We are excited to connect with you on 20 January for our Southern African Society for Plant Pathology(SASPP) hybrid meeting at Future Africa at the University of Pretoria. You can attend online or in person. If you have not let us know yet, please register your interest here.

We would especially like to know who intends to attend in person, to make sure our space planning for COVID-19 regulations can accommodate everyone. We hope to see many of you in person and have the space to accommodate you. 

You will also see the program on the website, but here it is for convenience:

10:00 Prof. Wijnand Swart (SASPP President, University of the Free State) and Prof Bernard Slippers (organisers, FABI, University of Pretoria): Welcome on behalf of the organisers and SASPP  

10:20 Keynote: Prof. Sophien Kamoun (The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, United Kingdom): Open science in the age of pandemics  

11:00 Break

11:15 Megan du Toit (Stellenbosch University): Quantitative detection of economically important Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense strains in Africa in plants, soil and water

11:30 Kira Lynn (University of Pretoria): Novel Fusarium mutualists of two Euwallacea species infesting Acacia crassicarpain Indonesia

11:45 Patience Chatukuta (University of the Witwatersrand): A Cassava protoplast system for screening genes associated with the response to South African Cassava Mosaic Virus

12:00 Minette Havenga (Stellenbosch University): Diagnostic markers for Teratosphaeria destructans and closely related species

12:15 Break

12:30 Jan Nagel (University of Pretoria): Highly transferable microsatellite markers for the genera Lasiodiplodiaand Neofusicoccum

12:45 Lisa Rothmann (University of the Free State): The role of reproducible research tools in quantifying a decade-long survey of Sclerotinia disease prevalence, in South Africa

13:00 Prof. Teresa Coutinho (University of Pretoria): Book launch of the 'History of Plant Pathology in South Africa': Prof. Teresa Coutinho (editor)

13:15 Prof. Jane Caruthers (Editor in Chief of SAJSci): South African Journal of Science Special Issue on Plant Health

13:30 Closing