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Plant Pathology 2023
Birmingham, UK
6th – 8th September 2023
Having had the opportunity to attend the annual BSPP Plant Pathology meeting was a rewarding experience in many aspects of my PhD journey. First, I would like to express my absolute gratitude to the BSPP Travel Funding for considering helping me with my costs in attending the meeting. The meeting has offered me plenty opportunities for networking and fruitful discussions, having a list of attendance of around 150 plant pathologist researchers.
My area of research for the past 4 years (my PhD) was mainly focused on the wheat fungal pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici with the aim of deciphering molecular mechanisms of resistance in the nonhost plants against this pathogen. Many talks of the sessions were focused on plant immune receptors, mainly intracellular ones, such as NLRs. While my line of work focuses more onto the plant cell surface immune receptors, the presented techniques and tested hypothesis helped me greatly to keep myself updated. One of the talks that truly caught my attention was related to the relatively newly established proximity labelling method using the engineered biotin ligases called TurboID. The presentation on this subject was elegantly given by Camille-Madeleine Szymansky (TSL, UK). She focused on NLRs resistosomes formation. The work was done to identify intracellular protein interactions between “sensor” and NLR-Required for Cell Death (NRC) class “helper” in Solanaceae. This work in particular has inspired and encouraged me to look further into my existing work. For instance, by fusing TurboID to pathogen proteins (known as effectors), researchers can label and identify host proteins (known as receptors) that come into close proximity to these pathogen proteins during infection, shedding light on the host cell components affected by the pathogen.
On a different topic of my area of research was the trees’ immunity under the pathogens’ attack. These were fascinating and intriguing talks, given that trees have important implications in providing essential ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and water purification. However, during my years of PhD I came across mainly on plant-pathogens interactions which has in focus the agricultural crops. For me personally it was refreshing to understand that forests are also under the threat of the pathogens and require early intervention through diligent surveillance and monitoring – is a forest, after all. Professor Richard C Hamelin from Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, Canada provided a fantastic talk on “Genomic Surveillance” to monitor forest pathogens. This enables the rapid and accurate identification of pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other microbes, even before visible symptoms of disease appear. Early detection is vital in initiating timely management strategies to prevent the spread of pathogens and mitigate potential damage to forest ecosystems. A case study using Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of oak and larch death was conducted. Sequencing genome samples of P. ramorum identified variants and hybrids of the pathogens mainly resulted from hybridisation via sexual recombination between European and American lineages. Such observations could indicate a modified epidemiologic profile of the disease. Detecting variants in a real-time fashion is critical to inform mitigation strategies in an era which climate change creates irreversible conditions that could results in significant outbreaks.
Nevertheless, the most satisfying aspect of the conference for me was the fruitful discussion over the coffee breaks and poster sessions. Having my work displayed via a poster at the meeting has surely attracted valuable insights, suggestions and feedback on my current work, of which I could not be more appreciative. Grateful for having the opportunity to attend and look forward to making new connections in the future annual meetings.
Alina A Igna
Rothamsted Research Institute
