ARC-Plant Protection Research PLANT PROTECTION NEWS July — September 2015 Newsletter of Plant Protection Research (PPR), an institute in the Crop Sciences Programme of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) Inside this issue: The National Collection of Fungi celebrates its National Collection of Fungi 1-2 110th anniversary Small round-leaved prickly 2-3 pear The National Collection of Fungi (NCF) was es- rounding quarantine regulations. Currently, the New bee species 3 tablished in 1905 as part of the then British gov- research focuses on the survey of ecosystems ernment’s mandate to study plant diseases. The and molecular phylogenetics. Biological control of Acacia 4-6 first plant pathologist appointed was Paul Evans, the founder of the PREM fungorium. The name As part of the South African National Research Longhorn beetle collection 6-7 “PREM” was derived from the city in which the strategy on Fungi, the National Collection plays an collection is situated, Pretoria (PRE), and the M integral part in the three strategic goals identified, Scientific meetings 8-9 defines the collection as being mycological. namely: a) ensure that fungal diversity and taxon- omy are represented in relevant biodiversity fo- Visits and Personnel 10-11 The fungorium’s 61000 dried specimens, includ- rums and decision-making processes and are part ing 3000 type specimens, not only represent of broader biodiversity initiatives; b) increase com- Technology Transfer 12 fungal reference material of South Africa as the munication and interaction between fungal taxono- only recognised depository in the country but due mists to promote collaboration, especially in terms to continuous scientific collaboration, also in- of exploring South African fungi; and c) increase cludes specimens from the Americas, Asia and representation across taxa in collections and en- Africa. Research collections of well-known South sure long-term security of material and data, and African scientists such as Ethel Doidge, Edith provide access to this. As a result, the South Afri- Stephens, Paul Van der Bijl, and Len Verwoerd can Fungal Diversity Network was established, were included over the years. Background infor- which is coordinated by the NCF. mation and historical facts about the collection were published by Rong & Baxter in 2006 Digitization of PREM data got underway in 2004 (Studies of Mycology 55: 1-12). with the development of an MS-Access database and subsequently additional data were added During the past 110 years, activities at PREM firstly on an ad hoc basis by ARC personnel and were influenced by socio-economic and political secondly by dedicated data-capturers funded by Editorial Committee events and, most recently, global focus on the three rounds of successful SANBI-SABIF funding. conservation of biodiversity. Although the basic The process of capturing data from the specimen Mariette Truter (ed.) goals and needs to maintain PREM remained sheets has been completed and a SQL database Almie van den Berg integral throughout, various phases in terms of is currently being contracted to house the data. Ian Millar research focus can be recognised over the past Marika van der Merwe 110 years. In the early days, the emphasis was As a result of a National Research Foundation / Annette de Klerk on the collection and recording of fungal species, National Science Foundation of China collabora- Petro Marais after which the focus shifted to mycotoxins and, tion grant that has been awarded, the data will Elsa van Niekerk recently, to preservation of biodiversity. There is also be internationally accessible through two Lin Sztab also an increasing demand for public-good ser- portals on soil and phytopathogenic fungi from vices such as information and diagnostics sur- South Africa. These portals will be housed at the General enquiries Plant Protection Research Private Bag X134 Queenswood 0121 South Africa e-mail: [email protected] website: http://www.arc.agric.za © Information may be used freely with acknowl- edgement to the source. Fig. 1. Delegates from universities and institutes within the ARC who attended the National Collection of Fungi open day to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the collection Pa ge 2 PLANT PROTECTION NEWS Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (CBS) in the Netherlands, presented to postgraduate students from ARC institutes and univer- and supported by the International Mycological Association. Data sities to illustrate the importance of the NCF collection in mycologi- from both the PREM fungorium and the PPRI living culture collec- cal and plant pathological research in South Africa. tion and associated DNA sequence data will form part of the portals. Contact: Dr Adriaana Jacobs at [email protected] The living fungal culture