On the last day of the SASPP a keynote lecture was presented by Prof. Dawn Arnold of the Sciences University of the West of England on "A persistent reservoir of a genomic island in Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola." Six talks were presented by FABIans, including Prof. Dave Berger, Dr Irene Barnes, Dr Almuth Hammerbacher, Dr Markus Wilken and students Rachel Mkandawire and Wilma Nel.  

The congress ended on a high note for FABI. At the gala dinner it was anounced that Prof. Teresa Coutinho was elected as Fellow of the Society and PhD student Darryl Herron won the John and Petakin Mildenhall Award for Young Plant Pathologist, based on the topic and contents of his PhD study. We congratulate Prof. Coutinho and Darryll, as well as all FABIans who participated at the meeting for flying the FABI banner high!

FABI presentations on Day 3

044: N. Christie, A.A. Myburg, F. Joubert, S.L. Murray, M. Carstens, Y-C. Lin, J. Meyer, B.G. Crampton, S.A. Christensen, J.F. Ntuli, S.S. Wighard, Y. Van de Peer, D.K. Berger. A maize transcriptional network associated with susceptibility to the grey leaf spot pathogen Cercospora zeina.

O45: D. K. Berger, M.F. Muller, N.T. Kunene, B.G. Crampton, B.H. Bluhm, S.M. Phillips, N. A. Olivier, I. Barnes. High genetic diversity of the grey leaf spot pathogen, Cercospora zeina, observed in commercial maize in South Africa.

047: A. Hammerbacher, N. Wadke, D. Kandasamy, J. Chen, C. Paetz, L.P. Wright, B.D. Wingfield, T. Zhao, P. Krokene, J. Gershenzon. Conifer bark beetle-associated blue-stain fungi utilize phenolic host defense compounds as carbon sources.

O48: W.J. Nel, T.A. Duong, B.D. Wingfield, M.J. Wingfield, Z.W. de Beer. Multigene sequence analyses reveal a new genus and a new species in a globally important, multi-host root pathogen.

O49: P.M. Wilken, E.T. Steenkamp, M.J. Wingfield, Z. Wilhelm de Beer, B.D. Wingfield. Mating strategies across the Ceratocystidaceae: fungal pathogens of trees and agronomic crop plants.

O55: R.I. Mkandawire, G. Fourie, M. Kvas, M.J. Wingfield, E.T. Steenkamp. Diverse Fusarium species associated with malformed inflorescences of Syzygium cordatum.