BSPP2000: Plant-pathogen Interactions: Understanding Mechanisms of Resistance and Pathogenicity for Disease Control

President: John Mansfield

The 2000 BSPP Presidential conference was held at at Wye College (University of London), Wye, Kent, UK from 18 – 20 December. The BSPP president was Prof. JohnMansfield. Abstracts of all papers and posters are available online below and also in Word format for downloading.

Presidential Address: Plant-pathogen interactions: advancing understanding of plants and microbes. John Mansfield

Session I: The Structural Framework

Life at the edge: the tobacco mosaic virus-induced hypersensitive response
Simon Santa Cruz, Kath Wright, George Duncan, Fiona Carr, Susie Wood and Christophe Lacomme

The infection process of the bean anthracnose fungus Colletotrichum lindemuthianum
Jonathan R. Green and Richard J. O’Connell

Function of pili in molecular interaction of Pseudomonas syringae with the host plant
Martin Romantschuk

Conidial germination and germling development by Blumeria graminis: from first touch to attempted penetration
Tim Carver

Session II: Pathogenicity of bacteria, fungi and viruses

Complex spatial changes in gene expression in response to virus invasion of compatible hosts
Andy J. Maule

Induced resistance to plant viruses
John P. Carr, Alex M. Murphy, Chui Eng Wong, Androulla Gilliland, Jenny Hayward, Davinder P. Singh

Molecular genetics of plant infection by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea
Nicholas J. Talbot, Eckhard Thines, Andrew J. Foster, Roland W.S. Weber, Pascale V. Balhadere, Virginie Colas

Pathogenicity and host range determinants in root-infecting fungi
Kosmas Haralampidis, Rachel Melton, Xiaoquan Qi, Saleha Bahkt, Miranda Trojanowska, Greg Bryan, Marie Dufresne and Anne Osbourn

Raincoats and pathogens: the function of hydrophobins in Cladosporium fulvum
Pietro Spanu

Unravelling the molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity in the soft rot pathogen Erwinia carotovora: a new approach
Toth Ian K., Holeva M., Bell K., Avrova A., Dellagi A., Waugh R., De Jong W., Bryan G., and Birch P.R.J.

Sequencing of the complete genome of Ralstonia solanacearum opens new avenues towards the understanding of pathogenicity determinants
Christian Boucher, Muriel Lavie, F. Artiguenave, M. Arlat, V. Barbe, A. Billau, P. Brottier, J.C Camus, L. Cattolico, N. Choisne, C. Gaspin, S. Genin, J. Gouzy, D. Kahn, M. Levy, A. Moisan, C. Robert, W. Saurin, M. Seguin, T. Schiex, P. Thbault^,. Wincker, J. Weissenbach & M. Salanoubat.

Garrett Memorial Lecture: Millennial milestones: concepts, molecules and genes
Michele C. Heath

Session III: Resistance genes, structure and evolution

Natural and artificial evolution of resistance gene clusters, particularly of the pto and Dm3 loci
Richard Michelmore

Function and evolution of the RPP13disease resistance locus from Arabidopsis
Jim Beynon, Ian Crute, Eric Holub and Peter Bittner-Eddy

Arabidopsis mildew resistance
Shunyuan Xiao, Simon Ellwood, Ozer Calis, Elaine Patrick, Tianxian Li, Daniel Jaggard, Paul Beckett, Richard Oliver, Mark Coleman and John G. Turner

Session IV: Resistance mechanisms, cellular signalling

Understanding plant disease resistance: dissecting the pathway to hypersensitive cell death
Murray Grant, M. de Torres-Zabala, P Sanchez, I Fernandez-Delmond, A. Al-Daoude

Plant recognition of Xanthomonas effector proteins
Eric Marois, Thomas Lahaye, Laurent Noel, Sebastian Schornack, Boris Szurek and Ulla Bonas

Signalling mechanisms leading to programmed cell death during the Hypersensitive Response in Arabidopsis thaliana
Radhika Desikan

Session V: Local and systemic resistance

The molecular biology of extreme resistance against potato virus X
David C. Baulcombe

Analysis of the jasmonate signal pathway in Arabidopsis
Christine Ellis, Manuela Nieto-Rostro, Daoxin Xie, Ioannis Karafyllidis, Liangying Dai, John Turner

Variable interactions between salicylic acid and jasmonic acid signalling pathways in Arabidopsis thaliana and tobacco
Luis A. J. Mur, Paul Kenton, Faye J. Sturgess, John Draper, Claus Wasternack and Rainer Atzorn

Session VI: Targets for intervention and disease control

Strategies to control Fusarium ear blight on cereals
Kim Hammond-Kosack, Martin Urban, Wendy Phillips, Steve Daniels, Richard Kemp, Pierre Lecocq, Pat Ouimet and John Pitkin

Powdery mildew in perspective: development and differentiation, sensing and signalling
Sarah Jane Gurr

NIM1/NPR1 over-expression as a component of an integrated disease control strategy
Robert Dietrich, Leslie Friedrich, Laura Weislo, Mike Willits, and John Salmeron

Signals and receptors in plant-pathogen interactions
Thorsten Nuernberger, Beatrix Blume, Frederic Brunner, Guido Fellbrich, Justin Lee, Annette Romanski, Jason Rudd, Dierk Scheel, Anne Varet, Birgit Kluesener & John Mansfield

P. H. Gregory Paper Reading Competition

Development of host resistance to Phytophthora pod rot disease of cocoa, is there hope for the future?
Alex Asante Appiah

Pathogenicity and crucifer isolates of Verticillium dahliae
Alexandra Collins, D. Parry, S. Edwards & D. Barbara

Catching the Crooks: diagnostics and phylogenetic analysis of Spongospora subterranea f. sp. nasturtii
Graeme Down

Genetic diversity among isolates of Xanthomonas hortorum pv. hederae from ivy
S. R. Holcroft and S. J. Roberts

Omnipotent Oidium Surfaces, Signals and Sensing
Hannah Jones

Identification of genes required for N-mediated resistance against TMV by virus-induced gene silencing
Jack R Peart, Rui Lu, Graeme Cook, Jane Parker and David C Baulcombe

Characterization of a 40kb plasmid in Pseudomonas syringae pv maculicola involved in pathogenicity in Arabidopsis
Laurence Rohmer, Susanne Kjemtrup, Jeffrey Chang, Jeffrey L. Dangl

Elemental sulphur formation in plants and defence against pathogens
Williams, J., Hall, S., Hawkesford, M. J., Beale, M. H., and Cooper R. M.

Dissecting Cf-4 and Cf-9 disease resistance gene specificity by domain swaps and DNA shuffling
Brande B. H. Wulff, Colwyn M. Thomas and Jonathan D. G. Jones