The Fruit Tree Biotechnology Programme (FTBP) held the annual Hans Merensky Foundation Student Presentation seminars at FABI on 8 September.
Members of Cereal Foliar Pathogen Research (CFPR), Molecular Plant Pathogen Interactions (MPPI) and Molecular Plant Physiology (MPP) research groups attended the African Centre for Gene Technologies (ACGT) Plant Biotechnology Forum on 8 September 2016 at the CSIR International Convention Centre.
Armed with cooler bags, sunblock and camp chairs, FABIans joined the fray of UP staff and students who got together to celebrate the end of winter.
Professor Martin Coetzee attended the 87th Meeting of the Mycological Society of America (MSA) from 10-14 August in Minneapolis, USA.
FABians celebrated the arrival of spring with a Spring Tea social. Photographs: Morne Booij-Liewes
FABI celebrated the graduation of two PhD and four MSc students at the Spring Graduation Ceremony of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences on 1 September. PhD Dr Sarai Olivier-Espejel - Patterns and drivers of insect community diversity and composition in non-native black wattle and pine plantations in South Africa. Supervisor: Dr Jeff Garnas. Co-supervisor: Dr Brett Hurley. Dr Elsie Cruywagen - Diversity and taxonomy of fungi infecting species of Adansonia (Baobab). Supervisor: Prof. Co-supervisors: Prof. MSc Matt Laubscher – Functional genomics analysis of Eucalyptus grandis secondary cell wall-related transcription factors EgrNAC26 and EgrNAC61 through heterologous induction in Arabidopsis mesophyll protoplasts Supervisor: Dr. Co-supervisors: Dr Eshchar Mizrachi and Prof. Juanita Avontuur - The classification of novel Bradyrhizobium species associated with indigenous southern African legumes. Supervisor: Prof. Co-supervisor: Prof. Johan Bestbier – HPLC and colourimetric quanitification of shikimic acid levels in crops after glyphosate treatment. Supervisor: Dr Juan Vorster. Angelique du Preez - Flagellin glycosylation in Pantoea ananatis. Supervisor: Prof. Co-supervisors: Prof.
FABIans were able to witness a partial solar eclipse during their Spring Day Tea celebrations on 1 September.
Prof. One of the major concerns for the macadamia industry is damage caused by the two-spotted stinkbug (Bathycoelia Distincta). Prof. Approximately 350 delegates attended the symposium.
Ten FABI postgraduate students representing South Africa, China, Vietnam, Colombia, Cameroon, Malaysia and Nigeria participated in the #ScienceIsGlobal Twitter media campaign created by The Royal Society in partnership with national academies across the UK and Europe.
In a spectacular show of colour and food, FABIans celebrated the arrival of spring at the annual FABI Spring Day Tea in the FABI courtyard.
The Annual Meeting of the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Foundation Centre’s of Excellence was hosted by the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th August.
The International Forestry Students Association (IFSA) held their annual International Forestry Students Symposium (IFSS) in Austria from 7-23 August. As part of the IFSS proceedings, FABI Director and IUFRO President, Prof. Mike Wingfield participated in two events.
This year has been designated as the International Year of Pulses (grain legumes) by the 68th UN General Assembly.
Twenty FABI post-graduate students and staff took the opportunity to visit the FABI Biocontrol facility on the UP experimental farm on Friday 19 August. Facility manager, Prof.
True to its focus on trending issues, this week’s FAME Club seminars in FABI paid homage to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games currently on in Brazil. Catherine Tatham’s presentation on research on long-term contraceptive solutions, titled “Do bonking bunnies hold the answer to the future of contraception” was delivered in less than three minutes and was voted the best by the audience.
Dr. The NSFC set up the Excellent Young Scholar Fund in 2012 to promote the rapid development of young Chinese scientists and to train a group of excellent young scientists to enter the forefront of world science and technology. ShuaiFei joined FABI in 2007 where he completed his PhD degree in 2011, followed by post-doctoral fellowships at the Institute and later in the USA.
Building a career in science takes time and usually starts at a young age. The Expo gives budding young scientists and engineers the opportunity to showcase their talent.
The Outreach team from the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB) at FABI travelled to Piet Retief, Mpumalanga, on 9 August to participate in the annual National Science Week fair. By the end of each experiment, the learners were convinced that science, not magic or trickery, explained the phenomena unfolding before their eyes. The CTHB team showed the learners how to use mathematics to outsmart their friends in a game of cards and also simplified exothermic reactions in chemistry by using hydrogen peroxide, dishwashing liquid, food colouring and yeast to create fluorescent “volcanoes” which erupted in front of their eyes! An initiative of the Department of Science and Technology, NSW events are held over five days across all nine provinces.
FABI congratulates Alexander Osorio on the successful defence of his PhD thesis during his oral examination on 10 August. His thesis, titled: Diseases of mangrove trees in South Africa, was a unique project as FABI had never before worked on mangrove tree species and it therefore presented some unique challenges. PUBLICATIONS FROM HIS THESIS Osorio JA, Wingfield MJ, de Beer ZW, Roux J. Osorio JA, Wingfield MJ, Roux J.
