The DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence In Plant Health Biotechnology

FABI News

News Archive

26 May 2023

FABI sampling for <i>Phytophthora</i> in Cape riverine ecosystems

FABI sampling for Phytophthora in Cape riverine ecosystems

FABI researchers recently joined Prof. Jonàs Oliva, visiting from the University of Lleida, to sample a large number of rivers draining Cape province mountains for Phytophthora species.

25 May 2023

Future Professors visit FABI

Professors Brenda Wingfield and Mike Wingfield hosted a recent visit to FABI by members of the Future Professors Programme.

24 May 2023

UP joins the world in celebrating the International Day of Plant Health.

The University of Pretoria joined the rest of the world in celebrating the IDPH on 12 May under the theme: Plant Health Innovation for Food Security.

19 May 2023

A successful 34<sup>th</sup> Annual Meeting of the TPCP

A successful 34^th Annual Meeting of the TPCP

The TPCP held its 34^th Annual Meeting at the Future Africa conference centre, where staff, postdoctoral Fellows and students present their work to industry and government stakeholders as feedback on the work conducted in the past year.

19 May 2023

Professor André Drenth visits FABI

World renown plant pathologist, Prof. André Drenth recently visited FABI to attend various meetings and present a workshop on "how to be an effective scientist".

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FABI Events

29 May 08h30

Monday Morning meeting

Monday morning meeting

FABI in a nutshell

Research Features

Archive

Da Vinci's Yeast: FABIans Prof. Cobus Visagie, Dr Neriman Yilmaz, and their collaborators have recently described and named a newly discovered yeast species of the famous Italian painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect Leonardo da Vinci.

The potential economic impact of the PSHB invasion in South Africa has been calculated to be a massive R275 billion over the next ten years, if nothing is done to stop the spread of this invasive beetle. Researchers from FABI collaborated with Stellenbosch University ecologists and economists to model the unmitigated economic impact of this invasion.

A recently published paper in the journal Current Forestry Reports documents a collaboration between an international team of forest pathologists and invasion scientists. Led by Dr Trudy Paap, the authors present a framework for conceptualizing and managing invasive forest pathogens.

A recently published review article by Dr Andi Wilson in a special issue of the journal 'Microbiology & Molecular Biology Reviews' provides details of the genes that are essential to the sexual cycle in filamentous Ascomycete fungi and further describes their functions in a variety of model and non-model species.

Penicillium section Canescentia re-evaluated and five new species described from the fynbos biome in South Africa.

In November 2019, the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology hosted a workshop on ‘Frameworks used in Invasion Science’. The workshop led to a NeoBiota special issue on this theme, and includes a review by FABI researchers and international colleagues, exploring frameworks in the context of forest pathology.

A doctoral study in FABI confirms for the first time the presence of Xylosandrus crassiusculus, a polyphagous ambrosia beetle and its fungal symbiont, Ambroseilla roeperi, in three provinces in South Africa. The authors warn that this beetle species could be a threat to native and plantation trees.

A review on invasive gall-forming wasps that threaten non-native Eucalyptus plantations by researchers in the TPCP appears in Agricultural and Forest Entomology. They profile several species of likely Australian origin that have established on non-native Eucalyptus plantations globally and discuss various challenges to their management.

A study in the TPCP confirms the identity of seven novel fungal species associated with Dendroctonus valens, the red turpentine beetle. The study follows on surveys on the fungal associates of the beetle in China and North America. Results from this work appear in Persoonia.

A postdoctoral study in the TPCP describes two novel Huntiella species in the African clade, bringing the number of known species in the genus to 31. Though closely related, the two species display different mating systems. Outcomes from this study appear in the journal MycoKeys.

A review of the invasion history and global management strategies of Eucalyptus snout beetles in the Gonipterus scutellatus species complex by researchers in the TPCP appears in the Journal of Pest Science.

In a collaborative venture with Dr Jos Houbraken (Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, the Netherlands), Prof. Cobus M Visagie, Dr Neriman Yilmaz (both from FABI) and others have recently completed and published a major study updating the taxonomy of the Eurotiales.

A study in the Forest Molecular Genetics (FMG) Programme at FABI interrogates the benefits of implementing genomic selection for growth and wood quality traits in an established Eucalyptus grandis breeding programme in South Africa. Outcomes from this study appear in an article.

The first study on alternative weed and cultivated hosts of Spongospora subterraneaf. sp. subterranea (Sss), in southern Africa identifies two species as ideal trap crops for rotation with potatoes. The study also introduces three new families to the known hosts of Sss in the region.

A consortium of microbiologists from around the globe, FABI included, is pushing for an overhaul in how scientific names are assigned to uncultivated bacteria and archaea. Despite their ecological, agricultural and medical importance, these organisms traditionally have not been recognized by the international body governing the nomenclature of prokaryotes.

