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Sep 18

KEK on 9/18/2023 10:53 PM

The IS-MPMI Election Committee is accepting nominations for President-Elect to join the IS-MPMI Board of Directors. Board member responsibilities include participating in monthly board video conferences, including congress meeting planning, fundraising, and communications to the membership. They also partner in new initiatives to support and cultivate diversity and inclusion within our IS-MPMI community. Nominations will be accepted through October 6, 2023.

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Sep 18

IS-MPMI Welcomes Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi as Incoming Editor-in-Chief of Interactions

KEK on 9/18/2023 10:50 PM

Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi is a professor in the Botany and Plant Pathology Department at Purdue University. She grew up in Los Angeles and earned her B.S. degree in molecular environmental biology from the University of California, Berkeley. She then moved across the country to Cornell University for both her M.S. degree in plant pathology (with Greg Martin) and Ph.D. degree in plant genetics (with Susan McCouch). After a postdoc in root biology with Philip Benfey at Duke University, she started her own laboratory at Purdue in 2013. At Purdue she combines her love of plant–microbe interactions with plant development. Research in her laboratory is currently aimed at elucidating mechanisms underlying root resistance to the bacterial wilt disease pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum in tomato and maize responses to Phyllachora maydis, the causal agent of tar spot disease. Her work spans biological scales—from cell types to whole plants—and combines tools from cell and developmental biology, genomics, and phenomics to improve understanding of plant–microbe interactions. She has previously served in leadership positions in ASPB and is excited to take a more active role in IS-MPMI as the editor-in-chief for Interactions!

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Sep 18

2023 IS-MPMI Congress Recap

KEK on 9/18/2023 10:40 PM

The 20th IS-MPMI Congress was held in Providence, Rhode Island, on July 16–20, 2023, and featured a keynote talk by Russell Vance (professor and HHMI investigator, UC Berkeley) and a talk by IS-MPMI Outstanding Achievement Award winner Jonathan Jones (professor, The Sainsbury Laboratory). Early Career Achievement Award winners Cara Haney (associate professor and Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia) and Xiufang Xin (Chinese Academy of Sciences Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences) were also recognized for their outstanding achievements, and new IS-MPMI President Adam Bogdanove was introduced. The meeting included 33 plenary speakers and approximately 80 concurrent session speakers. For the first time, concurrent session topics were selected by members and included a wide range of themes, comprising traditional research talks, insights into the publishing process, undergraduate research and networking, and TED-style flash talks.

There were 762 attendees at the Congress, representing 40 different countries. Remarkably, more than two-thirds of the attendees joined us for the first time! There were 495 posters at this year's congress, and graduate students and postdocs competed for the best poster presentation.

Graduate Poster winners (Sponsored by the MPMI Journal)

1st Place: Tamar A-Shalom (University of Toronto)—"Epistatic Interactions Between Immune Eliciting Effectors of Pseudomonas syringae Reveal New Genetic Requirements in Immune Elicitation"

2nd Place: Milena Malisic (Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne)—"pH-Dependent Interaction of Coumarins and the Root Microbiota in Plant Iron Nutrition"

3rd Place: An-Po Cheng (University of Munich)—"Fungal Argonaute Proteins Control Pathogenicity and Cross-Kingdom RNA Interference"

Postdoc Poster Winners (Sponsored by The EMBO Journal)

Poster Prize 1: Reza Sohrabi (Duke University)—"A Critical Role of Eubiotic Microbiota in Gating Proper Immunocompetence in Arabidopsis"

Poster Prize 2: Manuel Gonzalez Fuente (University of Tubingen)—"Processing Bodies: Novel Regulators of Plant Immunity Targeted by Bacterial Effectors"

Lunches during the meeting focused on networking opportunities, with a Corteva and 2Blades-sponsored lunch on Monday and topic-based discussions on the other days. The IS-MPMI Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee sponsored a social event on Tuesday that included science, music, and networking opportunities.

