INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER ON PLANT PATHOLOGY

In this issue:

• ISPP Executive Committee 1998-2003
• 8th ICPP 2003
• ISPP Newsletter on the Internet
• Canada
• Russia
• Professor Kohei Tomiyama
• ISPP Grants
• Advances in Molecular Plant Pathology
• Coming Events

A new Executive Committee of ISPP assumed office at the 7th ICPP in Edinburgh, UK, in August 1998 and will serve for the 5-year-period until the 8th ICPP in Christchurch, NZ, in 2003. The members of the Committee are listed below and their addresses are shown elsewhere on the ISPP web site. Dr Claire Shephard, Clarindon Consultancy, 14 Lambourne Drive, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 3HG, UK; Fax: +44-1734-351804 will continue duties as ISPP Treasurer until December 1998 when she will hand over the books to the new Treasurer, Dr Chuji Hiruki.

President: Peter Scott, UK

Immediate Past-President: Richard Hamilton, Canada

Vice-President: Anupam Varma, India

Vice-President: Richard Falloon, New Zealand

Secretary General: Charles Delp, USA

Treasurer: Chuji Hiruki, Canada.

8th International Congress of Plant Pathology in New Zealand in 2003

The 8th International Congress of Plant Pathology will be held in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 2-8 February in the year 2003.

Dr Richard Falloon has been appointed as one of the Vice-Presidents of ISPP through his nomination by the New Zealand South Island Branch of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society, the host society for the Congress.

The Congress Chairman is Dr Ian Harvey at PLANTwise, P O Box 8915, Christchurch, New Zealand, and the Congress Secretariat is under Helen Shrewsbury at P O Box 84, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand (see Coming Events).

Please also see the ICPP2003 Website at <http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/icpp2003/>.

All plant pathologists and other interested persons can access the ISPP Newsletter through the ISPP web site at <http://www.bspp.org.uk/ispp>. New issues of the Newsletter have been appearing on the site regularly every two months since February 1998 and will continue to do so.

The intention is to stop mailing out the paper form of the Newsletter. Several procedures for helping readers in the change-over stage were discussed in the ISPP Executive Committee and ISPP Council meetings in Edinburgh in August 1998.

One procedure is for me to send out an e-mail alert when a new issue appears on the web; a person wanting this alert would need to request the service and provide their e-mail address to me.

Another procedure is for me to send out the newsletter in an unformatted style within the text of an e-mail message. This could be done to individuals who advise that they do not have access to the internet and who supply me with their e-mail address.

Another procedure is to arrange through a societal or regional internet user for local alerts or local distribution of the Newsletter in electronic or paper form. This would not require any correspondence with me about receiving issues.

Anyone asking me for the Newsletter in hard copy should declare that they do not have access to the internet and the ISPP Home Page or that they have a special need for a hard copy.

Brian Deverall

The annual meeting of the Canadian Phytopathological Society was held in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, from 20 to 24 June 1998. The theme was "Healthy Food for the 21st Century". A symposium on the use of resistance in the management of potato diseases included invited papers on both classical and molecular strategies. There were 28 contributed papers and 14 posters, and the meeting was attended by 85 plant pathologists. The Gordon J Green Outstanding Young Scientist Award was presented to Dr J Menzies, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Saskatoon Research Center.

The board members for 1998-99 are:

President: Dr George Lazarovits, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Pest Management Research Center, 1391 Sandford Street, London, Ontario N5V 4T3, Canada.

Past President: Ron Howard

President Elect: Zamir Punja

Vice President: Roger Rimmer

Treasurer: Peter Sholberg

Membership Secretary: Vikram Bisht

Secretary: Lone Buchwaldt

Directors: Ken Mallett and Tim Paulitz.

Further information can be obtained from the Secretary, Lone Buchwaldt, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Saskatoon Research Center, 107 Science Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 0X2, Canada.

