The new ISPP President
Maria Lodovica Gullino is President of ISPP from
2008-2013. She was born at Saluzzo, Cuneo (Piedmont), Italy, and spent
all of her career at the University of Torino, where she is Professor in
Biological and Integrated Plant Disease Management. During the 1980s,
she spent long periods of research in Universities in The Netherlands
and the USA. She is Past-President of the Italian Society for Crop
Protection and of the Italian Association of the Agricultural Scientific
Societies. She was Vice-President of ISPP for 2003-2008 and Chairperson
of the ICPP2008 Organising Committee. Her research interests are in
plant disease management, biological and integrated control of diseases,
crop biosecurity, effect of climate change on plant diseases, and
sustainable agriculture. Among numerous related professional activities,
she has co-ordinated and managed national and international research
projects, of which many were in China.
Lodovica Gullino, President of ISPP
Letter from Lodovica Gullino
Torino, Italy, 28 September 2008.
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Only one month ago, so many of you were
attending the 9th International Congress of Plant Pathology here at
Torino! That week provided such momentum and a great chance to meet
personally many of you! In many cases it has meant to me seeing again
old friends, and in many others meeting young colleagues, sometimes
attending for the first time an International Congress. It has indeed
been delightful having you all together in our city: one month after the
Congress, the excitement and joy are still with us!
When you live in a small country such as Italy,
and are a member of relatively small Scientific Societies, you feel even
more the need of meeting other colleagues, interacting with them as much
as possible. The need to overcome the walls of my small and dynamic
laboratory has indeed been the driving force of my thirty years of work
in plant pathology. This new office as ISPP President gives me a new and
unique opportunity of interacting, on a larger scale, with colleagues
from all over the world.
In the next five years, together with the
colleagues joining me on the Executive Committee of ISPP, we will try to
increase the connections among Societies, with special attention to the
smallest ones. ISPP can indeed facilitate the work of scientists from
developing countries, emerging economies, and young Scientific
Societies, providing them more opportunities to take part in
international collaborative research and projects. We are indeed
fortunate to have the opportunity to deal with a wonderful and
up-to-date discipline, which is having a tremendous social role, at a
time when still so many people suffer hunger and malnutrition. Our
researches can make a difference and I'm quite sure that the enormous
critical mass that ISPP represents can indeed play a role with its daily
work. A Society such as ISPP, so rich in human resources, should have an
opportunity to be influential in critical global issues. I'm already
receiving suggestions for my agenda from many of you and kindly urge all
of you to send ideas and opinions, so that we can indeed work
together.
I am ready to share my international
professional experience and skills and I can ensure you that I'll do it
with passion and enthusiasm.
M Lodovica Gullino
Statement by the 2008-2013
ISPP Executive at ICPP2008
"We, the Executive Committee of the
International Society for Plant Pathology, meeting in Torino, Italy at
ICPP2008, endorse and support the application of the many facets of
modern plant pathology as tools to enhance food and fibre productivity
and food security, to improve the lives of the fast growing world
population, and to address environmental degradation, hunger and
poverty. We also strongly advocate using sound science as the basis for
regulatory and political decisions pertaining to biotechnology including
genetic modification for plant improvement. We promote the careful,
unbiased and science-based evaluation of modern technologies and
products."
President M Lodovica Gullino; Vice-President
Wafa Khoury; Vice-President You-Liang Peng; Secretary-General Greg
Johnson; Treasurer Thomas Evans; Immediate Past-President Richard
Falloon.
APS 2008 Awardees
The American Phytopathological Society (APS) has
announced the recipients of its 2008 awards. They were presented during
the APS Centennial Meeting held recently in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Some of the awards are shown below; the full list and descriptions of
each awardee are at: www.apsnet.org/members/awards/2008awardees.asp
The "Fellow" designation to current
members is in recognition of distinguished contributions to plant
pathology or to the society. The 12 new APS Fellows are: John Andrews,
University of Wisconsin-Madison; Claude Fauquet, ILTAB; Deborah Fravel,
USDA-ARS; Dean Gabriel, University of Florida-Gainesville; David Gadoury,
Cornell University; Stephen Goodwin, USDA-ARS; Brad Hillman, Rutgers
University; Charles Rush, Texas A&M Agriculture Experiment Station;
Jonathan Walton, Michigan State University; Michael Wingfield, University
of Pretoria; Shyi-Dong Yeh, National Chung Hsing University; and Thomas
Zitter, Cornell University
The International Service Award was given to Randy
Ploetz, University of Florida, for outstanding contributions to plant
pathology by APS members for a country other than their own.
