Source: VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE submitted to NRP
MEETING: 17TH ANNUAL OOMYCETE MOLECULAR GENETICS MEETING, MALMO SWEDEN, JUNE 14-17, 2016
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1008640
Grant No.
2016-67013-24729
Cumulative Award Amt.
$15,000.00
Proposal No.
2015-06681
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jan 1, 2016
Project End Date
Dec 31, 2016
Grant Year
2016
Program Code
[A1121]- Plant Health and Production and Plant Products: Understanding Plant-Associated Microorganisms
Recipient Organization
VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
(N/A)
BLACKSBURG,VA 24061
Performing Department
Plant Path, Phys, & Weed Sci
Non Technical Summary
Oomycetes are the cause of many devastating plant diseases including potato late blight, soybean root rot, and mildews of many food crops including lettuce, cucurbits, and grapes. The Annual Oomycete Molecular Genetics Meeting (OMGN) is the major venue for researchers of these oomycete-plant interactions to convene, present their work, exchange new techniques, spark critical discussion, and strengthen existing collaborations or foster new ones. This project will support young scholars from the U.S. to attend the 17th Annual OMGN July 14-17 in Malmo, Sweden. Fifteen travel fellowships of $1000 each will be awarded to the most promising U.S. students, research associates, and junior faculty, particularly those from minority groups or from institutions with limited research funding. Project funding also provides an opportunity for U.S. researchers to connect with their colleagues from Europe and Asia. An intimate meeting size (100-150 attendees) provides an ideal environment for newcomers to discuss their research both formally and informally and cultivate relationships with senior researchers. The goal of this project is to retain promising scholars within the oomycete research community who will advance our knowledge of these devastating plant pathogens and help to ensure U.S. food security.
Animal Health Component
25%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
75%
Applied
25%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2122499116085%
2152499116015%
Knowledge Area
212 - Pathogens and Nematodes Affecting Plants; 215 - Biological Control of Pests Affecting Plants;

Subject Of Investigation
2499 - Plant research, general;

Field Of Science
1160 - Pathology;
Goals / Objectives
The 17th Annual Oomycete Molecular Genetics Network Meeting will convene in Malmö Sweden, June 14-17, 2016. The meeting is a major venue for oomycete researchers with interests in genetics, molecular biology, and genomics and has been held annually in the U.S. in odd-numbered years and in Eurasia within even-numbered years. The goal of this conference is to provide an interactive platform to present emerging data, establish and strengthen collaborations, and develop innovative strategies and technology to improve food security. The major goal of this project is to provide partial financial support for 15 of our most promising U.S. students, postdoctoral associates, or new faculty to attend and present their work at this meeting.
Project Methods
Awardees will be chosen by an ad hoc committee consisting of PIs McDowell and Shuman, conference organizer Grenville-Briggs, and two members of the Oomycete Molecular Genetics Network steering committee.