The Russian Phytopathological Society has been established. Three of the Officers of the new Society are:

President: Dr Sergey S Sanin, All Russian Institute of Phytopathology, Moscow region 140050, Russia; Fax: +7-096-334-0902; e-mail: tagir@vniif.rosmail.com

Secretary: Dr Irena Kudaykina, All Russian Institute of Phytopathology, Moscow region 140050, Russia; Fax: +7-096-334-0902; e-mail: tagir@vniif.rosmail.com

ISPP Councillor: Dr. Yuri T. Dyakov, Departament of Mycology and Algology, Moscow State University, Moscow, 119899, Russia; Fax: +7-095-39-4309; e-mail: dyakov@1.mycol.bio.msu.ru

The Society has been working on the first issue of the Journal of Russian Phytopathological Society, which will be published in English for their foreign colleagues, as announced in the April 1998 issue of the ISPP Newsletter.

Dr Tomiyama passed away peacefully from apoplexy at the age of 81 on 15 September 1998. He was born in Sapporo, Japan, graduated from Hokkaido Imperial University in 1940, became an assistant in that University, and then moved in 1942 to do research at Hokkaido Agricultural Research Station, Sapporo. After the 2nd World War, he worked on snow mold of wheat and barley in national food production. He earned his PhD from Hokkaido University in 1955 on studies on the snow mold of wheat and barley. He was promoted to head the Laboratory of Plant Pathology and Entomology at Hokkaido Agricultural Experimental Station in 1961, where he started work on physiology of potato late blight resistance. His research on physiological mechanisms of hypersensitive cell death lead to the isolation and characterisation of the sesquiterpenoid phytoalexin, rishitin.

He moved to be Professor of Plant Pathology, School of Agricultural Sciences, Nagoya University in 1971, and developed work on potato late blight until his retirement in 1980. In 1976, he was made Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society. He continued his work to understand hypersensitive cell death by learning new techniques of electrophysiology from Dr Hisasi Okamoto, Department of Botany, Nagoya University, for 5 years after retirement. He thus determined how a single cell in tissue died after penetration by an incompatible race. He also opened his personal research laboratory in his home to continue his research together with his lovely wife and his son’s family until his death.

His major contribution was to establish physiological and biochemical evidence on hypersensitivity in incompatible interactions underlying resistance responses in potato late blight. He was a plant pathologist who loved to do research at the best level. We have learnt not only a great volume of scientific knowledge achieved by him, but also how a researcher should be. His research on the potato late blight is inherited by his colleagues and a younger generation in Nagoya University.

Professor Noriyuki Doke

Dr M C Shephard advised in August 1998 of the following conditions attaching to the award of grants by ISPP.

1. Grants will be made available to ISPP Subject Area Committees for approved purposes as funds allow. Grants will be awarded competitively by the ISPP Executive Committee.

2. Activities supported by ISPP must normally be arranged by an ISPP Committee and may include conferences, courses and workshops or other activities approved by the Executive Committee.

3. A provisional budget for the event should be submitted to the Treasurer with the application.

4. Full publicity for ISPP and the Committee should be included in the program and other publicity for the activity, including use of the ISPP Logo. Examples should be submitted to the Treasurer.

5. The funds would be made available to the Committee who would be responsible for their proper use. An audited / inspected summary account must be sent to the ISPP Treasurer within 3 months of the event. Any balances remaining at the conclusion of the event must be returned to ISPP. ISPP would make such returned funds available as seed money for future events organised by that committee.

6. The Subject Area Committee (not ISPP) would be responsible for ensuring proper arrangements and financial viability for the event. ISPP commitment would be the provision of the agreed funds, checking on the overall use of the funds entrusted to one of its committees, and administering any balance on behalf of that Committee.

7. ISPP is not able to underwrite the activities of Subject Area Committees or Conference Organisers over which it has no direct control, although the Executive will provide any available advice to those engaged in such activities. ISPP Committees which arrange events must ensure that any losses incurred are covered by insurance or by the agreements into which they enter. ISPP Subject Area Committees may not enter into any financial commitments on behalf of ISPP and ISPP will not be responsible for any debts incurred by a Committee or its members.

