Plants, pathogens, and most importantly, people – highlights from the BSPP21 conference
In early December 2021, just before Omicron began to sweep the UK, several members of our co-ordination and project teams were thrilled to be able attend, in person, the ‘Our Plants, Our Future’ conference. Hosted by the University of Birmingham, this hybrid conference jointly organised by the British Society for Plant Pathology (BSPP) and the European Foundation for Plant Pathology (EFPP), was a great success.
Aside from some high quality science, after nearly two years of remote working, just being able to network in person was a major highlight. The BPD programme and its projects were well represented. Most notably, Co-ordination team member Prof. Murray Grant gave a short presentation which introduced the Bacterial Plant Diseases Programme and all nine projects as part of the ‘Plant Health Partnerships’ session.
Many other talks highlighted challenges which are relevant to all plant diseases, not just bacterial ones. These included the BSPP Presidential Address from Nicola Spence on plant science and policy in the UK and the RKS Wood Prize Lecture from Sophien Kamoun on engineering resistance.
Several of the poster presentations shared research on bacterial plant diseases. Those associated directly or in collaboration with BPD projects are listed below. Abstracts for all the posters and talks can be found in the conference programme. Click here to download a copy
- Chai, Walker and Milner. Identification and characterisation of novel bacteriocins as a treatment for Xanthomonas infections
- Dieguez et al. Genetic dissection of roles of effectors and toxins in the pathogenicity of Pseudomonas syringae towards cherry
- Greer et al. Xanthomonas plant diseases: mitigating existing, emerging and future threats to UK agriculture
- Holmes et al. Developing bacteriophage biocontrol for blackleg disease of potato
- Keating et al. The influence of Pectobacterium (blackleg) loads and irrigation practices on soil microbial community dynamics
- Maddock et al. The role of the rhizosphere in the development of acute oak decline
- Swift et al. Pathogenicity testing of pseudomonads isolated from epiphytic populations
- Zeng et al. Diversity, pathogenicity and stability of Pseudomonas populations over distance, time and environment
Reflecting on the conference, BPD Co-ordination team member Joana Vicente said ‘It was a pleasure to finally meet colleagues that I had only seen online, to re-connect with colleagues that I had not seen in at least two years, and to hear about research on a wide range of pathogens. The highlights for me were the talks on the outcomes and impacts of the Brigit Xylella project and talks on national and international efforts on plant disease detection and understanding global plant health patterns.”
Murray Grant added “The number of phytobacterial talks and posters demonstrates that BPD funding has begun to energise the UK plant bacterial research communities. Not only are model host-phytobacterial systems driving exciting new laboratory-based discoveries in the field, but the conference also highlighted the application of bacterial genomics to better understand the impact of these pathogens in the wider environment.”