The Ruth Allen Award was given to Peter Nagy,
University of Kentucky, for an individual who made an outstanding,
innovative research contribution that has changed, or has the potential to
change, the direction of research in any field of plant pathology.
International Conference on
Plant Virology
The Association of Applied Biologists in
conjunction with The Society for General Microbiology is hosting an
International Conference on "Advances in Plant Virology" at the
International Centre, Harrogate, Yorkshire, UK, from 1-3 April 2009. The
programme will be open to any topics or areas within basic or applied
plant virology. It will include all current areas of interest to plant
virologists and presentations by invited speakers as well as offered
papers. An ambition is to hold a forum to discuss the future of plant
virology around the world. See: "Coming Events".
Fungal Taxonomy faces
Extinction in the UK - what about elsewhere?
A Select Committee of the UK Parliament (House of
Lords) on Science and Technology issued its report in August 2008 on
systematics and taxonomy. The abstract states that systematic biology is
at the heart of understanding the natural world, and notes that the report
is based on its third inquiry into systematics and taxonomy, after one in
1992 and a follow-up in 2001-02. "We have concluded that the state of
systematics and taxonomy in the UK, both in terms of the professional
taxonomic community and volunteers, is unsatisfactory-in some areas, such
as mycology, to the point of crisis-and that more needs to be done to
ensure the future health of the discipline. We propose, for example, that
there should be more effective and regular dialogue between the users and
producers of taxonomy on the priorities for developing UK systematic
biology, and we emphasise the importance of stimulating recruitment and
also of taking steps to fire the imagination of school children by
creative incorporation of environmental and biodiversity issues into
school curricula."
Evidence provided by CABI to the enquiry shows the
past, present and projected situation in that key institution:
| Taxonomists
employed by CABI |
1992 |
2002 |
2008 |
2011
projected |
|
|
|
|
|
| Bacteriology |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
| Entomology/arachnology |
12 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
| Mycology |
15 |
7 |
3 |
0 |
|
|
| Nematology/parasitology |
6 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
|
|
The full report of the House of Lords Committee is
at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldsctech/162/16202.htm#evidence
Need for Cassava Research
There has been a major call for more research on
cassava as a way to help countries threatened by steeply rising food and
oil prices. Cassava is a staple food for millions of people in sub-Saharan
Africa, Latin America and Asia where it provides as much as a third of
daily calories. Mean cassava yields are about 20 percent of those under
optimum conditions. Cassava is grown mainly in areas with little or no
access to improved varieties, fertilizer and other inputs, and by
small-scale farmers often far from marketing channels and agro-processing
industries.
A conference in Belgium of the FAO-encouraged
Global Cassava Partnership for Genetic Improvement called for
establishment of a cassava chain-delivery system to channel technical
advances to poor farmers, improvement in soil fertility, enhancement of
basic scientific knowledge of the crop including genomics, and training
for new cassava researchers in developing countries. See: www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000899/index.html.
Building a cassava transformation laboratory has
started at the Namulonge Crop Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) in
Uganda with funding from the US Agency for International Development and
administered by the Association of Agricultural Research in Eastern and
Central Africa (ASARECA) and the Danforth Plant Science Center in St.
Louis, USA. The facility will be used to develop two cassava varieties
named Ebwan Aterac and Aladu. Research, development, trials and commercial
release of the disease resistant varieties will take at least five years.
Cassava mosaic virus (CMV) and brown streak virus (BSV) are major
impediments for cassava production in the region. Other countries
participating in the cassava transformation programme are Kenya and
Tanzania. For more information, contact Daniel Otunge d.otunge@cgiar.org.
