News of Members
Scottish Agricultural Colleges Scottish Agricultural Colleges When the news seems to be full of cuts in posts and early retirement, it is pleasing to report that the number of plant pathologists at SAC has risen in the last few years. There are now 17 staff who would admit to being plant pathologists and several more who have an involvement in the subject. These staff are spread across the three centres at Aberdeen, Auchincruive and Edinburgh. The rise in numbers probably reflects the success of SAC as a whole in holding its own during difficult financial times. The "Scottish system" at SAC means that staff can have one, two or even three roles ¾ in education, advisory/consultancy and research. Whilst the system can result in difficulties with priorities, few would disagree that the interaction between roles is mutually beneficial. The interaction extends across sites too in all three roles, resulting, we hope, in a well co-ordinated approach to our discipline in Scotland. To highlight all the staff and their interests in detail would be difficult in a short article but the overview below might give the range of SAC's pathologists interests. At Aberdeen, Jim Thomson takes the brunt of the teaching load which ranges from University degree to SAC Diploma courses. He is also course organiser for a successful MSc course in Crop Protection, one of only four in the UK. Whilst taking on some of the teaching, three other pathologists focus mainly on consultancy and R&D aspects. Stuart Wale concentrates on cereal and potato pathology whilst Karen Sutherland's interests are in oilseed rape and cereals - in between running the Crop Clinic. The latest arrival is Rob Clayton who recently moved up from the PMB Research Station at Sutton Bridge. His area of expertise is potato pathology. This just leaves Fiona Murray, who looks after the HGCA appropriate fungicide dose research projects. Auchincruive is well endowed with seven pathologists. Dale Walters, Neil MacRoberts and Graham Ligertwood undertake most of the teaching but each has strong research interests - Dale on physiological and biochemical pathology, Neil on modelling and epidemiology and Graham on potato blight. Ruaridh Bain is best known for his R&D on potato blight but he has some consultancy activities also. Stephen Holmes who will be known by many moved to a new role several years ago in charge of a commercial company of SAC, ADGEN, which specialises in diagnostics and antisera. Stephen's post was filled by Mark McQuilken who pursues research on horticultural crops. The last person at this centre is Audrey Litterick whose research is on hardy ornamental nursery stock but this is combined with consultancy. At the third centre, Edinburgh, a long established hot bed of pathologists, Simon Oxley and Fiona Burnett look after the Crop Clinic, have consultancy roles and are active in research primarily in cereal and potato pathology. Rob Harling has a horticultural consultancy role but tends to concentrate on teaching and research into host pathogen interactions. Mark Hocart, now programme secretary for BSPP, also has a teaching and research remit. His research is primarily on the genetics of pathogens. The latest recruit at Edinburgh is Neil Havers who looks after an HGCA research project on immunological detection of fungicides in plant tissues. Perhaps another unique feature of the three SAC centres are the close ties with associated Universities particularly Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde and all the pathologists they have. Across the three SAC centres, therefore, there are 12 PhD students studying plant pathology who are supervised by SAC staff but registered at the Universities. In this short note it has not been possible to itemise the interest of everyone but it should demonstrate that the discipline is alive and well at SAC. Stuart Wale Scottish Crop Research Institute Fungal and Bacterial Plant Pathology Arrivals. We welcome Scott McDonald who is here for a nine month project funded by the Potato Marketing Board. He is using state-of- the-art detection methods to analyse volatile compounds given off by potato tubers in store. Congratulations to Jamie Claxton who has been awarded his Ph.D. from Bath University on somaclonal variation and host-parasite physiology of crook root disease of water cress. From one plasmodiophoromycete to another, he is now working on a PMB funded two year project on the PCR-based molecular detection of Spongospora subterranea in soil and tubers. Dr Anna Avrova of the Institute for Plant Protection, St Petersburg has been awarded a Royal Society Postdoctoral Fellowship to work on resistance of Solanum sp. to Erwinia carotovora and Phytophthora infestans with Gary Lyon and Paul Birch. Geetha Gita Shilvanth has started work at SCRI on an ODA-funded project in collaboration with ICRISAT, India to develop a reliable transformation system for chickpeas and introduce genes encoding polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins (PGIPs) isolated from raspberry and kiwifruit. Chickpeas in India are severely attacked by Botrytis cinerea and the project aims to evaluate PGIP genes to enhance disease resistance. Departures. After 8 years working on potato pathology in Crop Genetics and Fungal and Bacterial Plant Pathology, Frances Gourlay has taken Voluntary Severance (this does not mean a pound of flesh, just that she is too young for Voluntary Early Retirement) and has embarked on a new career in nursing. We wish her well in her travels down a new avenue of life. Meetings and new initiatives. SCRI is closely involved in the Global Initiative on Late Blight (GILB). The International Potato Centre (CIP) convened the first meeting of the Steering Committee at the World Bank HQ in Washington D.C. in January 1997, under the Chairmanship of George Mackay, Head of Crop Genetics. George will be attending the World Potato Congress in Durban, South Africa in March on behalf of CIP to deliver a paper outlining the establish ment of the GILB entitled "Progress towards the Control of Late Blight". Bob Lowe and Helen Stewart also form an integral part of the initiative with the worldwide GxE experiment to study the expression of host resistance in different environments. For further information on the GILB