Approximately 2,500 persons took part in the 7th International Congress of Plant Pathology in Edinburgh from 8-16 August 1998. About half of this number attended each of the symposia on understanding plant-pathogen interactions at the molecular level. Substantial advances have occurred in this area in the past few years. The abstracts of papers presented may be seen at <http://www.bspp.org.uk/icpp98/abstracts/>.

There were three symposia on molecular and cytological events during the gene-for-gene interactions which underlie much cultivar resistance to pathogenic fungi and bacteria. Products of some complementary R genes for resistance in plants and Avr genes for avirulence in pathogens were reviewed. Four classes of R gene product are now known, the largest class containing leucine-rich repeat (LRR) units arranged inside plasmamembranes, two other classes containing similar LRR units arranged outside the membranes and a fourth class being protein kinases.

Some Avr gene products are peptides, but evidence that they bind to the R gene products, as seems likely, is being sought.

Immediate consequences of the interaction of R and Avr genes in first infected cells include generation of reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide. Some of these agents and their generating enzymes show homology with those in mammals and insects. This likely conserved intracellular signalling precedes the activation of the relatively well-known defensive systems at infection courts in plants.

A related symposium was about the intercellular signalling which underlies induction of systemic resistance throughout plants.

The best known examples of induction first require a localised infection by a pathogen and then result in heightened resistance of the rest of the plant to later infections. A signal emanates from the first site of infection and leads to enhanced levels of salicylic acid, which is essential for the formation of pathogenesis-related proteins (PR-proteins) and the subsequent systemic resistance.

Synthetic analogues of salicylic acid include a benzothiadiazole, which causes PR-protein formation and systemic resistance and which is being used commercially or experimented with for plant protection throughout the world. Many of the posters associated with the symposium described results of these experiments.

A paper by Alvarez et al. (1998) Cell 92 (6), 773-784 was alluded to in the symposium in Edinburgh and may provide a major advance about the signalling system. Inoculation of Arabidopsis with an avirulent Pseudomonas syringae gave a typical hypersensitive reaction (HR) in the inoculated first leaf. The novelty comes from the observation that the oxidative burst (of superoxide ions and hydrogen peroxide) at the primary HR site triggered secondary oxidative bursts at pathogen-free microsites of HR (each comprising one or a few cells revealed only by microscopy after staining) in second leaves within a few hours. Both the HR and the microHRs were shown to be essential for induction of systemic resistance to virulent strains of bacterium.

The implication is that similar things occur in other plants following an initial HR-inducing encounter.

Endogenous generation of hydrogen peroxide from glucose/glucose oxidase infiltrations brought about the same series of microbursts and systemic resistance as pathogen-induced HR. Hydrogen peroxide was very strongly implicated in signalling.

Several mutants for parts of the process of systemic induced resistance have been obtained particularly in Arabidopsis and are being used to analyse signalling and its expression.

At least two other types of induction were discussed in the symposium. One follows from colonisation of rhizospheres with particular microbes and may result in enhanced jasmonic acid levels and leads to systemic resistance without the involvement of PR-proteins. Another follows from leaf wounding in rice and results in transiently increased jasmonic levels and systemic resistance, again without PR-protein formation.

B J Deverall

ICSU World Conference on Higher Education at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris.
5-9 October 1998.
Contact: ICSU Secretariat, 51 Boulevarde de Montmorency, Paris 75016, France; Fax: +33-1-4288-9431; e-mail: <icsu@Imcp.jussieu.fr> or see the web site at <http://www.Imcp.jussieu.fr/icsu/>.

