​Fine Grain: Molecular, Cellular, and Genomic Details of Cereal Crop Diseases​

An MPMI Focus Issue

Despite recent advances in molecular tools and genome sequencing, cereal crop diseases remain a significant challenge to global food security.​ This MPMI Focus Issue brings together original research and reviews that advance our understanding of the molecular, cellular, and/or genomic interactions between cereal crops and their pathogens—including fungi, bacteria, oomycete, viruses, and nematodes. With growing challenges such as climate-driven pathogen shifts, fungicide resistance, and global pathogen spread, the articles in this issue explore topics ranging from effector biology to resistance gene deployment in key crops like wheat, rice, maize, barley, and oats.​

Thank you to ​Guest Editors Lida Derevnina, Ksenia V. Krasileva, Benjamin Schwessinger, and Richard A. Wilson.

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2025 IS-MPMI Congress

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Explore the exciting and wide-ranging program of the 2025 IS-MPMI Congress, featuring diverse presentations and discussions on the latest breakthroughs in plant-microbe interactions. We look forward to welcoming you in Cologne!​​

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Message from the IS-MPMI President

Recent workforce reduction and spending freezes enacted by the U.S. Federal Government are having far-reaching negative effects on science. Some of our member group leaders in the U.S. Federal Government lost their jobs last month. This has left students, postdocs, and staff adrift and disrupted collaborations around the world. Most of our postdoc members in federal labs have also were fired. Although there have been court-ordered reinstatements, these are temporary, and the future is uncertain.​ Some universities have decided not to admit new graduate students this cycle, and several have frozen hiring. U.S. investigators have received stop work orders on projects funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, and proposal review has been paused for many federal funding programs. These are extraordinary and challenging times.

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