collection (PPRI) was started as a re- search collection in 1981 by Dr Cecile Roux to accommodate the strains that formed part of her study on Pithomyces chartarum, a pathogen of rice and sorghum and responsible for facial eczema in sheep. The collection grew through a number of externally funded projects such as the NRF Innovation Fund and the EA- ACP Sugar Research Programme, and currently houses ca. 18 000 cultures that include numerous important plant-pathogenic and mycotoxigenic genera isolated from various mono-cultural crops and natural ecosystems in South Africa. The collection is affiliated with the World Federation of Culture Collections and, thus, facilitates the South African government’s commitments to the Nagoya and Budapest treaties by accommodating a repre- sentation of South African fungal diversity and reserved commer- cially-used fungal cultures. To celebrate the NCF’s accomplishments through the past 110 years, an open day was held on 29 July 2015 (Fig. 1). The pro- gramme included talks by invited speakers on the role that the Fig. 2. Presenters during the National Collection of Fungi open day. From left NCF has played in their research (Fig. 2), followed by a tour of to right Drs Elna van der Linde, Seonju Marincowitz, Riana Jacobs-Venter, the Collection. During the afternoon, a collection course was Wilhelm de Beer, Isabel Rong Research in progress to control small round-leaved prickly pear Vast tracts of valuable agricultural and conservation land in South Affairs, is underway at the Rietondale Weeds Research laboratories Africa are overrun with an invasive cactus, the small round- of ARC-PPRI to identify such a cochineal biotype. Some ten popu- leaved prickly pear (Opuntia engelmannii Salm-Dyck) (Fig. 1). It lations of the cochineal Dactylopius opuntiae (Fig. 3) were gener- was probably introduced as an ornamental from its native Mexico ously collected during August and September 2015 in the south- or south-western USA, but has escaped cultivation to invade western parts of the USA by two teams of South African research- savanna, grassland and karoo in the Eastern, Northern and ers (Fritz Heystek and Yogie Kistensamy from ARC-PPRI on a Western Cape, Free State, North-West and Limpopo Provinces of Prosopis collecting trip, and Dr Helmuth Zimmermann, an inde- South Africa. It is spread mainly by bird-dispersed seeds, but also pendent consultant who assisted an Australian team in collecting propagates vegetatively through detached plant segments that natural enemies on different cactus species) during the course of take root. The long spines and clusters of shorter prickles (known their own research surveys. Each of these insect populations is now as glochids) on the leafpads (Fig. 2) injure livestock, wild animals being evaluated, under quarantine conditions, on different forms of and humans, and make invaded areas inaccessible, thus lower- small round-leaved prickly pear from different parts of South Africa, ing the production potential of the land. Chemical control can be in order to identify a cochineal population that can effectively control effective in killing the plants, but presently no herbicide is regis- one or more of the weedy cactus forms. Since O. engelmannii is a tered for this purpose in South Africa, and chemical costs are highly variable species and is able to hybridise with various other prohibitive. Biological control, based mainly on the use of various intro- duced and tested cochineal (Dactylopius) species, has achieved many impressive successes with invasive cactus species in this country since 1913. In some areas, D. opunti- ae, the cochineal that was introduced to control the invasive prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica), is colonising small round- leaved prickly pear, but it is not sufficiently damaging to re- duce the populations of this cactus. A recent development in cactus biocontrol is the realisation that at least some of the nine known cochineal species consist of different biotypes, each of which prefers a different cactus species as its host. In addition to the ‘ficus’ biotype of D. opuntiae, which is associ- ated with prickly pear, a second biotype of the same cochi- neal species, known as the ‘stricta’ biotype, is effectively controlling the invasive Australian pest pear, O. stricta, in South Africa. Recent research by ARC-PPRI has, however, excluded this biotype as an effective biocontrol agent against small round-leaved prickly pear. Nevertheless, we feel hope- ful that another cochineal biotype is present somewhere in the native range of O. engelmannii, and that this could effec- tively control this cactus weed in South Africa. Research, funded by the National Environmental Manage- Fig. 1. A dense infestation of small round-leaved prickly pear invading ment