Progress 01/01/16 to 12/31/16

Outputs
Target Audience:The primary target audience reached were the most promising undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty in the field of oomycete genomics, bioinformatics, or molecular biology. Researchers who are from minority groups (i.e. ethnic, first generation, gender, disabled) or who are from institutions under-represented in the U.S. research infrastructure (e.g. from USDA EPScOR states) were also highly encouraged to apply for travel fellowships. A secondary target audience were the other attendees (93 total) of the 17th Annual Oomycete Molecular Genetics Network (OMGN) Meeting. In many cases, applicants receiving travel awards often continue their professional careers with other OMGN attendees and/or have their work reviewed by them. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Among the 15 travel awardees, 4 were provided the opportunity to give oral presentations and 14 posters were presented. Two awardees were also given the opportunity to chair sessions. Because Malmo, Sweden is readily accessible, many researchers from the European Union and in particular the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway were able to attend. This provided an excellent opportunity for the travel awardees to interact and establish relationships with researchers from Scandinava and neighboring countries. The oomycete community strongly believes in integrating new or junior members and providing professional development opportunities to further their academic careers. For example, Aurelien Tartar (current awardee) and Lina Quesada-Ocampo (past awardee), were nominated to be thescientific organizers for the 18th Annual Oomycete Molecular Genetics Network Meeting held in Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, CA March 14-17, 2018. Another recipient, Alyssa Burkhardt, is currently a post-doctoral associate involved in Crop Improvement and Protection Research, USDA-ARS, Salinas, CA. Another awardee, Gul Shad Ali, is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida-Apopka. His lab's overall goal is to "develop and disseminate disease management tools that are sustainable, eco-friendly, inexpensive and easily integrable in the whole production system of crops." This project enables the travel award recipient to present their work to the oomycete research community and continue their career trajectory. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The meeting program and abstracts were published at the meeting website (omgn.org). Comments on oral presentations were tweeted at #omgn2016. Each travel awardee also shared their experience, meeting highlights, and techniques/tools learned at the meeting with their colleagues upon their return from the meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The project was able to provide financial support of $1000 each to 15 of our most promising students, postdoctoral associates, or new faculty to attend and present their work at the 17th Annual Oomycete Molecular Genetics Network Meeting in Malmö Sweden, June 14-17, 2016. The goal of this project was to enable as many applicants as possible to attend. In all cases, recipients were able to find funds from their institution for remaining costs. They were able to present their work to the approximately 93 attendees in person as well as the world-wide audience who received twitter updates throughout the meeting at #omgn2016. The meeting also provided a means for the travel awardees to interact with the oomycete research community, establish and strengthen collaborations, and collaborate on innovative strategies to improve food security.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Selection of environmental isolates of Pseudomonas for inhibition of soil oomycete pathogens. Andrew Wagner| Paul Morris| Stephen Norris| Hans Wildschutte
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Sequence diversity and an application of PCR- RFLP for detection and identification of Pythium myriotylum isolates recovered from Pythium soft rot disease of ginger. Duy Le | Mike Smith | Elizabeth Aitken
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Fight or flight? What is the best strategy against a hemibiothrophic pathogen? Ronaldo Dalio | Heros Maximo | Marcos Machado
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Crinkler effectors in the Phytophthora parasitica-citrus interaction: identification and global expression. Heros J. M�ximo | Ronaldo J. D. Dalio | Renata O. Dias | Marcos A. Machado
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Contribution to the study of Oomycetes: Morphology, Molecular biology and Phylogenetic analysis. Thiagarajan Prabha | Kasthuri Revathi | Bernard Paul
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Comparison of SNP and SSR markers in estimation of genetic diversity of isolates of Phytophthoranicotianae collected from different hosts. Antonio Biasi | Frank N. Martin | Ahmed Abdelfattah | Santa O. Cacciola | Leonardo Schena
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Genome Annotator light(GAL): An integrated virtual machine for genome analysis and visualization. Arijit Panda | Arup Ghosh | Sucheta Tripathy
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Genomics-informed development of molecular markers for genotyping the crayfish plague pathogen. Diana Minardi | Mark van der Giezen | Birgit Oidtmann | David J. Studholme
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Detection of Lagenidium giganteum in phytotelmata microbiomes. Isabel E. Olivera | Paula A. Leoro Garzon | Andrew J. Gonedes | Gregory Edwards | Aurelien Tartar
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Silver nanoparticles: a new tool for controlling Phytophthora spp and insights into their control mechanism Gul Shad Ali | Mohammad Ali | Mary Brennan | Bosung Kim | Kevin Belfield | David Norman
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Transcriptome and small RNA profiles during a resistant and susceptible interaction between Pseudoperonospora cubensis and cucumber. Alyssa Burkhardt | Brad Day
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Screening of Soybean F3 and F6 Populations to Identify Novel Genes Conferring Durable Resistance to Phytophthora sojae Root and Stem Rot Disease. Colin Davis | John McDowell | M.A. Saghai Maroof
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Investigating how oomycetes extract iron from plant hosts. John Herlihy | Guillaume Pilot | Terri Long | John McDowell
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Comparative transcriptomics analysis of Phytophthora capsici - Piper nigrum phytopathosystem. Chidambareswaren Mahadevan | Manjula Sakuntala
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Exploring Phytophthora Effector Functions using Yeast as a Model William Morgan | Matthew Reeder | Matthew Sydor | Colleen Sells
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Defining Interactions Between Soybean U- box E3 ligase proteins and Phytophthora sojae Effector Avr1b. Hua Z. Wise | Shan Li | Regina Hanlon | Narinder Pal | Hargeet Brar | Chunyu Liao | Brett M. Tyler | Madan K. Bhattacharyya
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Identifying essential effectors from the soybean pathogen Phytophthora sojae for soybean breeding. Hua Z. Wise | Ryan G. Anderson | John M. McDowell | Brett M. Tyler