GIN and Talks for Plant Health
Joana Vicente, Coordination Team and Xanthomonas Threats, reports from two recent plant health meetings.
Defra (one of our funders) supports four long-term Genetic Improvement Networks (GINs) to improve major UK crop varieties. The four GINs are:
- Wheat Genetic Improvement Network (WGIN) covers genetic and molecular resources that are used in wheat research projects
- Pulse Crop Genetic Improvement Network (PCGIN) carries out research into the genetics of traits relevant to the agronomy and quality of pea and faba bean
- Oilseed Rape Genetic Improvement Network (OREGIN) focuses on pre-breeding of rapeseed for priority traits
- Vegetable Genetic Improvement Network (VeGIN) includes the development of genetic resources and tools to accelerate breeding of field vegetables
‘The GINs aim to enhance the productivity, sustainability and resilience of the main UK crops by drawing upon genetic resources in UK gene banks and diversity collections. The GINs develop tools to help breeders incorporate beneficial genes into elite varieties, ensuring UK crops are being grown more efficiently, with reduced environmental impact and increased economic potential’
Defra Crop Genetic Improvement Platform https://defracropgenetics.org/
VegGIN deals mainly with crops that have significant seed collections stored at the Warwick Genetic Resources Unit (GRU) based at Wellesbourne including brassicas, lettuce, carrots and onions. This network is particularly relevant to the BPD programme as one of the our projects, Xanthomonas Threats, is using the genetic diversity sets for brassicas developed at the GRU.
VeGIN Stakeholders Meeting
The recent VegGIN stakeholders’ meeting, on 18th January 2023 at the University of Warwick, included an update on progress, various talks and a discussion about priorities and future direction. VeGIN are studying several pests and diseases including aphids and fungal diseases like Fusarium, with the aim of finding useful tolerance/resistance. Bacterial plant diseases were not included, but the threat of Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (Lso) (studied by our CALIBER project) was mentioned in a stakeholder talk as a threat for the UK.
As part of the VeGIN meeting, the Met Office presentation showed a projection for drier summers and wetter winters and an increase in extreme rainfall. This will no doubt have an impact on plant pests and diseases including bacterial plant diseases. In the discussions with stakeholders, the biggest issues were energy costs, labour and issues related to seed import and export requirements that, in extreme cases, can delay sowing or cause the loss of a season in the UK. Having pest & disease tolerant/resistant plants would be very helpful as it could decrease the number of treatments needed. It was also noted that some diseases that used to be controlled by pesticides might become more important again due to withdrawal of some chemicals and the current high costs of applications.
APHA Plant Health Annual Technical Meeting
Later in January I attended the APHA Plant Health Annual Technical Meeting. Nicola Spence introduced the new Plant Biosecurity Strategy for Great Britain, while Richard McIntosh described recent developments and future plans and Will Surman described the border target operating model. There are plans for more checks in higher risk plants and produce and possibly fewer checks on others that are lower risk. It was highlighted that seed potato exports continue to be an issue that needs to be resolved. In addition, the demise of the AHDB Potato and Horticulture sectors has delayed plans to increase export markets. We had updates from the devolved administrations including some policies that might diverge from the EU. Or in the case of Northern Ireland, policy that cannot diverge from the EU.
Charles Lane talked about the Plant Healthy and Ready to Plant bio-security assurance schemes. Plant Healthy is steadily gaining new members while Ready to Plant has recently been launched as an alternative. A very interesting talk by Paul Bratby described the challenges associated with internet trading. This area has become increasingly important as large volumes of seeds and plants are now bought online. It is important that there are appropriate checks and paperwork to avoid spreading pests and diseases when moving across borders or in the UK.
The meeting included a talk by Adrian Fox, lead for our CALIBER project, on the use of high-throughput sequencing in plant health. He highlighted how this has recently led to great improvements in the diagnostics of viruses.
Don Walker from Fera Science gave a talk on the new findings including two interesting bacteria, Pseudomonas syringae pv. ulmi on elm and Pseudomonas savastanoi on Nerium that, although not regulated, have led to some action being taken. A reminder that diagnosticians, and the plant bacteriologists in particular, are always busy finding pests and diseases and their work can prevent the introduction and spread in the UK!
