FABI News
14 Oct 2019
ACGT and FABI jointly hosts a Plant Phenotyping and Precision Agriculture workshop at Future Africa
11 Oct 2019
FABI chemical ecology field trials planned for 2019 and 2020
Work at FABI in the area of applied chemical ecology for insect pest management and monitoring continues to grow.
6 Oct 2019
XXV IUFRO 2019 World Congress closes with a new President-elect at the helm
The XXV IUFRO 2019 World Congress was officially closed on 5 October with a new President at the helm to lead the organisation through the next five years.
6 Oct 2019
FABI flag flies high at the XXV IUFRO World Congress 2019
FABI had a significant and visible presence at the recently concluded XXV IUFRO World Congress 2019 held in the Brazilian city of Curitiba from 29 September to 5 October.
4 Oct 2019
FABIans take part in various activities during UP’s Anti-discrimination and Social Justice Week
A number of FABIans took part and sometimes led discussions during the Anti-Discrimination and Social Justice Week.
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
13-15 May 2019
New Publications
Visagie CM, Yilmaz N, Vanderwolf K, Renaud JB, Sumarah MW, Houbraken J, Assebgui R, Seifert KA, Malloch D. (2020) Penicillium diversity in Canadian bat caves, including a new species, P. speluncae. Fungal Systematics and Evolution 5:1-15.
10.3114/fuse.2020.05.01
Bose T, Roux J, Burgess TI, Shaw C, Wingfield MJ. (2019) Susceptibility of Eucalyptus grandis and Acacia mearnsii seedlings to five Phytophthora species common in South African plantations. Forest Pathology :e12560.
10.1111/efp.12560
Messal M, Slippers B, Naidoo S, Bezuidt O, Kemler M. (2019) Active fungal communities in asymptomatic Eucalyptus grandis stems differ between a susceptible and resistant clone. Microorganisms 7(10):375.
10.3390/microorganisms7100375
Tonfack LB, Hussey SG, Veale A, Myburg AA, Mizrachi E. (2019) Analysis of orthologous SECONDARY WALL-ASSOCIATED NAC DOMAIN1 (SND1) promotor activity in herbaceous and woody angiosperms. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 20:4623.
10.3390/ijms20184623
Visser EA, Wegrzyn JL, Steenkamp ET, Myburg AA, Naidoo S. (2019) Dual RNA-Seq Analysis of the Pine-Fusarium circinatum Interaction in Resistant (Pinus tecunumanii) and Susceptible (Pinus patula) Hosts. Microorganisms 7:315.
10.3390/microorganisms7090315 
Vacant positions
CTHB-TPCP Internship Programme
The CTHB-TPCP Internship Programme represents a period of experiential learning during which previously learned knowledge and theory is integrated with practical application and skills development in the plant health research environment or professional setting. It provides interns with the opportunity to gain applied experience while affording their mentors/supervisors the opportunity to guide their development. The Programme will prepare interns for careers in the plant health domain or academia by cultivating a range of personal and professional attributes/values. Click here for more information on this programme.