contact Dr Ed French at CIP HQ in Lima. His e-mail address is E.French@cgnet.com. David Cooke Plant Pathology in Northern Ireland Plant Pathology in Northern Ireland is centred at the Applied Plant Science Division of the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland at Newforge Lane in Belfast, although there are also sites at Hillsborough and Crossnacreevy in Co. Down, Loughgall in Co. Armagh and Eniskillen in Co. Fermanagh where field trials are carried out. A broad range of plant pathological topics is covered from production of DNA probes to offering advice on reduced rates of fungicides. The primary aim of the Division is to undertake research aimed at answering the needs of the local agricultural and horticul tural industries, but there is also considerable liaison ands joint research projects with scientists in the Republic of Ireland, Britain, the EU and worldwide. Advice on crop diseases is also provided as well as provision for the statutory testing of seeds and potatoes and surveying for pathogens indicated by the Plant Health Directive. Most members of the Applied Plant Science Division are also members of the school of Agriculture in Queens University and as such provide lectures on a number of subjects with a plant pathological flavour. Under the leadership of Prof. Peter Blakeman there are six project leaders whose complete or partial remit is plant pathological research. They and their areas of interest are listed below. Dr Louise Cooke. Potato diseases: potato blight - variation in populations using phenotypic and molecular analysis, control and fungicide resistance; fungal tuber diseases - control and resistance. Apple diseases: epidemiology and control of canker. Cereal diseases: fungicide resistance in Rhyncho sporium secalis including molecular techniques for diagnosis. Dr Roy Copeland. Potato diseases: control of viral and bacterial pathogens. Propogation of disease-free potatoes for certification. Plant Health. Dr Alistair McCracken. Short rotation willow coppice rust disease: epidemiology and use of mixtures as a control strategy. Apple canker: development of techniques, including molecular to identify source and spread of pathogen within the orchard. Apple scab: fungicide resistance. Horticultural diseases: particular interest in fireblight. Plant Health. Dr Peter Mercer. Cereal diseases: reduced rates of fungicides to control mildew, Rhynchosprium and Septoria. Grass diseases: control of pathogens, particularly Micro nectriella nivalis in extended grazing. Alternative crops: seed-borne diseases of linseed, including molecular techniques to determine their taxonomy; diseases of lupins. Linseed seed disease testing. Mr David Seaby. Mushroom diseases: vectors of Dactylium and Trichoderma spp. and their control. Dr Shekar Sharma. Mushroom diseases: virus detection. Also under the leadership of Dr Mike Camlin, Dr Alex McGarel: Cereal diseases: susceptibility of Recommended Cereal Varieties to pathogens. Society of Irish Plant Pathologists The Society of Irish Plant Pathologists (SIPP) is an all-Ireland organisation and was founded in 1968. The objects of the Society are to promote exchange of information of ideas in Plant Pathology, to promote and interest in Plant Pathology amongst the community in general, to represent Irish plant pathologists internationally and to advise on matters of importance relating to Plant Pathology. The two principal activities of SIPP are the organisation of scientific meetings and the production of the SIPP Newsletter. President:Dr Peter Mercer Chairman: Dr Louise Cooke Secretary:Dr Enda Bannon Peter Mercer The BSPP President, Nigel Hardwick, left ADAS to join Central Science Laboratory at York in June and Steve Parker joined ADAS (and is working at High Mowthorpe) in November from Long Ashton Research Station. We wish them well in their new posts. John Evans retired in August and now lives in an old mill in mid Wales. All ADAS plant pathologists are in R & D apart from David Ann, Irene Koomen and Bill Clark who are in "consultancy" (advisory) and are home-based in Somerset, Kent and at ADAS Boxworth respectively. Andy Philips and John Scrace are with the Plant Diagnostic Unit (Plant Clinic) at ADAS Wolverhampton. ADAS Plant Pathologists in R & D are based at the Research Centres, formerly the Experimental Husbandry Farms, and are located as follows: Nick Bradshaw - Cardiff; Dr John Davies - Terrington, near Kings Lynn; Peter Gladders - Boxworth, near Cambridge; David Jones and Tom Locke - Rosemaund, near Hereford; David Lockley - Starcross, near Exeter; Philippa Mansfield - Bridgets, near Winchester; Tim O'Neill - Arthur Rickwood, near Ely, Cambs; Steve Parker and Neil Paveley - High Mowthorpe, near Duggleby, N. Yorks; and Caroline Young - Wolverhampton. All are contactable by e-mail as named above xxx_xxxx@adas.co.uk. (I make no apologies for using my title; there is another John Davies in ADAS!). Mike Griffin remains in Cambridge as Government Account Manager. In April, David Lockley, Tom Locke and John Davies attended the Diagnostics in Crop Production Conference at Warwick. In June, Tim O'Neill attended the XI International Botrytis Symposium in Holland. In August, Tom Locke visited Guelph, Ontario and Wooster, Ohio to investigate verticillium wilt of potatoes. In September, John Davies attended the AAB Horticulture Conference at Warwick. Also in September, John Scrace attended the 4th International Symposium of the EFPP in Bonn ("Diagnosis and Identifica tion of Plant Pathogens"). Peter Gladders is participating in an EU Concerted Action on Oilseeds which involved visits to Cordoba in February and Bonn in October. Nick Bradshaw is involved in a Concerted Action on European Network for the development of an integrated control strategy for potato late blight led by Dutch workers at PAGV Lelystad and met there in October. In November, Nick Bradshaw, John Davies, Peter Gladders, David Jones, Tom Locke, Tim O'Neill and Neil Paveley attended the BCPC Brighton Conference and most were either session organisers, platform speakers or poster exhibitors. John Davies Relocation Special It has been quite a while since Central Science Laboratory (CSL) last graced these pages and plenty has happened in that time. For the uninitiated, CSL is a multi-disciplinary