Report of the Scottish Mycology and Plant Pathology Club meeting Once again the SMPPC came up trumps and produced another fascinating meeting. The meeting was a tribute to all those who rose from their slumbers at an unearthly hour to make the long trip. As Aberdeen university bathed in glorious autumnal sunshine, members arrived from all over Scotland. Refreshing tea and coffee was in plentiful supply to reinforce the weary travellers before the day's real business began. The meeting had been hosted by Dr Carlo Leifert Director of the Aberdeen University Center for Organic Agriculture (AUCOA) and was to prove wide ranging and enlightening for one and all. Dr. Mark Hocart chaired the morning session introducing firstly the guest speaker Dr Leifert who introduced the topic of organic agriculture and suggested that future work in mycology and plant pathology should be aimed at a rapidly expanding consumer demand led Organic market. Glynn Percival from SAC, followed with a fascinating presentation on the benefits of giving seed potatoes a blast of light prior to storage. This treatment increases the alkaloid concentrations in the seed tubers and thus acts as a biocontrol against many storage diseases of potato. Alex Hilton from SCRI continued the potato theme and reported on a project to find molecular resistance to blemish diseases of potato e.g. silver scurf and black spot. This project would require the screening of a large number of potato varieties including wild type potatoes with the aim being, through classical breeding, to introduce the resistance genes into the domestic potato. In one swift step Rosalind McHugh, from the University of Aberdeen moved us from root crops into salad crops with her presentation on the biocontrol of Botrytis cinerea by Bacillus brevis on lettuce. Dr. Adrian Newton chaired the afternoon session where the topics of discussion ranged from Uncertainty to Scots pines! Gareth Hughes from Edinburgh University eased us back into the swing of things after lunch with an equation free meander through "Uncertainty and the economic threshold". The ability to understand thresholds and how they are affected by and effect the experiments we design, is of great importance. David Cooke from SCRI brought us back to potatoes with an update of the blight survey across Scotland. Beginning with a potted history of potato blight and the introduction of the A2 type into the Scottish crop. The survey showed that the A1 mating type fungi were still the most commonly identified type in farm and domestic sites. Lucy Harrier of SAC then described how various biotechnology methods had been used to study the phosphoglycerate kinase gene in the Arbuscular Mychorrizal fungus Glomus mosseae. William Bodles from Aberdeen University gave the final talk of the afternoon describing the isolation and subsequent identification by molecular methods of damping-off fungi. He reported the isolation of Phytophthora spp. and Pythium spp. from Pinus sylvestris forests. The poster presentations were of a high standard and provided an ideal opportunity to discuss the research in an informal setting. All that is left for me to do, is to once again thank every one involved in the organisation of the meeting and on the behalf of the other club members congratulate them on another first class event. Special thanks must go to our impromptu projectionist, who coped admirably with the temperamental slide eating equipment. William Bodles, University of Aberdeen, 2 November 1999 |