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In a departure from previously meetings, and partly driven by austerity measures, the venue was a Youth Hostel overlooking the beautiful River Dart in Devon. MBPP meetings are normally associated with BSPP meetings, but unfortunately there was not one on the calendar in 2010. This may have been a blessing in disguise as the plethora of plant-microbe, and associated meetings on the international scene between July and September 2010 was generating conference fatigue. Never-the-less, the organising committee decided to go ahead with MBPP, a rather unique event with a remit to engage UK postgraduate plant-pathogen researchers in a “large conference” experience without the associated pressures and provide an informal networking environment. With the uncertainty of delegate numbers, the MBPP organising committee were greatly indebted to the British Society for Plant Pathology for their continued sponsorship of the event. “Informal” was probably the theme of the meeting with 34 delegates, including 5 PI’s, experiencing an excellent series of talks punctuated with “north- south” football games, flagpole climbing and midnight swims. The meeting officially kicked off on Friday evening with an enlightening after dinner guest lecture by Dr David Studholme on applications of “next generation” sequencing to tackle the numerous emerging pathogen outbreaks that are now threatening food security in a variety of countries. David provided examples of how NGS can provide insight into the emergence of Chestnut Bleeding Canker and Banana Xanthomonas wilt, highlighting the value of using molecular approaches to address microevolution of disease epidemiology. The Saturday session began with two talks on Trichoderma hamatum growth promotion and induced resistance from Exeter’s Kate Le Cocq and Beverly Harris. These talks highlighted the enormous untapped potential, if the compound(s) conferring these massive growth increases and concomitant enhanced biotic and abiotic stress could be identified and effectively deployed in the field. Remaining with Exeter, Termizi bin Yusof and Yasin Dagdas from the Talbot Lab discussed respectively, the role of lipid metabolism and the role of small GTPase septins in cellular organization such as appressorium that accompanies morphological transitions during successful invasion by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. No conference is without new insights into effector function and MBPP was no exception. These series of talks highlighted the value of genomic sequencing in driving current break throughs in under standing oomycete and fungal pathogenesis. First Laura Lewis from Warwick introduced her strategy for high throughput screening of the ~140 RXLR -containing putative effector proteins from Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis. Talks by Stefan Engelhardt and Eleanor Gilroy highlighted the contrasting roles of the Phytophthora infestans RXLR effector AVR3a in, R3a mediated resistance, and suppression of cell death respectively . These SCRI contributions were punctuated by what I personally considered a meeting highlight. Miles Armstrong presented a fascinating range of subcellular addresses for potential host targets of Phytophthora infestans translocated RXLR proteins using a combination of informatics yeast 2-hybrid, transient expression and in planta bimolecular fluorescence complementation . Remaining with effectors, Peter Thorpe presented a functional analysis of a potato cyst nematode (Globodera pallida) effector which has homology to ubiquitin extension proteins and appears to interfere with host immune responses. A brisk walk down to the River Dart saw lunch taken during a short river cruise, where the conference participants were able to take in the varied history of the area, including Agatha Christie, whose “Greenway” estate gardens abut the River Dart meeting venue. During the afternoon session Ibrahim Alzwiy described initial progress towards understanding the host response to the multiple stresses of high light and the virulent hemi biotroph Pseudomonas syringae. Counter-intuitively, high light appeared to promote enhanced susceptibility, but not through the expected ABA signalling network. Again, this study highlights the need to consider all aspects of the host-parasite interaction and cautions about deriving intervention strategies based solely upon experiments undertaken in controlled environment conditions. The inevitable effector talks then re-emerged, but each with a different flavour. Progress at SCRI, towards elucidating how the RXLR effector AVR2 from Phytophthora infestans was specifically recognised was presented. In a more general mechanism underlying plant-microbe interactions, Adam Craig (Warwick) described how multiple Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis effectors target a common host complex, incorporating the BTB CUL3 type ubiquitin E3 ligase, to suppress immunity. This study adds to the growing evidence of the importance of targeted degradation in determining the outcome of plant-microbe interactions. The last experimental talk of the meeting saw Jasper Johnson provide genetic and imaging evidence for a role for nitric oxide in promoting Magnaporthe oryzae pathogenicity. Collectively, these sessions illustrated the complexity of host-parasite interactions and accentuated the challenges we have in devising strategies to overcome redundancy in virulence strategies engaged by a range of devastating phytopathogens. The final session of the day focussed upon using theoretical and methodology approaches in enhance knowledge of molecular phytopathology. First Exeter’s Siddharth Jayaraman described a “Systems” based approach to understanding the dynamics of P. syringae infection of Arabidopsis using high temporal resolution micoarray data and network inference approaches. This was followed by Jacek Grzebyta’s detailed technical description of the newly developed PHI-base 4, while his Rothamsted colleague , Elzbieta Janowska-Sejda provided an overview of the operationality of the database. PHI-base 4 certainly looks like an excellent resource for accessing data from a diverse range of host-pathogen interactions. The final talk of the meeting by Marketa Samalova was on method development. She described a technically challenging, but potentially invaluable tool in the development of a chemically inducible system in fungi using the dexamethasone inducible pOp6/LhGR system developed in plants. The “conference dinner” was a BBQ, and, as has become traditional at MBPP meetings, PI’s and post-graduates mixed seamlessly into the small hours of the morning. Given this was the last conference to be held at River Dart, the MBPP community certainly gave it a good send off. We now look forward to the next MBPP meeting . These are invaluable opportunities for students and early post-docs to develop confidence in speaking and to mix with their peers in a relaxed, informal environment. It is clear that every effort needs to be made to increase participation. To succeed MBPP needs to run without competing interests, for both post-grads and PI’s. To this end it has been agreed that the next meeting will be run 16th – 17th April 2012. Look forward to seeing you there!
Murray Grant University of Exeter
