Science
- Evolutionary ecology research
- Horticultural research
- Plant diversity research
- Plant pathology research
- Australian fungi
- Fungal leaf spot on eucalypts
- Fusarium oxysporum
- Fusarium wilt
- Fusarium workshops
- Leaf spot fungi systematics
- Phytophthora Dieback
- Plant Pathology and Mycology 2010-2011
- Plant Pathology and Mycology 2009-2010
- Plant Pathology and Mycology 2008-2009
- Soilborne plant diseases in Vietnam
- Herbarium & resources
- Scientific publications
Fusarium workshopsTen years of Fusarium workshopsDr Brett Summerell - Director Science and Public Programs The genus Fusarium contains numerous species of economic importance due to their ability to cause plant disease and to produce mycotoxins. In the past 100 years the number of species recognised in Fusarium has ranged from nine to over 1000, with the number of recognised species now again approaching 100. The economic importance of these fungi, their distribution from subantarctic and artic regions to the tropics, and the ability of some member of the genus to colonise virtually any green plant means that most plant pathologists and mycologists at some time must grapple with the problem of correctly identifying a strain of Fusarium. In 2000, the tradition of holding laboratory workshops to teach identification techniques was revived at Kansas State University and co-convened by Professor John Leslie KSU and Brett Summerell from the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust. These workshops differed from those held in the 1980s and 1990s in that participants work with cultures from at least 40 different species during the week and extract and sequence DNA and learn to use vegetative compatibility and sexual crosses for strain identification purposes. This broad base provides an entrée to all of the areas of active research with Fusarium. Instruction at the workshops is by a team of instructors rather than a single person, reflecting the diversity of approaches and philosophies found in current research studies (see Summerell et al., 2003). Additional instructors have included researchers from the US, Canada, Italy, Norway, Australia, Malaysia and South Korea. There are three texts available to support the instructional effort - an edited text that summarises the status of the field Fusarium: Paul E. Nelson Memorial Symposium (Summerell et al., 2001), a text summarising the work the last 20 years of research in mycotoxicology, Fusarium Mycotoxins: Chemistry Genetics and Biology (Desjardins, 2006), and an identification manual, The Fusarium Laboratory Manual (Leslie and Summerell, 2006). Workshop participants are diverse in terms of their interests - plant pathology, medical mycology, air quality, plant breeding and mycotoxicology, amongst others. They also are diverse geographically coming from all continents and representing countries as diverse as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Egypt, Ghana, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia in addition to the United States. The workshops currently are based in Kansas and are held at Kansas State University in odd years (most recently in 2009). In even years the location rotates to enable more international participation and have included Sydney (2002), Pretoria, South Africa (2004), Bari, Italy (2006) and Penang Malaysia with future locations in Argentina (2010), Italy (2012) and Korea (2014). |
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