agricultural and food research establishment, enjoying Executive Agency status under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF). On a day-to-day basis, CSL's "raison d'être" is to provide consultancy and scientific research for MAFF, the EU and various non-governmental and commercial organisations. The scope of CSL's activities is quite enormous, encompassing a vast range of different groups including ones as diverse as the National Bee Unit and a bird-strike research team. However, one of CSL's largest traditional areas of expertise has always been plant pathology. Falling within the Plant Health Group, almost all of CSL's plant pathologists were based at the Harpenden Laboratory in Hatching Green, Hertfordshire. However, after more than 35 years, all that has now changed and staff have found themselves moving 200 miles north. Over a period of three months, beginning in early September last year, all the staff (and anything else that was not bolted down) have been relocated from the Harpenden Labora tory to a new purpose-built complex at Sand Hutton, North Yorkshire. The new laboratory, which was built at an estimated cost of £100 million, represents one of the largest single investments in agricultural research this century. Constructed on an 80 acre green-field site, some 6 miles out of York, the site will eventually house some 450 staff, including those from CSL Harpenden and its sister laboratories at Slough and Worplesdon, along with a number from smaller sites around the UK. The buildings themselves are extensive, covering over 48,000 m2 and providing the sort of space which the cramped old sites could never match (goodbye to all those Harpenden Portakabins). In addition to plenty of working accommodation, the new site also manages to cater for its staff's creature comforts, squeezing in a nursery, a lakeside restaurant and for the resident masochists, a gym. However, it isn't all steel and concrete. The environmentally-friendly face of CSL Sand Hutton has been extensively landscaped and includes some 8000 new trees and even a purpose-built sand martin nesting bank. Not only has the move allowed a significant improvement in the general standard of working conditions for CSL staff, it has also provided the ideal opportunity to improve scientific facilities. For many years now, much of the plant pathology-related work carried out at CSL has involved quarantine diseases, such as brown rot of potato and rhizomania of sugar beet. The building of the Sand Hutton laboratory has allowed work in this area not only to continue but to expand, providing extra capacity to cope with the unknown threats of the future. The new site has a unique range of quarantine facilities, including laboratories and glass houses with quarantine drainage to contain non-indigenous soil-borne pathogens, alongside an extensive range of high- containment glasshouse and controlled environment facilities, purposely designed for work involving alien pests and diseases and their vectors. The new laboratory benefits from two brand new electron microscopes, including a transmission EM that includes the latest digital image analysis system. Com bined with the new scanning EM, these should prove invaluable tools for both diagnostics and research. I hope this article has provided some useful facts about the CSL relocation. For all of us now up here, it is good to be settling in and having survived the move (unlike most of our glassware) and another "Prior Options" review (CSL is to keep its agency status "for the foreseeable future"), hopefully it will be back to business as usual ?!? Rick Mumford Both research and teaching in plant pathology continue to flourish at the University of Nottingham, as the 1996 research assessment exercise confirms. At the Sutton Bonington Campus, with its grade 5 rating, research in the Department of Physiology and Environ mental Science is undertaken by the groups of Dr Steve Rossall and Dr Matt Dickinson. Dr Rossall's group continue to develop biological control agents against soil-borne fungal pathogens, in particular through the use of Bacillus species, in collaboration with ADAS and funded by MAFF. Dr Dickinson's group have been developing molecular techniques for analysis of the cereal rust fungi, and have been using molecular markers to analyse variation in the fungi, and constructing cDNA libraries for analysis of genes expressed during rust infection. A recent addition to the academic staff in the Department has been Dr Helen West, who is continuing here work on mycorrhizal fungi and their affects on root and foliar plant pathogens. There are also strong links with IACR- Rothamsted through the IACR-Nottingham link scheme, with a number of jointly supervised postgraduate students registered at the University working on projects ranging from fungally-transmitted viruses to detection of phytoplamas in coconuts. Plant pathology research also continues in the Department of Life Sciences at the Main Campus of the University, where Professor John Peberdy and Dr Paul Dyer's groups are particularly interested in fungal mating systems with the aim of developing novel targets for chemical control of plant pathogens, and a strong link remains with the group of Professor John Lucas at IACR-Long Ashton. Matt Dickinson Harper Adams Agricultural College During the past twelve months there have been some major developments in our plant pathology activities. A new building for the Crop and Environment Research Centre was officially opened in January. The building, which contains a purpose-built molecular diagnostics laboratory, represents a major investment by the College in crop research. Several research contracts, using molecular techniques to both identify and quantify fungal pathogens, have developed from a well established collaboration between Dr David Parry and Dr Paul Nicholson's group at the John Innes Centre, Norwich. As part of a BBSRC/ROPA project, Dr Fiona Graham is developing quantitative multiplex PCR to examine interactions between fungal pathogens of winter wheat. Dr Simon Edwards and Miss Jo McDow ell are recent members of the group funded by HGCA and Novartis on projects employing PCR to detect and quantify stem base and seed borne pathogens of wheat. Electron microscope studies on colonisation