8th International Workshop on Fire Blight in Kusadasi, Turkey.
12-15 October 1998.
Contact: Prof H Saygili, Ege University, Faculty of Agriculture, Plant Protection Department, 35100 Bornova - Izmir, Turkey; Fax: +90-232-388-1864; e-mail: <saygili@ziraat.ege.edu.tr>; web site: <http://www.intrepid.net/afrs/fb7.htm> or Dr Timur Momol, Plant Pathology Department, Cornell University, Geneva, NY 14456, USA; Fax:+1-315-787-2389; e-mail: <tmml5@cornell.edu>

Interim Commission on Phytosanitary Measures, the First Session, in Rome, Italy.
3-6 November 1998.

The 1998 Brighton Conference - Pests & Diseases in Brighton, UK.
16-19 November 1998.
Contact: for the program, Dr D V Alford, BCPC, Orchard House, 14 Oakington Road, Dry Dayton, Cambridgeshire CB3 8DD, UK; Fax: +44-1954-789059 or for general matters, The Brighton Conference Secretariat, 8 Cotswold Mews, Battersea Square, London SW1 3RA, UK; Fax: +44-171-924-1790; e-mail: eventorg@event-org.com

Annual Meeting of the American Phytopathological Society jointly with the Entomological Society of America in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
8-12 November 1998.
Contact: Faye Labatt, CMP Meeting Manager, American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St Paul MN 55121, USA; e-mail: flabatt@scisoc.org

Joint Meeting, British Society for Plant Pathology and Society for Applied Microbiology - rhizosphere micro-organisms in Warwick, UK.
15-17 December 1998.
Contact: Dr Mark Hocart, Plant Science Division, SAC, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK; Fax: +44-131-667-2601; e-mail: m.hocart@ed.sac.ac.uk

First Australasian Soilborne Disease Symposium in Gold Coast, Australia.
10-12 February 1999.
Contact: Dr Rob Magarey, Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, P O Box 566, Tully, Queensland 4854, Australia; Fax: +61-7-4068-1907; e-mail: <asds@bses.org.au>; web site: <http://www.ozemail.com.au/~williap/Soilborne_Symposium.htm>

The Global Initiative on Late Blight (GILB) Conference in Quito, Ecuador.
16-19 March 1999.
Contact: Mari Kearl, c/o International Potato Center (CIP), GILB, Apartado 1558, Lima 12, Peru; e-mail: m.kearl@cgnet.com

6th International Conference on Pseudomonas syringae pathovars in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
24-27 March 1999.
Contact: Dr E Lucienne Mansvelt, Infruitec, Private Bag X5013, Stellenbosch 7599, South Africa; e-mail: lucienne@infruit2.agric.za

VII International Symposium of Plant Virus Epidemiology in Aguadulce, Almeria, Spain.
11-16 April, 1999.
Contact: Dr Alberto Fereres, CCMA-CSIC, C/Serrano 115 dpdo., 28006 Madrid, Spain; Phone: +34-1-5627620; Fax: +34-1-5640800; e-mail: <ebvaf22@fresno.csic.es>; web site <http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~afereres/epicong.html>.

Australian Plant Breeding Conference in Adelaide, Australia.
19-23 April 1999.
Contact: Conference Secretariat, Festival City Conventions, P O Box 949, Kent Town, SA 5071, Australia; Fax: +61-8-8368-1604; e-mail: <fcceaton@ozemail.com.au>.

XIVth International Plant Protection Congress in Jerusalem, Israel.
25-30 July 1999.
Contact: The Congress Secretariat, P.O. 50006, Tel Aviv 61500, Israel; Phone: +972-3-514-0000; Fax: +972-3-514-0077 or +972-3-517-5674; e-mail: <ippc@kenes.com>; Web site: <http://www.kenes.co.il/IPPC>.

XVI International Botanical Congress in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA.
1-7 August 1999.
Contact: The Secretary General, XVI IBC, c/o Missouri Botanical Garden, P O Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299, USA; Fax: +1-314-577-9589; e-mail: <ibc16@mobot.org>; XVI IBC Web site at: <http://www.ibc99.org>.

