Today, 1 September 2022, sees a changing of the guard for the Pseudomonas-Prunus project. Original project lead, Richard Harrison, has left both NIAB Cambridge Crop Research and the UK and is heading for the Netherlands. Richard has been appointed Managing …
Why do certain bacteria cause disease in certain plants but not others? All of the plant species that a pathogen can successfully infect and colonise is called the host range. Pseudomonas syringae (Ps) has one of the broadest host ranges …
Researcher Michelle Hulin recently took to Twitter to tell the story of how her work has unfolded since 2017. Michelle, based at The Sainsbury Laboratory, is part of the Pseudomonas-Prunus project team. Michelle explained how she, Mojgan Rabiey and other …
Bacterial canker affects fruit and ornamental Prunus trees, mainly cherry and plum, but also apricot, peach, plum, and ornamental trees. It is caused by variants of the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae. Symptoms include oozing, gummy or sunken areas of bark, and …
In the last few months of the Bacterial Plant Diseases Programme our communications lead Sarah McLusky has been working with the projects and graphic designer Thomas Pawley to create summaries of their research and findings. Each summary give some background …
In this blog Joana Vicente reports from the 12th International Congress of Plant Pathology (ICPP2023) in Lyon, France. From 19 to 25 August 2023 more than 2400 participants from 88 countries (including 550 PhD students) gathered in Lyon, France, for …
It’s Plant Health Week 2022 and we are celebrating the benefits of healthy plants. An important part of keeping plants healthy is understanding the relationships between plants and bacteria to help manage bacterial diseases. Plants have a microbiome too Just …
By Joana Vicente and Andrew Aspin As we are approaching the final stages of most of our BPD projects, we are turning our attention to impact, publications, stakeholders’ engagement, and dissemination. Other important aspects of these final stages also involve …
How BPD projects are using and contributing to culture collections Read More »
This spring we were lucky enough to get additional funding from UKRI to enable some of our researchers to go on placements to different work environments to learn skills and build relationships. We’ll be sharing reports from all of the …
Finding out about fruit: Fera team visits NIAB East Malling Read More »
This spring we were lucky enough to get additional funding from UKRI to enable some of our researchers to go on placements to different work environments to learn skills and build relationships. We’ll be sharing report from all of the …
In the second of our Fighting Bac workshops our researchers will share new approaches for identifying and modelling disease outbreaks. The workshop will focus particularly on the next steps for translating these findings into real world innovations and how stakeholders …
Joanna Vicente reports from the 14th International Conference on Plant Pathogenic Bacteria (ICPPB) which took place 3-8 July in Assisi, Italy. Surrounded by sunflower fields and olive trees, 196 delegates gathered in the idyllic setting of the Hotel Valle di …
ICPPB 2022 – Discussing diseases and dancing in the rain Read More »
Woodlands cover around 13% of the total land area of the UK. Although this figure is much lower than the European average of 37%, the UK’s trees are nonetheless highly valued for timber production, biodiversity, water and air quality improvement. …
Why bacterial tree diseases matter and what you can do to help Read More »
We finally did it! After a long wait due to COVID restrictions, on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 March 2022, we finally had our first face-to-face meeting – albeit with a substantial online cohort too. The 41 in-person attendees arrived …
Could you help our Pseudomonas-Prunus research team by sending them your samples for genetic analysis?
Working together to understand bacterial plant diseases to protect UK farms, forests and gardens. An interdisciplinary research consortium funded by BBSRC, NERC, Defra and the Scottish Government from 2020-2024.
Phages are viruses which infect and kill bacteria. Increasingly, as with our Ralstonia Phage project, they are being studied as potential biocontrol agents. Phages have very specific host ranges and could be used to selectively target only pathogenic bacteria, leaving …
The Bacterial Plant Diseases Programme was a consortium of 9 research projects supported by a Coordination Team. Use the links below to find out about each of the projects.