FAO on Food Prices and Security
Increased agricultural production is needed to
decrease the global food crisis, according to the FAO Director-General
Jacques Diouf in a joint hearing by the Foreign and Agricultural
Committees of Italy's Senate and Chamber of Deputies. FAO is working with
the G8, an international forum of member countries and the international
community to set-up a Global Partnership on Food and Agriculture. It has
made preliminary contact with Italian authorities on creating a world
network of food and agriculture experts in order to assess future needs
and risks, because Italy is President of the G8 in 2009. Diouf said that
the FAO's Food Price Index increased by 12 percent between 2005 and 2006,
by 24 percent in 2007 and by some 50 percent up to July 2008. The world's
poorest countries would be at special risk as prices were likely to stay
high for several years. Prior to price increases in 2007-2008, there were
850 million malnourished people in the world. See: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000922/index.html.
Launch of a Book by Paul Teng
Bioscience Entrepreneurship in Asia "Creating
value with ecology" by Paul S Teng and published by World Scientific
was launched in Singapore on 29 August 2008. See: http://www.worldscibooks.com/business/6234.html.
Southern Root-Knot Nematode
Genome
The complete genome sequence of the southern
root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita is claimed from a whole-genome
shotgun strategy. 19,212 protein-coding genes were identified, 69 percent
with sequences almost identical to each other. The nematode also has an
unprecedented set of 61 plant cell wall-degrading, carbohydrate-active
enzymes, suggested to have been derived through multiple horizontal gene
transfers from bacterial sources. See: Nature Biotechnology at www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nbt.1482.html.
Proceedings of APS Centennial
Meeting
A fully searchable CD is available presenting
nearly 300 posters and presentations from the technical sessions at the
recent APS Centennial Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. It also
includes 10 virtual flash and dash presentations. Citable abstracts of all
presentations and sessions are included: oral and poster technical
presentations, special sessions, plenary presentations and centennial
sessions. Each poster and presentation is displayed in PDF format and can
be magnified to focus on specific figures, images, tables and graphs.
See: http://www.shopapspress.org/20apscemeprc.html.
Idea of Increasing Activity of
Fungicides
ISPP has been contacted by Charles L Roe, PhD,
Program Manager, NineSigma Inc, 23611 Chagrin Blvd, Ste 320, Cleveland,
Ohio 44122-5540, USA PhD@ninesigma.com.
The company is interested in developing technologies for "Improving
Fungal Cell Permeability and/or Reducing Efflux Mechanisms" in order
to increase the activity of agricultural fungicides by enhancing uptake of
active ingredients into fungal cells or by moderating their efflux
mechanisms. See: http://www.ninesigma.com/mx/50789-1.
Coming Events
The Banana 2008 conference "Banana and
plantain in Africa: Harnessing international partnerships to increase
research impact" at the Leisure Lodge Resort in Mombasa, Kenya. 5-9
October 2008. See: http://www.banana2008.com.
ENDURE International Conference "Diversifying
Crop Protection" in the Congress Palace of La Grande Motte, near
Montpellier, France. 13-15 October 2008. See http://www.endure-network.eu.
10th Asian Regional Maize Workshop in Makassar,
South Sulawesi, Indonesia. 20-23 October 2008. Contact: Dr Kevin Pixley
at k.pixley@cgiar.org
or See: http://www.cimmyt.org/english/wps/events/2008/10armw.htm.
3rd European Whitefly Symposium in Aguadulce,
Almeria, Spain. 20-24 October 2008. See: http://www.ews3.org.
IV International Silicon in Agriculture Conference
at Wild Coast Sun, Port Edward, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. 26-31 October
2008. See www.siliconconference.org.za.
British Crop Production Council (BCPC) Congress
2008 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. 3-5 November 2008. See: http://www.bcpc.org/Congress2008/index.asp.
2nd International Symposium on Biological Control
of Bacterial Plant Diseases in Orlando, Florida, USA. 4-7 November 2008.
Contact: JBJones@ufl.edu.
Third International Meeting of the Peanut Genomics
Initiative on Advances in Arachis through Genomics and Biotechnology
(AAGB-2008) at ICRISAT Headquarters, Hyderabad, India. 4-8 November 2008.
See: http://www.icrisat.org/aagb-2008.