of wheat by Fusarium species are being undertaken at CERC and the University of Bristol by Dr John Clement. Alex Hilton and Dr David Parry visited Prof A Mesterhazy at the Cereals Research Institute, Hungary during July. Alex also presented a poster on mechanisms of resistance to Fusarium ear blight at the Brighton Crop Protection Conference in November. Miss Jo Liggit gave a presentation on fungicidal control of ear blight at AgrEvo, Chesterford Park in December. In October, Dr David Parry travelled to the Fusarium Conference at CIMMYT, Mexico to present an invited paper on significance and control of Fusarium ear blight. At the Scottish Potato 97 meeting at Aberdeen in February, Dr Peter Jenkinson, in collaboration with Hardi International, promoted a new on-line computer-based potato blight forecasting system. Dr Said Ibrahim moved from Rothamsted in January to join Dr Pat Haydock's group working on control of potato cyst nematodes. Dr Simon Woods has also joined the group after completing his Ph.D. at Harper Adams comparing chemical and integrated control of PCN. In April, Simon presented a poster at the BCPC symposium on Diagnostics in Crop Protection. At the end of March, Dr David Parry moved to HRI, East Malling to take up the post of Head of the Entomology and Plant Pathology Department. During the ten years he was at Harper Adams, David made major contributions to the development of plant pathology teaching and research. David retains his research links with Harper Adams where he is a Visiting Reader in Plant Pathology. John Clement Horticulture Research International Virus and Phytoplasma Diseases. Dr Trevor Wicks, a senior plant pathologist from the South Australian Research and Development Institute, Adelaide, visited Dr John Walsh in July to discuss diseases of field vegetables during a programme organised by Dr Andrew Entwistle. Dr Michael Clark and Dr Susan Crossley travelled to Australia and Indonesia over a two week period as part of an NRI-sponsored programme to develop techniques to detect sweet potato little leaf phytoplasmas. In Australia they visited the Waite Institute in Adelaide, where they conducted a two day workshop in phytoplasma detection tech niques, including the newly developed plate capture-PCR procedure. In Bogor, Indonesia, they conducted a four day workshop in collaboration with Dr Machmud of the Research Institute for Food Crops. At both venues Michael Clark presented a seminar on phytoplasma research at East Malling. Fungal Diseases. In July, David Chambers visited the Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation at Pulawy in the Lublin hop growing region of South East Poland, and spent two weeks with the hop protection group of Dr Ewa Solarska. During this time, he became familiar with research on Verti cillium wilt in hops, assessed the importance and characteristics of the disease, and discussed aspects of the work where Anglo- Polish collaboration could take place. Geoff White attended the 26th Interna tional Carrot Conference in Toronto, Canada, in September, and presented a paper on cavity spot detection. He also entertained a delega tion of 30 Finnish glasshouse growers in September and gave a presentation on biological control. Dr Dez Barbara gave the opening plenary lecture on "The molecular taxonomy of plant pathogenic Verticillium spp." at the 9th meeting of the Polish Phytopathological Society, Krakow, Poland. General Pathology. Dr Dez Barbara visited Portugal in October to present a plenary lecture at the first meeting of the newly formed Portuguese Society of Phytopathology held at Universidad de Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real. His presentation was entitled, "Diagnostic Techniques Available in Plant Pathology - the New Era". Dr Angela Berrie, Dr Xiangming Xu and Dr David Harris organised the 4th Interna tional Workshop on Integrated Control of Pome Fruit Diseases in Croydon in August. The meeting was attended by over 50 delegates from 15 countries. David L. Davies HRI, East Malling Brassicas & Oilseeds Department There are two main areas of interest. Firstly, we are developing lines of oilseed rape which possess high levels of resistance to the light leaf spot pathogen, Pyrenopeziza brassicae. Two main sources of resistance are being studied. One of these is derived from a wild Brassica species from Tunisia. This resistance has been successfully introduced into genetically stable oilseed rape breeding lines and field trials are currently in progress. The second source of resistance is from the related crucifer Eruca sativa, which is more popularly known as salad rocket. This resistance is harder to introduce as it relies on recombination between the Brassica andEruca genomes. A new research programme between Plant breeding International will study recombination in crosses between Eruca and Brassica and will seek to introgress the resistance genes into winter oilseed rape breeding lines. The second major area of interest is the involvement of glucosinolates in plant pathogen and plant-herbivore interactions. While these compounds are toxic to Brassica pathogens in vitro, our studies have shown that increases in the levels of these com pounds in planta have either no effect on disease resistance, or increase susceptibility, contrary to expectations. It seems likely that pathogens such as Leptosphaeria maculans and Alternaria spp can detoxify these compounds, in an analogous way to special ised insect herbivores. We are seeking to modify the chemical structure of the gluco sinolate molecule so that it will no longer be recognised by insect herbivores and patho gens. The direct and indirect (i.e by a reduction in herbivory by insects) effect of these changes on disease susceptibility will be monitored. Richard Mithen Cereals Research Department Looking back through past BSPP Newsletters it appears that little has been heard of the personnel in these parts for some considerable time. However, I can assure everyone out there that there is still activity in these parts. There are three groups in the pathology section of the Cereals Research Department: mildews and Mycosphaerella graminicola (headed by James Brown), rusts (headed by Lesley Boyd) and facultative pathogens - eyespot, Fusarium, Septoria nodorum - (headed by Paul