Who Wants to Be an MPMIllionaire? Trivia Contest finalists.

Other highlights of the meeting included the Who Wants to Be an MPMillionaire? Trivia Contest, sponsored by Corteva, which challenged attendees to recall details of concurrent session talks, and The Next Big Idea session sponsored by Cell Press, which encouraged speakers to talk about the importance of their work in five minutes. The finalists for the Who Wants to Be an MPMillionaire? contest were Samuel Eastman (Princeton University), Mauricio Contreras (The Sainsbury Laboratory), Unnati Sonawala (University of Cambridge), Jake Schumacher (North Dakota State University), Caroline Stone (John Innes Centre), Miette Hennessy (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Kelsey Wood (UC Davis), and Emma Turley (John Innes Centre). This year's MPMillionaire was Mauricio Contreras! Prizes for the finalists and winner were provided by Corteva Agriscience. The Next Big Idea session, organized by Pat Baldrich and Ryan DelPercio, included TED-talk like pitches from some outstanding early-career scientists and was won by Juliana González-Tobón (Cornell University).

The location of the 2025 IS-MPMI Congress is still being determined. If you have ideas for locations, please contact an IS-MPMI Board member.

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Jun 28

2023 IS-MPMI Board of Directors Election

KEK on 6/28/2023 4:22 PM

All eligible voting members of IS-MPMI have been sent an electronic ballot to vote in this year's Board of Directors election. Three of the six candidates (Yang Bai, Patricia Baldrich, Xin Li, Wenbo Ma, Ryohei Terauchi, and Xiufang Xin) will be elected to the Board of Directors to serve a 4-year term. Those elected will be installed during the Board meeting at the 2023 IS-MPMI Congress. Meet your candidates and cast your vote by July 6, 2023 (midnight CDT).

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Jun 28

It's Almost Time for the IS-MPMI Congress

KEK on 6/28/2023 4:20 PM

The 2023 IS-MPMI Congress is less than a month away, and we're excited to see everyone in Providence, Rhode Island! There is still time to register and plan to join us in July for groundbreaking special sessions, a diverse plenary program, and all-new engaging concurrent sessions.

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Jun 28

Congratulations to our 2023 IS-MPMI Awardees

KEK on 6/28/2023 4:14 PM

Congratulations to Jonathan D. G. Jones, the 2023 Outstanding Achievement Award recipient and to Cara Haney and Xiufang Xin, the 2023 Early Career Achievement Award recipients. The awardees will be recognized and celebrated at the 2023 IS-MPMI Congress.

Learn more about the awardees.

Outstanding Achievement Award

This award recognizes an investigator who has a high international reputation as a research leader for groundbreaking and original research in the area of molecular plant–microbe interactions. The award also recognizes their strong commitment to one or more activities that advance the IS-MPMI field, including teaching, mentoring, educational outreach, international collaborations, service to the community, and/or advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Early Career Achievement Award

This award recognizes outstanding investigators who are known internationally as emerging research leaders in the area of molecular plant–microbe interactions.

Jonathan D. G. Jones

Cara Haney

Xiufang Xin

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Jun 28

IS-MPMI Is Looking for a New Interactions EIC

KEK on 6/28/2023 4:12 PM

Dennis Halterman, Editor-in-Chief Interactions

It is hard to believe that it has been almost seven years since I started as Editor-in-Chief of IS-MPMI Interactions. I entered the position with the idea of giving back to the society that has meant so much to me during my career. I have enjoyed seeing the society change and grow during this period, and I am constantly in awe of everyone's accomplishments and sense of community. But, the time has come for me to step aside and allow someone else to incorporate fresh ideas and express their own personality in this society publication. If you would like to learn more about the responsibilities, resources, and opportunities associated with this position, please contact me or current President Roger Innes. The term for the position will officially begin after this year's IS-MPMI Congress, but I will be available to provide guidance, consultations, and reviews to ensure a smooth transition period.