Annual Meeting of the American Phytopathological Society (Joint with the Canadian Phytopathological Society) in Montreal, Canada.
6-12 August 1999.
Contact: Faye Labatt, CMP Meeting Manager, American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St Paul MN 55121, USA; e-mail: flabatt@scisoc.org

The XIth International Congress of Virology in Sydney, Australia.
9-13 August 1999.
Contact IUMS, 9-20 August 1999, Congress Secretariat, GPO Box 128, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia, or visit the website at <http://biology.anu.edu.au/IUMS/>.

The IXth International Congress of Bacteriology and Applied Microbiology in Sydney, Australia.
16-20 August 1999.
Contact IUMS, 9-20 August 1999, Congress Secretariat, GPO Box 128, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia.

The IXth International Congress of Mycology in Sydney, Australia.
16-20 August 1999.
Contact IUMS, 9-20 August 1999, Congress Secretariat, GPO Box 128, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia.

5th International Workshop on Septoria/Stagonospora Diseases of Cereals in El Batan, Mexico.
21-24 September1999.
Contact: Dr Ravi Singh, Wheat Program, CIMMYT, Lisboa 27, Apartado 6-641, Mexico D.F, Mexico; Fax: +52-525-726-7558; e-mail <rsingh@cimmyt.mx>; Website: <http://www.cimmyt.mx/>.

XIII Congress of European Mycologists in Madrid, Spain.
21-25 September 1999.
Contact: Dr R Galan, Dpto de Biologia Vegetal, Facutdad de Ciencias, Universidad de Alcala, 28871 Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain; Fax: +341-885-5066; e-mail: BVMHF@JARIFA.ALCALA.ES

9th Australian Wheat Breeding Assembly in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.
26 September-1 October 1999.
Contact: Joy Pugh, Meetings and Events, PO Box 282, Darling Heights, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia; Phone: +61-7-4631-2840; Fax: +61-7-4635-5550; e-mail: <marksuth@usq.edu.au>; website: <http://pig.ag.uq.edu.au/wbsa/wbsadefault.htm>

The Xth Latinamerican Phytopathological Congress (X Congreso Latinoamerican de Fitopatologia) in Guadalajara, State of Jalisco, Mexico.
27 September-1 October1999.
Contact: Sociedad Mexicana de Fitopatologia, c/o Unidad de Biotecnologia - CINVESTAV, Apartado Postal 629, Irapuato - Gto, 36500 Mexico.

12th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference in Canberra, ACT, Australia.
27 September-1 October 1999.
Contact: Greg Johnson (Convenor), Postharvest Technology - ACIAR, GPO Box 1571, Canberra, ACT 2601; Fax: +61-2-6217-0501; e-mail: johnson@aciar.gov.au or Ms Philippa Rowland (Secretary), Bureau of Resource Sciences, P O Box E11, Kingston, ACT 2604, Australia; Fax: +61-2-6272-4896; e-mail: pcr@mailpc.brs.gov.au

5th EFPP Congress, Biodiversity in Plant Pathology in Taormina and Giardini-Naxos, Italy.
18-22 September 2000.
Contact: EFPP 2000 Congress Secretariat, Institute of Plant Pathology, Universita di Catania, Via Valdisavoia, 5- 9123 Catania, Italy; Fax: +39-95-234416; e-mail: EFPP 2000@mbox.fagr.unict.it

The XIth Latinamerican Phytopathological Congress in Piracicaba, State of Sao Paolo, Brazil.
August 2001.
Contact: Brazilian Phytopathological Society (SBF).

8th International Congress of Plant Pathology in Christchurch, New Zealand.
2-8 February 2003.
Contact: Congress Chairman, Dr Ian Harvey, PLANTwise, P O Box 8915, Christchurch, NZ; Fax: +64-3-325-2946; e-mail: <harveyi@plantwise.co.nz> or Helen Shrewsbury, ICPP Secretariat, P O Box 84, Lincoln University, Canterbury, NZ; Fax: +64-3-325-3840; e-mail: <shrewsbh@lincoln.ac.nz>. ICPP2003 Website: <http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/icpp2003/>.