Nicholson). Both James and Paul were relocated from Cambridge following the sale of the Plant Breeding Institute while Lesley is a more recent addition, having taken over responsibility for rusts following the retirement of Roy Johnson. The section, at present, comprises the three project leaders along with their assistants, Elaine Foster, Peter Minchin, Navideh Rezanoor and Gillian Weston. Three post-docs, Chris Ridout, Duncan Simpson and Adrian Turner, are currently working with us, along with four Ph.D. students, Jacquie Broadhead, Rachel Hague, Fiona Doohan (from Ireland) and Lia Arraiano e Castro Alves (from Portugal). We have close links with the University of East Anglia, in lecturing and in supervising undergraduate research projects. We have also been graced with the presence of a large number of short and longer term visitors who have contributed greatly both to the social and intellectual life of the section. The latest are Mogens Hovmøller, from Denmark, who is here for six months on an EU fellowship and Shiv Sagar, from India, who is on a training programme funded by FAO. The past year has seen a fair degree of travel for many of us. Most of the section travelled west to Exeter for the 1996 Molecular Biology of Fungal Pathogens meeting and Paul went further to attend a scab (Fusarium ear blight) workshop at CIMMYT, in Mexico, having received generous support from the BSPP travel fund which he gratefully aknowledges. A substantial number also travelled to the Netherlands for the Cereal Rusts and Powdery Mildews Conference at Lunteren, where James was one of the keynote speakers. However, Rachel Hague capped all this by escaping the chilly Norfolk winter to San Diego, California, for the 5th Plant and Animal Genome meeting. Paul Nicholson Plant Pathology Department, NIAB Cambridge Recent visitors to the Department have included Dr Rivka Hadas from the Seed Testing Laboratory, Volcani Centre, Israel, Dr Elzbieta Zakrzewska of the Plant Breeding Institute, Radzikow in Warsaw, Poland, and Dr Mogens Hovmøller from the Danish Research Service for Plant & Soil Science, Lyngby, Denmark. Dr Jeremy Sweet attended an executive committee meeting of the EFPP at the University of Turin in January and was confirmed as a committee member. Whilst in Turin, he also visited the Plant Pathology Department at the University and the CNR Institute of Virology. Cereal Pathology Section. Dr Rosemary Bayles and Mr John Clarkson presented a poster entitled ?Changes in virulence frequency in response to host resistance in UK cereal pathogen populations' at the 9th Cereal Rusts & Powdery Mildews Conference, Lunteren, Netherlands in September 1996. This Conference was combined with pan- European COST meetings, which they attended as Sub-group Coordinators and Management Committee members. Dr Mohammad Aslam, Director of the Crop Diseases Research Institute, Islamabad, Pakistan, spent 3 months working in the Section on wheat yellow rust virulence testing. Molecular Biology & Diagnostics Section. Dr Wendy Cooper and Emily Blakemore attended the 4th EFPP symposium in Bonn, Germany. A one day training course on Understanding Plant Biotechnology was organised by the Section in February 1997 with further dates already planned for the future. Dr Vijaya Kumar from the Plant Quarantine & Fumigation Station, Visakhapatnam, India, spent two months with us, training in seed pathology methods which will then be applied to plant quarantine procedures back in India. John Clarkson As Head of the Plant Technology Group, Graham Jellis is involved very much with "flying-a-desk" but has still got his feet firmly on the ground as you would expect from your Society Secretary. He visited India last February where he gave an invited paper on Disease Resistance at a Plant Breeding Conference held at The Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. He also attended the Brighton Conference where he organised a session on "The contribution of biotechnology to breeding for pest and disease resistance". Bill Hollins visited research institutes in Germany in the summer, attended the 10th European & Mediterranean Cereal Rusts Powdery Mildews Conference at Lunteren, The Netherlands in September and the AAB meeting in Cambridge in December. Dr Mary MacDonald has completed her ODA-funded project on the resistance of maize and rice to Fusarium. She is now working in the "Science & Plants for Schools" initiative based at Homerton College, Cambridge but we expect her to be returning to PBI occasionally to develop some of the experimental packages which will go out to schools. Recent visitors to the PBI included Professor Demetrius Metzakis who spent 3 months working on sources of powdery mildew in peas and has just returned home to the Technological & Educational Institution of Epirus, Greece. Work on several PhD projects continues. John Howie (joint project with the John Innes Institute, Norwich) is now busy writing up his work on the characterisation of susceptibility genes to foliar diseases of wheat. Aspects of John's work will be continued by Vivek Duggal from the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. Vivek will attempt molecular characterisation of some of the genes involved in yellow rust and mildew resistance. Alex Hilton (based mainly at Harper Adams Agricultural College) enters the final year of a project looking at aspects of resistance to Fusarium head blight of wheat. In addition, two CASE award students are currently doing some of their work at PBI; Tim Clifford from the University of Leicester is developing novel strategies for transgenic virus resistance in peas and Sharon Hall (University of Southampton) is cloning genes involved in lignification. A further student, Andrew Buchanan of the School of Biological and Biochemical Sciences, Bath, will spend some time here as he develops molecular markers for resistance to Fusarium wilt of oil- palm. Bill Hollins Organisational changes have resulted in the amalgamation of the Plant Pathology and Crop Management Departments at Roth amsted. This change was precipitated by the early retirement of Bob Prew as Head of Crop Management. Ironically Bob joined the Plant Pathology Department at Rothamsted in 1970 as a root pathologist working on take-all. The new Department, to be known as the Crop