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Mar 21

IS-MPMI Board Accepting Nominations for New Members

KEK on 3/21/2023 4:13 PM

The IS-MPMI Board of Directors (BOD) is accepting nominations for two Directors to join the BOD beginning at the IS-MPMI Congress in July. The term lengths of these positions are four years. Nominations (self-nominations are welcome) for these positions will be accepted until May 1. Voting by the general membership will take place before the Congress.

Requirements/duties of Director positions:

Maintain membership in IS-MPMI.
Contribute to society leadership, decision making, and Congress planning by participating in monthly or bimonthly BOD video conferences and follow-up communications, averaging less than 2 hours per month.

Nominations should be sent to IS-MPMI President Roger Innes with "ISMPMI BOD Nomination" in the Subject line. Nominations should include:

Name
Current position
Contact information

All nominees will be asked to submit a one-page statement describing their motivation for serving on the BOD and their vision/priorities for IS-MPMI moving forward.

The Nominations Committee is committed to maintaining a diverse BOD and will take into consideration reasonable distribution of geographic location of all nominees.

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Mar 21

Registration Is Now Open for the 2023 Congress!

KEK on 3/21/2023 4:12 PM

We're excited for you to join us in Providence, Rhode Island, for five days of programming exploring the latest research in plant–microbe interactions. Network with scientists from around the globe and connect with your peers at our first in-person meeting in four years! Register by May 22 to save with advance registration rates. Register today!

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Dec 21

Preliminary Lineup of Concurrent Sessions and Workshops for 2023 IS-MPMI Congress Announced

KEK on 12/21/2022 12:14 PM

The 2023 IS-MPMI Congress will be held July 16–20 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. The goal of the IS-MPMI Board of Directors is to feature new and exciting speakers and topics. This year IS-MPMI members were asked to submit their ideas for concurrent sessions to be held throughout the meeting.

Submissions were accepted from all members but were particularly encouraged from students, postdocs, and early-career scientists in order to give members of these groups a chance to take a leadership role and propose interesting and engaging science programming for the 2023 congress.

A total of 26 proposals were received for the 18 session slots in the agenda. Some of the proposals were focused on duplicate or similar topics, and in these cases, it made the most sense to merge the topics into a single session. Other proposals were asked to share a 2-hour timeslot with another session. In these cases, each topic will be covered but will only have 1 hour. This resulted in the filling of all 18 concurrent session slots with proposals from the membership and the addition of a premeeting workshop to cover important topics. Here is the tentative lineup of concurrent sessions and workshops for the 2023 IS-MPMI Congress:

1. Biomolecular condensation-mediated signaling during plant–microbe interactions

2. Biotrophy and necrotrophy in the plant–microbe dynamic (ECR TED talks)

3. Cell autonomous and cell-type-specific immunity

4. Environmental impacts on plant–pathogen/microbiome interactions

5. Extracellular RNA-mediated interactions and crop protection strategies

6. Suppression of innate immunity during nitrogen-fixing symbiosis, causes and consequences

7a. Revisiting the publishing system to promote open science and adopt better practices in the assessment of research: Trust "preprint and exist" and forget "publish or perish"

7b. Showcasing undergraduate research and mentoring in plant–microbe interactions

8. The making of a story—Building narratives and communicating science effectively

9. Organelle functions in plant–microbe interactions

10. Molecular diagnostics-point-of-care plant disease diagnosis

11. Peptides as diverse molecular messengers in plant–microbe Interactions

12. Vascular pathogens and their hosts

13. Plant-derived metabolites and microbial organisms—A complex interactive relationship

14. PRR evolution in model and crop plants

15. Microbiomes

16. Systems and spatial biology in host–pathogen interactions (networks)

17. The long and short of it: Intercellular communication in MPMI

18a. The next big idea @ IS-MPMI 2023