July 2013 Committee Report to the ISPP Executive and Council

Rhizoctonia Subject Matter Committee (RSMC)

International Society for Plant Pathology

(Professor Lodovica Gullino, President)

Committee on the (Rhizoctonia Subject Matter Committee)

Subject Matter Committee. Rhizoctonia Subject Matter Committee

Established: August 1993

Web address for SMC. http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/aginfo/barleypath/rhizoc/

Note: this will change in 2014.

Name (s) of personnel preparing report. Suha Jabaji, Chair of SMC

Nominated Officers. Is the list for your SMC on the ISPP website correct? YES

Current membership

Suha Jabaji, Chair, McGill University, Quebec, CANADA

Marc Cubeta, Co-Chair, North Carolina State University (NCSU), North Carolina, USA

Rita Grosch- Institute of Vegetable and ornamental Crops (IGZ), Berlin, Germany

Takeshi Toda-Akita Prefectural University, Akita, JAPAN

Honglian Li, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, CHINA

Ning Zhang, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Jersey, USA

Mailing list of members: more than 300

Committee Meetings: Short meetings are done with some members once a year via

either skype or email. Additionally, during ICPP meetings, committee members meet

during their satellite meetings and discuss issues dealing with finance, future meetings,

and research topics.

Committee Activities:

WEBSITE: http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/aginfo/barleypath/rhizoc/ (will be updated and

address will change)

History and Establishment

The International Rhizoctonia Committee was established in Montreal in 1993 and since

then has been active not only promoting the exchange of information on research relating

to pathogenic and non-pathogenic Rhizoctonia species complex, but also encouraging

international collaborative research projects among colleagues working on the various

aspects of Rhizoctonia Research.

Subject Matter Committee focus issues:

Administration:

• Focus on recruiting young researchers who are passionate and can serve and lead

SMC.

• Working on updating/reviving the webpage of RSMC

Science:

• Working on a conceptual framework and experimental tools to better delineate and

identify species,

• Working to develop improved and novel strategies for managing Rhizoctonia diseases

Activities Past and Future

1995. Based on the first International workshop in 1995, a book entitled Rhizoctonia

Species: Taxonomy, Molecular Biology, Ecology, Pathology and Control edited by B.

Sneh, S. J.-Hare, S. Neate and G. Dijst, was published in 1996 by Kluwer academic

publishers. This book was written by experts in various fields of Rhizoctonia, some of

whome were invited speakers at the first Symposium.

2009. A consortium consisting of North American and international scientists in the

Rhizoctonia community became actively involved in a collaborative project to obtain a high

quality complete genome sequence of the soil fungus R. solani anastomosis group 3 (AG-

3), strain Rhs1AP. This fungus is a competitive saprobe and an important pathogen of

food crops in the plant family Solanaceae. In addition to its economic importance as a

plant pathogen, the fungus and its closely related species can often form beneficial

associations with early diverging land plants, lichens, and orchids. The genome size is at

least 80 Mb based on estimates from a recently constructed optical map that suggests

there are 24 chromosomes ranging in size from 1.0 to 6.2 Mb. Repetitive sequences in the

genome have been identified and microsatellite-based genetic markers for population

genetics studies are available to the community on the website: http://www.rsolani.org.

New initiatives

2013. Discussions are on-going about a laboratory manual focusing on current “omics”

methods used to decipher the taxonomy, pathology and biology of Rhizoctonia solani.

Workshops

The IRC had held 4 International Workshops focusing on various aspects of Rhizoctonia

research. These work shops are intended to distribute among people interested in

Rhizoctonia, relevant information and news from different countries related to Rhizoctonia

research.

1st RSMC: Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, June 27-30, 1995

2nd RSMC: Edinburgh, Scotland, August, 1998

3rd RSMC: Taichung, Taiwan, August 2000.

4th RSMC: Berlin, June 2009

The 5th RSMC will be Zhengzhou, China, August 21-24, 2013

The RSMC is non-profit organization. It has no membership fees and all activities are

carried out on volunteer basis. Workshops become the focal point for discussion and

decision-making on research topics for future workshops.

Submitted by Suha Jabaji, Chair, Email: suha.jabaji@mcgill.ca