Professor Cobus Visagie is a researcher in the Applied Mycology group at FABI. One of the group’s research goals is to discover fungal diversity in South Africa, and Cobus’ research is strongly focussed on the economically important genera Aspergillus, Penicillium and Talaromyces.

Postdoctoral research by Dr Norman Muzhinji in the Potato Pathology Programme at the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) sheds light on the genetic structure and diversity of Spongospora subterranea f. sp. subterranea in four potato-growing regions in South Africa, providing valuable insights on its management.

An MSc study by Kira Lynn in the RGE-FABI Tree Health Programme at the University of Pretoria has described a new Fusarium species, Fusarium rekanum sp. nov., associated with Euwallacea perbrevis, an ambrosia beetle species infesting Acacia crassicarpa plantations in Riau, Indonesia.

FABI postdoctoral Fellow Dr Andi Wilson has established a CRISPR-Cas9-based genome editing protocol for use in Huntiella omanensis, a tree-inhabiting fungus belonging to the Ceratocystidaceae family.

Research undertaken as part of a PhD study by Molly Malefo at the University of Pretoria’s Department of Plant and Soil Sciences and Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute sheds more light on the role of protease inhibitors in plants under drought stress.

The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) has funded a postdoctoral research project dedicated to monitoring plant health in botanical gardens and arboreta across South Africa. Two postdoctoral Fellows at the University of Pretoria’s Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute have held these fellowships.

The first comprehensive study mapping the distribution and genetic diversity of invasive Eucalyptus insect pests in sub-Saharan Africa confirms the presence of five major foliage-feeding species in 14 countries. The results of this study have implications on the quarantine, future research and management of these pests on the continent and beyond.

Dr Joey Hulbert broke new ground when he became the first candidate at the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute to complete a PhD study incorporating citizen science. Citizen science is an approach that involves members of the public as active participants in scientific research.

FABI technology unravels the genetics behind fungal genome evolution The RIPper is a bioinformatics tool for the for quantifying genome-wide RIP mutations in fungal genomes. The strength of this software lies in the automation of laborious techniques to study the mutation process called Repeat-Induced Point mutations (RIP). The RIPper applies these technique

With the increased availability in genome data, inferences regarding evolutionary relationships among taxa can now be performed on a genome-wide scale. But it is widely accepted that not all parts of such massive datasets support the same evolutionary hypothesis. Because of this, a group of researchers at FABI recently investigated the effect of this.

The use of genome data to characterize species and elucidate relationships, particularly between problematic taxa, has become routine practice in bacteria. Recently, researchers from FABI joined in an international effort to describe two novel genera and characterize these within the larger context of the important bacterial group Burkholderia.

A PhD student in FABI, Runlei Chang, has discovered and described 19 new fungal species from China as part of the research for his thesis. These fungi are all associated with conifer-infesting bark beetles and their mites and belong to well-known genera such as Ophiostoma and Leptographium.

Two research papers from FABI were selected as cover stories in two consecutive issues of the international journal, Plant Pathology. The journal is published by Wiley for the British Society of Plant Pathology.

Plastids play an integral role in wood formation, and yet they are routinely ignored in the study of xylogenesis in forest trees. Desre Pinard and Dr Eshchar Mizrachi have published a review highlighting the unique biology of plastids in wood, suggesting that a new type of plastid, the xylopast, exists.

Approaches for characterizing metabolic potential from genomic sequences have previously been predicted to be useful in the description of bacterial taxa. Dr Marike Palmer, has recently employed these approaches for identifying biological processes contributing to the divergence of bacteria with a variety of lifestyles.

Comparative genomics is shaping our notion of what fungal species are. Based on current data, these unique evolutionary units are separated from one another by boundaries that are porous under certain conditions. This affects our expectations regarding their population biology and evolution, and our strategies for recognizing and controlling them.

The Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer is an ambrosia beetle native to Southeast Asia. In 2017 this pest was detected in South Africa. Its presence has since been confirmed in all provinces except Limpopo. The beetle has a symbiotic relationship with the fungus Fusarium euwallaceae, which causes branch die-back and death of susceptible trees.

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The DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Plant Health Biotechnology (CPHB, previously the CTHB) promotes the health of plants and trees. Research conducted under the umbrella of this Centre address some of the burning national challenges (particularly in terms of food security, sustainable use of natural resources, and economic growth), while at the same time building human capacity in these important arenas. The vision of the Centre is to utilize world-class scientific research and biotechnology for (i) promoting the long-term health and sustainable use of socioeconomically important plants, including trees and (ii) facilitating inclusive postgraduate education. In doing so, the CPHB would contribute to the protection of food and plant resources in South Africa (and to some extent Africa), as well as develop human capacity in this important field.

