2008 American Phytopathology Society Centennial Celebration and Annual Conference

The main objective of this travel was to attend the 2008 American Phytopathology Society Centennial Celebration and Annual Conference. Highlights of this conference for me were as follows:

I attended the Introductory Workshop on Use of Genomics and Bioinformatics for the Development of Diagnostic Markers. The objective of this workshop was to train participants in the use of bioinformatics tools available on the Comprehensive Phytopathogen Genomics Resource website. This website provides a diversity of diagnostic tools but the most novel were the Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) Candidate Marker Search Tool and the Unique Loci Candidate Marker Search Tool. The former tool searches the genome of a plant pathogen for specific primers flanking highly polymorphic mono-, di-, trinucleotide repeats etc. (microsatellites), which are very sensitive markers for differentiation of pathogens at the level of subspecies and strain. The latter tool, which is still under development, provides unique markers for a pathogen based on whole of genome BLAST comparisons, an analysis that can only be done using supercomputers.

I attended the Ornamental Virus Discussion Group, where I met Drs Keith Perry (Cornell University) and John Hammond (USDA Beltsville) and learnt of new projects to develop microarray chips for all plant viruses and also rapid antibody assays using CANARY (Cellular Analysis and Notification of Antigen Risks and Yields) sensors (Innovative Biosensors, Inc.). The latter technology provides detection sensitivity comparable with PCR in less than three minutes. Recombinant antibodies being produced in two of the CRCNPB projects I lead could be used with this system.

I met Dr Georgiana May, Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, who has published key papers on the population genetics of Ustilago maydis and whose research is very relevant to the project of the CRCNPB PhD student I supervise, Mr Alistair McTaggart, who is undertaking a revision of the taxonomy of Australian smut fungi, CRC60074.

I attended a session on the Fungal Tree of Life, where recent changes to fungal taxonomy arising from molecular systematic studies were described. I met Dr Cathie Aime, Assistant Professor at Louisiana State University, who gave the plenary talk on the Basidiomycotina. Dr Aime has begun a molecular systematics study of the rust fungi and offered to provide PCR primer sequences for the 25 loci they are studying.

I learnt of research suggesting a new role of the luteovirus coat protein readthrough domain in limiting the virus to the phloem. Remarkably, mutations that eliminate translation of this domain allowed movement of Potato leafroll virus into the leaf mesophyll, which in turn conferred mechanical transmissibility.