Summary of the Teaching Subject Committee activities since 2003

Established: Established before 1998. The ISPP Postharvest Pathology committee had an informal gathering within the framework of the Postharvest 2000 meeting in Jerusalem on 26- 31 March 2000.

Name (s) of personnel preparing report. Greg Johnson Postharvest Pathology Committee Secretary and Dov Prusky, Chairman

Nominated Officers. Is the list for your SMC on the ISPP website correct? No.

The ISPP website only shows the name of the current chairman. The current chairman will stand down at ICPP2013. The list of the other current members of the Postharvest SMC will be added in September.

Current membership

We have a longer mailing list of attendees at Postharvest Pathology Evening workshops in ICPP2008 Torino and ICPP2003 Christchurch and the International Conference in Postharvest Pathology, Lleida, Spain in April 2011.

ICPP2008 and ICPP 2013 - The SMC organized two concurrent day-time sessions and two evening meetings at both ICPP2008 and ICPP2013. A short business meeting was held at the end of the second evening session at ICPP2008. Several of the papers from the ICPP2008 postharvest pathology sessions were published as e-book and in hard and soft cover in the Springer-ISPP Monograph Series Plant Pathology in the 21st Century, as Vol. 2 Plant Pathology in the 21st Century.[1]

From Top L to R (a) Dov Prusky and Davide Spadaro; (b) Somsiri Sangchote, Kerry Everett, Anna Snowdon and (c) Attendees at Evening Workshop at ICPP2008.

First International Conference on Postharvest Pathology, Lleida, Spain, April 2011.

At ICPP2008 after one of the evening sessions, Dov Prusky and Paloma Melgarejo discussed with several postharvest scientists the possibility to have a “Mid Term” meeting on Postharvest Pathology between the ICPP2008 in Torino and ICPP2013 in Beijing, in order that all the scientists working on Postharvest Pathology could present the best and their newest scientific data. Prof. Inmaculada Viñas and Dr. Josep Usall of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain immediately offered themselves to host that “Mid Term Meeting” during 2011.

From 11-14 April 2011, the Postharvest Pathology group from Lleida, Catalonia, Spain, led by Prof. Inmaculada Viñas from The University of Lleida (UdL) and Dr. Josep Usall from the Institute for Food and Agriculture Research and Technology (IRTA) organized the first International Postharvest Pathology meeting at the University of Lleida, under the frame of the ISPP, with the extraordinary attendance of more than 170 participants from 38 countries representing Universities, research centers and private companies.

Picture: Attendees at the First International Conference on Postharvest Pathology in Lleida, Spain, April 2011

The meeting consisted of three main sessions: 1. Fruit- pathogen interactions in postharvest diseases, 2. Etiology, epidemiology and detection of postharvest diseases, and 3. Disease control including chemical, physical and biological methods. During the meeting 3 invited lectures, 47 oral presentations and 86 posters were presented. Further activities included evening discussion topics on:

Finally, a discussion table on the “Collaboration between the scientific community and private companies in postharvest disease control” was significantly attended. The Conference hosts also organized an enjoyable social program that ensured the participants’ visit was very enjoyable.

· The committee organized concurrent sessions and evening meetings at ICPP1998, ICPP2003, ICPP 2008 and ICPP 2013, and celebrated the first International Conference in Postharvest Pathology in Lleida, Spain in April 2011.

· The Postharvest Pathology SMC Chair, Dov Prusky, published a review paper in the ISPP Journal, Food Security, in 2011: Prusky D. 2011. Reduction of the incidence of post harvest quality losses, and future prospects. Food Security, 3(4): 463-474.

· The Postharvest Pathology SMC Chair, Dov Prusky, published a review paper in the Annual Review of Phytopathology in 2013: Prusky D, Alkan N, Fluhr R, Tesfaye M. 2013. Quiescent and necrotrophic lifestyle choice during postharvest disease development. Annual Review of Phytopathology. doi:10.1089/ars.2012.5062.

Recently published and current molecular studies have led to considerable revision in the taxonomy of postharvest plant pathogens and there is a need to consolidate the recent research into a revised host-checklist.

The importance of quiescent infections is still one of the key points for understanding the initiation of development of postharvest diseases. In the last Annual Review of Phytopathology a whole chapter is dedicated for the understanding of possible futures research directions.

Mycotoxions, especially in durable produce are a serious problem in many countries and may represent a much more serious and insidious threat to consumers than pesticides.

The ISPP Postharvest Pathology SMC members are also involved in parallel committees and activities under the International Society for Horticultural Science:

· In 2010, a Working Group on Biological Control of Postharvest Diseases was approved under the aegis of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) Commissions on Plant Protection; Quality and Post Harvest Horticulture, and; Sustainability through Integrated and Organic Horticulture. Dr. Michael Wisniewski and Dr. Samir Droby were appointed as co-chairs.

