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​September 15 – 16 eSymposia​​

Pathogen-Host Coevolution — Combating Resistance Breaking in Agriculture

This symposium will be held September 15 -16, 2021, hosted by Melania Figueroa (Canberra, Australia) and Daniel Croll (Neuchatel, Switzerland).

Plants and pathogens are often locked in co-evolutionary arms races. Session 1 will focus on how pathogens have evolved an array of strategies to manipulate the host immune system and approaches that lead to a greater understanding of pathogen evolution. We will discuss the molecular dialogue of pathogens with plants but also how tracing pathogen emergence at the level of populations, species and beyond can provide key insights. Session 2 will focus on the arsenal of host strategies deployed in response to pathogen attack. Topics will include the role of immune receptor networks, computational approaches and broad spectrum resistance. In conjunction, the symposium will highlight how integrative approaches across levels of complexity are key to slow down the breakdown of crop resistance. To enhance discussion we asked each of our speakers their opinion as to why some pathogens need so many effectors when others need a few as one of the top 10 unanswered questions in our field.

View Full Program Details / Access the Meeting Platform​

Program Schedule At-A-Glance (All times in U.S. Central Time)

Wednesday, September 15

Thursday, September 16

Global eSymposia Times

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The September 15 - 16 eSymposia is Chaired By:

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Dr. Melania Figueroa CSIRO Agriculture & Food, Canberra, Australia ​ Talk Title: Unveiling the secrets of cereal rust evolution Dr. Melania Figueroa received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Costa Rica and a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of Arizona. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University before joining the USDA-ARS in the Forage Seed and Cereal Research Unit. Next, she was appointed as a tenure-track Assistant and then Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Minnesota. Figueroa is currently a Group Leader in the Agriculture and Food Business Unit at The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Canberra, Australia. In this role, she manages a portfolio that comprises research on cereal rust diseases and legume pests to provide genetic solutions to agronomic problems at a global scale. Research advances in genomics research led by Figueroa have elucidated novel mechanisms of virulence evolution in rust fungi. She is currently leading efforts for genomic comparisons of global rust fungal populations and is interested in dissecting mechanisms underpinning genetic diversity. Figueroa’s goal is to identify pathogen effectors and markers to use as virulence predictors and develop a framework to understand pathogen susceptibility in cereals.

Daniel Croll Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, University of Neuchatel, Neuchâtel,Switzerland Daniel Croll joined the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 2017 where he leads the Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics as an Assistant Professor. Daniel Croll received his MSc in Biology in 2003 and his PhD in Life Sciences in 2009 from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He then joined the ETH Zürich as a postdoctoral fellow. Later, he received an Advanced Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation to work 2013-2014 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. In 2015, Daniel Croll was appointed as an Oberassistant (group leader) and lecturer at the ETH Zürich. At the University of Neuchâtel, Daniel Croll continues to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of disease emergence in agricultural ecosystems. The main interests include the dissection of phenotypic traits using genome-wide association mapping, the mechanisms of rapid genome evolution and the signatures of recent adaptive evolution.

• Plenary Session 1: Wednesday, September 15 — 09:00–10:45 Central

  Moderator

  Sara Branco, University of Colorado, United States​
  

  
  

  Speakers

  
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  Lea Stauber University of Basel, Switzerland ​ Talk Title: Looking beyond agriculture: exploring pathogen evolution in forest systems Lea Stauber is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Basel, working on molecular plant-microbiome interactions. Lea received her BSc in agricultural science in 2014 from the BOKU University in Vienna (Austria) and her MSc in agro-ecosystem science from the ETH Zurich in 2017. As a PhD student at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, she investigated the evolution of invasive forest pathogens, using population genomic and comparative genomic approaches. Lea is interested in the field of emerging pathogens, genomic determinants of microbial lifestyle transitions and molecular plant-microbe feedbacks.

  
  
  

  Yong-Hwan Lee Seoul National University, South Korea ​ Talk Title: Nuclear effectors of the rice blast fungus modulate host immunity via transcriptional reprogramming Yong-Hwan Lee is a SNU Distinguished Professor of plant pathology/ fungal genomics at Seoul National University, Korea. Dr. Lee’s group has taken a multi-pronged approach to understand the complex nature of fungal pathogenesis and lifestyles using Magnaporthe oryzae as a model system. Dr. Lee’s group also actively participated in genome sequencing and functional genomics projects on both fungi and host plants. His group built a bioinformatics portal system for comparative and evolutionary fungal genomics. Dr. Lee obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Seoul National University, Korea, and Ph.D. at Louisiana State University, USA. He was awarded the Ruth Allen Award (2013) and APS Fellow (2017) from American Phytopathological Society. He was elected as a member of Korean Academy of Science and Technology (2016).