and Disease Management Department (CDM) came into existence on 1 November 1995 and the Head of Department is Roger Plumb, the previous Head of Plant Pathology. The new Department is the largest in IACR and now plant pathologists work alongside weed ecologists, agronomists and crop physiologists. The organisation of IACR's programme into themes, the Sustain able Production Systems and Integrated Crop Protection themes cover all the Rothamsted- based plant pathology work, also encourages cross-fertilization of ideas and joint projects. Of the five programmes in CDM three are mainly concerned with pathology. John Jenkyn leads the Crop Pathology programme, Mike Adams, the programme on patho gen/vector/host interactions and Alastair McCartney the work on dispersal processes and aerobiology. Several new appointments have recently been made, Jane Etheridge to work on lupins with Geoff Bateman, Jonathan Biddulph to work on oilseed rape with Bruce Fitt, and Ph.D Students Will Dawson, Hossain Massumi and Simon Foster. Recent Ph.Ds have been successfully completed by Anne Wangai (BYDV in Kenya), Joseph Lamptey (BYDV on biomass grasses), Roff Mohamad (Bean Yellow mosaic virus) and Ursula Schlichter (Take-all Polymyxa root interactions). We have also welcomed several overseas scientists joining us as Rothamsted Interna tional Fellows Hai Su (China), Darmono Taniwiryono (Indonesia), Yousef Mohammed Al Raisi (Oman), Katta Satya Prasad (India), Kandula Wadia (ICRISAT), C Kuruvilla Jacob (India), Fucong Zheng (China) and Chuanxue Hong (China). Other recent overseas visitors have been Anders Kussak (Sweden), Anna Avrova (Russia) and Irma Rosas (Mexico), all of whom have contributed substantially to our work. Visits overseas have been made by Nash Nashaat, Kevin Doughty (Brassica oilseeds pathology in India), John Jenkyn (India), Anna Tymon (Sri Lanka), Phil Jones (most places where coconuts are grown!), Mike Adams (China), Alastair McCartney (India, Mexico) and John Lacey (too numerous to list!). A notable retirement at the end of April is John Lacey, after almost 35 years at Rothamsted. John has made the interface between fungi and human health an area of his unique expertise, as well as having an international reputation in grain storage pathology and aerobiology. Those who know John will realise that retirement is only a date in a calendar and we hope he will retain his links with Rothamsted. Thus despite changes in name Plant Pathology continues to thrive at Rothamsted. Roger Plumb Molecular Plant Pathology Group The past 18 months have seen many changes in personnel and research emphasis in the Molecular Pathology Group at LARS. Following the arrival of Paul Bowyer from the Sainsbury Lab in 1995, several new projects on the cereal pathogens Septoria and Tapesia have started, mainly concerned with the identification of genes involved in colonization of the host and corresponding pathogenicity factors. Research on Septoria tritici and Stagono spora nodorum involves John Hargreaves and John Keon, and is also being supported through a BBSRC/ASD grant linked with Chris Caten at the University of Birmingham, AgrEvo UK, and Zeneca Agrochemicals. Andy Bailey joined the group in February 97 as a postdoctoral scientist working on polyamine biosynthesis in plant pathogenic fungi linked with Tony Michael at IFR, Norwich. This research area also includes Elisabeth Mueller, a BBSRC CASE student with Zeneca. Other Ph.D. CASE students starting projects are Claire Rushowski (mutagenesis in S. nodorum), Alexis Hunter-Craig (the secretory pathway in S. nodorum) both with AgrEvo UK, and Hannah Noel (active oxygen species and pathogenicity in Botrytis) joint with Paul Wood in the Department of Biochemistry at Bristol University. Collaboration on the sexual cycle of Tapesia and genetic analysis in this previously asexual (or was it really?) pathogen has continued with Paul Dyer at the University of Nottingham and Paul Nicholson at the JIC. As part of this programme, John Lucas visited Pedro Crous at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, in December 96, followed in January 97 by Paul Bowyer to Massey University, New Zealand, to collect further isolates in collaboration with Rosie Bradshaw, herself an ex-Nottingham postgraduate. There are interesting contrasts between Tapesia populations in Europe and the Southern Hemisphere, most notably the apparent absence in South Africa of T. acuformis (the old R-pathotype, now recognised as a separate species), as well as differing patterns of resistance to fungicides. Eyespot disease continues to be a serious problem in the Western Cape, and after a wet spring, lodging was evident through many fields in the undulating Cape landscape. Pedro Crous and Graham Campbell, a joint PhD student, are due to make a return visit during 1997. Financial support from the British Council and BBSRC for these international links is gratefully acknowledged. Other overseas trips during 1996 included a visit by Sally Monnington, a MAFF student working on potato early dying (Verticillium dahliae) together with Tom Locke, ADAS, to North America. Sally and Tom visited labs at the Universities of Guelph (Jane Robb), and Ohio State University (Randall Rowe) as well as field trial sites in Ontario (George Lazarovits). PED is a recognized problem in the US and Canada and one aim of this project is to assess the extent of damage due to the disease in the UK. Work on Colletotrichum continues through a collaborative project between Richard O'Connell and Jon Green at the University of Birmingham, using monoclonal antibodies to identify stage-specific fungal proteins/genes. This project also involves Rafaella Carzaniga, a Royal Society/CNR post-doctoral fellow visiting from Milan University, and Sarah Perfect, a BBSRC CASE student. Phillip Wharton, an NRI-sponsored postgraduate from the University of Reading, is completing his final year at LARS investigating the resistance of sorghum to C. sublineolum. Visits to his Web site (http://www.lars.bbsrc.ac.uk/cellbiol/molpath/philhome.html) are recommended (while you're there how about surfing through some other exciting visual pathology via the Cell Biology home page - cellbiol/home.html). Studies on infection processes and host resistance to anthracnose disease in cashew are being