FABI was honoured to receive a visit by the Colombian Ambassador to South Africa, Her Excellency, Dr Maria Eugenia Correa Olarte on the occasion of Alexander Osorio’s PhD prestige seminar on 10 August.
The world renown forest pathologist, Prof. Panos Tsopelas, presented a special seminar at FABI titled: Canker stain disease: a major threat to natural stands of Platanus orientalis in the Balkan Peninsula.
Danielle Rood, a Ph. After receiving the RNA-seq data required for the largest part of her analyses, Danielle applied for, and was awarded, the University of Pretoria Postgraduate Study Abroad Bursary that funded the largest part of her research visit. VIB is a large research institute, with some 1,500 research staff, employees and students from more than 60 countries worldwide.
Two FABIans, Ms. ESOF16 had more than 150 sessions, 700 speakers and was attended by approximately 4,500 individuals from more than 90 countries. In addition to the talks at ESOF16, emerging researchers including the FABI team members had the opportunity to enjoy lunch with a distinguished scientist and have an informal discussion about their careers, advice for emerging researchers etc. The conference ended on Wednesday evening with the closing ceremony highlighting events of the past few days. Danielle and Gudrun thank the Robert Bosch Stiftung for making their participation at this event possible.
The Forest Molecular Genetics (FMG) Programme hosted an eight-day training workshop on R statistics, quantitative genetics and genomic selection from 25 July to 3 August in Hilton in the KwaZulu-Natal Province.
Prof. Noelani van den Berg and Dr Bridget Crampton recently attended the European Plant Biology EPSO/FESB Congress from 26 -30 June in Prague in the Czech Republic.
Two FABIans, Dr Brett Hurley and Prof. Mike Wingfield joined approximately 60 scientists from all over the world for a workshop of the IUFRO Biological Invasions Task Force in the USA.
The International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (IS-MPME) congress was held in Portland, Oregon from 17-21 July 2016. Professor Dave Berger, research leader of the Molecular Plant-Pathogen Interactions research group was invited to give a talk entitled “Integration of resistance QTL, expression QTL and co-expression modules reveals molecular responses of maize to the fungal pathogen Cercospora zeina” and also presented two posters. Other researchers representing South Africa at the congress were Prof.
Grade 10 learners taking part in the CTHB Tree Disease Treasure Hunt at FABI on July 23 needed a combination of smarts, speed and sweat to complete the challenge and claim their prizes. The learners, who are in their first year of the UP and JuniorTukkie’s science enrichment programme UP with Science, were mentored by staff and students in the CTHB.
On 7 July Anthony Hitchcock, Nursery, Living Collections and Threatened Species Manager at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, hosted a small function where Prof. Fanus Venter (CTHB / Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology) had the opportunity to hand over a copy of a publication in which a new bacterial species was named after the gardens.
Prof. Teresa Coutinho presented an invited paper entitled “Bacterial wilt of Eucalyptus: an example of opportunism" at the 6th International Bacterial Wilt Symposium (IBWS) held in Toulouse, France, from the 3-7 July 2016.
On a transcontinental trip to research current debates on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in different countries, an undergraduate student from the Weinberg College of Arts and Science at Northwestern University, Tara Mittelberg visited FABI on July 12. Tara said Americans were polarised in their opinions on GMOs and her project sought to explore the nuances of these different arguments around the world, especially in relation to global food security. Debaters agreed that knowledge transfer and science communication were crucial to the public, policy makers as well as consumers and influenced their opinions of GMOs.
With an animated character theme evoking childhood memories and fantasies, this year’s installation of the Society for the Presentation of Outrageous Findings (SPOOF) was bound to be a barrel of laughs. Stand-out presentations, voted for by FABIans, were “CRISPER: An accurate and versatile took for engineering longevity in failing plant systems” by Darryl Herron as Ace Ventura, Plant Detective and the short film “Little Lab of Horrors” by the Plant Virology group, which bagged the Best Oral Presentation and Best Multimedia Presentation awards respectively. FABIans voted Quentin Guignard Best Dressed Male for his uncanny transformation as eerie villain The Joker. The Spoof 2016 photo gallery can be viewed here.
FABI welcomes Bianca Murray, a Grade 12 learner at Moore House Academy in Johannesburg, as she makes the institute her home for the duration of her school holidays.
Five Grade 11 learners participating in JuniorTukkie and the University of Pretoria’s science enrichment programme, UP with Science, once again joined forces with FABI’s DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB) to experience hands-on scientific research unlike what they are taught at school! The learners in the CTHB group delivered their presentation, “The life and times of Syzygium and Eucalyptus: From a small wound to a dead tree”, which they had prepared under the supervision of Dr Markus Wilken and postgraduate students Juanita Avontuur, Arista Fourie, Palesa Madupe and Benedicta Swalarsk-Parry. Nine departments in the Faculty of Natural Agricultural Sciences took part in the UP with Science programme and they were represented by different groups of Grade 11 learners.
Research leader of the Molecular Plant-Pathogen Interactions group, Prof. Dave Berger, was awarded the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF)-South32 special theme award at its annual awards evening on June 30.
During the past week 15 TPCP students in FABI participated in a Mycology workshop. The workshop was presented by a team of mycological experts from the National Collection of Fungi (PREM) and the Plant Protection Research Instistute (PPRI) at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and academic staff members at FABI.