The ISPP Secretary-General Greg Johnson has been delving into sources of history in the general area of mycological plant pathology and the following web-sites are made available for the interest of ISPP members.

An historical index of mycologists and much other mycological information often with a North American emphasis can be seen through the web-site http://www.mushroomthejournal.com/greatlakesdata/Authors/AuthorFrame.html.

The H L Bolley Photograph Collection from the Archives of North Dakota State University at http://library.ndsu.edu/digital/bolley-photograph-collection/ includes a photographic collection of pioneering plant pathologists.

Henry Luke Bolley was a Charter Member of the American Phytopathology Society. His first work in ND was in establishing the cause and treatment for potato scab. His identification of the causal organism was predated by Thaxter by about one month, but his treatment protocol was the first. Bolley was instrumental in the development of a certified seed program in North Dakota and did extensive work on soil borne disease problems such as flax-sick soil (Fusarium wilt) and common root rot of wheat http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/plantpath/history. As a result of his work on flax wilt, Bolley travelled to Europe in 1903. Thereby he obtained the photograph shown below of Arthur Jaczewski (1863-1932 in Russia) who played a financial role in the establishment of an International Prize for Plant Pathology in 1923 in the name of Jakob Eriksson (1848-1931), a prominent Swedish mycologist and plant pathologist who specialized in fungal taxonomy and parasitism of plant pathogenic fungi.

Jakob Eriksson published on plant pathology in Sweden and advocated international collaboration in plant disease research. International collaboration in phytopathology research was attempted by others and the realization of Eriksson’s dream came closer with the convening of the International Phytopathological Conference in Rome, from 24 February-4 March 1914. However, national and institutional rivalries and quarantine concerns hampered progress. The history of these events is described by Castonguay, S (2010). Creating an Agricultural World Order: Regional Plant Protection Problems and International Phytopathology, 1878–1939. Agricultural History 84 (1) 46-73.

As readers of this ISPP Newsletter will be aware, a rust fungus infecting members of the Myrtaceae was found in New South Wales, Australia, in about April 2010, and a number of papers have been published since then, reporting the changing situation. At first the disease was named myrtle rust and the pathogen Uredo rangelii, but later it was concluded that the pathogen should be referred to as Puccinia psidii sensu lato. These changes were summarised in the October 2011 Newsletter.

The Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) has a National Management Group (NMG) which confirmed on 23 December 2010 that eradication of the pathogen was not technically feasible, despite efforts to suppress the disease. The NMG decided that there was a need for ongoing arrangements for the management of the pathogen due to the potential for further impact on the natural environment, the community and affected industries. Therefore, the Australian Government is investing $AUD 1.5 million from July 2011 to June 2013 to progress transition from eradication of the rust disease to management as it becomes naturalised and establishes itself in various ecological niches across Australia.  This investment will provide information and tools to enable industries and communities to mitigate the impacts of the disease in urban, primary production and natural environments. The National Myrtle Rust Transition to Management program will be implemented as a series of research and development projects providing multi-jurisdictional benefits with both immediate outcomes and longer term benefits.

Jurisdictions and research organisations have indicated an intention to undertake complementary work that augments the program. In recognition of the desire to achieve protection of social amenity and assets within Queensland, the Queensland Government plans to fund related activities that focus on increasing knowledge of the rust disease under Queensland conditions, and community engagement to reduce the impact of the rust. Complementary research on elements of managing the impact of the rust fungus is also being funded by other organisations such as the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, the CRC for Plant Biosecurity and the tea tree industry.

The Forestry Commission of the UK issued an alert on 16 July 2012 as a News Release about a serious disease of ash trees which has caused widespread losses of ash trees in continental Europe, including the deaths of an estimated 60 to 90 per cent of Denmark’s ash trees. There have been two findings in England in 2012 of ash dieback disease caused by the fungus Chalara fraxinea, which has the potential to kill millions of ash trees if it spreads into the natural environment. The disease was discovered in June in young ash trees recently planted at a car park in Leicestershire. This followed an interception in February by the Food & Environment Research Agency of diseased ash plants in a shipment from a supplier in the Netherlands to a nursery in Buckinghamshire. The ash plants which remained in the Buckinghamshire nursery have been destroyed, and the agency has so far traced almost all of the plants from the shipment which had already been sold on to retail buyers, and ordered their destruction. The origins of the disease in Leicestershire are still being investigated.