conducted by another postgraduate student, Ana Maria Lopez, in conjunction with scientists in NE Brazil. This and other problems in cashew production and utilization are the topic of a workshop, coordinated jointly with the LARS group, to be held in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil in March 1997. The role of enzymes in host colonization and specificity in Colletotrichum species is being investigated by Saida Amer, a postgrad uate Channel scheme student from the University of Tanta, Egypt. This project is a continuation of work carried out on anthrac nose disease of cowpea and other legumes during 1995-6 by Olu Latunde-Dada, who has now returned to Ogun State University, Nigeria. Molecular genetic approaches to identify host range determinants in Colletotri chum species are currently being developed by Caroline Nash, including the analysis of mutants arising from Olu's productive spell at LARS. John Lucas Plant Pathology (and Nematology) are flourishing at the University of Reading. The subjects form part of most degrees in Agriculture and related subjects, and are important disciplines within the MSc in Crop Protection, taken by 15-20 students each year. Over 15 students are registered for PhD's - at stages varying from just starting, to nearly written up! The research done is mostly at the "larger" end of the spectrum, using molecular techniques as a tool - with excellent shared facilities supplied by the School of Plant Sciences - but not researching at the molecular level. Weed control by pathogens is an active area for Roland Fox and his colleagues; this area has been strengthened with the arrival of Paul Hatcher, formerly at Lancaster. Michael Shaw is involved in work in several areas of epidemiology, pathogen ecology and adaptive evolution of fungi. In the Agriculture department Jeff Peters is busy with yam anthracnose, while Mike Deadman is involved in many projects both overseas and in the UK. Plant Sciences were extremely pleased to be rated 5* in the recent RAE, while Agriculture was rated 4. Michael Shaw On 1 April 1997, the Forestry Commission Research Division was transformed into an Agency, "Forest Research". It remains part of the Forestry Commission. This seems an appropriate time to outline the research programme of the Pathology Branch. The Branch is divided between two locations - Alice Holt Research Station, near Farnham in Surrey and the Northern Research Station, Roslin, Midlothian - with responsibility for dealing with disease enquiries divided at the Humber/Mersey line. John Gibbs is Head of Branch with a fairly heavy administrative load - particularly on "internal market" days. However he manages to keep some time for research; his current interest being the Phytophthora disease of alder. This disease was first identified by staff of the Branch in 1993 and has since been reported from six other European countries. Experience in Britain shows it has the potential to be extremely damaging. Clive Brasier is also involved with this disease, taking a special interest in the pathogen. This, as those who read the article in the December 1995 issue of Plant Pathology will know, has affinities with Phytophthora cambivora, but shows a number of differences. Clive is pursuing his current work on its identity and affinities in close cooperation with Jim Duncan at SCRI. Apart from Phytophthora, Clive's other principal interest remains Dutch elm disease, and he has work in progress on the origin of this disease and on possible approaches to biological control. The most important of these is via the dsRNA "d-factors". In this latter connection, Louise Sutherland is conducting work on genetic variation in the d-factors with a view to their manipulation and/or artificial release. In the d-factor work, Clive collaborates with Ken Buck and his associates at Imperial College and Imperial recently recognised the value of Clive's work by appointing him to an honorary professor ship. David Lonsdale is distilling his knowledge on decay and structural weakness in trees in a book, "Principles of Hazard Tree Assessment and Management", that has been commissioned by the Department of the Environment. David also has a watching brief on poplar diseases and, is taking an active part in some of the alder disease work - in this case a study of its infection biology. Joan Webber has a major interest in the ecology and control of the stain and decay fungi that cause loss of value and strength in felled timber. She is also developing the Branch capacity in the field of molecular biology. The Disease Diagnostic and Advisory Service at Alice Holt is run by David Rose, who also manages to maintain his interest in expert systems - most notably for the identification of wood-rotting fungi in culture. At the Northern Research Station, Derek Redfern continues with his research on aspects of Fomes root and butt rot of conifers caused by Heterobasidion annosum. He is also in charge of the Northern disease diagnostic work and runs the UK component of the Europe-wide "Forest Condition Survey". Steve Gregory is also involved in diagnostic and advisory work. In addition, he runs a programme on woodland health awareness for the other parts of the Forestry Commission - Forest Enterprise and The Forestry Authority. He is also in charge of an Amenity Tree Health Survey, carried out by Forest Research for the DoE. Steve and Derek have just authored a Forestry Commission Handbook, "The Identification of Causes of Ill-health in Woodlands and Plantation Trees", due out later this summer. Jim Pratt is involved in the H. annosum work, with a special interest in new ap proaches to stump treatment that are compati ble with machine harvesting, a process that has now taken over most of the felling operations in Forest Enterprise plantations. He is concentrating on derivatives of boron for stump treatment. John Gibbs The plant pathology group at UCL has been interested in the problems of Developing Countries for a number of years. Resulting from this, almost half of a total of 19 researchers who have obtained their Ph.D. degrees have been from such countries. Their projects have been concerned with resistance and susceptibility to fungal pathogens of such diverse crops as cucurbits in Iran, groudnuts in West Africa and India, soybeans