Contact: Rajeev Varshney r.k.varshney@cgiar.org.
The First World Biodiversity Congress in Chiang
Mai, Thailand. 20-22 November 2008. See: http://www.upm.edu.my/WCB2008Thailand.pdf.
10th International Symposium on the Biosafety of
Genetically Modified Organisms in Te Papa, Wellington, New Zealand. 16-21
November 2008. See: http://www.isbgmo.info.
E-mail: Michelle Kane at mk@tcc.co.nz.
Applied Aspects of Aerobiology at Rothamsted
Research, Harpenden, Herts, UK. 19 November 2008. See: www.aab.org.uk.
8th Australasian Plant Virology Workshop in
Rotorua, New Zealand. 19-22 November 2008. Contact: Dr Robin MacDiarmid
rmacdiarmid@hortresearch.co.nz.
See: http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/apvw2008.
International Conference "Genetic control of
plant pathogenic viruses and their vectors: towards new resistance
strategies" in Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Spain. 23-27 November
2008. See: http://www.richalia.es/congreso/index.html.
Biotechnology Havana 2008 in Havana, Cuba. 30
November 30-5 December 2008. See: http://bh2008.cigb.edu.cu/home.htm.
2008 National Fusarium Head Blight Forum in
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. 2-4 December 2008. See: http://www.scabusa.org/forum08.html.
Contact: scabusa@scabusa.org.
International Conference on Legume Genomics and
Genetics in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. 7-12 December 2008. See www.ccg.unam.mx/iclgg4/index.html.
Global Potato Conference 2008 "Opportunities
and Challenges in the New Millennium" in New Delhi, India. December
9-12, 2008. See: www.gpc2008.in.
Contact Dr J S Minhas at minhasjs@excite.com.
Second International Symposium on Papaya in
Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. 9-12 December 2008. See: http://www.ishs-papaya2008.com/Home%20page.html.
Contact: Dr N Kumar kumarhort@yahoo.com.
The International Soybean Processing and
Utilization Conference at the Soybean Processing and Utilization Centre,
Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering in Bhopal, India. 10-14
December 2008. Contact: Dr S D Kulkarni at sdk@ciae.res.in
or ispuc.v@gmail.com.
BSPP Presidential Meeting "Cereal
Pathosystems" at Queen Mary College, London, UK. 16-17 December 2008.
See: http://www.bsppmeetings.org.uk/.
XV Latinamerican Congress of Plant Pathology and
XVIII Congress of the Chilean Society of Plant Pathology at Pontificia
Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago, Chile. 12-16 January 2009.
Papers in English, Portuguese and Spanish are welcome. Contact Gloria Caro
at gcaro@uc.cl or fitopatologia@uc.cl.
See: http://www.puc.cl/agronomia/congresoalf.
The French Plant Virology Congress in Aussois,
France. 18-22 January 2009.
5th Australasian Soilborne Diseases Symposium at
the Thredbo Alpine Hotel, NSW, Australia. 5-7 February 2009. Abstract
submissions will open shortly. See: http://www.conlog.com.au/asds/.
Contact: conference@conlog.com.au.
Crop Protection in Southern Britain at the East of
England Showground, Peterborough, UK. 10-11 February 2009 See: http://www.aab.org.uk/contentok.php?id=184&basket=wwsshowconflist.
International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and
Surveillance 2009 (IMED) in Vienna, Austria. For the public health
community (human and animal), scientists, health care workers, and other
leaders in the field of emerging infectious diseases. 13-16 February 2009.
See: http://imed.isid.org.
International Conference on Grain Legumes: Quality
Improvement, Value Addition and Trade in Kanpur, India. 14-19 February
2009. See: http://www.icar.org.in/internconference.pdf.
International Forest Biosecurity Conference,
incorporating the 6th International Forest Vegetation Management
Conference, in Rotorua, New Zealand. 16-20 March 2009. See: http://forestbiosecurity.com/.
Contact: Dr Brian Richardson, General Manager, Ensis Forest Biosecurity
and Protection, Private Bag 3020, Rotorua, New Zealand. Phone:
+64-7-343-5516; Fax: +64-7-343-5333; Mobile: 021-913-221.