The CPHB is intimately linked to the Tree Protection Cooperative Programme (TPCP), a research programme that has a track record of more than two decades in dealing with the pests and diseases of commercially important forestry species.

The CPHB is structured as a virtual Centre of Excellence that conducts scientific research via a collaborative network, with the node of the network represented by researchers at UP. In addition to the UP group, this network involves researchers and their postgraduate students from other Higher Education Institutions in South Africa.

Contact information

Director of the CPHB: Prof Emma Steenkamp

Program manager of the CPHB: Prof Martin Coetzee

CHPB Administrator: Ms Heidi Fysh

Workshops & Symposia

Archive

The FABI International Seminar Series

The 34<sup>th</sup> Annual Meeting of the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP) and DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Plant Health Biotechnology (CPHB)

The 34^th Annual Meeting of the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme

The 33<sup>rd</sup> Annual Meeting of the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP) and DSI/NRF Centre of Excellence in Plant Health Biotechnology (CPHB)

The 33^rd Annual Meeting of the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme

The NGRP research day 2022

New Publications

Katumanyane A, Slippers B, Wondafrash M, Malan AP, Hurley BP. (2023) Mechanisms behind differential white grub host susceptibility to entomopathogenic nematodes. Nematology 10.1163/15685411-bja10253

Suzuki H, Marincowitz S, Rodas CA, Wingfield BD, Wingfield MJ. (2023) First report of two Chrysoporthe species, Chrysoporthe doradensis and Chrysoporthe colombiana sp. nov. from Henriettea seemannii pathogenic to Eucalyptus in Colombia. Mycological Progress 22(44) 10.1007/s11557-023-01891-8

Si H, Su Y, Wang Y, Bose T, Chang RL. (2023) The effects of co‑culture on the expression of selected PKS genes in the lichenized fungus Xanthoparmelia taractica. Mycological Progress 22:41. 10.1007/s11557-023-01894-5

Hough B, Steenkamp ET, Wingfield B, Read DA. (2023) Fungal viruses unveiled: A comprehensive review of Mycoviruses. Viruses 15(5):1202. 10.3390/v15051202

Paap T, Santini A, Rodas CA, Granados GM, Pecori F, Wingfield MJ. (2023) Myrtus communis in Europe threatened by the pandemic and South African strains of the myrtle rust pathogen Austropuccinia psidii (Sphaerophragmiaceae, Pucciniales). NeoBiota 84:41-46. 10.3897/neobiota.84.95823

Liu QL, Wingfield MJ, Duong TA, Wingfield BD. (2023) Leaf blight in a Eucalyptus plantation caused by Calonectria spp. originating from both leaves and soils. Research Square 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2529138/v1

Wilson AM, Wingfield MJ, Wingfield BD. (2023) Structure and number of mating pheromone genes is closely linked to sexual reproductive strategy in Huntiella. BMC Genomics 24:261. 10.1186/s12864-023-09355-9

Pal E, Allison JD, Hurley BP, Slippers B, Fourie G. (2023) Life History Traits of the Pentatomidae (Hemiptera) for the Development of Pest Management Tools. Forests 14(5) 10.3390/ f14050861

Nel WJ, Slippers B, Wingfield MJ, Yilmaz N, Hurley BP. (2023) Efficacy of commercially available Entomopathogenic agents against the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer in South Africa. Insects 14(4) 10.3390/insects14040361

Jankowiak R, Gumulak N, Bilański P, Solheim H, Tomalak M, Wingfield MJ. (2023) Five new Graphium species from hardwood trees in Poland. Mycologia 10.1080/00275514.2023.2186676

Paap T, Nndanduleni M, Wingfield MJ. (2023) A critically endangered Proteaceae in the Cape Floristic Region threatened by an invasive pathogen. Bothalia 53(1):a6. 10.38201/btha.abc.v53.i1.6

Si H, Wang Y, Liu Y, Li S, Bose T, Chang RL. (2023) Fungal diversity associated with 38 lichen species revealed a new Genus of Endolichenic fungi, Intumescentia gen. nov. (Teratosphaeriaceae). Journal of Fungi 9(4):423. 10.3390/jof9040423

Guignard Q, Johannes Spaethe, Bernard Slippers, Natasa Nikolic, Jeremy D. Allison. (2023) Eye morphology and colour preferences in a semi-field test of the pine pest, Sirex noctilio (Hymenoptera: Siricidae). African Entomology 31 10.17159/2254-8854/2023/a13406

Aylward J, Ngubane NP, Dreyer LL, Oberlander K, Wingfield MJ, Roets F. (2023) Convergent evolution unites the population genetics of Protea-associated ophiostomatoid fungi. Fungal Ecology 63:101242. 10.1016/j.funeco.2023.101242

Tarigan M, Pham NQ, Jami F, Oliveira LSS, Saha MA, Duran A, Wingfield MJ. (2023) Calonectria species diversity on eucalypts in Indonesia. Southern Forests: a Journal of Forest Science 10.2989/20702620.2023.2179441