· An ISHS workshop on postharvest biological control of fresh produce diseases was held in Leesburg, VA, USA on the outskirts of Washington D.C., on October 25 -28, 2010. Approximately 55 participants from 15 countries were in attendance representing researchers, industry representatives, and regulatory agencies. The objectives of the workshop were to assess the current status of postharvest biocontrol throughout the world, identify the barriers that limit this approach from wide scale application, develop a better understanding from industry about the requirements of developing new products, especially in relation to the regulatory guidelines for registration of biocontrol products. Additionally, critical areas of research were defined and information from other related fields of microbial research were presented to see how they may apply to the study of postharvest biocontrol.

Appendix 1 Report on the ISPP Postharvest Pathology Committee International Conference on Postharvest Pathology in Spain, April 2011.

The Postharvest Pathology committee of the International Society of Plant Pathology led by Prof. Dov Prusky (Chair), Wojciech Janisiewicz Vice Chair, and Greg Johnson (Secretary), is one of the most active committees in the ISPP, and usually has two concurrent sessions during the Meetings of the ISPP, as well as evening sessions and different satellite meetings. This committee is also one of the few that published a full book of the proceedings of the postharvest session talks of ICPP2008 under the name “Postharvest Pathology” edited by Prusky and Gullino. This is very important since it gave all the participants’ credits for their talks and at the same time the possibility of rapid publishing the most up-to-date data of our research.

At ICPP2008, Dov Prusky and Paloma Melgarejo after one of the evening sessions discussed with several postharvest scientists the possibility to have a “Mid Term” meeting on Postharvest Pathology between the ISPP meeting in Torino and the one that will take place in China in 2013, in order that all the scientists working on Postharvest Pathology would have the possibility to stand and present the best and their newest scientific data. Prof. Inmaculada Viñas and Dr. Josep Usall immediately offered themselves to host that “Mid Term Meeting” before the one that will take place in China.

During the 11th to 14th of April 2011, The Postharvest Pathology group from Lleida, Catalonia, Spain, led by Prof. Inmaculada Viñas from The University of Lleida (UdL) and Dr. Josep Usall from the Institute for Food and Agriculture Research and Technology (IRTA), organized the first International Postharvest Pathology meeting at the University of Lleida, under the frame of the ISPP with the extraordinary attendance of more than 170 participants from 38 countries representing Universities, research centers and private companies. The meeting included three main sessions: 1. Fruit- pathogen interactions in postharvest diseases, 2. Etiology, epidemiology and detection of postharvest diseases, and 3. Disease control including chemical, physical and biological methods. During the meeting 3 invited lectures, 47 oral presentations and 86 posters were presented. Further activities included evening discussion topics on: i. Use of molecular tools in host-pathogen interaction studies, ii. Brown rot in stone fruits and iii. The effect of climatic change in mycotoxins production. Finally, a discussion table on the “Collaboration between the scientific community and private companies in postharvest disease control” was significantly attended. The hosts of the meeting carefully prepared as well an enjoyable social program that ensured our visit in this city as enjoyable as possible.

The Postharvest committee intends to continue its activities during the next ISPP meeting in Beijing, China, 2013, publish a book of proceedings and is planning the 2^nd International Postharvest Pathology meeting that its venue will be decided during the next ISPP meeting.

[1] Introduction; Dov Prusky.- 1. The role of pre-formed antifungal substances in the resistance of fruits to postharvest pathogens; Nimal Adikaram et al.- 2. Mechanisms of induced resistance against B. cinerea; Tesfaye Mengiste et al.- 3. Induced resistance in melons by elicitors for the control of postharvest diseases; Bi Yang et al.- 4. Mechanisms modulation the postharvest pathogen colonization in decayed fruits; Dov Prusky et al.- 5. Global regulation of genes in citrus fruit in response to the postharvest pathogen Penicillium digitatum; L. González-Candelas et al.- 6. Epidemiological assessments and postharvest disease incidence; Themis J. Michailides et al.- 7. Preharvest strategies to control postharvest diseases in fruits; N. Teixidó et al.- 8. New developments in postharvest fungicide registrations for edible horticultural crops and use strategies in the United States; J.E. Adaskaveg, H. Förster.- 9. New approaches for post-harvest disease control in Europe; M. Mari et al.- 10. Quo vadis of biological control of postharvest diseases; Wojciech J. Janisiewicz.- 11. Improving formulation of biocontrol agents manipulating production process; J. Usall et al.- 12. Host responses to biological control agents; Raffaello Castoria, Sandra A.I. Wright.- 13. Non-fungicidal control of Botrytis storage rot in New Zealand kiwifruit through pre- and post-harvest crop management; M.A. Manning et al.- 14. The peach story; Paloma Melgarejo et al.