At the beginning of March our BAC-STOP and Future Oak projects welcomed stakeholders to Shropshire for a joint meeting to share their research into Acute Oak Decline (AOD) and other tree diseases. AOD is a complex multi-factor disease. Bacterial species …
Talking about trees: Oak stakeholder meeting 2023 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 …
A dusting of snow coated the city as our project teams, coordination team and guests arrived in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Early March 2023 might have brought a ‘second winter’, but Debbie Frederickson-Matika had arranged for a warm welcome at St James Park, …
Looking back and looking forwards: BPD Full Team Meeting March 2023 Read More »
Following on from the popularity of their Brennaria tree diseases factsheets, the BAC-STOP project have created a sister resource focusing on diseases caused by Lonsdalea bacterial species. It covers the oak tree diseases drippy blight, drippy nut and bark canker, …
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: ‘The GINs aim to …
This month (January 2023) a new action plan to protect plants from pests and diseases was published by Defra, in partnership with the Forestry Commission and the Scottish and Welsh Governments. The Plant Biosecurity Strategy for Great Britain sets out …
The new year means a new principle investigator for the Ralstonia Phage project. Original lead Ville Friman has returned to his native Finland after 12 years in the UK. He joins the University of Helsinki as Professor of Microbiology. Ville …
We’ve made it to the end of 2022! For most of us this has been the first full year since 2019 that has felt kind of ‘normal’. For the Bacterial Plant Disease Programme this return to normality made for a …
Find out about the science behind our 2023 bookmark images
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 …
Gareth Thomas (BAC-STOP) reports from the 2023 International Plant Health Conference in London. From 21-23 September 2023, I attended the first International Plant Health Conference (IPHC) in the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, London. The conference was coordinated by Defra and …
Huge congratulations to BAC-STOP researcher Gareth Thomas who scooped Best Poster at the recent International Plant Health Conference. Gareth’s poster entitled ‘Using the odour of bacteria to tackle acute oak decline’ beat off competition from across the globe to be …
Researchers on our BAC-STOP project have recently published a long-overdue update to the Disease Decline Spiral Model. It draws from their research on tree decline diseases like Acute Oak Decline (AOD) which don’t have one single cause. Rather they are …
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 …
In the wonderfully named village of Little Snoring in Norfolk is a unique and pioneering experiment. It is home to the Bac-Stop field site which includes 144 intensively monitored trees. This makes it the largest ever tree-focused drought field trial …
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 »
Joana Vicente reports from the 4th International Erwinia Workshop (4th IEW) which took place 2-3 July 2022 in Assisi, Italy. Delegates took planes, trains and automobiles to convene at the Hotel Valle di Assisi to discuss various plant diseases that …
Tucked away in a corner of the gardening zone of the Great Yorkshire Show is something that looks more like a circus sideshow. What could it possibly have to do with plants? Surprisingly, it is the result of a collaboration …
Most of our project teams are interdisciplinary to some extent – whether that means integrating different kinds of scientists, or incorporating data specialists or social scientists into their teams. And interdisciplinary reserach is increasingly important as many of the complex …
This year we coordinated a busy programme of activities for plant health week including a webinar, two Twitter takeovers and the launch of our new Resources web page. These activities were to mark Plant Health Week 2022, coordinated by DEFRA, …
#HelpingKeepPlantsHealthy for Plant Health Week 2022 Read More »