Professors Mike Wingfield, Dave Berger, Brenda Wingfield, Pedro Crous and Dr Louise Shuey of FABI attended the 20th Australasian Plant Pathology Society conference in Fremantle, Western Australia. In addition, Prof. Treena Burgess, extraordinary professor in FABI and professor in Plant Science at Murdoch University, was the coordinator of the scientific program of the meeting.  

The five presentations from FABIans included:

• MSc student Andi Wilson’s work on “Unisexual mating in Huntiella moniliformis” presented by her supervisor, Brenda Wingfield
• Dr Alistair McTaggart’s work titled “Uromycladium acacia is the cause of severe rust symptoms on Acacia mearnsii in South Africa”
•  “Transcriptional regulation in a maize population segregating for susceptibility to grey leaf spot disease” from the Molecular Plant-Pathogen Interactions group, and
• Projects from the Eucalyptus and Pine Pathogen Interactions group on “Eucalyptus grandis defence responses against the myrtle rust pathogen Puccinia psidii” and “Defence responses against Phytophthora cinnamomi in Eucalyptus nitens using Dual RNA sequencing”

A highlight from the conference was attending the keynote lecture from Prof. Richard Hamelin from the University of British Columbia. He spoke about using genomic approaches to understand tree pathogens and practical applications from this approach.

FABI congratulates long time collaborator, Prof. Giles Hardy, who was the recipient of the prestigious McAlpine award for significant contribution to plant pathology.  Dr Hardy of Murdoch University gave a fantastic presentation that included work on the pathology and control of Phytophthora, a disease that is also of importance to South African forestry.

Western Australia is known for the diversity of Myrtaceae and Proteaceae, many of which were in flower (photos).

Thanks to Dr Kylie Ireland of CSIRO (@IrelandKylie) for sharing her photos of Fabians presenting at #APPS2015.