in Brazil, chickpea in Tunisia and Pakistan and cassava in Ghana. In general the approach has been to obtain some fundamental information which may, in the short or longer term, be of value in control. This has led to the discovery of the diversity of the phytoalexins, some of which were novel compounds, in groundnuts and pigeonpea and the means by which they may be elicited . Conversely, the rapid death of chickpea plants infected with Ascochyta rabiei led to the idea that the fungus might produce a toxin. Culture filtrates of the fungus were toxic to cells of several plant species but the most sensitive were chickpea and potato. After fractionation, we found three toxins in the culture filtrates and for about one week we thought they might have been new to science! However, Sakamura's group in Japan had previously reported them from Alternaria solani, the causal agent of early blight of potatoes, an interesting finding in view of our assay results with cells from this plant. Other work has been of a more diagnostic nature and has included identification of the race of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri, causing wilt of chickpea in Tunisia and the identity of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides as the causal agent of a dieback disease of cassava in Ghana. For this, Emmanuel Moses, who is the current winner of the P H Gregory prize of the BSPP, collaborated with John Bailey and Caroline Nash at Long Ashton Research Station in order to determine the species by sequencing part of the larger ribosomal subunit of the fungus. Work in progress includes further studies on the solanapyrone toxins and an investiga tion of the interaction of Alternaria isolates from crucifers in Thailand with their hosts. Richard Strange Deep in the heart of Kent, Wye College continues to be a site of special scientific interest with a rare flock of active pathologists including more of the molecular form of the species. When numbers are counted, it is always surprising to find that there are 24 of us engaged in research on pathological topics. This total includes groups in Biological Sciences working with Jim Beynon and John Mansfield, and Terry Swinburne's activities in the Horticulture Department (believe it or not we cannot keep him away from the lab!). Terry continues to pursue his projects onNectria and has encouraged the development of a molecular diagnostics laboratory which is run by Madan Thangavelu. Molecular probes are developed for a wide range of pathogens, notably mycoplasmas (e.g. witches broom disease of lime) and Ganoderma spp. from Malaysia. Jim Beynon has outgrown several laboratories in his work on resistance genes in Arabidopsis and Brassicas. His team now has a strongly international flavour with senior postdocs and research fellows from New Zealand (Kevin Williams, Peter Bittner- Eddy) and the latest students from Iran and Greece. They are targetting cluster of genes for resistance to Peronospora and Albugo and downstream signalling cascades. The recent establishment of automated sequencing facilities in the Department has greatly improved our potential to analyse large regions of the Arabidopsis genome. The Arabidopsis pathology has close links with Eric Holub's group at HRI. John Mansfield is still looking at too many models (systems that is!). Gene-for-gene interactions between Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola and Phaseolus, and Bremia and lettuce are still the main areas for research. The former has received a recent boost by the demonstration that the avirulence gene proteins themselves elicit the HR. Electron microscopy continues to be used to study these interactions and also the responses of lettuce and pepper to challenge by bacteria. The role of the hrp-dependent secretion system in signal delivery is also being tackled using immunocytochemical approaches. Chris Roberts provides a directly applied twist with his study of the biocontrol of Thielavopsis basicola on ornamentals. Good isolates of Trichoderma continue to emerge from John Fletcher's mushroom compost! Courses on Plant Pathology continue to be taught at the undergraduate and postgradu ate levels as components of B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees, and the College Diploma in Crop Science. We still have the luxury of an intro ductory course with enough practical slots to allow a good look at most of the major fungal pathogens. The "museum" of specimens at Wye has been maintained since the 1940s ¾ any new contributions are always welcome! John Mansfield Plant pathology at University of Wales, Bangor is solely concerned with obligate pathogens. Drs Nick Pipe and Jenny Day are looking at potato late-blight populations at the fine and coarse-grain scale respectively. Together they are developing novel molecular markers to investigate population genetics, risk assessment, and the occurrence and frequency of sexual reproduction in blighted crops. Bangor continues to play host to a succession of Russian and Polish post- and undergraduate students of plant pathology interested in late-blight of potato and tomato and also downy mildew of pearl millet. David Shaw in collaboration with John Witcombe in Bangor's Centre of Arid Zone Studies is supervising the downy mildew work which also has links with Mike Gale at the John Innes Centre. The plant pathology group also has links with AgrEvo UK with Lee Bains investigating oospores of Phytoph thora infestans in different fungicide regimes currently used in the UK. Elsewhere in the School of Biological Sciences, physiologists supervised by Profs John Farrar and Deri Tomos use cereal rusts and powdery mildew to investigate various aspects of photosynthesis carbohydrate metabolism and host-cell water relationships. In some of these programmes the effects of elevated CO2 are being studied. Plant pathology features in all three years of some of the dozen undergraduate degrees offered by the School of Biological Sciences. The School, which is the largest in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, admits approx. 150 undergraduates annually. Bob Whitbread, not only teaches and supervises in plant pathology, but is also the current Dean of the Faculty Richard Shattock
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