FEBS Workshop 'Adaptation Potential in Plants' at
the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Vienna, Austria.
19-21 March 2009. Contact: maria.siomos@gmi.oeaw.ac.at.
See: www.gmi.oeaw.ac.at/febs2009.
7th World Potato Congress "Nourishing Our
Future" in Christchurch, New Zealand. 22-25 March 2009. See: http://www.wpcnz.org.nz/.
Greenhouse 2009: Climate Change and Resources, in
Perth, Western Australia. 23-26 March 2009. See: http://www.greenhouse2009.com.
International Conference on Plant Virology to be
held at the Harrogate International Centre, UK. 1-3 April 2009. See: www.aab.org.uk/contentok.php?id=73&basket=wwsshowconfdets.
The Second European Ramularia Workshop, Edinburgh
2009 - a new disease and challenge in Barley Production in Edinburgh, UK.
7-8 April 2009. See: www.aab.org.uk.
Advances in epidemiology and control of rusts at
Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), Edinburgh, UK. 22-23
April 2009. See: http://www.aab.org.uk/page.php?start=184&conf=78.
8th International PGPR Workshop in Portland,
Oregon, USA. 17-22 May 2009. See: www.capps.wsu.edu/pgpr.
14th International Sclerotinia Workshop in
Wilmington, North Carolina, USA. 31 May-4 June 2009. See: http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/sclerotinia_conference/index.html.
SFP National Congress (in French) in Lyon, France.
8-11 June 2009.
XXIth International Symposium on Virus and
Virus-Like Diseases of Temperate Fruit Crops and XIIth International
Symposium on Small Fruit Virus Diseases in Germany. 5-10 July 2009.
See http://www.phytomedizin.org/index.php?id=193.
Source: Professor Dr Wilhelm Jelkmann Wilhelm.Jelkmann@jki.bund.de
Julius Kühn-Institut, Bundesforschungsinstitut für Kulturpflanzen,
Institut für Pflanzenschutz in Obst-und Weinbau, Schwabenheimer Str. 101,
69221 Dossenheim, Germany.
APS Annual Meeting 2009 at the Portland Convention
Center, Portland, Oregon, USA. 1-5 August 2009. See: http://www.apsnet.org.
14th Australasian Plant Breeding Conference and
11th SABRAO Conference in Cairns, North Queensland, Australia. 10-14
August 2009. See: http://www.plantbreeding09.com.au/.
APPS 2009 "Plant Health Management-An
Integrated Approach" at the Civic Precinct, Newcastle, Australia. 30
September-2 October 2009. Contact: Conference Secretariat, PO Box 6150,
Kingston, ACT 2604, Australia. Phone: +61 2 6281 6624, Fax: +61 2 6285
1336. Email: conference@conlog.com.au.
The 13th World Forestry Congress (Forests in
development - a vital balance) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 18-25 October
2009. See http://www.wfc2009.org/index_1024.html.
E-mail: info@wfc2009.org.
The 2009 International Conference on Horticulture
in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. 9-12 November 2009. See: http://www.pnasf.org/ich2009.htm.
5th International Conference on Plant Pathology,
with the theme "Plant pathology in the globalized era", at the
Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. 10-13 November
2009. Contact: ipsdis@indiatimes.com
or ipsdis@yahoo.com.
APS Annual Meeting 2010 at Opryland, Nashville,
Tennessee, USA. 7-11 August 2010. See: http://www.apsnet.org.
The 8th International Conference on Pseudomonas
syringae and Related Pathogens in Oxford, UK. 31 August-3 September 2010.
See: www.reading.ac.uk/Psyringae2010.
Contact: syringae2010@plants.ox.ac.uk.
The 18th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology
Meeting and 4th Asian Conference for Plant Pathology, a Joint Conference,
at the Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
27-29 April 2011. Watch: http://www.australasianplantpathologysociety.org.au/.
10th International Congress of Plant Pathology
2013 (ICPP2013) "Bio-security, Food Safety and Plant Pathology: The
Role of Plant Pathology in a Globalized Economy" in Beijing, China.
25-31 August 2013. Watch: http://www.isppweb.org/congress.asp.
