FABI News
22 Jan 2020
FABI mancom members discuss strategy for 2020
22 Jan 2020
FABI focusses on the United Nations 2020 International Year Of Plant Health
The United Nations (UN) has declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH-2020). This will be "to raise awareness of the importance and impacts of plant health in addressing issues of global importance, including hunger, poverty, threats to the environment and economic development".
21 Jan 2020
Celebrating the Lunar New Year with Chinese friends
Professor Mike Wingfield, Founding Director of FABI and Prof. Brenda Wingfield (NRF SARCHi Chair in Fungal Genetics) had the honour of being invited by His Excellency Mr Lin Songtian, the Chinese Ambassador to South Africa, to attend a celebration of the 2020 Lunar New Year.
16 Jan 2020
FABIans look forward to outstanding science and exciting developments at 2020 opening and welcome breakfast
FABI will be the place to be in 2020 for plant health research and events marking the United Nation’s International Year of Plant Health (IYPH 2020) said Prof. Bernard Slippers at the Institute’s opening on 13 January.
6 Dec 2019
FABI participates in first annual meeting of the HOMED project
The First Annual Meeting of the HOMED project was held from 27-29 November in Padova, Italy.
Research Features
The Polyphagous Shothole Borer (PHSB) was discovered for the first time in South Africa by the FABI team in 2017. Since then, this beetle and its fungus have been found killing trees in all provinces in South Africa, except Mpumalanga. It attacks agricultural and forestry crops, street and garden trees, as well as several native tree species.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Workshops & Symposia
Tue 04 February 2020
New Publications
Kunert K, Vorster BJ . (2020) In search for drought-tolerant soybean: is the slow-wilting phenotype more than just a curiosity?. Journal of Experimental Botany 71(2):457-460.
10.1093/jxb/erz235 
Musvuugwa T, De Beer ZW, Dreyer LL, Duong T, Marincowitz S, Oberlander KC, Roets F. (2020) New ophiostomatoid fungi from wounds on storm-damaged trees in Afromontane forests of the Cape Floristic Region. Mycological Progress 19(1):81-95.
10.1007/s11557-019-01545-8
Nagel J, Cruywagen EM, Machua J, Wingfield MJ, Slippers B. (2020) Highly transferable microsatellite markers for the genera Lasiodiplodia and Neofusicoccum. Fungal Ecology 44:100903.
10.1016/j.funeco.2019.100903
Rauf MRBA, McTaggart AR, Marincowitz S, Barnes I, Japarundin Y, Wingfield MJ. (2020) Pathogenicity of Chrysoporthe deuterocubensis and Myrtoporthe bodenii gen. et sp. nov. on Eucalyptus in Sabah, Malaysia. Plant Pathology 49(1):53-64.
10.1007/s13313-019-00676-6
Guo Y, Hunziker L, Mesarich CH, Chettri P, Dupont PY, Ganley RJ, McDougal RL, Barnes I, Bradshaw RE. (2020) DsEcp2-1 is a polymorphic effector that restricts growth of Dothistroma septosporum in pine. Fungal Genetics and Biology 135:103300.
10.1016/j.fgb.2019.103300
Vacant positions
One-year internships in Plant Health Biotechnology
The DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Plant Health Biotechnology (CPHB) at FABI offers a one-year internship to graduates in the Biological Sciences. The Centre’s vision is to utilize world-class and innovative scientific research and biotechnology for (i) promoting the long-term health and sustainable use of socio-economically important plants and (ii) facilitating inclusive postgraduate education and human capital development.
The CPHB Internship Programme is designed to expand the depth and breadth of the interns’ previous academic learning in the plant health domain. Interns will also gain practical experience in how to apply theory, subject knowledge and biotechnology for solving real-world problems regarding the diseases and pests of plants that are of socio-economic importance. The Programme will also emphasize and inform interns’ subsequent decisions about their careers, whether in industry, government, the private sector or in academia as postgraduate students.
Click here for more information about eligibility and how to apply.