe losses in world host (Col-0) with different F. oxysporum isolates. The agriculture, and threaten to slow laudable efforts to study focused on the “primary determinative phase”, launch a second green revolution to meet the food including fungal penetration and colonization from security needs of a rapidly increasing world popula- the cortex to xylem. Comparative study enables tion. Pathogens such as the rice blast fungus, wheat identification of genes and pathways that contribute stripe and stem rusts, the Irish potato famine patho- to the co-evolutionary arms race between wilt patho- gen, and many others continue to trigger recurrent gens and their hosts. Distinct sets of genes from two epidemics with far-reaching consequences. When F. oxysporum strains contribute to the different dis- faced with these threats, knowledge of the patho- ease phenotypes. Plant genes involved in pathogen- gens is essential. The genome sequence of a plant associated molecular patterns triggered immunity pathogen is a deep look into its soul. From important (PTI) were induced in compatible and incompatible and often unexpected insights into the biology of the interactions, while there were more distinct expres- pathogen to the tools for surveillance and diagnosis, sion profiles for genes involved in effector-triggered the genome is an invaluable resource that accelerates immunity (ETI) in two different interactions. research and output delivery. The costs of genome sequencing are rapidly decreasing, and genome se- This research was supported by a National Science Foun- quences can rapidly provide knowledge to develop dation CAREER award (1652641), a Burroughs Wellcome DNA markers, outline population structures, and in- Fund Investigator award (1014893), a National Institute of Food and Agriculture National Research Initiative Hatch dicate pathogen origin. These This paper discussed Grants Program grant (MAS00441), competitive Grants ways in which genome biology impacts plant pa- (2008-35604-18800 and MASR-2009-04374) and a seed thology, particularly, how pathogen genomics drive grant from Massachusetts Green-energy High Perfor- basic and applied plant pathology, and how new mance Computing Center. findings on pathogen biology can be exploited for development of new approaches to breeding disease- resistant crops. Detailed knowledge of pathogen ge- Understanding host specificity via comparative nomes coupled with novel methods of plant genome genomics. D.S. GUTTMAN. Department of Cell & editing is ushering the era of next-generation disease Systems Biology. University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, resistance breeding in plants. Canada. E-mail: [email protected] The Pseudomonas syringae species complex includes Fusarium pathogenomics: understanding fungal diverse lineages that can infect numerous agricul- pathogenicity through genomics. L.-J. MA. Depart- tural and wild plant species. The recent widespread ment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University application of next-generation sequencing technol- of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA, USA. E-mail: ogy has greatly expanded understanding of the [email protected] genetic structure of this species complex, although there is still limited understanding of the specific ge- The root-infecting fungal pathogen Fusarium oxyspo- netic factors underlying niche specificity. We present rum causes vascular wilt in over 100 different plant a comparative and evolutionary genomic analysis species. These pathogens produce thick-walled of >400 strains of P. syringae, including 62 type and resting structures that remain viable for long peri- pathotype strains. We specifically focussed on the ods, making disease control challenging. This study compositional dynamics of the genome, the impact takes a systems biology approach to dissect the mo- of selection and recombination on genes associated lecular mechanisms underlying fungal pathogenesis with host adaption, and the use of association tests and host defense using the F. oxysporum-Arabidopsis to identify previously unrecognized genes with host- pathosystem. Comparative genomics and compara- specific associations. We found that virulence-associ- Vol. 56, No. 2, August, 2017 279 15th Congress of the Mediterranean Phytopathological Union, June 20–23, 2017, Córdoba, Spain ated genes are more likely to be recombinogenic and Forest pathogen invasion: pathways, surveillance under selection, and that there is a strong signal for and early detection. A. SANTINI1, L. GHELARDI- inter-pathogroup recombination. This inter-patho- NI1,2 D. MIGLIORINI1,3 A.L. PEPORI1, N. LUCHI1. group recombination of niche-associated genes is 1Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, CNR, Via likely to be critical for maintaining genetic cohesion, Madonna del Piano, 10 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy. and thereby delimiting the species complex. 2Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Agroalimen- tari e dell’Ambiente DiSPAA, Università di Firenze, Pi- azzale delle Cascine 28, 50144 Firenze, Italy. 3 Depart- Will climate change affect IPM in the Mediter- ment of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Forestry