  
  
  

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  Emile Gluck Thaler University of Pennsylvania Talk Title: A large and ancient transposon is generating pangenomic variation in present-day populations of fungi Emile Gluck-Thaler is a mycologist and evolutionary biologist interested in understanding how organisms adapt to changing ecological contexts. He received a B.Sc. in Life Sciences and Microbiology from McGill University in 2014, and a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the Ohio State University in 2019. He then went on to work as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Biological Sciences from 2019-2020 and at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Biology from 2020-2021. In September 2021, he will join the Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics at the University of Neuchâtel as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow. His ongoing research interests involve determining the genetic bases of adaptation in plant-associated fungi, and evaluating how selection across different ecological contexts impacts the evolution of genes and genomes.

  
  
  

  Dr. Melania Figueroa CSIRO Agriculture & Food, Canberra, Australia ​ Dr. Melania Figueroa received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Costa Rica and a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of Arizona. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University before joining the USDA-ARS in the Forage Seed and Cereal Research Unit. Next, she was appointed as a tenure-track Assistant and then Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Minnesota. Figueroa is currently a Group Leader in the Agriculture and Food Business Unit at The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Canberra, Australia. In this role, she manages a portfolio that comprises research on cereal rust diseases and legume pests to provide genetic solutions to agronomic problems at a global scale. Research advances in genomics research led by Figueroa have elucidated novel mechanisms of virulence evolution in rust fungi. She is currently leading efforts for genomic comparisons of global rust fungal populations and is interested in dissecting mechanisms underpinning genetic diversity. Figueroa’s goal is to identify pathogen effectors and markers to use as virulence predictors and develop a framework to understand pathogen susceptibility in cereals.

  
  
• Plenary Session 2: Thursday, September 16 —​ 08:15–10:00 Central

  Moderator

  Erica Goss, University of Florida, United States

  
  

  Speakers

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  Gitta Coaker University of California, Davis, United States Talk Title: Investigating the role of plant immune perception and pathogen virulence in bacterial vector-borne disease Dr. Gitta Coaker is a Full Professor at the University of California, Davis. She performed her PhD at The Ohio State University (2003) in the group of Professor David Francis and was a USDA Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley (2004-2007) with Professor Brian Staskawicz. She joined the faculty at the University of California, Davis in 2007. Dr. Coaker’s research program focuses on the interaction between bacterial pathogens and plants. Her work focuses on understanding kinase-mediated immune signaling and pathogen effector targets in both model and crop plants. Recent research investigates vascular pathogens, including vector-borne disease associated with Liberibacter species in citrus, tomato and potato. She was awarded the William H. Krauss Award for Research Excellence (2004), NSF Career Award (2011), Chancellor’s Fellow for Research Excellence (2013), NIH Outstanding Investigator Award (2020) and Graduate Student Mentoring Award at the University of California, Davis (2020).

  
  
  

  Ksenia Krasileva University of California, Berkeley​, United States ​ Talk Title: Using Biological Data Science to Win the Game of Host-Pathogen Evolution Dr Ksenia Krasileva is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She is an interdisciplinary scientist who studies genomics and plant immunity. Krasileva holds both BS and PhD degrees from Berkeley where she studied plant-microbe interactions and was trained in Genomic and Computational Biology. She did her postdoctoral work in wheat genomics with Jorge Dubcovsky at University of California Davis supported by USDA NIFA Postdoctoral Fellowship. For her contributions to wheat genomics, Krasileva received the Carlotta award. She was named a Moore Innovator Fellow for her innovative approaches to study plant immune receptors. Krasileva Lab at Berkeley maintains research interests in the biology of genomes, evolution and function of plant innate immunity.

  
  
  

  Lida Derevnina The Sainsbury Laboratory, United Kingdom ​ Talk Title: Pathogen suppressors of an NLR network: a tale of convergent evolution Lida Derevnina received her PhD in plant breeding and plant pathology at the University of Sydney, Australia, where she identified and characterized rust resistance genes in cultivated barley. After completing her PhD, she joined the University of California, Davis, USA, as a postdoctoral researcher working in comparative genomics of downy mildews. Following this, Lida was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie independent fellowship to undertake research at The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) in Norwich, UK. Lida’s research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms pathogens use to perturb resistance mediated by plant intracellular immune receptor networks. Her ultimate goal is to utilize our understanding of host-microbe interactions to generate disease resistant crops.

  
  
  

  Simon Krattinger

  King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

  
  

  Talk Title: Genomic innovation to decipher the molecular basis of durable disease resistance in wheat and barley

  Simon Krattinger is a professor of Plant Science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. Professor Krattinger's research focuses on cereal genomics and plant-pathogen interactions. His group develops novel genomic approaches to unravel the genetic and molecular basis of stress adaptation in cereals, with a particular interest in the perception, signaling and response to fungal pathogens in wheat and barley.