Ash is an important native species valued for its timber, wood-fuel, wild-life, biodiversity and landscape benefits, and it is one of the most numerous tree species. The disease mostly affects common ash (Fraxinus excelsior), including its ‘Pendula’ ornamental variety, but Fraxinus angustifolia can also be infected. Common ash is a deciduous species native to much of Europe, including the British Isles. It is the third most populous native tree in Great Britain after oak and birch.

A ProMED-mail Plant post on 25 June 2012 at http://www.promedmail.org describes a problem of witches’ broom disease affecting much of the important fruit crop of longan (Dimocarpus longan) in many provinces in the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam.

Attempted use of Systemic Resistance to Control Potato Virus Y

The Environmental Protection Agency of the USA has granted an Emergency Exemption to the Montana Department of Agriculture for the use of a biological product as an inducer of systemic resistance in an attempt to counter Potato Virus Y (PVY) in potato seed stock. The product is BmJ containing Bacillus mycoides, isolate J of which having been discovered by Montana State University to trigger resistance in plants to pathogenic fungi, bacteria, and viruses. The re-emergence of PVY is of great concern to farmers because insecticides used to control the aphids that vector PVY do not effectively decrease transmission of the disease. All of this is stated in a ProMED-mail Plant post on 5 July 2012 at http://www.promedmail.org. The exemption granted is for use of BmJ to try to control PVY on up to 2675 acres (1083 hectares) of seed potatoes.

A recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (26) 10432-10437 is entitled “High natural prevalence of a fungal prion” and written by a group of researchers in Wageningen, The Netherlands, and Bordeaux, France. It was published on-line on 12 June at http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1205333109.

Many readers will know that prions are infectious proteins that cause fatal diseases in mammals, but they are also known in fungi where their role in nature is not yet well-known. In this paper it is shown that an highly infectious prion in the fungus Podospora anserina is prevalent and that it has both detrimental and beneficial effects on this fungus.

This useful poster and others were prepared by Australian specialists and may be seen and downloaded by clicking on

In another e-mail to members of Pestnet, its Chair Grahame Jackson has drawn attention to publication of a paper by a team from the University of Exeter, UK, and Kyoto University, Japan. It is “Septin-Mediated Plant Cell Invasion by the Rice Blast Fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae” in Science 336 (6088) 1590-1595 on 22 June 2012 and it may be seen by clicking on http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1222934.

The paper provides an advance in understanding the molecular changes that take place in the germinating appressorium of the pathogen. It then can exert great pressure at the potential point of infection physically rupturing the leaf cuticle. By use of live-cell imaging, molecular genetics and genomic procedures, molecular details were obtained. An actin network assembles in the appressorium through the action of four septin guanosine triphosphatases, which polymerize into a dynamic, hetero-oligomeric ring. The septins scaffold the actin in the appressorium plasma membrane. The septins provide cortical rigidity and membrane curvature necessary for protrusion of the rigid penetration peg through the leaf surface. Septin mutants were obtained and tested for ability to infect rice leaves. They were non-pathogenic causing either no symptoms or small necrotic flecks associated with abortive infection attempts. Appressoria from septin mutants were unable to rupture plant cuticles efficiently.

A paper entitled “The Paleozoic Origin of Enzymatic Lignin Decomposition Reconstructed from 31 Fungal Genomes” by a large group of authors appeared in Science 336 (6089) 1715-1719 on 29 June 2012, and on-line at http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1221748.

It points out that wood is largely resistant to decay because of the presence of lignin, which is capable of substantially being degraded by only a few fungi. Comparative analyses of thirty one fungal genomes (twelve generated for this study) suggest that lignin-degrading peroxidases expanded in the lineage leading to the ancestor of these fungi and then contracted again. Molecular clock analyses suggest that the origin of lignin degradation might have coincided with the sharp decrease in the rate of organic carbon burial around the end of the Carboniferous period.

The 29th International Horticultural Congress (IHC 2014) will be held in Brisbane, Australia in August 2014. Its major sub-themes are Sustaining Lives, Livelihoods and Landscapes and Tropical horticulture. The venue is the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre located in the urban cultural and entertainment precinct in central Brisbane and known as South Bank. Some key dates are the opening for sending Abstracts on 1 April 2013 and the closing for sending Abstracts on 1 September 2013; notification to authors on 17 November 2013 and registration for presenters on 17 December 2013.