Aylward J, Roets F, Dreyer LL, Wingfield MJ. (2023) Unseen fungal biodiversity and complex inter-organismal interactions in Protea flower heads. Fungal Biology Reviews 45:100317. 10.1016/j.fbr.2023.100317

Bose T, Hammerbacher A, Jones W, Roux J, Slippers B, Wingfield MJ. (2023) Hybrid vigor in Eucalyptus increases resistance against Phytophthora root rot. Mycological Progress 22:24. 10.1007/s11557-023-01877-6

Migliorini D, Auger-Rozenberg M-A, Battisti A, Brockerhoff E, Eschen R, Fan J-t, Jactel H, Orazio C, Paap T, Prospero S, Ren L, Kenis M, Roques A, Santini A. (2023) Towards a global sentinel plants research strategy to prevent new introductions of non-native pests and pathogens in forests. The experience of HOMED. Research Ideas and Outcomes 9:e96744. 10.3897/rio.9.e96744

Katumanyane A, Slippers B, Wondafrash M, Malan AP, Hurley BP. (2023) Susceptibility of white grubs from forestry and sugarcane plantations in South Africa to entomopathogenic nematodes. BioControl 10.1007/s10526-023-10185-7

Meinecke CD, de Vos L, Yilmaz N, Steenkamp ET, Wingfield MJ, Wingfield BD. (2023) A LAMP assay for rapid detection of th epitch canker pathogen Fusarium circinatum. Plant Disease 10.1094/PDIS-04-22-0972-SR

Raffa KF, Brockerhoff EG, Grégoire JC, Hamelin RC, Liebhold AM, Santini A, Venette RC, Wingfield MJ. (2023) Approaches to forecasting damage by invasive forest insects and pathogens: A cross-assessment. BioScience (biac108) 10.1093/biosci/biac108

Teshome DT, Zharare GE, Ployet R, Naidoo S. (2023) Transcriptional reprogramming during recovery from drought stress in Eucalyptus grandis. Tree Physiology 10.1093/treephys/tpad022

Luki-Marie Scheepers, Jeremy D. Allison, Bernard Slippers, Egmont R. Rohwer, Patrick M. Mc Millan, Jan E. Bello. (2023) Pine Emperor moths from KwaZulu-Natal use the same pheromone component previously isolated from Nudaurelia cytherea (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) from the Western Cape. African Entomology 31((2023)):1-9. 10.17159/2254-8854/2023/a13231

Mesarich CH, Barnes I, Bradley EL, de la Rosa S, de Wit PJGM, Gou Y, Griffiths SA, Hamelin RC, Joosten MHAJ, Lu M, McCarthy HM, Schol CR, Stergiopoulos I, Tarallo M, Zaccaron AZ, Bradshaw RE. (2023) Beyond the genomes of Fulvia fulva (syn. Cladosporium fulvum) and Dothistroma septosporum: New insights into how these fungal pathogens interact with their host plants. Molecular Plant Pathology 24(5):474-494. 10.1111/mpp.13309

Liang XY, Wang QC, Chen SF. (2023) Phylogeny, Morphology, Distribution, and Pathogenicity of Seven Calonectria Species from Leaf Blighted Eucalyptus in HaiNai Island, China. Plant Disease https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-12-22-2802-RE

Liu Y, Chen SF. (2023) Diversity and Distribution of Calonectria Species in Soils from Eucalyptus urophylla × E. grandis, Pinus massoniana, and Cunninghamia lanceolata Plantations in Four Provinces in Southern China. Journal of Fungi 9(2):198. 10.3390/jof9020198

Makunde PT, Slippers B, Bush SJ, Hurley BP. (2023) Biology of the invasive shell lerp psyllid, Spondyliaspis cf. plicatuloides (Froggatt) (Hemiptera: Aphalaridae). African Entomology 31( e13747) 10.17159/2254-8854/2023/a13747

Eshetu FB, Barnes I, Nahrung FH, Fitza KNE, Meurisse N, Slippers B. (2023) Unexpected diversity in historical biological control programs: Population genetics of the nematode Deladenus siricidicola in Australia and New Zealand. Biological Control 180:105183. 10.1016/j.biocontrol.2023.105183

Morgan SW, Read DA, Burger JT, Pietersen G. (2023) Diversity of viroids infecting grapevines in the South African Vitis germplasm collection. Virus Genes 10.1007/s11262-023-01971-7

Suzuki H, Marincowitz S, Roux J, Wingfield BD, Wingfield MJ. (2023) First report of canker caused by Chrysoporthe austroafricana on the plantation-grown eucalypt Corymbia henryi in South Africa. Forestry :1-9. 10.1093/forestry/cpac054

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